Raising animals…

If she doesn’t say no, does she mean yes?  If she cannot say no, does she still mean yes?  Can one imply she means yes based on prior events, activities or circumstances?  I’m not quite sure why there would need to be debate on this.  However, at the upcoming rape trail in Ohio of two sixteen year-old men (of course, they are being tried as juveniles), that’s exactly what the defense will be asking jurors to decide.  Men everywhere should be more appalled than women at what we have become and what kind of male animals we are raising today.

who gets to decide?

Raging teenage hormones and under-age drinking are nothing new.  Unfortunately, neither are the sexual assaults so common in these situations.  But I’ve never understood the need or desire to violate a woman, and using her impairment as an excuse makes it all the more foreign to me.  Maybe I was raised differently, I’m not sure.  I don’t think for one minute that the parents of these boys taught them that rape was a good thing.  But somewhere along the road, they certainly failed to teach them anything about morals let alone common decency.   One might say lacking in humanity.

It’s obvious that this young girl was in distress; vomiting all over herself and unable to stand.  Their choices were simple.  They could have walked away, unconcerned for another human being’s welfare, a common trait in society today.  Or they could have shown a little compassion and chivalry and gotten her to a safe place, if not seeing her home.  Instead, they took the next option and carried her to the backseat of their car where they’d take turns sticking their fingers into her for their benefit, as she passed in and out of consciousness.  The defense says “she didn’t affirmatively say no.”

So we’ll hear the defense talk about whether she had actually, maybe at one point, consented to sex.  Okay, let’s assume for one moment that she did consent to have sex.  When? And with whom?  At what location?  For how long? And when does consent to sex mean that you and your friend can carry an incoherent, semi-conscious female by the legs and arms from party to party for that purpose?

Equally as disturbing is the fact that not one person reached out to stop this or intervene.  No, the temptation to post the videos on line was too great; no one wanted to stop the show.  Couldn’t one of her concerned friends have at least called her parents?  Those who stood by silently or gleefully watched as her repeated violations were videotaped are all just as guilty as the two boys in the back seat.

I long for the days where a real man would have stood up for someone weaker and dragged these two cretins into the street for the beating of their lives, for her benefit and the benefit of all good men who abhor this type of animalistic behavior and are nonetheless still tarred by it through association of our gender.  And yes, I would have expected at least one of the women witnessing this to intervene, or at least make a call on one of the countless cell-phones present. Too much to ask?

This is what society has now become; a willing witness to a spectator sport of the lowest degenerate behavior imaginable.  Don’t believe me?  It’s all on YouTube.

Pretty in pink….

With the exception of a well-deserved Darwin award, I normally don’t get any humor from the death of a fellow human being.  But every so often, with the right bit of irony or gallows humor applied, the early departure of some wretched creature can induce me to chuckle and break into a guilty grin.  Such is the case with the passing of the late Albert Franklin Hill.

I have no idea what was on Mr. Hills’ mind the night he met his demise.  I’ll leave that speculation to those who make a living trying to explain, rationalize and sometimes excuse criminals and their behavior.  Unfortunately for the victims, that does nothing to lessen the impact the crime has had on them.  Often, their rights are terminated with extreme prejudice, as they say.  In this case, we’ll probably never know why Mr. Hill felt compelled to enter the home of Meghan Brown at 3 AM on March 12^th.  But we need to be pretty clear about one thing;  When he pounded on the door, he wasn’t expecting to run away if he got a response.  In fact, when Ms. Brown opened the door, he managed to clamp his hand over her mouth and nose and proceeded to drag her to the master bedroom.  And even though we can’t say for sure what his plan was, it certainly seemed as though he was fully committed to execute on it, even if it included inflicting bodily harm on whatever victim he stumbled upon.

He encountered a 110 pound woman whom he apparently thought he was going to intimidate, overpower and pretty much do whatever he wanted to do to her.  Maybe not part of the plan, maybe a perk in his mind.  Unfortunately, these types of scenarios play out far too often and they usually don’t end well for the female victims.

 

Not the face you'd open the door for, 3 am or not.

The scuffle disturbed her sleeping fiancé who jumped into the fray, only to be over-powered by some blows to the head.  Seems like Mr. Hill wasn’t going to be deterred after all.  Not a simple breaking and entering, he had the chance to flee when the door was answered, he could have fled when he disabled the second victim-witness.  Nope, he was pretty bent on doing some physical damage or injury, who knows for what ends.  Who the hell cares at this point?

Ms. Brown manages to break free just long enough to retrieve her new Christmas gift, which she promptly uses on Mr. Hill, ventilating him at least 4 times and helping him to eventually achieve room temperature.  I doubt that was in his plan.

Yes, A pink 38-caliber handgun. I’m sorry, the irony is too sweet.  I can’t wipe the grin off my face.  Did he see the color?  Did he think, “a pink gun, no way..”?  Chances are if he saw it, he probably thought it would be for show, that she wouldn’t have what it took to pull the trigger.  From the accounts I’ve read, she was a pretty poor shot at the range, so she might have just pulled the trigger out of fear with no particular aim in mind.

 

is there a chance he didn't see the gun?

 

No matter.  She fought back, defended herself, defended her fiancé and their home.  Sorry to sound cold, but that’s they way it should have ended.  Don’t bother pillorying me with the “oh, so you think someone who breaks into a house deserves to die for it?” argument. If he had gotten in and out and then caught, we could have that discussion.  Even if he brought with him a bagful of their possessions, we could still have that conversation. He made her make a choice, and she made it.  And she did it with her girly-gun.

And it makes me chuckle every time I think about it.

 

Where to Mr. Gribble?

There doesn’t seem to be much national coverage of the murder of Kimberly Cates and the horrific maiming of her 12-year-old daughter Jaimie. If you live outside New England, and most probably outside New Hampshire, you don’t know the story of four young animals who were so bored that they decided it would be fun to break into a dark home in a small New Hampshire town one evening with the expressed desire to kill someone. By the time they were done, they had delivered over 30 slash, stab and hacking wounds to Kimberly Cates before turning the machete on her daughter, driving it through her back to get to her lungs and heart.  Mr. Gribble told police that he had wanted to kill someone for a long time.  “It’s cool because it’s different”, he told officers.

Now on the eve of his trial, the totally cool Mr. Gribble wants us to consider his insanity defense as well as a change of venue. Interesting.  Too much media coverage for Mr. Cool.  Here’s a thought: let’s make a deal. We’ll change your venue to someplace that has capital punishment and no compunction to use it.  Like maybe Texas or Utah.  How does that work for you?

I’ve been reading about this case since I first heard the news. The blogs are all over the place, blaming their parents, blaming society, blaming the human refuse themselves. Kill them, don’t kill them, hang them, shoot them etc.  All over the place. Me, I don’t care if you finally strap them down and pump 200 milligrams of retribution into them, it’s fine by me.  But let’s not get into the “innocent by reason of insanity” crap, or have lively debate on the effective deterrence of the death penalty. These cretins need to be culled from the herd, plain and simple.  No, it won’t bring Kimberly Cates back. No, it won’t restore Jaimie’s physical health. And yes, it’s probably anger, eye for an eye, Old Testament style emotion here.  But at some point, society has to say, hey, there are penalties involved and certainly a crime that exhausts all adjectives to describe it’s heinousness needs to be addressed with the most severe penalty of all.

So the cool Mr. Gribble can have his change of venue as far as I’m concerned. I don’t care what jury you put him in front of, they’ll more than likely find him as guilty as his partner Mr. Spader’s jury found him to be.  Then they can complain to Dante for a change of venue.