After reading the article, the event does get less hilarious. I don't understand what the guy meant by "Here's your Patriot Act," though, so I'm going to reserve the right to laugh at that particular part of the video.
He means that he's being tasered in the name of security. His personal rights, even his health, were ignored because there was the potential that he may be a trespasser.
NEW PORT RICHEY, Florida (AP) -- A woman's body was found wedged upside-down behind a bookcase in the home she shared with relatives who had spent nearly two weeks looking for her.
A spokesman for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Mariesa Weber's death was not suspicious. Family members said they believe she fell over as she tried to adjust the plug of a television behind the bookshelf.
Weber, 38, came home October 28 and greeted her mother, then wasn't seen again. Her family thought she had been kidnapped and contacted authorities. Family members scoured her room for clues but found nothing, although they did notice a strange smell.
On Nov. 9, Weber's sister went into her bedroom and looked behind a bookcase, where she saw the woman's foot. Using a flashlight, the family saw Weber was wedged upside-down behind the unit.
"I'm sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her," her mother, Connie Weber, told the St. Petersburg Times. "And she's right in the bedroom."
Both Weber and her sister previously had adjusted the television plug by standing on a bureau next to the shelf and leaning over the top. Her family believes Weber, who was 5-foot-3 and barely 100 pounds, may have fallen headfirst into the space.
"She's a little thing," her mother said. "And the bookcase is 6 feet tall and solid. And she couldn't get out."
The sheriff's office said Weber appeared to have died because she was unable to breathe in the position she was in.
Apparently when looking for missing people, strange smells are immediately disregarded. Despite that and the apparent emotional insensitivity of the family at discovering the corpse, that sounds like a pretty terrible way to die.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- A mother was arrested on suspicion of murdering her newborn daughter by microwaving the baby in an oven.
China Arnold, 26, was jailed Monday on a charge of aggravated murder, more than a year after she brought her dead month-old baby to a hospital. Bail was set Tuesday at $1 million.
"We have reason to believe, and we have some forensic evidence that is consistent with our belief, that a microwave oven was used in this death," said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County coroner's office.
He said the evidence included high-heat internal injuries and the absence of external burn marks on the baby, Paris Talley.
Arnold was arrested soon after the baby's death in August 2005, then was released while authorities investigated further. Betz said the case was difficult because "there is not a lot of scientific research and data on the effect of microwaves on human beings."
The death was ruled a homicide caused by hyperthermia, or high body temperature. The absence of external burns ruled out an open flame, scalding water or a heating pad as the cause, Betz said.
Arnold's lawyer, Jon Paul Rion, said his client had nothing to do with her child's death and was stunned when investigators told her that a microwave might have been involved. (Watch the mother's lawyer insist she's innocent Video)
"China -- as a mother and a person -- was horrified that such an act could occur," Rion said.
The night before the baby was taken to the hospital, Arnold and the child's father went out for a short time and left Paris with a baby sitter, Rion said. The mother didn't sense anything out of the ordinary until the next morning, when the child was found unconscious, Rion said.
Arnold has three other children.
In 2000, a Virginia woman was sentenced to five years in prison for killing her month-old son in a microwave oven. Elizabeth Renee Otte claimed she had no memory of cramming her son in the microwave and turning on the appliance in 1999.
Experts said that Otte suffered from epilepsy and that her seizures were followed by blackouts.
An angry priest has criticized Tracey Dyess' stepfather for continuing to publicly profess his romantic love for the Iowa teenager.
The Rev. Val Peter of Omaha, Neb., a vocal advocate for Dyess, says Brian Street "is in massive demonic denial" about his sexual abuse of the teen.
Dyess, 19, is serving a 45-year prison term for setting a fire at her home in Griswold last year that killed two members of her family. She says she set the fire to stop years of sex abuse by Street.
Peter said in a recent letter to Street, "Now that you are in jail, you engage in this scam of writing these letters and using the media to spread your venom. You are not fooling anyone. Stop it. Stop it now. Get out of her life and stay out."
Peter said his anger was triggered by a letter Street wrote to the priest pleading for a chance to share his insights into the teenager's life. Street told Peter that together they could help Dyess recover from sexual abuse that dates to her pre-school years.
"No matter what you do believe or do not believe regarding what you've heard about me," Street told Peter, "you may rest assured on the fact and my promise that nobody in this world wants to help Tracey more than I. Even if I have to give up my very life."
Street is being held in the Polk County Jail, while awaiting a trial on federal charges that he abused Dyess and her 13-year-old sister.
He wrote his letter to Peter on Oct. 16, after reading Dyess' comments in The Des Moines Register about how much she hates her stepfather.
"No matter how many times I read those things it still hurts as badly," Street said in the letter. "I am attempting to come to terms with the knowledge that Tracey never really did love me, like she convinced me she did, and that she only used me. Doesn't stop the pain, though."
Street said he still loves her.
"Is it wrong for me to love someone who tried to kill me and is now making vicious lies about me?" Street asked.
He said he wants to help Peter with Dyess' healing process.
Peter's response was scathing.
"You are in massive demonic denial," he wrote, "and will continue to hurt her until someone stops you."
Peter told Street his letter expressed "the common theme of almost every sexual perpetrator I have had the misfortune to deal with in my long years here" - that he loved his victim, cares about her still, is willing to do anything for her and is hurt by her rejection.
The reality, Peter wrote, is that Street started having sex with Dyess "to get your needs met, not hers."
"It was no great feat because she had been conditioned by other sexual perps before you," the priest wrote.
"Cruelly, and without shame, you took away what was left of her childhood, her girlhood, all joy in living and whatever innocence she might have hoped for. In their place were feelings of being used, dirty, cheap, worthless, lonely and depressed."
Peter said Street is in need of a minister who can privately help him break through his denial and work toward repentance. "Find one soon," Peter wrote.
During a visit with Dyess in prison Thursday, Peter talked to her about Street's letter.
She responded by writing a short statement to The Des Moines Register in which she said: "Brian Street abused me all these years and now continues the abusing through horrible letters like this one."
Peter, the retired executive director of Girls and Boys Town in Omaha, is leading an effort to get Iowa's governor to grant clemency to Dyess, allowing her to be released from custody before she completes the 45-year prison term.
What really gets me about this story is why is she doing 45 years in prison? Yeah she set a fire that killed two people. Child molesters and rapists get what, 8-25 years, if they're found guilty. It's probably the hardest conviction to make. I sat on a jury for a rape trial last year and I was just shocked by how much questioning of the victims went on that had nothing to do with whether they'd been raped or not.
Damn, that's fucked up. I hope those cops get their badges taken away and get thrown in jail for assualt. They stopped him from leaving (what they wanted him to do in the first place) and then tasered him because he wouldn't leave? He couldn't continue leaving because they held his arm and kept him there! There's your Patriot Act indeed.
What really gets me about this story is why is she doing 45 years in prison? Yeah she set a fire that killed two people. Child molesters and rapists get what, 8-25 years, if they're found guilty.
I agree. Rape can pretty much ruin a life equally or worse than murder can.
I wouldn't go so far as to say ruin, but in a large number of cases it does lead to self destructive behaviors and post traumatic stress disorder. If you're interested, go find and read a book titled Lucky, by Alice Sebold. Good book, but very graphic.
Self destructive behaviors and post traumatic stress disorders are just a few things that might be factors of said ruined life after a rape. In other words, they're the things that cause the life to be ruined.
i know i came in kinda late but i have a concern here...from the first post where it says "dedham mass". thats my home town and i never new such thins ever went on
Really old, but after ace mentioned the first post, I went back and kept reading and found this. I was wondering what on earth made them kill off Chef, and now I know.
and were gonna have more of these when the ps3 comes out, i bet
Yep, we sure did. I still feel no remorse for that guy who got shot with a shotgun, and that he does not deserve any charity. If he wants to puts a $2,500 price tag on his life, let him pay the medical bills by himself.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard.
Messner is a big boy. He was 15 at the time he was brought into the woods to see the homeless man his friends had been beating. Even at that young age, he outweighed the victim, Michael Roberts, by 200 pounds when he jumped on his chest, crushing his ribcage. Roberts died.
"Did you feel bad when you are doing it?" Messner was asked during questioning.
"Not really, no," he replied.
He didn't feel bad then, but he does now. He has been in juvenile detention for eight months, locked in a small cell and occasionally allowed to go to class.
Messner and his attorney said he has already learned his lesson and is ready to go home to help others.
"I want to be an inspirational speaker for troubled teens," he said Monday.
Messner got the lightest sentence of the four boys. Teens Jeffrey Spurgeon, Justin Stearns and Christopher Scamahorn got 27 to 35 years. They all cut plea deals to avoid life in prison.
The state attorney said that's as much leniency as they should get and the judge agreed.
"I can't think of some reason to change the sentence. I'm going to deny the motion," said the Hon. Joseph Will.
Messner's parents broke down at the denial. His mother said it's unfair, that her son fell in with a bad crowd and prison is killing him.
"He's not getting the mental health, the schooling. He's not getting anything, anything but locked in a cell all day long," Lori Messner said.
The judge and the state both argued that being deprived services and being locked away is precisely the point of prison. Warren Messner will spend the next 22 years in prison without the chance for parole.
It's a fundamental question. Is the purpose of a jail to rehabilitate criminals so they can be re-introduced into society or is it simply to keep the bad element out of society and act as a deterrent? Do we want to try to save every criminal or just keep order via fear of punishment?
"A little from column 'A', a little from column 'B'."
Step 1: remove the bad from the good
Step 2: attempt to rehabilitate them
Step 3: there are no infinite tries on this; if they keep screwing up, just keep 'em off the streets.
I agree with X. If getting them off the streets was the bottom line, there'd be a lot more executions, so it's mostly rehabilitation. It's also clear that if someone is given a life sentence with no chance of parole or some other ridiculous term that couldn't possibly be completed, they've essentially given up on trying to change them. It'd either take so much time and resources to not be worth it or they don't think it's possible.
It's a fundamental question. Is the purpose of a jail to rehabilitate criminals so they can be re-introduced into society or is it simply to keep the bad element out of society and act as a deterrent? Do we want to try to save every criminal or just keep order via fear of punishment?
As far as I'm concerned, it really depends on the crime. No reason why they shouldn't give at least one attempt to rehabilitate someone arrested for being high on weed, for example. I'd rather it be decided on a case by case basis than just say "prisons are for _____ and that's it."
But one thing I know for sure that I disagree with it the entire "last meal" thing for people on death row. Uhm, hello? Considering how bad your crimes have to be to even get a death sentence in the first place, why the hell do any of them deserve a nice meal before they die? I doubt think their victims were afforded the same luxury, so why treat the convict so nicely?
In fact, I'm all for taking that a step further: instead of keeping them on death row to begin with, just take them to the execution room after they've been sentenced. No need to keep them alive at the taxpayers' expense for years. Just a the standard speech from the judge about how bad the crimes were, a death sentence, a "balif, take this man/woman to the execution room", a bang of the gavel to make it official, and then off the criminal goes to get their lethal injection. Bing, bang, done. Use all the money you just saved for a possible rehabilitation of a prisoner who might be able to turn his/her life around.
Comments
Apparently when looking for missing people, strange smells are immediately disregarded. Despite that and the apparent emotional insensitivity of the family at discovering the corpse, that sounds like a pretty terrible way to die.
Also that priest just owned that guy.
Damn, that's fucked up. I hope those cops get their badges taken away and get thrown in jail for assualt. They stopped him from leaving (what they wanted him to do in the first place) and then tasered him because he wouldn't leave? He couldn't continue leaving because they held his arm and kept him there! There's your Patriot Act indeed.
I agree. Rape can pretty much ruin a life equally or worse than murder can.
Really old, but after ace mentioned the first post, I went back and kept reading and found this. I was wondering what on earth made them kill off Chef, and now I know.
Yep, we sure did. I still feel no remorse for that guy who got shot with a shotgun, and that he does not deserve any charity. If he wants to puts a $2,500 price tag on his life, let him pay the medical bills by himself.
Meanwhile, homeless men aren't getting killed because your bored son decided to jump on their chests. Sounds like a fair trade to me.
Step 1: remove the bad from the good
Step 2: attempt to rehabilitate them
Step 3: there are no infinite tries on this; if they keep screwing up, just keep 'em off the streets.
What if the punishment were more severe?
As far as I'm concerned, it really depends on the crime. No reason why they shouldn't give at least one attempt to rehabilitate someone arrested for being high on weed, for example. I'd rather it be decided on a case by case basis than just say "prisons are for _____ and that's it."
But one thing I know for sure that I disagree with it the entire "last meal" thing for people on death row. Uhm, hello? Considering how bad your crimes have to be to even get a death sentence in the first place, why the hell do any of them deserve a nice meal before they die? I doubt think their victims were afforded the same luxury, so why treat the convict so nicely?
In fact, I'm all for taking that a step further: instead of keeping them on death row to begin with, just take them to the execution room after they've been sentenced. No need to keep them alive at the taxpayers' expense for years. Just a the standard speech from the judge about how bad the crimes were, a death sentence, a "balif, take this man/woman to the execution room", a bang of the gavel to make it official, and then off the criminal goes to get their lethal injection. Bing, bang, done. Use all the money you just saved for a possible rehabilitation of a prisoner who might be able to turn his/her life around.