Heated exchange follows activists' presentation to liquor commission over Whiteclay

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Paul Hammel

LINCOLN — Activists seeking to shut down the liquor stores in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska, said Tuesday that slow response times to assaults, fires and other incidents there give the state plenty of ammunition to close the stores.

“Existing law enforcement is inadequate,” said John Maisch, a documentary filmmaker and former counsel for the state liquor board in Oklahoma. “Nebraska has an obligation to either enforce the laws there or revoke or not renew the liquor licenses.”

Maisch and a group of activists came to the monthly meeting of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission to present a summary of law enforcement calls during the month of April to the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office from Whiteclay, an unincorporated village of a dozen residents on the South Dakota border.

Most of the calls were about fights, “trouble with drunks,” and people getting run over on the streets of Whiteclay. It took, on average, 45 minutes to more than an hour for a deputy to arrive in response to the calls, the activists said.

FULL story at link.


PAUL HAMMEL/THE WORLD-HERALD

Whiteclay, Nebraska, has become notorious for its alcohol sales to residents of the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/heated-exchange-follows-activists-presentation-to-liquor-commission-over-whiteclay/article_9454edb4-2cd8-11e6-a2d7-c3b06ca92eba.html

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Also see: Addiction’s innocent victims: http://dataomaha.com/bigstory/news/addictions-innocent-victims

[KamaAina]

1. It took, on average, 45 minutes to more than an hour for a deputy to arrive in response to the calls

Okay, geniuses, why don't you have a deputy stationed in Whiteclay? I can't imagine there's a whole lot of crime in the rest of Sheridan County.

[jwirr]

6. You are correct but Whiteclay is not like other towns. It is

a one street community with little else but bars and liquor stores lining. Not a real community.

That is why they did not do as you suggest. Also when it is such a great money maker for the owners - the attitude is "who cares".

[KamaAina]

14. Also when the victims are Native Americans, the attitude is "who cares".

[jwirr]

34. Yes, that was the whole point of building there in the first

place.

[romanic]

32. I actually google maped Whiteclay

and you're right, it's just one street off to the side on the state border with nothing but a couple bars and a couple boarded up buildings; no houses or anything.

[jwirr]

33. And I saw it in 1972. Nothing has changed. And it is my

guess that nothing will. Greed rules.

[Travis_0004]

2. if they had a tax of 1 penny per six pack

They would have 3 police officers (with a budget of about 95k per officer).

That would seem to eliminate the activists objections.

[KamaAina]

3. Nebraska has a 31-cent-per-gallon excise tax on beer.

http://www.tax-rates.org/nebraska/excise-tax

That works out to about 17 and a half cents per sixer. And it's pure profit, since the customers are coming over from SD. Of course, it all goes straight into the kitty in Lincoln.

[anigbrowl]

4. Not really LBN

'Important news of national interest only.' - sad story but this seems like a small local issue.

[Omaha Steve]

7. Alcoholism with First Americans on a reservation is a NATIONAL problem

http://www.omaha.com/news/students-boycott-busch-beers-on-behalf-of-whiteclay/article_ea8bb426-7095-5514-8dc8-67df04b60fd7.html#students-boycott-busch-beers-on-behalf-of-whiteclay

Critics hold stores in Whiteclay responsible for alcoholism and bootlegging on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The town has about a dozen residents, but its alcohol retailers sold the equivalent of 4.3 million, 12-ounce cans of beer last year.

[Travis_0004]

9. why is it a national problem

In the Eastern US there are tons of states without a single reservation.

And banning alchol sales in Whiteclay is a state/local issue. I don't think its one the federal government should be ruling on.

[Omaha Steve]

10. It is not the federal government

It is the State of NE that wants the sales and beer taxes paid, so they ignore the problem. The reservation is in South Dakota. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is a sovereign nation that is powerless to stop Whiteclay liquor sales.

The First American's on the East got slaughtered or got forced west. Would you rather live in the Carolinas, Kentucky, etc or Oklahoma?

A Brief History of the Trail of Tears: http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/ABriefHistoryoftheTrailofTears.aspx

Reservations tend to be the poorest areas in the nation too.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

19. The way indigenous people are treated in this country is a national problem.

Was Michael Brown a "local problem"? Was Freddie Gray a "local problem"?

[Judi Lynn]

20. Great point. It's so true. It's just not "local" at all. Not even. The problem has to be removed.

Some people need to be reminded this world is for ALL of us, not just them.

[anigbrowl]

11. Yes, but this story is about one extremely local incident

Crime rates are a national issue too but that doesn't mean we need to read about every incident of burglary. The existence of an issue that affects a particular population doesn't mean that every news story related to it is late breaking news of national importance, and you know this full well.

[Omaha Steve]

12. Send an alert to the hosts

First American stories have been in LBN before INCLUDING White Clay. I know that full well.

Strange tonight it is all of a sudden a problem.

OS

[Judi Lynn]

13. It most certainly is NOT an extremely local incident. It has been happening for ages,

across this country, which was the only home of the original citizens in the beginning.

They were driven, as Omaha Steve told you, out of their homes, their villages, by settlers, hunters, soldiers working for the government, slaughtering the people, burning their villages, seizing their crops, or burning their fields, and always pushing the innocent, helpless people ahead of them, as they believed it was their destiny to steal the whole damned country, allowing only the remnants of a vast population to survive, then THEY were wildly abused.

This disrespect, this contempt, mockery, brutality continues to this day, even a South Dakota Congressman was arrested for raping a young reservation woman, but not convicted, of COURSE, and it has ALWAYS been the policy of those who wish indigenous people no good, to both mock them for their hopelessness, which leads to alcoholism, and their inability to find greater help.

If you bothered to read on the subject, you would have learned long, LONG ago, it has been the duplicitous, phony behavior of US white people to make these products more than available to those who have been disinherited, and shoved into the void, and rejected, homeless in their own country, then to mock them when finally give in to chronic depression for the rest of their lives.

There are many of us, you can be goddamned sure, who don't appreciate your attempt to claim this is not worthy of your attention, and that of other r- - - - - s. It means everything to those of us who care, and who have been awakened morally, and mentally.

[anigbrowl]

24. Get over yourself

It's perfectly suitable for GD, just not LBN. Spare me the moral high horse parade, I am plenty informed on this issue and not impressed with your drama.

[Omaha Steve]

16. Omaha is 7.5 hours away, but it is in the Omaha World Herald

[anigbrowl]

22. That has to be the dumbest argument I've ever seen in a DU thread. Congratulations.

[Omaha Steve]

25. 7 hours away is local to you?

[anigbrowl]

26. In the Midwest, yeah

As I said elsewhere, this would make a great GD thread but it's simply not LBN and would normally be pulled. It probably won't be due to the election getting more attention.

[Omaha Steve]

27. Whiteclay has been LBN before

All of a sudden people that spend a great deal of time in GD-P start chiming in. No idea why!

[ForgoTheConsequence]

30. I can tell this really bothers you.

I think you need to get some fresh air. It's pretty easy to ignore this thread.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Not your place to attempt to speak for all of us who APPRECIATE this story. n/t

[anigbrowl]

23. I'm not attempting to speak for you. You don't speak for me either.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

31. Having a bad night?

Want to talk about it?

[Omaha Steve]

37. 'Important news of national interest only.'

If it wan't of interest to you, why bother to click on the story at all?

[jwirr]

5. When I was out on the reservation near Whiteclay NE the

reservation had voted itself dry in an attempt to stop drinking on the rez. They wanted to stop it for the sake of their children.

Communities like Whiteclay began to appear on the borders of the reservation because the bars and liquor stores and their white owners could make a fortune selling to the Natives who were having alcohol problems already. The Natives were not allowed to bring the alcohol back onto the dry rez but that was almost impossible to stop.

The stores also sold to children too young to drink even though it was illegal.

I hope they get them closed down as they are a big part of the problems on the rez.

Thank you Steve. That picture is an excellent example of just how the white community treats their Native neighbors. Sickening.

[SamKnause]

8. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

15. This is such a familiar story, Omaha Steve, and it's heart-breaking.

It is NOT O.K. for opportunists who want to make a quick buck to keep selling something they know for sure is ultra destructive to people in need.

People within the poorest parts of big cities also have a problem with oversaturation of bars, and ve-ry slooooow response time from the cops and ambulances. It really does seem as if the "powers" that be want to bump off the heartbroken, the battered and the hopeless of this world if they can't be used at the lowest pay possible, continually until they drop in their tracks first.

It's a great big wonderful world for greedy @$$hole$, and the rest of the human race pay for their power trips.

What would happen one day, if just one of these buggerers sold his/her store to someone who started selling fresh, not moldy, food at reasonable prices, and affordable clothes, school supplies, etc., etc. instead of stacking bars all the way down the street?

Would that kill them?

Someday, it's going to happen, and the good will finally start pushing out the darkness and the loneliness, the pain, and grief.

Community! Imagine that. Community that includes everyone, instead of excluding everyone different from the master race.

[Travis_0004]

21. Its not some great conspiracy

Bars and beer stores tend to make a good profit in poor areas, so people open them there.

Meanwhile grocery stores and other specialty stores don't do as well. Its not like nobody has tried. People open them up, then a few years later close them down. Why, because its not profitable. I don't think there is a conspiracy. If there was money to be made, somebody open the store.

[Judi Lynn]

29. If the merchants won't consider doing good for the community or staying the #### out,

the local officials should find a way to do the moral thing, themselves.

Just because you CAN make big profits intensifying the suffering of others, it doesn't mean you really should.

Somewhere in there THEY need to use some real control over their opportunistic greed.

Profit at others' expense is filthy.

[jwirr]

35. Your theory is nice but Whiteclay was built where it is because

the rez had voted itself dry. As to grocery stores most of them on the rez were also owned by the white guy because the gov would not ok any others.

Just one story should be enough to tell you about the grocery stores. An older grandmother was taking care of 6 of her grandchildren. She got food stamps but no one had explained the stamps to her. When we looked at her receipt the store was charging her three times what the produce cost and she had no idea.

[Judi Lynn]

38. Helpful post, jwirr. These "bidness men" should respect the reservation's wish. Horrible.

Pure disrespect to post these stores right outside the rez. They are mocking the people's wish to live without the problems they have learned come with the product.

[raging moderate]

18. Thank you for this post.

Don't give up.

[merrily]

28. K & R

[jwirr]

36. One more thought there are Whiteclay's on the borders of

many of our rez. On the rez I live on all the bars have been bought up by our tribe and are now closed. Instead there are parks and other useful things in their place.

The reason that does not happen to Whiteclay is because it is in another state and because it is setting just off the rez. Not to mention Pine Ridge is not a wealthy rez.