TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • The Secret Service Proves My Point

    The Secret Service Proves My Point

    Feds help schools identify dangerous students:

    This is an article about how the Secret Service tries to identify students who are potential school shooters.

    I noticed that nowhere in the article does it state that the Secret Service is trying to identify bullies. What’s my point? My point is, like I’ve said before, that with each school plot that is uncovered the focus becomes less and less about bullying and more about threats of violence against schools.

    Do I support bullying? Of course not. Like I’ve said before, I was bullied in school, but I got over it. Armed retaliation is not a logical response. But don’t believe me. Listen to this kid who got busted for it…

    Now in prison, the boy said he is in more pain now than ever. “You have to go day by day, remembering what you did,” he said.

    Think. Is it really worth it? When you get arrested and land in jail, you’ll find out a whole new definition of bullying.

  • The Myth Spreads Like Cancer

    The Myth Spreads Like Cancer

    Power and control drive school bullies:

    This is a long-winded article about bullying that brings nothing new to the table. Let me sum it up for you…bullying is and has always been a problem, teachers and students do nothing about it, and here are some tips to prevent it that don’t work in the real world. It’s the usual stuff in these anti-bullying articles.

    For once, I’d like to see some real information in these articles, like telling parents that their kid may be a bully. But as we all know, it’s not about personal responsibility anymore. And speaking of which, I have a bone to pick with a few words in this article. Mainly…

    One of those kids has been in police custody since September. Andrew Osantowski, 17, who is expected to stand trial June 7 in Macomb County, is accused of creating a hit list and plotting to blow up Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township. Schoolmates told the Free Press at the time of his arrest that he was the victim of near-constant bullying.

    He’s not alone. From Red Lake, Minn., to Columbine High in Colorado, bullying is partly blamed for deep-seated problems that end in tragedy.

    And the myth perpetuates once more. What makes it worse is that when it’s printed in a “legitimate” media outlet, people take it to heart as fact.

    In the case of Andrew Osantowski, I only saw him mention bullying once in the chat transcript, but never said if it was him being bullied. Also, on his websites, he never talked about bullying. He spoke mostly of his past criminal exploits and his fascination with Nazism. And if you’re telling people at school that you are a Nazi, then you’re inviting trouble on to yourself.

    In the case of Jeff Weise, he was the bully rather than the bullied. According to reports, he bullied kids who listened to rap music, which is ironic considering, he listened to rap himself.

    As far as I can tell in the FBI report, Eric Harris’ bullying consisted of being made fun of in gym class on two separate occasions and Dylan Klebold bullied the mentally handicapped.

    I know this asking a little too much, but journalists, please do a little more research before listing myth and urban legend as fact. When you print these myths as fact, it lends the would-be school shooter legitimacy to their violent plans for vengeance.

  • A Questionable Comic Indeed

    A Questionable Comic Indeed

    A few months ago I told you about my favorite comic book hero, The Question.

    At the time, I lamented the fact that The Question went from a man who swore never to kill to a sociopathic killing machine.

    This past Saturday, I picked up the final issue in the limited six-issue run of the series. I was more than disappointed. Now he’s a magical sociopathic killing machine.

    In the last frame of issue #5, he’s in a port-o-john at a construction site, surrounded by gun-toting evildoers. The evildoers want to make faceless Swiss cheese out of him and shoot up the port-o-john. Of course, when they open the door, The Question isn’t in there.

    Did he pull some kind of ninja-like maneuver to evade the evildoers’ bullets? Hell no. He just casually strolled out undetected by said evildoers. So he either now has the ability to turn invisible or he has the power to cloud men’s minds. Kind of like…oh I don’t know…THE SHADOW!!!

    Then, to make matters worse, while the gun-toting evildoers were trying to figure out where he went he was whispering in their ears telling them what to do, then they would do it. So now is he not only ripping off The Shadow, he’s also learned in the ways of The Force. With no explanation about how he came to have these powers.

    It would be like reading Batman and all of a sudden, for no reason, he can turn into an actual bat. Throughout the series, they hinted that he had some kind of Shamanistic abilities, which I can kind of forgive, but to have full-blown powers just ruins the character.

    It’s like Superman said before throwing The Question out of Metropolis, “You have the stink of magic on you”.

  • A message from Kyle Hulbert

    A message from Kyle Hulbert

    About a month ago, I re-told you the story of Kyle Hulbert. If you want the whole story, you can go here, here, and here.

    Long story short, Kyle was not in his right mind when he took part in a murder, and the mastermind behind it received a lighter sentence than Kyle. Kyle puts it better in his own words.

    Anyway, Kyle wanted to correspond with me through regular mail. Unfortunately, for privacy reasons, I don’t correspond with anyone via the mail, nothing against Kyle. Today, I received a message from him through a friend of his…

    Trench,

    Greetings; I understand you desire not to correspond via regular mail all too well, and I respect it. I just wish to extend my thanks to you for the “follow up” you posted on your site. I’m sure it will be of some help and I can use all that I can get. Again, thank you, and when the day comes (not if) that I am again roaming the Night, your site will be one I plan to frequent. Intelligence is rare in this world and must be appreciated. I appreciate yours, and I appreciate your help.

    Salud,

    Kyle Hulbert

    Like I said before, I think at the time Kyle was just an instrument in the murder, like a gun. It was Clara Jane Schwartz that pulled the trigger.

    And also, like I said before, Kyle freely admits to the killing and believes that he does deserve punishment. He just believes that the punishment he received was not equitable in relation to the sentence of Clara Schwartz, who would have gained the most from the murder, and I agree.

    You know I’m not the type that wants the system to coddle criminals, but if I believe that a sentence was unjust then maybe there’s some validity to the claim. And again, like I’ve said before, don’t believe me, see it Kyle’s own words.

  • Alejandro Avila

    Alejandro Avila

    I dare…nay…I defy one person to tell me that this scumbag doesn’t absolutely deserve the death penalty. Alejandro Avila was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering Samantha Runnion…

    Some details from the case…

    Samantha was abducted, kicking and screaming, from outside her home in Stanton on July 15, 2002. Her nude body was found the following day in mountains some 50 miles away, left on the ground as if it had been posed.

    Samantha’s DNA was found on the inside of the door of Avila’s car. That evidence came from a small amount of clear liquid that the prosecution said was consistent with tears or mucous.

    Avila, of Lake Elsinore, had been acquitted of molesting two girls in 2001 in neighboring Riverside County, and authorities said they believe he killed Samantha to avoid another such trial.

    Try and tell me that this assclown doesn’t deserve to be removed from society in the most vicious and excruciating way possible.

    I defy you.

  • Dawn Anna

    Dawn Anna

    Dawn Anna

    Bully breakdown:

    Dawn Anna Townsend is the mother of Lauren Townsend, who was killed in the Columbine massacre. Recently, she spoke at a Pennsylvania high school, and she had some interesting things to say…

    “They hated everybody,” Townsend said about the gunmen who killed her daughter. “They hated her (Lauren Townsend) because she breathed and that she was in their way.”

    Townsend said one of the inaccurate reports that came out of the Columbine massacre was that the two murderers were retaliating against athletes who picked on them.

    “They (the killers) were the bullies,” Townsend said.

    Emphasis mine.

    And yet 6 years later, people are still holding on to that myth.

    She also had a lot of great things to say about bullying. The sad part is that I’m sure it fell on deaf ears.

    I remember when I was in school that every time we had some kind of speaker come in to talk to us about some problem, we spent the rest of the day making fun of the presentation. I hope today’s students aren’t like that, but I know that some things never change.

    Not to mention the fact that the reality is there always have been bullies and there always will be. That’s just an unfortunate fact of life. Therefore, it’s up to the schools to realistically do something about bullying. And the parents…

    Townsend also speaks with parents. She reminds parents that their children don’t need them to be their best friends, they need them to be parents.

    “When your child becomes older, then you become best friends,” she said, urging parents, teachers, and especially students, that ignoring suspicious activity in people could have dire consequences.

    “The warning signs are a road map,” she said.

    Emphasis mine.

    It’s just too bad that a lot of people won’t listen to a woman who is saying all the right things. The right things that used to be known as common sense.

  • Another Red Lake Victim

    Another Red Lake Victim

    Wounded Student’s Mother Shows Signs Of Recovery:

    I guess we can officially say the Red Lake shootings have claimed another victim.

    I told you about Jeff May here and how he was shot in the face by Jeff Weise after stabbing Weise with a pencil while trying to defend two girls. After he was shot, Jeff May suffered a stroke. His mother, Jodi May, also suffered a stroke on April 30th. Family members attribute it to the stress of the unimaginable situation that she and her family are going through.

    It’s been a week since Jodi’s surgery, and her family has seen what they believe to be signs that she will recover. Doctors have removed the tube that was draining fluid from her head.

    “She gives us the thumbs up or down when we ask her questions,” Trisha said, the same communication Jeff used during the earliest stages of his recovery.

    “She opens her eyes,” Shane added. “She squeezes our hands when we ask her to.”

    No one can say for sure whether she understands everything they say. But they believe.

    Please keep the May family in your thoughts and prayers.

  • 5/8/05: From The Mail Sack

    5/8/05: From The Mail Sack

    Let’s clear out the mail sack, shall we?

    The first one is from my entry on the Eric Harris journal, of course…

    Beachbaron58 Says:

    I have to respond to the word “coward” since it is used so many times here. Anyone who can do what Klebold and Harris did then pull the trigger with a shotgun in your mouth is no coward to me. They shot and killed other kids at close range not once but many times without batting an eye! These two gave the word “hate” a whole new meaning. I asked myself why I had an interest in the Columbine story and made prints of so much material? Same as everyone else five years later, the story is fascinating sad to say and we all know Columbine was just the begining but no way the end of such things. Other people will try to do better than Klebold and Harris, that is just the way things are.

    Friday Apr 15, 2005 @ 10:35 pm

    What’s scary about this is that in a previous comment, this guy said he was a 46-year-old Navy vet. And to address the issue at hand, yes they were cowards. If I have to explain why you haven’t been paying attention.

    The next one is from my entry about the Columbine death photos…

    fegan Says:

    Erik and Dylan were solidiers of an radical opinion and they made all us anarchists and anti social revolutionaries realise it is time to make our mark we need to prepare the revolution is at hand it is time for society to stop all these black and white thoughts on right and wrong and listen with an open mind to our opinions on how society should work

    We our the children of cililzed society and the future leaders of this forsaken land that we are forced to dwell soon it will be ours lets get it better suited for our existance

    Friday Apr 29, 2005 @ 10:15 pm

    Ah, yes. No punctuation and almost no capitalization. The true sign of an intellectual. And let’s not forget “An radical opinion” Apparently being an anarchist or an anti-social revolutionary means failing English class. They were not soldiers of an radical opinion. They were psychopathic cowards. They didn’t even have the guts to face the repercussions of their own actions.

    And lastly…

    CORINNE Says:

     

    ERIC AND DYLAN HAVE BEAUTIFUL MINDS. THEY WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY FOR WHAT THEY DID. ERIC IS HOTT, I WOULD GO TO PROM WITH HIM.KISS KISS ERIC R.I.P. WHY DID YOU KILL YOURSELF?

    Thursday May 5, 2005 @ 11:03 pm

    All capitalization is worse than no capitalization. Also, does anyone care to take a guess at what ISP this “person” uses? That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite polluter of the internet, AOL. Anyway, parents, see what your kids are up to. If this is your kid, they think that two people who killed 13 innocent people are “HOTT”.

    A little supervision goes a long way.

  • Osantowski bond lowered

    Osantowski bond lowered

    Bond lowered for teen accused of threatening massacre:

    Andrew Osantowski’s bond has been lowered from $1.35 million to $530,000. If he were to make bond, he would be placed under house arrest and would have to wear some kind of tracking device. For those of you who may not know who Andrew Osantowski is…

    Osantowski awaits trial, scheduled for June 7, on four charges, including one count of threatening terrorism stemming from chat room e-mails he allegedly wrote about killing students at Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township. The messages were sent to Celia McGinty, an Idaho girl he met in an Internet chat room last September.

    My favorite defense attorney/comedian Brian Legghio could not be reached for comment by the Detroit Free Press.

  • Nice mail for once

    Nice mail for once

    Normally, I don’t share my “fan mail” with you because it’s few and far between, and I don’t like to publicly pat myself on the back. But yesterday I received an e-mail from a man named Chuck. More importantly, Chuck is a parent, and he brought up some very valid points that, I thought, were important enough to share with my readers…

    This is from: Chuck

    My hat is off to you, brother. Your viewpoint is a lot like my own. Something does need to be done regarding the violence and other problems within our schools. These problems deal not only with unruly or just plain frigging stupid students but also the schools, school boards, teachers, and I believe most importantly parents. They need to wake the hell up and smell the napalm! I have three kids who have grown up and attended school in six different states throughout this country. They know my unwavering policies regarding morals, you know, right from wrong. Never had a problem because their mom and I became involved and stayed involved in their day-to-day activities. Not to suppress them or their ideas on different aspects of growing and maturing but to instill in them the belief that if something feels down deep inside that something is wrong. IT IS! It may be legal or actually on the verge of becoming so, if it doesn’t feel right it ain’t. Your web site. The info that you have available. Your own opinions and beliefs are commendable. How can you make more people aware of the existence of your site? That’s the question. Do so and you could be a huge part in getting info out to people who may not be aware of some of the lunacy going on in our schools. Thank you, brother. Keep it up. God bless you.

    Thank you, Chuck. If only more parents were like you, we wouldn’t be having these problems.

    But to answer your question, there is something you can do to make more people, specifically parents, aware of my site. Show them my site. E-mail it to them. Physically show them. Whatever it takes.

    Now, of course, they don’t need to see the political stuff or the goofy stuff, but they definitely need to see all the stuff I’ve posted about schools in the past 5 years. Specifically, my stuff about Columbine, Red Lake, Marshfield, Andrew Osantowski, other School violence, my watchlist, even hazing, and most importantly, my Hate Mail so they can see what kids are writing about these days.

    Not to over-inflate my own sense of self-worth, but parents need to be made aware of what’s going on in their schools and possibly with their own kids. Maybe then can these problems be avoided.

    Thanks again Chuck for writing, and this time it was my pleasure.