Five girls in care have been selling sex on Craigslist, police say:
Five teenagers in the care of British Columbia’s children’s ministry have been discovered prostituting themselves on craigslist. The teens are 16 and 17 and have been claiming in their ads that they are 18-20.
This is a great article about how the Vancouver area has a problem with child prostitution on craigslist and how it’s almost tolerated.
Teen pleads guilty to kidnapping classmate at knifepoint:
Brent Clark is the Mesa, Arizona teen who took a girl hostage at knifepoint. He has pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charges against him.
Sentencing is June 19th and Clark is facing a possible sentence of 3 1/2 years behind bars.
Lawyer blames school in shooting of gay Oxnard student:
Do criminal defense attorneys come up with the most bizarre defenses because it’s not their neck on the line?
The attorney for 14-year-old Brandon McInerney is saying that it was the school’s fault that McInerney shot 15-year-old Larry King.
Educators should have moved aggressively to quell rising tensions between the two boys, which began when King openly flirted with McInerney, said Deputy Public Defender William Quest.
Instead, administrators were so intent on nurturing King as he explored his sexuality, allowing him to come to school wearing feminine makeup and accessories, that they downplayed the turmoil that his behavior was causing on campus, Quest said.
No you scumbag, tensions rose when McInerney started harassing King because he was openly gay. King turned the tables on McInerney by flirting with him. McInerney couldn’t take his own medicine and shot King killing him. The school didn’t put the gun in McInerney’s hand.
Osantowski terror sentence stands:
The Michigan Supreme court has ruled that our favorite Michigan mutant, Andrew Osantowski, will not have his sentence increased. Osantowski was sentenced to 4 1/2 years for plotting an attack against Chippewa Valley High School. Prosecutors appealed the sentence stating that it was too light.
While I agree with the prosecution I can almost guarantee you this won’t be the last we hear from Osantowski. I have the feeling that he’ll be another Mitchell Johnson and will be a resident of the state once again. Hopefully, he’ll go back to jail the same stupid way as Johnson too.
New evidence in Craigslist murder case:
Michael John Anderson may just be the dumbest criminal ever. The suspect in the murder of Katherine Ann Olson actually sent a letter to his parents from jail asking them to pay someone to take the rap for him.
Anderson lured Olson to his home with a phony craigslist employment ad and then shot and killed her once she was there.
I’ve posted about Dr. Jerald Block before. He’s a psychiatrist from the Oregon Health & Science University who theorizes that the cowardly scumbags Harris and Klebold went on their rampage because they were both denied access to their computers in the days prior to their attack. While I don’t agree 100% with Dr. Block’s theory I do think that is does have a lot of merit and may have been the breaking point.
However I’m not here to talk about Dr. Block’s work. I’m here to talk about what in my opinion is lazy journalism.
In this article from UPI they editorialize while paraphrasing Dr. Block…
Prior to the shootings, both teens spent a significant amount of time playing first-person-shooter computer games. Block suggests that these virtual worlds became essential for the teens and that Harris and Klebold may have been unable to distinguish the boundaries between their virtual lives and their real lives — in effect mixing the two.
That seems to imply that Dr. Block thinks that games like Doom were the main cause behind Columbine.
However in this article by WebMD, who Dr. Block actually spoke to, he says no such thing.
Before the attack, shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold spent “more and more time with their computers, to the point that they may have been unable to distinguish the boundaries between their virtual lives and their real lives,” says Oregon Health & Science University psychiatrist Jerald Block, MD.
“Then, as they got into trouble with school authorities, limits were put on their use of the computer. This made them react with homicidal rage and suicidal depression,” he tells WebMD.
Does that sound like Dr. Block is blaming video games? Not to me. Personally it doesn’t even sound like he’s blaming computers or the internet.
He is basically giving a warning to parents to not let their kids immerse themselves wholly into any of these things. Yet the UPI article never mentions that at all.
There’s nothing wrong with editorializing, that’s what I’m doing right now. Editorializing in what’s supposed to be an informative article is just bad journalism.
School shooter claims assault by inmates, staff:
Let me get out the violin for this one…
Jonesboro school shooter Mitchell Johnson claims he’s being picked on by inmates and staff while in the Benton County jail.
Boo-freakin’ hoo.
Johnson said he’s been physically assaulted by inmates and staff, according to McElveen, and Johnson believes the abuse is because of his role in the Jonesboro school shootings.
Isn’t that a shame.
Don’t like jail? Stop committing crimes.
Police: Craigslist Rapist Has HIV:
DeKalb County police in Georgia have arrested 18-year-old Allen Jamar McDowell of Decatur, Georgia for raping two women that he met through craigslist. The article infers that McDowell is also HIV positive.
Detectives say Allen Jamar McDowell of Decatur convinced two women on separate occasions to meet him at an apartment off Kensington Road. The apartment was vacant, but McDowell allegedly gained access and held the women captive while he sexually assaulted them.
Take away the anonymity of craigslist and I doubt this coward would have even struck.
Police think there may have been more victims.
Accused killer may have been in drug stupor, attorney says:
The last time I posted anything about accused killer Jonathan Zarate I thought the judge had denied his attorney’s request for toxicology reports. Zarate’s attorney is claiming that Zarate was in a marijuana laced with PCP stupor when he brutally beat, stabbed, dismembered, hid the body, then tried to dump the remains of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks into the Passaic River. A reader corrected me and said the judge had, in fact, approved the request for a toxicology report. Now Zarate’s attorney is requesting two bags of marijuana and blood from his client to be analyzed by a lab.
Mazawey said he was merely seeking the scientific data to bolster a February finding by forensic psychiatrist Diana Riccoli that Zarate’s diminished mental capacity may be the result of several years of continued use of marijuana laced with PCP and alcohol. The abuse could have contributed to a “state of de-realization” that would have permitted Zarate to detach himself mentally from his actions and precluded him from giving informed consent before talking to authorities.
So basically all this delay is to try to get Zarate’s confession to be ruled inadmissible. I think the fact that Zarate tried so meticulously to cover up his crime by enlisting the aid of others shows that Zarate has no mental defect. Unless you want to count being a murderous bastard.