In case my readers aren't totally sure, the title of this post is a call back to N.W.A.'s classic of the Gnagst-rap genre, "Straight Outta Compton".
We're talking about real gangstas now, man. Not to take anything away from Eric and Andre and O'Shea, but we got a man over in Cerritos that's actually getting folks to care. At the height of the crack-fueled gang warfare in Los Angeles more folks were being killed than in Northern Ireland during the entire multi-decade unpleasantness. If it had been going on in Belgrade, or Sarajevo, there'd have been peace-keeping forces entering the city and forcing cease-fires. But in America's second largest city? Not even American's really cared about the slaughtering.
But, living in a cul-de-sac in Cerritos, one of the Gateway Cities (cities that buffered Los Angeles from Orange County on one side and the ocean on another), Nakoula Basseley Nakoula stirred up a bunch of attention with his now infamous "Innocence of Muslims" film, where he makes fun of Muslims and Islam.
The Nakoula guy and his family were ferreted out of their house in the cul-de-sac by the sheriffs at 3:45 in the morning and taken to an undisclosed location. For their own safety. Or privacy, since their lawn was a media circus.
Straight Outta m-f'n Cerritos.
Now, we all know the serious lesson here, right? Muslim communities the world over need to ultimately embrace the concepts of free expression.
Censoring art ultimately fails.
The hideously large amount of young men being gunned down on the streets of LA never seemed to crack the world consciousness like a movie with shitty production values making fun of a religion.
There has to be a lightening-up following up the very neat Arab Spring we all got to see. It's possible.
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