A Tragic Stabbing

An tragic event occured in Sitka, Alaska that left many people sad and heartbroken.  What happened was a women called the police and told them something that was unbelievable.  She said that there was a man who was on the street killing people.  When she told them that, the police rushed to the scene.  When they arrived there they had found three dead bodies on the street, also they found two bodies that were hurt badly.  In the end only one of the two bodies survived. Jason Alex Abbott, a gaunt 18-year-old with a shaved head, has been charged with four counts of murder, accused of using a dagger to kill his grandparents, an aunt and her fiance.He’s also charged with a single count of attempted murder for stabbing another aunt multiple times; she was the sole survivor of the March 25 slayings.  Most of the people in this town of 8,600 knew the victims and were really sad about that incident. Three days before the killings, Jason Abbott was arrested for allegedly trying to punch his mother because she had orange and red colored items in her home. He said they were “evil colors,” according to court documents.

What I think about this that sometimes people get crazy when they have been somewhere a long time where there arent alot of people.  Now I dont think that this was right at all in fact it is really sad.  I mean what kind of kid would do  this to all of those innocent people for no reason.   

   http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/02/alaska.stabbings.ap/index.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-080325-sitka-alaska-stabbing,1,3233422.story?track=rss

Apparent Grand Rapids road rage victim pinned against car as children watched

Michaelia Clark of Grand Rapids Michigan was caught in a bad road rage that left her with a broken pelvis.  The other driver pinned her between the two cars which broke her pelvis.  When he backed away she fell. Lying on the ground she looked up only to see the reverse lights on. She expected the driver to run her over as she yelled at her 7 year-old to get back in the car.  Just then neighbors who  witnessed the event came rushing out to save Michaelia.  The driver then sped away with his young child in the back seat.  The neighbors called 911 and an ambulance brought Michaelia to the hospital.The police are still trying to find the driver who hit Michaelia, and the have very few leads.   The police believe that the man intently hit Michaelia.  It all started when the man hit michaelia repediately and Michaelia got out of her car to ask what the man was doing. The man then got angrier and when Michaelia told him he weas going to jail he pinned her between the two cars.  Michaelia noticed a young child in theback seat through the broken windows as she was falling over.I think this kind of violence is crazy.  People shouldn’t get mad enough to hit some one and almost run them over, they shouldn’t even hit the other person’s car.  Yet in our society we have people like that.  I really can’t imagine what it must have been like for the kids.  i would hate to see something like that happen. I also don’t understand how you can get mad enough to almost run some one over  or hit their car multiple times.  If the police catch this man i definitely think he should go to jail.  By almost running her over he can be charged with attempted murder which has a penalty equal to murder, and i think he should be charged with attempted murder.  http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/apparent_grand_rapids_road_rag.html                                                Tim Larson 

Teens charged with shaving, clubbing disabled woman

In Cincinnati, Ohio, Cheyenne Blanton, 17, and Joseph Nagle, 16were arraigned Monday on juvenile delinquency charges that include aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, felonious assault and vandalism, according to juvenile court officials. The two teenagers spent more than six hours torturing Ashley Clark, an 18-year old disabled woman after her mother left in the morning. They tied her up, clubbed her, kicked her, shaved her head and soaked her with water before making her walk barefoot outside in the snow. Investigators said that they also ignored pleas from the woman, who had undergone brain surgery, not to hit her in the head.

According to The Associated Press, Sheila Clark, the disabled womans mother, want the teenagers tried as adults, and Jones said the two could get 75 years to life in prison if tried and convicted as adults. “I want full justice for my daughter,” Clark said Monday. “Those two never need to walk the streets again.” She also said “I can’t understand how anyone could do this to anyone, but especially to someone with such a beautiful, loving heart.”

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said the teenagers hid overnight in the basement of the Clark home, intending to steal the car and leave town before an upcoming juvenile court appearance date for one of the suspects.

I think that this is just a ridiculous case and I feel that the two teenagers should be charged as adults, even though they are under the age of 18. Clearly if they are charged as delinquents it will have an extremely lighter effect on them than going to jail would. These two where already ‘running from the law’ and who says they won’t do it again the second they get out of juvie? I may be wrong but it seems that if you go to juvie it doesn’t really mean that you will never do anything wrong again. Same goes for jail, but i think that they are already used to going to juvenile hall and won’t mind going a few more times. I feel that they should have an adult sentence, but not as severe as 75+ years, something a lot lighter would be fine. I think they just need to be shown how life in jail is, so that maybe it will make them not want to ever go there again.

 -Taylor Hyink

Man killed in Wendy’s shooting, went back for child’s toy.

As we all know there is a lot of violence in america. This is just another example of all the problem this country has with crime and how random and pointless it can be.   In west Palm beach florida, Rafael Vazquez, a fire rescue lieutenant, was shot and killed in a random shooting. When Rafael went back inside the Wendy’s to get a toy for his daughter a 60 year old man came out of the bathroom and shot him.  The man then continued to shoot other people in the building.  After hitting four people with a 9-mm he shot and killed himself.  The shooting seems to be random and police can not figure out why it occurred.  The four others who were injured were a 63 year old man, a 62 year old woman, a 16 year old girl, and the 16 year old’s mom, who was not hit but was injured while fleeing.   Wendy’s is helping all they can with the investigation and offers their thoughts and prayers to the families. Police have not found a suicide note and the shooter was not a former employee which makes it very hard for investigators to figure out the cause. I can not believe what it must be like for the family who lost some one.  This story shows just how bad America can get.  We hear lots of stories in the news about how bad some of the other countries are, but we don’t hear how much violence there is here, where we live.  Shootings like these are becoming more and more common, this sounds really bad but its almost like they are becoming a regular occurrence.  And of course we aren’t hearing about all the gang related shootings that happen, probably multiple times, everyday.  I think we should be focusing more on stopping  shootings like this than fixing other countries problems.  Maybe when we dramatically reduce violence like this we can help other countries. the only difference between the U.S and other countries is that we don’t usually worry about losing some one special to us everyday, when it is almost just as likely to happen here as in other countries. http://www.wpbf.com/news/15474521/detail.html  Tim Larson 

Ex-Cop Kills His Girlfriend and His Unborn Child

 Bobby Cutts a former cop was charged with the crime of killing his unborn child and his girlfriend, Jessie Davis. Bobby Cutts is sentenced to the death penalty. He was sentenced to death because of killing his unborn child. The juror was astonished by him apologizing to the family of Jessie. Bobby said, “It was a nightmare that will continue to haunt me for the rest of my days.” Bobby teared up when his mother talked about his childhood at his sentencing hearing.              Bobby is an African-American and his jury is all white. This jury is the same jury that sentenced him to the death penalty. Bobby has a chance at not going to the death penalty but instead will be in prison for life. There also could be the possibility of parole for 20, 25 or 30 years.    Bobby’s sister, father and teachers from his high school all testified during the trial. Bobby’s mother, Renee, was the first witness called to the stand. Renee talked about how her son was a good youngster and was very active in sports, Boy Scouts and at his church. Renee was completely shocked that her son was capable of such a crime. Bobby’s teacher describes Bobby as a very good student. Bobby was very social and helpful to all the kids in his class. The teacher also said that he could never see good old Bobby doing something like this.             Bobby told the jury that all of this was just an accident. He said that his girlfriend was moving too slowly while getting Blake, Bobby’s and Jessie’s 2 ½ year old son, ready to go out. Bobby said that Jessie was pulling on him trying to stop him from leaving them, when Bobby accidentally hit Jessie in the throat with his elbow. Bobby told the jury that he tried to perform CPR on her body. He also said that he used bleach to try to revive her.             The prosecutors said that he was making excuses for his actions. They stated he was trying to think of a way to get out of paying for child support. This they believed was the reason he killed his girlfriend and unborn child.              I think that the prosecutors are a little too harsh and that he didn’t mean to kill her. I think that the bleach is a little suspicious and they need to look into that a little more. Also, it seems a little strange that a jury, which is made up of one’s peers, was all white. Out of twelve people not even one person belonged to another ethnic group. These are my opinions and it will be interesting to see what else happens in this case.             I found two points of views on this article. One point of view I found was from BBC.com. Another point of view I found was from CNN.com. It seems that the BBC article was less detailed about the crime. I liked the CNN article better because it was more descriptive and had more of a neutral view side.            

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/25/cutts.trial/index.html            http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6238264.stm

 – Seb Beltran

Thoughts and violence article

Hello my name is Sammie and I am one of the people who will be updating this page for my modern problems class.  Right now I am goning to give you some thoughts and feelings on these subject from my point of view. 

To me violence and crime is a really big issue today because of gangs, murder,and many more things like that.  I wish we could stop it because I really dont think that its necassary.  I mean can someone tell me the true reason why gangs want to fight other gangs even if they dont know each other, or why someone has to kill another person just because they are haveing a bad day.  You probably cant, even the people who make these choices probably cant.  Thats why I said it is not necassery.  In the story you are about to read this is a case where a someone is having a very bad day so they take it out on everybody that they see. 

Jessie L. Dotson, who was recently released after serving 14 years in prison for murder, was captured Friday night.

He faces six counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cecil Dotson, his 30-year-old brother; Hollis Seals, 33; Shindri Roberson, 20; Marissa Rene Williams, 26; and two children, said Memphis Director of Police Larry A. Godwin at a news conference Saturday.

Dotson will also be charged with the attempted murder of three other children ages 7, 4 and 10 months who received stab wounds and blunt force trauma, Godwin said.

Dotson’s brother Cecil was the father of all the children, The Associated Press reported. Those who survived the attack were under police custody at a hospital, according to the AP.

The March 2 killings followed an argument between Jessie and Cecil Dotson, Godwin said.

Jessie Dotson shot his brother dead and went on to kill the others to try to cover up the crime, he said.

“[Dotson] thought everyone in the home was dead,” Godwin said. “But as we all know, by the grace of God, three children had survived.”

When I first read this article I could not believe what i just read even though it was in my face.  Why would someone want to kill there own family who has been there forever.I just dont get what were comming to in this world.  Come back in a few weeks for more thoughts and articles like this one. 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/08/memphis.shooting/index.html#cnnSTCText

violence

Hello our names are Sammie, Taylor, Seb, and Tim. All of us will be writing in this blog in order to protray diffirent point of views and opinions on the violence and crime in the world today.  The reason for this blog is for our Modern Problems class.  We will be talking about important matters in the world we live in and using sources of media articles from Google Reader. So sit back and enjoy our report on crime and violence.