Remembering Michael, Doug, and John (was: not again)

201
BadComrade wrote:Can you believe this asshole? He thinks that I was "offended" in reading that she was a stripper?! What a tool. He doesn't seem to have noticed that I was offended that he chose to make her the point of interest. I love when he says "... clearly, a criminal courts reporter whose focus is crime and the criminal mind can never adequately give them the coverage their lives deserve."

In-fucking-credible response, no? Who knew you needed a background in criminal behavior to tell the public things like "...she even went in to the Admiral Theatre and spoke with a dancer there about how much she loved being a stripper and how much she loved the money".

I don't even think I'm going to bother replying to his response...


i might be way off here, or missing something crucial, but i think you should not reply to his response. because it seems like he made it clear that he was told to write an article that was a profile of the criminal involved in this court case. it seems like he made that clear, but you still haven't digested it, seeing as you still say "he chose to make her the point of interest". didn't he make it clear that he wrote the article he was told to write?

trying to look at the situation from a perspective outside of the very focused narrow perspective of someone who was friends with one or more of the guys, is this article really astounding? i think it's sad but true, people are more concerned with knowing about what sort of person does something like this than they are about knowing about the victims. it's different, but similar, to how there are documentaries about serial killers, but not about their victims. i think this stems from some combination of a dark fascination and a geniune fear and desire for avoidance of terrible terrible people.

on top of that, she's not presented as a great person or anything remotely of the sort. the article seems to paint an accurate picture, or it seems reasonable anyway. she grew up with hardworking parents who, like many new americans, kept her from assimilating as much as she might have liked. i've seen this firsthand with friends in highschool. both of my close japanese friends were first generation and were under tremendous pressure from their parents to be more japanese than american. both had serious psychological issues.

she certainly became a stripper, and she may have been into drugs... these are not endearing qualities to most people. this article paints a picture of her as being fucked up, and maybe not a good person all-around. she was attention-starved. she taunted a dog. the guy is basically saying, without saying, that she's a piece of shit.

i understand being mad that she's getting any attention at all. and i can understand being mad that she's getting more attention than the guys. but why dump shit on the guy who wrote the article? it doesn't speak badly of them, it does speak badly of her, and assuming we can take the author on his word, he was writing the article he was assigned to write. considering he was told to write an article about her, it seems like he managed to work in quite a bit about the guys. considering.

complain to the content editor, or other people whose email addresses have been given out on this thread, absolutely, if you're so compelled. but really, what did the author of the article himself do wrong?
LVP wrote:If, say, 10% of lions tried to kill gazelles, compared with 10% of savannah animals in general, I think that gazelle would be a lousy racist jerk.

Remembering Michael, Doug, and John (was: not again)

204
She formally plead 'not guilty' (surprise surprise) to the six counts of murder and two counts of aggravated battery.

Her lawyers requested a bond hearing, it has been set for next Tuesday, September 2nd.

It was kind of a clusterfuck at the beginning. Her mother had a brief emotional episode before the session began, and her lawyers were in and out of the room every two minutes throughout the morning. (Mr. Chimp has a splendid description of her (father and son) lawyers. Maybe he'll share it.) There were quite a few cases called before her name was called. When her name was finally announced she was led into the room in a wheelchair.... I kid you not. On the previous court date she was on crutches, so we were all a bit surprised to see her in a wheelchair.... um, yea.

The courtroom was more packed today than it was back on August fifth. Families of all three guys were there, as well as many siblings and friends. Being around those close to all three was such a wonderful reminder of how really wonderful they all were. The caliber of people that they called friends speaks volumes about those three guys.

Sorry for the rant... I could go on, as I'm sure others will.

Remembering Michael, Doug, and John (was: not again)

206
Hearing Tim say that the guy's been doing a better job than most of the other reporters covering this story was one of the things that made me decide not to send him a 2nd email...


i have very low expectations

anything that remains skeptical of her and acknowledges the three guys in any detail is tolerable to me. i understand the objections, however.

the only thing that's really pissed me off is any mention of her as a 'victim.' richard roeper put his toe in that water early on, and it compelled me to write him. i just think it is short-sighted and rather offensive. the victims begin and end with the three people who are dead due to her actions, but if we must keep going, there are hundreds of us who had nothing to do with the event but suffer from it nonetheless. the one person who had an influence over what happened is an unlikely runner-up.

I was very surprised/shocked to read some of the comments on that one blog about Jeanette.


that tan is REAL, matt

The caliber of people that they called friends speaks volumes about those three guys.


yes

all the family members, all the friends--just warm, thoroughly enjoyable people, even under the terrible circumstances. it's a privilege to get to know them under any conditions.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests