3 Times Is a Charm
Check out these drug recovery images:
3 times is a charm
Image by ellesmelle
after this incident www.flickr.com/photos/elleko/4773020458/ , i decided to do it again at another location.
around 5pm on 07/22/10, i entered the whole foods market located on the corner of California and Franklin in San Francisco. over the course of our interaction, the loss prevention personnel whom i dealt with (1) threatened to knock my teeth out by pressing me to the ground, (2) told the police over telephone that i was staggering while i remained sober and seated as directed, and both a female employee and the loss prevention personnel was present while he did so.
i put 2 yogurts and a prepared green salad in my bag. the greens were meant for the man who sells Street Sheets in front of the WFM on the corner of Folsom and 4th. i looked for packaging materials that do not have logos on them, and went with the tin foil at the prepared foods counter. this entire sequence took about 5 minutes. as i exit the store, a man and a female employee wearing a name tag approached me and asked that i step back inside the store. i verbally told him, ‘no.’
he said that he would have to put handcuffs on me if i didn’t just walk in with him.
i told him he should put the handcuffs on me.
he asked why.
i said, ‘so everyone can see.’
he put the handcuffs on me with my hands behind my back. he grabbed the cuffs. i draw the distinction because the guard was not just holding on to the cuffs, there were pushing and jerking actions which caused me to wobble as i walked and appear to be resisting him when he was pushing and jerking me around with my hands behind my back. i did not physically resist him.
as we walk back into the store, i repeated the following at a high volume (but not screaming of course, i was orating loudly.)
"AS YOU GO HOME AND FEED YOUR CHILDREN AND FAMILY TONIGHT, WHO’S GOING TO FEED THE HUNGRY? IT’S NOT HAPPENING ELSEWHERE, THERE ARE MILLIONS OF STARVING CHILDREN AND PEOPLE RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA."
as i was talking, the security guard said, "you’re not going to be talking in a minute when you don’t have no teeth."
"what?" i asked.
"cuz i’m going to drop you to the floor and all your teeth will get knocked out." he said.
"i’m not resisting you, i am just exercising my freedom of speech." said me.
i kept repeating it until they got me to the back of the store, behind the fish counter. we went up the stairs to the office overlooking the floor.
they put me in a swivel chair near the stairs leading up to the office. both the loss prevention personnel and the female employee who came outside with him are present. one of the first things he told me was that i am not allowed to be at that whole foods or any other whole foods. i said i know, and like i really want to go back to a whole foods. the loss prevention personnel mentioned the police and i asked if they were coming. he said that they had called the police.
he asked me why i was doing this, i told them. i was taking the greens to a guy i know who likes greens, he doesn’t have the means to clothe, feed, and put a roof over his head even though he works all day, so i intended to help him. as for the yogurt, that’s for people who ask for food and who are without teeth or have teeth problems. (this is true, lots of people asking for stuff complain about teeth problems or not having teeth. they like yogurt and fruit cups. soup is good, too, but they don’t like it quite as much as fruit cups and yogurt.)
the loss prevention personnel says something to the effect of what right do they have to be picky when they’re begging?
well, everyone has the right to choose their foods, of course. you’re not suppose to eat jolly ranchers to forget about hunger when you need protein.
but i said the most obvious thing to him, "they have no teeth."
they asked if i was remourseful. i said,
"what are you, japanese?"
he also asked if i ‘believe in god,’ i said i was not religious. he is to repeat this. it is apparent that he had Christianity on his mind. at one point he asked loudly as if mocking me "you don’t believe in a God?" there were further verbal attempts at breaching my personal boundaries, as will be described later in this piece.
i told them to call the police; this is because i don’t like being in custody of a private business because at least the police’s actions are restricted by the law. i told the loss prevention personnel this.
the security or loss prevention personnel was required to have a female employee present. that was the function of the employee who accompanied him outside. she remains sitting around having lunch.
he was a chatty fellow and made a lot of conversation, he told me that this was his second day at this location. i entertained him to be polite while i sat in handcuffs.
i asked them at first how much they made, 18/ hour? are they up to 23 yet? getting benefits? they were surprised at the questions. everyone knows how much entry level employees get paid, and these guys working at the storefront were never going to get above that wage at their glass-ceiling-limited dead end jobs.
they asked if i worked alone or if there as a group. i said there’s a group of me. i work alone, duh.
did i only do this at only this store. i said that the actions of whole foods has proven itself time and time again.
he asked if i had been caught before. i said yes, 3 times at 2 different whole foods, 2x at the one on folsom and 4th and once at the one on potrero hill. he says, "then you have priors."
"i have no priors." i said.
then i told them about how my case got dismissed.
(this is how: www.flickr.com/photos/elleko/sets/72157622315956721/ )
i alo told them that i did this all over the world: in Japan and in France.
the loss prevention guy began to joke that i should be telling the truth.
a half hour later the police still has not arrived. the security guy began to get confused and i can tell because he was not keeping track of all of his conversations (losing his composure.) the girl who was sitting with us had to leave work. he explains to me that someone else has to present such that i can’t accuse him of doing something if i got hurt. i said to him, "yeah, you’re like a doctor." the security personnel was visibly nervous. i told him to calm down.
another female employee came to replace the previous one. this is a mature-looking lady who wore canvas shoes. i asked for some water and she fed it to me very courteously. i apologized to her for keeping her from getting off work.
he asked me again why i had to make him pull out the handcuffs, it could have been discreet. i said, "why would i want it to be discreet?"
the lady interjected, "it’s part of her message."
the security personnel will go on to asking me this again. he does not understand but apparently everyone else in the office did. a few of them came around to have a look at me.
he told me that i am not allowed to be at that whole foods or any other whole foods
the security personnel started to tell stories about his previous encounters on the job with this employee.
he asked me again why i did this. i said that this company in particular (wfm) had changed the organics industry. i asked the lady,
"what is usda organic now? 70% organic and it is considered USDA organic." she didn’t say anything. i said that because of this mass production that this company perpetuates, because their ambition to dominate the organics industry, the term organic no longer carries that meaning of care in production. people have to get more specific and say it’s sustainable farming or tell you what kind of feed they use. whole foods has much to do with this coming to pass.
after a while, i began to do yoga as my back was starting to bother me after all the walking i had done. this is now about 45 minutes after they had taken me to the back of the store. i began with my feet on the ground and breathing to expand my abdominal cavity so my spine would straighten. i closed my eyes and expanded my lungs fully. at this point, again, the loss prevention personnel began talking to me. he said asked if i was religious, and i said i am not. he said, "well, you’re praying to someone."
i said, "i wish on myself."
the guard began speaking over me as i said this. this is a common trick salespeople and street thugs like to use to assert authority over someone in front of others. i have encountered this so much in life, i no longer respond to it instinctively.
then he said to me that i am not allowed at this whole foods or any other whole foods. with my eyes still closed, i told him,
"i’ll be sure not to do it in santa monica."
"any whole foods." he said.
"i won’t do it there because they used to have security guards there that carried semiautomatic weapons. i definitely don’t want a gun in my face."
he stopped talking to me and resumed speaking to the female employee.
i felt the tightness in my hips and sat with my legs crossed, each ankle stacked on top of the opposite knee and bent over my legs while i was in the chair. the loss prevention personnel began to get nervous and told me to stop. i was holding my pose and ignored him at first, he began to repeat this. i told him that if he would stop disturbing me while i was doing yoga i wouldn’t fall. i did both sides and did another pose. this is also with legs crossed, but the knees are stacked. you also bend over your knees while you do this. the security personnel kept telling me to stop. (these are very good exercises for loosening the hips, btw.)
while i was still doing yoga in my chair, the security guy called the police again to ask for their eta.
i came out of my pose and was done. the security personnel was still on the phone. over the phone, the security personnel said to the operator that i had started to ‘stagger’ and for them to hurry.
i said, "what are you, lying to the cops now? i’m not staggering. i’m doing yoga. you’re going to get yourself into trouble." i also told him that i didn’t fall despite of him disturbing me, everyone knows that you don’t disturb someone while they are doing yoga.
he corrected himself and said to the operator i was doing yoga.
he avoided talking to me further. the lady told me that doing breathing exercises will help with the back, i told her that i was doing that at first but then realized that it was related to my hips.
i sat with them and waited for another half hour or so. the police arrived about 1.5 hours after the store had taken me into their back office.
the police officers took statements from the store’s employees. after some conversation, they told me that i had a right to make a statement. i said i’d like to but they didn’t hear me say so. the security personnel was hoping i was a celebrity or something. he said to the police officers that i was targeting whole foods. the officers laughed and smiled and started to banter with me.
they got me a ticket (pictured,) and i headed back for Brent’s down California St.
someone carrying a Whole Foods bag caught up to me to have a conversation with me. this also happened at the Folsom and 4th location. this is the ticket from that time:
www.flickr.com/photos/elleko/4773020458/
that time, when the police left, another person carrying a Whole Foods bag who said that they used to be employees for WFM caught up to me as i left the store and we spoke at length. he has a Caribbean accent, said that he did some programming, and that he was from Maryland. i invited him to the local hacker space (noisebridge,) but i failed to meet up with him, but i told my friend to be on the look out for him and to give him a tour if he should arrive.
i gave each of them my contact info.
i had a conversation with this person. we walked up the hill toward Grace Cathedral. i invited him to continue speaking to me because i was on a roll. he agreed. so i brought him to the side courtyard of the Grace and we spoken at length. we spoke about religion and philosophy and all sorts of stuff. i told him how i had declared myself the mcQueen. i also told him about my activities at the Levi’s storefront on Valencia, which created security jobs that consisted of 10 hour days with no breaks at /hour, i learned this from the first security guy they hired to watch the entire street when the police station is like 200 ft away. (the security guard is a guy from Brooklyn who is a drug recovery psychologist. he thanked me for creating his job. at which point i said to him: 10 hour days with no breaks, is that even legal? the security company is getting for you. in the state of California, anything beyond an 8 hour work day is overtime. for an 8 hour shift, you get a 30 minutes meal and a 15 minute break. if there is overtime, you get more breaks. i told that guy everything, too, and he said i have the potential to become a really important psychologist. i said to him that i need to be more effective, that’s why i am an artist.)