Officials: Student Shot by Gunman at Washington State High School Dies:
The 1st day back from Christmas Break and we’ve had a school shooting. An unidentified male student was shot at Foss High School, in Tacoma, Washington, and died on the way to the hospital. A school official is quoted as saying that they have a strong suspect that ran from campus. As of this article, it is unknown if the killer is in custody or not. I’ll bring more to you as soon as I get it.
HT to Steve Huff.
Slaying-dismembering: No capital case:
Excuse my language, but…fucking New Jersey.
Jonathan Zarate, the New Jersey teen who killed and dismembered 16-year-old Jennifer Parks, will not be facing the death penalty…
On the day a grand jury handed up murder indictments against Jonathan Zarate, 19, and his brother, James, 16, Prosecutor Michael M. Rubbinaccio said he could not seek a capital case because the crime’s most-heinous aspects occurred after Jennifer Parks was dead.
Citing state law, Rubbinaccio said prosecutors must establish the murder was “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman … and that it involved torture” to allow him to seek the death penalty.
“Certainly you can describe what took place after the homicide as being all those things,” Rubbinaccio said, referring to the dismemberment. “But that is not evidence of an aggravating factor that would trigger a capital case litigation.”
I don’t fault Mr. Rubbinaccio. I’m sure he did what he could. But the New Jersey law is so incredibly wrong on this. There is no justice for Jennifer Parks without the execution of Jonathan Zarate.
Mrs. Parks, I know you’re reading this, and I am truly sorry about this.
Hearing set for ”Teenybopper Killa’ ”:
Darren Thompson, the self-proclaimed Teenybopper Killa, has been ordered held without bail until a dangerousness hearing for Thompson is held this Friday. To refresh your memory, Thompson was arrested after making violent threatening comments online about how he wanted to kill all the “preps” and “teenyboppers”. When police searched his house they found a cache of illegal weapons, including some that were homemade.
As mentioned before, Thompson is also a mutant of the highest order. Now we know a little bit more about his fascination with Columbine…
Police said Thompson’s journal also described how he intended to use the weapons and referenced Eric Harris, one of two teens who murdered 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, according to court documents.
“One day, there will be another school shooting on the news, I’ll laugh and SMILE and jump for joy the next time I hear about one,” Thompson allegedly wrote, according to court records.
“I could snipe you in the head with one shot and drag your body into the woods and no one would ever hear of you again,” he allegedly wrote.
When questioned by state police, Thompson admitted to admiring the Columbine killer.
Thompson became “visibly angry and started rocking back and forth in his chair, explaining how he was picked on by all the “preps” when he was younger,” during an interview with State trooper Matthew G. Murphy, court documents showed.
What’s sad is this fool graduated from college and had a job as a hotel chef. He was probably making better money than most of the “preps” that he went to school with. And the poor fool couldn’t let it go, and kept that hate inside of him all these years. What did it get him? Two counts of possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of a large capacity firearm, improper storage of a large capacity firearm, and a long stay at the Graybar Motel.
Young Turn to Web Sites Without Rules:
This is an article from the New York Times that talks about new websites that are social sites, sort of like MySpace. However, they allow live cam to cam chat between users sometimes without any moderation or enforceable age restrictions.
Popular Web sites like YouTube and MySpace have hired the equivalent of school hallway monitors to police what visitors to their sites can see and do by cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence.
So where do the young thrill-seekers go?
Increasingly, to new Web sites like Stickam.com, which is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras.
The site combines elements of more popular sites, but with a twist. In addition to designing their own pages and uploading video clips, its users broadcast live video of themselves and conduct face-to-face video chats with other users, often from their bedrooms and all without monitoring by any of Stickam’s 35 employees.
Well, if that doesn’t have predator haven written all over it, I don’t know what does. It’s almost like the owners of the site see a hornet’s nest and decided to whack it with a stick. Once the first lawsuit comes, they’ll probably change their minds.
What makes it even worse is that the site’s owners have the unabashed arrogance to say their site is safer than MySpace…
Mr. Kihioka of Stickam said that in some respects, his site was actually safer than other social networks. Live video feeds let users ‘know who they are talking to,’ he said. ‘Unlike MySpace, it is hard to disguise yourself.’ But he added that his company had the same concerns about child safety as MySpace and was working on an automated system that would monitor live video feeds for indecency.
Here’s an idea, Sparky. How about getting that little bug straightened out before going live?
Not only that, but think of how many sites have gotten in trouble for unmoderated cam to cam chats or unmoderated webcams. Yahoo, I’m looking at you.
Considering the site’s feature has been banned by MySpace itself, that should tell you something about the relative safety of its features.
Thanks to Jessica for the link.
Man charged after MySpace hookup with girl, 12:
19-year-old Matthew Bergeron of Manchester, New Hampshire was arrested for sexual assault after meeting up with a 12-year-old girl on MySpace.
Matthew Bergeron, 19, was arrested Saturday on three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, five counts of felonious sexual assault, one count of indecent exposure and one count of use of computers prohibited, police said.
Here’s the thing. I found two MySpaces for a Matthew Bergeron of Manchester. They’re definitely two different people. Rather than posting both and risk branding an innocent man as a predator, I decided not to post either of them until someone can send me some confirmation.
Back by popular demand, mostly from my wife again, I present to you the 2006 Trenchie Awards.
Best Movie: Clerks II. I went into this movie with low expectations, but I was extremely surprised by how good it was. I may even dare to say that it’s better than the original, but I know that’s heresy.
Worst Movie: Since Clerks II was basically the only movie I saw this year, I defer to my wife for this category, and she says that the worst movie of 2006 was a straight to video horror abomination called The Graveyard. When I asked what was wrong with the movie, she said, “Name it and that’s what’s wrong with it.”
Best Album: No album kicked as much ass this year as the self-titled album from Ripper Owen’s solo project Beyond Fear. Honorable mention goes to Dio’s Holy Diver Live.
Worst Album: You’d have to try really hard to have a worse album than the disappointing Operation: Mindcrime II by Queensryche. And Iron Maiden did. A Matter of Life and Death has no good songs whatsoever. It should be called A Matter of Suck and Blow.
Best TV Show: Heroes. It was the one show I made sure that I was home to watch. House had a few missable episodes. If you’re wondering why not 24, it’s because 24’s jersey has been retired to let others have a chance.
Worst TV Show: CSI. I got hooked on it last season due to my abandonment of Law & Order. Last season was interesting and kept me glued to my seat. This season was boring at best.
Best Wrestling Moment: I haven’t actually watched a lot of wrestling this year. I mostly only watch TNA. In my opinion, it’s the closest they can get to the original ECW. Anyway, the best moment of the year was when Kurt Angle came to TNA and headbutted Samoa Joe.
Worst Wrestling Moment: WWE’s continued defiling of Eddie Guererro’s corpse.
Best Videogame: Suikoden V. A little slow in starting, but once it got underway it had me hooked. The fishing minigame is addictive as hell. The best one since II.
Worst Videogame: Final Fantasy III. Not a horrible game, but as with most games, it didn’t live up to the hype and wasn’t worth the 15-year wait.
Dumbass of 2006: All the dumbasses that committed various crimes to get their hands on a PS3. Get a life, people.
Most Inane Political Agenda of 2006: The Wrong Reverend Fred Phelps who in just one of his may asshatted statements of 2006 said after the Amish school shooting in Pennsylvania his “church” planned to protest the Amish girls’ funerals saying that the Amish “don’t serve God, they serve themselves.”
Biggest Jackass Celebrity of 2006: The skank party crew of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears. ‘Nuff said.
That’s it for 2006. I hope to see you here again next year for 2007.
Lewerke pleads guilty in slashings:
James Lewerke, the Indiana teen who was arrested for a 2004 slashing attack against his classmates, has pleaded guilty but insane to his charges. Under the plea, he could face a maximum of 10 years. Lewerke was to be tried as an adult when his trial was supposed to start next week. The sentence will be determined on February 23rd. Hopefully, the judge will take leniency on Lewerke because, in my opinion, he is one of the few cases where the suspect is legitimately mentally ill.
Craigslist exec strives to keep the Internet neutral:
Jim Buckmaster is the CEO of craigslist. He’s concerned about Net Neutrality. Basically, proponents of Net Neutrality want the government to step in and prevent ISP’s from creating tiered levels of service, with the premium-priced tier providing faster service to highly trafficked websites. Personally, I’d prefer the government to stay out of the internet, but that’s neither here nor there.
Mr. Buckmaster would like the government to get involved.
I guess I would say I’m cautiously optimistic that lawmakers will do the right thing, although it seems in a lot of cases that these things get decided according to who puts forward the most lobbying and the most campaign contributions, he said. Since the phone companies have played this game for decades, they certainly have an advantage there.
Mr. Buckmaster should be careful in invoking the name of our government and should be more concerned with cleaning up his own house. MySpace has already felt the wrath of state and federal governments due to the controversy that surrounds it. With craigslist’s reputation for drug dealing, prostitution, robberies, and assaults, it’s only a matter of time before someone in the government decides to regulate craigslist.
Neighbor catches sex offender seeking babysitting job on Craigslist:
Gather ’round and listen to the tale of John Gilbert Gray. A level 3 Washington State sex offender who thought he was pretty slick. His original crime was for the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman. When he got out, he told authorities he was homeless. In actuality, he was living with his wife in an apartment. The reason was that if he reported as homeless, a sex offender notification would not be distributed around the neighborhood.
And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling housewives. And the fact that he took an ad out on craigslist for BABYSITTING!!!
But a young mother in Gray’s neighborhood, who fears retaliation and wants to remain anonymous, says she was checking Craigslist, and found an ad for babysitting that made her suspicious.
“We decided out of the blue to check it up on Washington State sex offender’s list and lo and behold there was his face,” the mother said.
In the neighborhood, the woman says Gray went by the name “Logan”. She says she and other mothers were alarmed to realize Gray is a level three-sex offender — the highest risk to re-offend — and that he and his wife were advertising to babysit.
So she reported him.
For his efforts, Gray is looking at a year in the pokey.
I really wonder what made him think that babysitter was the logical career choice for a sex offender trying to hide from authorities. Did he think that no parent would do any kind of background check on him? Not to mention the fact that hiring a babysitter from craigslist is not the most logical choice for a parent.
Santa’s Helpers child predator operation:
This is a story about an internet sting that took place recently in Louisiana.
In Acadia Myspace.com helped the Acadia parish sheriff’s department and the Attorney General’s office take alleged child predators off the street.
Christopher Patton, Mark Whitney, Troy Kimble, and Robert Brenneman were arrested during the sting, which involved setting up fake Myspace profiles of underage girls to which the suspects allegedly responded and set up meetings.
“There are a number of statutes that play. The person who exposes himself on his webcam has violated the law. The person who arranges to meet a child for sex is breaking the law. The person who asks for child porn has violated the law. The typical has violated all three.
And it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the MySpace profiles of at least some of the suspects.
I was able to find the MySpaces of Patton, Kimble, and Brenneman.
Thanks to Kirk M. for the tip.