WELCOME ARMED ROBBERS TO BP/HASTINGS

ALL'S WELL !!  IT'S JUST A MACHINE GUN!!

      This past January the seen it all, grizzly, "man's man" Mayor of Hastings, Peter Swiderski, tried to calm the nerves of Hastings residents concerned over a string of violent crimes throughout the village by issuing a "Crime and Perceptions of Crime" memo to the village, highlighting a soothing BURGLARY statistic for 2011. 

 "I want to reassure people that Hastings is generally a very safe village: we had 9 burglaries last year, 5 down from the previous year.  There’s no upward trend here."  The street wise Mayor concluding that "normal vigilance and due diligence on locking up will go a long way to making things even safer than they already are."  Whew, that's a load off.  I'm sure Mantung Cheng will now rest easy.   The Mayor's laissez-faire memo was delivered eleven days following Mr. Cheng's thrilling morning in the "generally very safe village."   In broad daylight, just as Kelly Rippa was settling in behind her morning cup of Joe, three gunmen, posing as police officers, forced their way into Mr. Cheng's Main Street apartment, tying up Mr. Cheng, his wife, his mother and father.  Having locked up and done his due diligence, surprisingly the 9 a.m. armed home invasion did not leave Mr. Cheng "feeling even safer" than he had been.  After being hog tied at gun point, Mr. Cheng remarked, “It’s this morning you know, not like a nighttime thing.  Why do it in the morning?”  

HOME INVASION VICTIM - MANTUNG CHENG

        Why do they do it in the morning, indeed.   Isaac Garson, owner of Slices on Main St., offers this dose of reality.  “People are nervous because of what happened at Madaba Deli, there was somebody else that was followed and robbed and then this (the bounding and armed robbery of the Cheng family) is number three.  There’s just a tension in the air.  It’s surprising, but it’s just the way the world is now,” Garson said.  “People are desperate, desperate measures, desperate times.”   What an alarmist.

         Yet, just yesterday a Hastings man was robbed at gunpoint on the steps of his Warburton Avenue home!   
          Hastings Police responding to a call from a woman at about 7:33 p.m. Tuesday May 15, stating that her neighbor had just been robbed. Hastings police said the victim reported he had returned to his Warburton Avenue home just after 7:30 p.m. and was walking up his front steps with bags containing electronic equipment when he was robbed at gunpoint.  “The male pointed a handgun at the victim and demanded the property he was carrying.” 

        Now hey, before the local papers start reporting this and blowing it all out of proportion, lets all take a deep breath and ingest some more pearls of perspective from that memo sent by the unflappable Hastings Mayor, Peter "Gunn" Swiderski .    

       "We live in a society where sensationalistic crimes and news dominates the television and many newspapers: it leads to a fear disproportionate to the actual risks we face in day to day life and can make us unduly anxious" The Mayor continues, "the local paper, the Enterprise, reports crimes in their blotter, as does the Rivertowns Patch.  They give a good sense of what is going on – and I am not inclined to amplify that unless a pattern of behavior leads the Police to believe a public notification is necessary. There is no such pattern worth reporting about now."

           "Hey that fellow in the camouflage hoody has got me to thinking.  Whatcha say we build another park?!"  

        Whew, I feel much better.  For as our street wise Mayor points out, there's no need for alarm or amplification for there is no pattern of behavior here.  Note: the "no need for alarm" armed robbery of the Chase Bank at 565 Warburton (machine gun totting bank robber pictured above) went down at 8:50 a.m., and though Mr. Cheng was robbed at gun point at 9 a.m., this last incident took place at 7:30 p.m.!!   No pattern there.   Unless of course you consider ARMED GUNMEN A POTENTIAL PATTERN!!! This is not disproportionate fear Mr. Mayor, this is not one's perception of crime, THIS IS CRIME.  The reality of the world we live in INCLUDES HASTINGS.  The DENIAL of this reality by entitled elected village imbeciles has gone on long enough.  Let's face facts, Hastings is a gated community without a gate.

        It's time Hastings put aside it's dreams for the future (ie. it's unfathomable foolishly timed, "Comprehensive Plan") and start PROTECTING IT'S RESIDENTS and address the world we live in, by increasing police presence and using tax monies to PUT MORE COPS ON THE STREETS, instead of proposals for another fucking park.  The last thing we need is MORE EMPTY SWIDERSKI VERBIAGE!

      It's sickeningly clear that Swiderski loves to hear himself talk and is extremely fond of any and all pomp and circumstance that comes with playing Mayor, example of such the memo excerpted within.  Sadly, Swiderski's insulated denial is likely to continue until such time, God forbid, that such crimes visit he and his family. It's amazing how having a gun waved in your face changes one's perception of crime.  When Swiderski's mother, daughter and dog contracted Lyme disease he declared Lyme an all out epidemic and the highest of priorities, with his first order of business the netting and bolting to death of deer. (all deer if he could have had it his way) Talk about zero to sixty!  Criminals had best not fuck with Swiderski's dog or there will be hell to pay! 

         Perhaps it is then and only then that CRIME will finally be seen as CRIME in Hastings, and not dismissed as just undue fearful perspective to be disregarded with attention devoted to the creation of yet another park.  
      Rome is indeed burning Swiderski, this is not a dress rehearsal, it's about time you put down the marshmallows.

        The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still seeking the public's assistance in identifying the machine gun totting man pictured in camouflage responsible for the Chase bank robbery in Hastings.  

SWIDERSKI - THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

HYPOCRISY ON THE HUDSON

"GREEN" HASTINGS PROUDLY PROMOTES THE WORLD'S ENVIRONMENTAL PARIAH

 

                         "GREEN" MY ASS !!! 
 Clear evidence of the erosion of what once was a 'village' that stood for something.  This deterioration a direct by product of the empty bureaucratic verbiage emanating from the thin lipped individual who is but, 'playing Mayor.'   Blind to the numerous glaring signs (tough to miss this one), offered up ever so politely by it's "earthy crunchy" leader,  Hastings on Hudson deserves the fate which awaits.  The slow & steady transformation from that of a village with real character to that of just another faceless suburban community, the reflection of it's "Mayor."  B.P.'s bitch, "indeed."

 

 

HASTINGS ON HUDSON 'THANKS' B.P.!!

 

PUBLIC SERVANTS OR CORPORATE SHILLS?

     Environmentally Conscious Hastings                       

          'Puts Their Mouth Where the Money is'

          

        The affluent, "eco friendly" suburban community of Hastings-0n-Hudson has proudly embraced BP, prominently weaving the convicted corporate felon into the fabric of village life.  

         Hastings Mayor Peter Swiderski has not only turned a blind eye to the Gulf tragedy and BP's extensive resume of crimes against the environment, he's given BP carte blanche to use the village as part of it's greenwashing p.r. campaign.  

  

B.P. DOT'S HASTINGS' "I"

THANK YOU B.P.???    Who on earth thanks a corporation responsible for the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States?  Watch below as trustee Meg Walker does just that. 

  

  "Wouldn't Be Doing This Without You?"    
Perhaps then you shouldn't be doing it all.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy a street fair as much as the next guy, but if the most prolific serial environmental criminal on planet earth were the only contributor able to make it happen, the boogieing would have to wait.
        Could the village of Hastings' memory really be that short..?  Turns out it's a lot shorter than anyone could ever imagine.

          On May 7th, 2010, as oil continued to gush uncapped in the Gulf,  Hastings was publicly thanking B.P. for sponsoring their "Dancing in the Streets" F.N.L event.  A mere seventeen days following the Deep Water Horizon explosion of April  20th.  

       As all things Swiderski, it gets worse.  B.P.'s infiltration of Hastings doesn't begin and end with Friday Night Live.  

      SHILL BABY SHILL !!!   

        
         For any questions as to just how entwined Hastings and BP are under Swiderski, a simple Google search of either 'B.P.  Hastings' or 'Hastings B.P.' makes clear Hastings and British Petroleum are now quite literally interchangeable. 

 B.P.  HASTINGS / WELCOME     http://oneriverstreet.com

           The website, purportedly designed to update the progress of B.P./Arco's waterfront cleanup, is nothing but a B.P. public relations page.  Hastings' complicity in this hypocrisy evidenced by the unfathomable B.P. photo ops, found by clicking 'The Community' tab at oneriverstreet.com

  

'Under My (Green) Thumb' - let the parade of "big" checks begin.

B.P'S JOE SONTCHI & HIS BOY HASTINGS/B.P. MAYOR SWIDERSKI

      This past July, Business Week reported that incoming BP CEO Robert Dudley hopes to recover the30-odd billion dollars that the Gulf fiasco will cost by sticking to what the company does best: explore risky offshore drilling projects that lead to big profits and inevitably big spills.

TRUSTEE ARMACOST (L) B.P.'S ERIC LARSON (C)

The BP sponsored "Take Me To The River," with "solar powered stage" and "Eco-friendly informational booths" -- The hypocrisy of much of the text approaches  that of a Saturday Night Live sketch.

                  SWIDERSKI POSED WITH HAND OUT, ACCEPTS THE KEYS  FROM BP'S JOE SONTCHI (NOT PHOTO SHOPPED BELIEVE IT OR NOT)

          Joe Sontchi explains the significance of the "BP Buggy." "This vehicle demonstrates our commitment to alternative energy and to harnessing the non-polluting power of the sun...  We are so happy to support the village's interest in reducing it's carbon footprint through the use of solar power."  To date the golf cart has been drastically reducing Hastings' carbon footprint by touring B.P.'s logo through the village at the annual Memorial Day parade.  

BP PUBLICIST FRED YEAGER (R)

B.P.'S SONTCHI (L) FORMER HASTINGS MAYOR KINALLY & SWIDERSKI

        And to make certain Hastings' future is one built on ethics and principals

'Teach Your Children Well' -  BP's Eric Larson throws out first pitch at Hastings opening day Little League Game.  Here's a message for the kids; rape an ocean for profit, kill eleven people and hundreds of thousands of living creatures, lie to save your ass and turn the explosion into an epic catastrophe, and you too can be honored and showcased as a role model for impressionable Hastings youth.  BP's sponsorship of Hastings Little League also includes plans for a scoreboard, complete with BP logo of course.                 Get 'em while their young !!    Play ball!!

       In addition BP also sponsors (believe it or not), Hastings' annual "Cleanup Day", and "Climate Action Week."   







 

         So just how does a village with a history of being environmentally conscious, allow it's reputation to be so blatantly hijacked and compromised by the corporate pariah of planet earth?   

       In 2000 British Petroleum renamed itself BPand kicked off it's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign.  Thought by many to be ludicrous from inception, BP began contributing to non-profit environmental organizations in support of efforts comparable to the waterfront clean up facing Hastings.

        "Until the Gulf explosion, BP successfully ran a massive p.r. campaign, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into lying to the public," says Kieran Suckling, founding director of  the Center for Biological Diversity.  Suckling describes these dealings with the devil as follows: "Sure, you can get them to give you $2 million. BP pisses away $2 million at lunch. And if you take it, you are literally part of their P.R. campaign.  If you don't comprehend that, you're getting used."
       Getting used.  Getting used now has a whole new meaning.  Clearly Swiderski has sold out Hastings, but the price tag was just a little bit less than 2 million.   All those big paper checks are for 5, 000 dollars each.  Including 35,000 dollars received by the Hastings Fire Department, Swiderski and village trustees have posed for and sang the praises of BP,  for less than 100,000 dollars.   
         Note to Mayor Swiderski: if you're going to whore yourself out and compromise the integrity and reputation of the village you were sworn to protect, at least exercise some leverage and GET PAID!  Particularly given that just months ago Swiderski announced that the village was operating without a reserve fund.   Those checks could just have easily been made out to 'Chump.'

        

         Most disturbing of all perhaps is the silence in which all of this has taken place.  Not one person from either Hastings "Green Team" or Conversation Commission voiced concerns over the cozy Hastings BP relationship, the hypocrisy and corporate arrogance of which clearly compromises the credibility and efforts of both groups.  In a village of nearly 8,000, Hastings resident John Gonder is apparently the only soul paying attention and or willing to stand up and speak out.

                             

         Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com asks, "Is BP's money forever tainted?  I'm sure a number of groups are asking that right now.  Every organization is going to have to look in the mirror and ask this question."  It is a question every resident of Hastings-on-Hudson should be asking of  themselves.  "What does this money say about us?"
 
     Where Mayor Swiderski and the village of Hastings are concerned, the money makes clear that he and his board are void of any real principals.  They are hypocrites, who at the end of day stand for nothing.   Hastings actions are evidence that the village is willing to do just about anything in working with BP to clean-up the waterfront.

         Hastings had best heed the words of Gwen Lachelt, director of the watchdog group Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project, in moving forward.  "BP likes to say they're a good neighbor, but we see them trying to screw landowners out of every last penny for surface damages and taking shortcuts." 

                                                                                                          NOTE:  Hastings has limited control over BP with regard to the cleanup of the waterfront, however they have NO CONTROL and NO IDEA of what BP will actually do with their portion of the 28 acre parcel of waterfront real estate.   Something the "transparent" Mayor Swiderski rarely if ever mentions.

         

        We leave you with this image of the man currently representing Hastings in it's municipal dealings with BP..   Who's your money on?

 
'Every Picture Tells a Story Don't It' --    "In this corner wearing the red tie, Joe Sontchi of BP! The world's fourth largest corporation, dedicated solely to profiteering at any cost!  And in the other corner, representing the village of Hastings, Mayor Peter 'sit here, stick your hand out and smile for B.P.' Swiderski.

In keeping with Hastings' appreciation of BP we'd like to wish A HAPPY NEW YEAR & OFFER MANY THANKS to, Dick Cheney, Atilla the Hun, Jerry Sandusky, Idi Amin, Jon Corzine, Pol Pot, Ben Bernanke, The Bush Family, Bernard Maddoff, Hank Paulson, Kublai Khan, Karl Rove, Lindsay Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Paris Hilton, Sarah Pallin, Snooki, and of course, the "earthy crunchy" Peter Swiderski!

 

PUBLIC SERVANTS OR CORPORATE SHILLS?

             Environmentally Conscious Hastings               'Puts Their Mouth Where the Money is'

           

         The affluent, "eco friendly" suburban community of Hastings-0n-Hudson has proudly embraced BP, prominently weaving the convicted corporate felon into the fabric of village life.  

         Hastings Mayor Peter Swiderski has not only turned a blind eye to the Gulf tragedy and BP's extensive resume of crimes against the environment, he's given BP carte blanche to use the village as part of it's greenwashing p.r. campaign.  

  

B.P. DOT'S HASTINGS' "I"

THANK YOU B.P.???    Who on earth thanks a corporation responsible for the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the United States?  Watch below as trustee Meg Walker does just that. 

 

  "Wouldn't Be Doing This Without You?"    
Perhaps then you shouldn't be doing it all.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy a street fair as much as the next guy, but if the most prolific serial environmental criminal on planet earth were the only contributor able to make it happen, the boogieing would have to wait.
        Could the village of Hastings' memory really be that short..?  Turns out it's a lot shorter than anyone could ever imagine.

B.P. PUBLICIST FRED YEAGER & GIDDY MAYOR PETER SWIDERSKI

       On May 7th, 2010, as oil continued to gush uncapped in the Gulf,  Hastings was publicly thanking B.P. for sponsoring their "Dancing in the Streets" F.N.L event.  A mere seventeen days following the Deep Water Horizon explosion of April  20th.  
       As all things Swiderski, it gets worse.  B.P.'s infiltration of Hastings doesn't begin nor end with Friday Night Live.  

SHILL BABY SHILL !!!   

        
       For any questions as to just how entwined Hastings and B.P. are under Swiderski, a simple Google search of either 'B.P.  Hastings' or 'Hastings B.P.' makes clear Hastings and British Petroleum are now quite literally interchangeable. 

 B.P.  HASTINGS / WELCOME     http://oneriverstreet.com

           The website, purportedly designed to update the progress of B.P./Arco's waterfront cleanup, is nothing but a B.P. public relations page.  Hastings' complicity in this hypocrisy evidenced by the unfathomable B.P. photo ops, found by clicking 'The Community' tab at oneriverstreet.com

  

'Under My (Green) Thumb' - let the parade of "big" checks begin.

B.P'S JOE SONTCHI & HIS BOY HASTINGS/B.P. MAYOR SWIDERSKI

      This past July, Business Week reported that incoming BP CEO Robert Dudley hopes to recover the30-odd billion dollars that the Gulf fiasco will cost by sticking to what the company does best: exploring risky offshore drilling projects that lead to big profits and inevitably big spills.

TRUSTEE ARMACOST (L) B.P.'S ERIC LARSON (C)

The BP sponsored Take Me To The River, with "solar powered stage" and Eco-friendly informational booths," The hypocrisy of much of the text approaches  that of Saturday Night Live sketch.

                  SWIDERSKI POSED WITH HAND OUT, ACCEPTS THE KEYS TO THE                  "B.P.  BUGGY" FROM B.P.'S JOE SONTCHI (THIS HAS NOT BEEN PHOTO SHOPPED)

          Joe Sontchi explains the significance of the "BP Buggy." "This vehicle demonstrates our commitment to alternative energy and to harnessing the non-polluting power of the sun...  We are so happy to support the village's interest in reducing it's carbon footprint through the use of solar power."  To date the golf cart has been drastically reducing Hastings' carbon footprint by touring B.P.'s logo through the village at the annual Memorial Day parade.  

BP PUBLICIST FRED YEAGER (R)

B.P.'S SONTCHI (L) FORMER HASTINGS MAYOR KINALLY & SWIDERSKI

        And to make certain Hastings' future is one built on ethics and principals

'Teach Your Children Well' -  BP's Eric Larson throws out first pitch at Hastings opening day Little League Game.  Here's a message for the kids; rape an ocean for profit, kill eleven people and hundreds of thousands of living creatures, lie to save your ass and turn the explosion into an epic catastrophe, and you too can be honored and showcased as a role model for impressionable Hastings youth.  BP's sponsorship of Hastings Little League also includes plans for a scoreboard, complete with BP logo of course.                 Get 'em while their young !!    Play ball!!

       In addition BP also sponsors (believe it or not), Hastings' annual "Cleanup Day", and "Climate Action Week."   







 

         So just how does a village with a history of being environmentally conscious, allow it's reputation to be so blatantly hijacked and compromised by the corporate pariah of planet earth?   

       In 2000 British Petroleum renamed itself BPand kicked off it's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign.  Thought by many to be ludicrous from inception, BP began contributing to non-profit environmental organizations in support of efforts comparable to the waterfront clean up facing Hastings.

        "Until the Gulf explosion, BP successfully ran a massive p.r. campaign, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into lying to the public," says Kieran Suckling, founding director of  the Center for Biological Diversity.  Suckling describes these dealings with the devil as follows: "Sure, you can get them to give you $2 million. BP pisses away $2 million at lunch. And if you take it, you are literally part of their P.R. campaign.  If you don't comprehend that, you're getting used."
       Getting used.  Getting used now has a whole new meaning.  Clearly Swiderski has sold out Hastings, but the price tag was just a little bit less than 2 million.   All those big paper checks are for 5, 000 dollars each.  Including 35,000 dollars received by the Hastings Fire Department, Swiderski and village trustees have posed for and sang the praises of BP,  for less than 100,000 dollars.   
         Note to Mayor Swiderski: if you're going to whore yourself out and compromise the integrity and reputation of the village you were sworn to protect, at least exercise some leverage and GET PAID.  Particularly given that just months ago Swiderski announced that the village was operating without a reserve fund.   Those checks could just have easily been made out to 'Chump.'

        

         Most disturbing of all perhaps is the silence in which all of this has taken place.  Not one person from either Hastings "Green Team" or Conversation Commission voiced concerns over the cozy Hastings BP relationship, the hypocrisy and corporate arrogance of which clearly compromises the credibility and efforts of both groups.  In a village of nearly 8,000, Hastings resident John Gonder is apparently the only soul paying attention and or willing to stand up and speak out.

                             

         Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com asks, "Is BP's money forever tainted?  I'm sure a number of groups are asking that right now.  Every organization is going to have to look in the mirror and ask this question."  It is a question every resident of Hastings-on-Hudson should be asking of  themselves.  "What does this money say about us?"
 
     Where Mayor Swiderski and the village of Hastings are concerned, the money makes clear that he and his board are void of any real principals.  They are hypocrites, who at the end of day stand for nothing.   Hastings actions are evidence that the village is willing to do just about anything in working with BP to clean-up the waterfront.

         Hastings had best heed the words of Gwen Lachelt, director of the watchdog group Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project, in moving forward.  "BP likes to say they're a good neighbor, but we see them trying to screw landowners out of every last penny for surface damages and taking shortcuts." 

                                                                                                          NOTE:  Hastings has limited control over BP with regard to the cleanup of the waterfront, however they have NO CONTROL and NO IDEA of what BP will actually do with their 29 acre parcel of waterfront real estate.   Something the "transparent" Mayor Swiderski rarely if ever mentions.

         

        We leave you with this image of the man currently representing Hastings in it's municipal dealings with BP..   Who's your money on?

 
'Every Picture Tells a Story Don't It' --    "In this corner wearing the red tie, Joe Sontchi of BP! The world's fourth largest corporation, dedicated solely to profiteering at any cost!  And in the other corner, representing the village of Hastings, Mayor Peter 'sit here, stick your hand out and smile for B.P.' Swiderski.

In keeping with Hastings' appreciation of BP we'd like to wish A HAPPY NEW YEAR & OFFER MANY THANKS to, Dick Cheney, Atilla the Hun, Jerry Sandusky, Idi Amin, Jon Corzine, Pol Pot, Ben Bernanke, The Bush Family, Bernard Maddoff, Hank Paulson, Kublai Khan, Karl Rove, Lindsay Graham, Rush Limbaugh, Paris Hilton, Sarah Pallin, Snooki, and of course, the "earthy crunchy" Peter Swiderski!