There is no more appropriate song of which I can thing for the journey of Yahya Sinwar to Jahannam, that Queen and Another One Bites the Dust,
The rest of this is below the fold, because Mr Sinwar was as unlovely in death as he was in life. Continue reading
UPenn Women’s Swim Team, via Instagram. It isn’t difficult to pick out the one man male in a women’s bikini top. Click to enlarge.
Alas! Mr Thomas did insist on competing on the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, and, as John Lohn, Editor-in-Chief of Swimming World, noted, Mr Thomas went from a mid-500 ranking as a male swimmer — he did compete on Penn’s men’s team before his ‘transition,’ to top ranks in women’s swimming. While he had been taking medication to get his testosterone levels down, he had already gone through puberty as a male.
The San José State University women’s volleyball team has a ‘transwoman’ playing. Apparently Brayden Fleming, who now goes by the name “Blaire”, hid the fact that he is male, well enough that he was able to compete on the girls’ volleyball team at John Champe High School in Virginia, and a year on the women’s volleyball team at Coastal Carolina University, before transferring to SJSU. Whether team members, or the athletics department, at SJSU knew that Mr Fleming is male has not been disclosed, yet if they were aware, it was kept hidden, but one team member, Brooke Slusser, has joined a lawsuit against the NCAA for allowing ‘transwomen’ to compete on women’s athletic teams.
This has come to a head, now that collegiate volleyball season has begun — Mr Fleming’s status as being ‘transgender’ was not made public until last spring, after volleyball season was over — several teams have decided to forfeit matches with SJSU rather than go along with the idea that girls can be boys and boys can be girls. So far, Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State, and Nevada-Reno have refursed to compete, but now comes the kicker:
A volleyball team balked at playing against trans woman. The university wasn’t having it.
The players voted to forfeit because there’s allegedly a trans woman on San Jose State’s team
By Mira Lazine | Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Individual players with the University of Nevada’s women’s volleyball team will be allowed to opt out of their upcoming match against the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team.
Nevada’s team had initially voted to forfeit the October 26 match due to San Jose State University allegedly having a transgender woman, making Nevada’s university the fifth recent one to forfeit. However, the University of Nevada, citing the Nevada Constitution and state laws, said it will have its team compete as originally agreed.
Note that the article, from the very much transgender supporting LGBTQ Nation, states that the player is “allegedly” a male claiming to be a female. SJSU has not confirmed that Mr Fleming is ‘transgender,’ but the university has not denied it, either. While it could be considered a violation of privacy for the university to confirm that he’s male without his consent, if Brayden was actually Blaire, she would have said so publicly.
In a statement explaining its decision, the University of Nevada wrote that a majority of the women’s volleyball team voted on October 13 to forfeit the match.
“The players’ decision and statement were made independently, and without consultation with the University or the athletic department,” the statement said, adding that the players’ decision didn’t represent the position of the university.
“The University and its athletic programs are governed by the Nevada Constitution and Nevada law, which strictly protect equality of rights under the law, and that equality of rights shall not be denied or abridged by this state or any of its subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin,” the statement continued. “The University is also governed by federal law as well as the rules and regulations of the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference, which include providing competition in an inclusive and supportive environment.”
“The University intends to move forward with the match as scheduled, and the players may choose not to participate in the match on the day of the contest,” the statement concluded. “No players will be subject to any team disciplinary action for their decision not to participate in the match.”
We have not been told how many of the 17 members of the UN-R team voted to forfeit the match, simply that a majority did, which means at least nine of the players. Volleyball matches are conducted with six players on the court, meaning that, if there were as few as 11 players choosing to forfeit, Nevada-Reno could still field the team. But if twelve voted for the BOYcott, and stick to their guns, Nevada-Reno would enter the match one player short, unless they recruited walk-ons.
I have mockingly suggested that the men’s volleyball players — and at UN-R, men’s volleyball is a club sport, not a varsity team — all claim that they identify as women for that night, and show up to play the match.
One thing is certain: the media will be there in force for the scheduled SJSU-UNR match, and if the players hold strong to their positions — and I will bet euros against eclairs[1]My version of dollars against doughnuts. I suppose pounds vs pretzels would also work. I had to buy a $2.50 item a couple of days ago, and it had a discount for cash, but all I had in my wallet were … Continue reading that the UN-R administration are lobbying the players hard to play the game — it will make great television.
It’s a shame that real women have to sacrifice their games to protest men males trying to horn in on their sports, but that’s apparently what it takes. If so many of the ‘transgendered’ weren’t just absolute [insert plural slang term for the anus here] about things, this wouldn’t be necessary, and Brayden Fleming is an [insert slang term for the anus here].
References
| ↑1 | My version of dollars against doughnuts. I suppose pounds vs pretzels would also work.
I had to buy a $2.50 item a couple of days ago, and it had a discount for cash, but all I had in my wallet were two 5€ notes. |
|---|
We noted, just yesterday, the third hit-and-run homicide in the City of Brotherly Love in recent days, and now there’s one again this morning.
Woman in wheelchair killed in fatal hit-and-run crash
The fatal hit-and-run crash Tuesday morning marks at least the third such incident in four days, according to police.
by Rodrigo Torrejón | Tuesday, October 15, 2024 | 9:19 AM EDT
A woman in a wheelchair was killed in Fairmount Park early Tuesday morning in yet another hit-and-run, police said, the latest in a recent string of such crashes that have left several people dead and investigators searching for the drivers.
The woman, who police said was in her 40s, was hit by a person driving a silver car on the 2200 block of Reservoir Drive at 1:46 a.m., said Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. The woman, whom police did not identify, suffered injuries to her head and other parts of her body, Chief Inspector Scott Small said at the scene.
She was pronounced dead minutes later, at 1:56 a.m., said Vanore.
The impact was so great that the woman was flung 100 feet, said Small. A medical boot she had been wearing was found that distance from her body, he said.
There’s more to reporter Rodrigo Torrejón’s story, but it’s just a rehash of previous incidents.
CBS News added that Chief Inspector Small stated that police believe that the vehicle was “going at a high speed,” judging by how far the victim and wheelchair were thrown.
The accident site, Reservoir Drive near West Diamond Street, is all parkland, and it’s not difficult to picture kids racing there, especially after midnight. But whether they were gang-bangers, as yesterday’s hit-and-run driver and passengers probably were, or ‘good kids’ who were just having fun and made a mistake, someone has still been killed.
Were they hardened thugs, or scared teenagers who’ve hidden the damaged vehicle in daddy’s garage? Who knows at this point, but if it is the latter — that’s the mental picture in my mind — we’ll see if mom and dad try to cover up the crime, or turn their son over to the police.
Am I the only one who wonders if Philadelphia’s “Driving While Black” ordinance has contributed to this? When the police cannot stop vehicles for obvious, if ‘minor’ violations, some people think that they can get away with anything.
Woman killed in hit-and-run crash in North Philly, the latest in string of incidents
The fatal crash is at least the third hit-and-run crash in a week, according to police.
by Rodrigo Torrejón | Monday, October 14, 2024 | 9:43 AM EDT
A woman was killed in a hit-and-run crash in North Philadelphia Sunday night, the latest in a recent string of such incidents that have left several injured and others dead.North Fifth Street and West Indiana Avenue, via Google Maps, April 2023.
Police responded to a report of a fatal crash at the intersection of North Fifth Street and West Indiana Avenue shortly after 7:30 p.m.
Investigators learned a person driving a silver Hyundai Sonata northbound on North Fifth Street struck a 42-year-old pedestrian as the driver made a left turn onto West Indiana Avenue, police said. The woman, whom police did not identify, was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m.
The passengers in the Sonata fled the scene on foot, police said. No arrests have been made, and police continue to investigate.
Philadelphia Badlands. Photo via Philadelphia Inquirer Click to enlarge.
The story doesn’t tell us what most people would suspect: the “silver Hyundai Sonata” was possibly stolen and/or the driver was intoxicated, and/or the vehicle was involved in a crime, and that’s why the driver and passengers fled the scene.
WPVI-TV reported more than did the Inky, and did so earlier in the day, so reporter Rodrigo Torrejón knew the information, but chose not to include it, instead telling subscribers old news:
Police say the driver of a silver Hyundai Sonata was speeding and driving recklessly before hitting the 42-year-old woman. . . . .
Investigators believe the driver attempted to swerve around the victim but struck her instead. The driver then reportedly continued down the sidewalk, where the car hit a pillar and several parked cars. . . . .
Officers recovered the badly damaged Hyundai at the scene.
Police and several witnesses said two to three men jumped out of the car and fled the area on foot after the crash.
Officers did try to pursue the suspects but they got away, police said.
Authorities also said a gun and drugs were found inside the car, which is registered out of Lancaster County. Police also said the car has not been reported stolen.
Yup! Reckless driving, speeding, transporting drugs, and a possibly illegal gun and stolen car. Lancaster County is over sixty miles from Philly.
We don’t yet know who the driver and passengers are, but the odds are that, when we do find out, we’ll read that they have been in trouble with the law before.
The psychopath Yahya Sinwar. You can see the crazy in his eyes.
To me, the most amazing thing about Hamas’ October 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel was that they thought that they could get away with it. The New York Times reported, five months ago:
As an architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, (Yahya) Sinwar masterminded a strategy that he knew would provoke a ferocious Israeli response. But in Hamas’s calculus, the deaths of many Palestinian civilians — who do not have access to Hamas’s subterranean tunnels — were the necessary cost of upending the status quo with Israel.
That sounds like utter stupidity to me, but I’m a product of Western civilization, not Islamic barbarism. I’ve said it before: Mr Sinwar’s actions resemble, to me, those of Adolf Hitler, holed up in his Führerbunker, unwilling to surrender to save the Germany he supposedly loved so much from the oncoming destruction and devastation that the inexorable Allied advance and bombing campaign would continue to cause.
Now there’s more insight into his diseased mind:
Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack
The Times reviewed the minutes of 10 meetings among Hamas’s top leaders. The records show the militant group avoided several escalations since 2021 to falsely imply it had been deterred — while seeking Iranian support for a major attack.
By Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon, and Patrick Kingsley | Reporting from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Doha, Qatar | Saturday, October 12, 2024 | 9:55 AM EDT
For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group’s four-decade history.
Minutes of Hamas’s secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar’s determination to persuade Hamas’s allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid.
Hezbollah certainly did agree to that “broader fight,” though perhaps the Hezbollah leadership, at least those who are still breathing, might regret it now. I’ve seen speculation that Hassan Nasrallah might not have been killed instantly by Israel’s bombing attack on his location, but might have been trapped in an unventilated pocket and suffocated, perhaps giving him time to realize just how badly he had f(ornicated) up.
Iran? Several Iranian big wigs have been killed in Israeli attacks on Hezbollah sites, and, more embarrassing of all, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed when a safe house in Tehran where he was staying was destroyed by a planted bomb. But, even with that, Iran has limited its direct action to two mass ballistic missile attacks against Israel, both of which were largely intercepted. And now CNN has reported:
Iran’s government is extremely nervous and has been engaging in urgent diplomatic efforts with countries in the Middle East to gauge whether they can reduce the scale of Israel’s response to its missile attack earlier this month and – if that fails – help protect Tehran, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Iran’s anxiety stems from uncertainty about whether the US can convince Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites and oil facilities, and the fact that its most important proxy militia in the region, Hezbollah, has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations in recent weeks, the sources said.
Mr Sinwar must be so disappointed! Back to the Times:
The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to “collapse.”
The documents consist of minutes from 10 secret planning meetings of a small group of Hamas political and military leaders in the run-up to the attack, on Oct. 7, 2023. The minutes include 30 pages of previously undisclosed details about the way Hamas’s leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.
This is what makes the article really interesting, and I urge you to follow the link and read it; the Times has done very useful journalism here, but I cannot just plagiarize it and reproduce the whole thing.
Mr Sinwar and his minions clearly wanted, and perhaps even expected, Hezbollah and Iran to follow Hamas into the fight, but, as the above CNN story told us, while Iran might like striking at Israel, even the mad mullahs aren’t particularly interested in what happens if Israel strikes back.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has publicly denied that Iran had any role in the Oct. 7 attack. And American officials have described intelligence showing key Iranian leaders were caught by surprise, fueling doubts that Iran played a direct role in planning. But Hamas leaders have spoken broadly about the support they have received from regional allies, and there have been scattered and sometimes conflicting reports that Iranian and Hezbollah officials helped plan the attack and train fighters.
So, maybe Iran and Hezbollah helped Hamas, and maybe they simply spewed hot air; we just don’t know. But we do know one thing: whatever training the Hamas fighters were given, it wasn’t very good. They were able to kidnap and rape and burn and murder, but if there was any actual military goal, they didn’t achieve it. Instead, they engaged in an orgy of death and destruction, one which made the denizens of Gaza deliriously happy, right up until the IDF got its response organized and entered Gaza.
The Gazans aren’t so happy now!
And Mr Sinwar isn’t too happy, either. What he expected isn’t what happened. Gaza is heavily damaged, Hamas seriously weakened, Hezbollah has lost almost all of its previous leadership, and has perhaps a thousand of its lower-level people seriously injured by the diabolically brilliant pager attack. Iran has made two expensive but ultimately futile ballistic missile attacks, and is now shuddering in fear over what Israel might do in retaliation. Like the Führer he’s now emulating, he’s waiting in his underground bunker, waiting for a miracle deliverance to keep him from adjourning to Jahannam. He guessed wrong, and he’s going to pay for it. Sadly, tens of thousands of innocent people have also paid the price for his fantasies and delusions.
As the husband of a nurse, though not an Emergency Room nurse, the idea that people can careen into ER entrances, dump a shooting victim on the ground, and speed off, endangering hospital personnel outside the entrance, pisses me off royally. But, as usual, what I have frequently called The Philadelphia Enquirer[1]RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt. once again refuses to tell readers the full story.
Three nurses were injured in a hit-and-run as they tried to help a shooting victim outside a Philly hospital, police say
Police said the collision left a 36-year-old nurse in critical condition, with facial injuries and internal bleeding.
by Michelle Myers | Saturday, October 12, 2024 | 11:58 AM EDT
Three nurses were seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run as they tried to help a shooting victim outside Penn Presbyterian Hospital early Saturday morning, police said.
Around 4:20 a.m., police said a driver in a silver Jeep Cherokee arrived at Penn Presbyterian’s ambulance bay area to drop off a 28-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds. As the nurses gathered to provide first aid, the driver struck the nurses and the shooting victim, police said, then fled the scene.
Police said a 36-year-old nurse was in critical condition, with facial injuries and internal bleeding. A 37-year-old nurse suffered injuries to his legs, and a 51-year-old nurse suffered injuries to his head and back. They are both listed in stable condition, according to police.
The shooting victim — who police said was wounded on the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue — may have suffered an additional head injury as the driver fled the scene, police said. His condition was unknown, police said.
There’s more at the original, though not really a lot. Naturally, the Important Spokescritters all decried “gun violence”, but if they said a single negative word about the driver, who was “possibly in his early 20s,” The Enquirer Inquirer story didn’t mention it. We were not told whether the shooting victim is white, black, Hispanic, or something else, which means that most people will assume that he is black. Fox 29 News reporter Steve Keeley posted the Philadelphia Police press release which specified that the driver was a black male, at 9:54 AM EDT, two hours and four minutes before reporter Michelle Myers published her story, so she knew that the driver was black, but scrubbed that from her story.
Also unmentioned is anything about the shooting, but let’s tell the truth here: if a Jeep Cherokee rolls up to the Emergency Room, dumps off a shooting victim, and then the driver hauls ass fast and carelessly enough that he runs down three nurses and the victim he dumped, all at around 4:20 in the morning, the odds that the shooting was not gang-related are vanishingly small. “(M)ultiple gunshot wounds” means that this was no accident.
But the Inky won’t tell you that.
References
| ↑1 | RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt. |
|---|
That our oh-so-noble leftists will lie through their scummy teeth whenever they think it to their advantage is of no surprise to anyone who pays attention. That The New York Times would report on it actually is at least slightly surprising.
Pro-Palestinian Group at Columbia Now Backs ‘Armed Resistance’ by Hamas
Columbia University Apartheid Divest has withdrawn an apology it made last spring for a member who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”
by Sharon Otterman | Wednesday, October 9, 2024
The pro-Palestinian group that sparked the student encampment movement at Columbia University in response to the Israel-Hamas war is becoming more hard-line in its rhetoric, openly supporting militant groups fighting Israel and rescinding an apology it made after one of its members said the school was lucky he wasn’t out killing Zionists.
The ‘student’ in question is Khymani James, who, according to NBC News “uses he/she/they pronouns,” thus proving that he’s mentally ill and an idiot, was barred from Columbia’s campus on Friday, April 26th, and is now suing Columbia over his dismissal. Apparently Mr James open support of “militant groups fighting Israel” means fighting Israel in Morningside Heights, and not actually picking up a rifle and heading to Gaza to face the Israel Defense Force in real life.
“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, said in its statement revoking the apology.
The group marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by distributing a newspaper with a headline that used Hamas’s name for it: “One Year Since Al-Aqsa Flood, Revolution Until Victory,” it read, over a picture of Hamas fighters breaching the security fence to Israel. And the group posted an essay calling the attack a “moral, military and political victory” and quoting Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated former political leader of Hamas.
“The Palestinian resistance is moving their struggle to a new phase of escalation and it is our duty to meet them there,” the group wrote on Oct. 7 on Telegram. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom!”
Also see: William Teach, “Unhinged Jew Hating Group At Columbia U Rescinds Apology For Anti-Semite Comrade
Reporter Sharon Otterman’s article noted the problems the university’s leadership have with statements made under our First Amendment protections, but which can also create a “hostile environment for Jewish students.”
Laughably, Mr James, in his lawsuit against Columbia, as reported by the Columbia Spectator, is claiming that he is the one being victimized by a ‘hostile environment’:
“The environment at Columbia, which has been rendered hostile for James, is sufficiently severe, pervasive, persistent, and offensive such that it deprives James of equal access to the opportunities and benefits that Columbia provides to other students,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit states that after James began sharing “anti-war and anti-genocide political beliefs” on their personal Instagram account, they (sic) became the target of “racist, homophobic, and physically threatening messages,” including ones that called James slurs. These messages distracted James from their (sic) schoolwork and caused them (sic) to feel “uncomfortable, anxious, and unsafe,” according to the lawsuit.
Laughing out loud! At least the Times wasn’t silly enough to use Mr James’ preferred pronouns, but the Spectator, produced by the foremost School of Journalism in the country, was. 🙂
I have to ask, are Mr James and his attorney claiming that he has “anti-war . . . political beliefs” at the same time he and his supporters are calling for war against Israel, and are actively supporting the war Hamas started against Israel? But, I can answer my own question: for the anti-Semitic left, violence in advance of their cause is perfectly acceptable; they are simply “anti-war” when it comes to other people and other people’s defense.
There have been several stories about Americans, primarily combat veterans, who have left the United States and gone to Ukraine, to fight against the Russians, and at least a few of them have been killed in action. Hey, they were vets, knew the dangers, and chose to brave them anyway!
And there have been many stories about Americans and Europeans, primarily Jews, who have gone to Israel to fight with the Israel Defense Force. Some are dual citizens, and the anti-Semitic left have been calling for them not to be allowed to return to their European countries, saying that they are “war criminals.”
But pro-‘Palestinian’ Europeans and Americans? I can’t say that none have gone to Gaza to join the fight, but if any have, there haven’t been enough of them to have merited any story that I have seen in the credentialed media about it.
Even though I no longer live in the Keystone State, The Philadelphia Inquirer is my favorite newspaper — the Lexington Herald-Leader is the closest thing I have to a local newspaper, but it’s absolutely pathetic — because the Inky has a lot more news coverage, but also reports on the culture of America’s poorest big city in a way that the editors might not realize that it does. I have reported, several times, on the newspaper deliberately concealing facts.
This story doesn’t conceal any facts of which I am aware, but when I read it, I saw the unreported on culture that underlies it.
Halim Evans, mugshot via Philly’s Most Wanted.
A teen wouldn’t get an abortion. So her boyfriend hired his cousin to kill her, prosecutors say.
It’s a case that even the accused killer’s defense attorney said was “just about as bad as we see in Philadelphia, and we see a lot of horrific things.”
by Ellie Rushing | Thursday, October 10, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT
Halim Evans didn’t want any more children.
So when the then-20-year-old learned that his girlfriend was pregnant, he told her there was only one option.
“We gotta get the abortion jawn,” Evans texted Teryn Johnson, 17, in July 2022. “I ain’t ready for no more kids.”
Johnson made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy, and later told him she was no longer pregnant. But she didn’t go through with it, and when Evans found out, prosecutors say, he hired his cousin to kill her.
Qasim Pointer, mugshot via Philly’s Most Wanted.
When Mr Evans found out that Miss Johnson was out of the house, walking her dog, he allegedly called his cousin, Qasim Pointer, and told him where to find her. Mr Pointer and Mr Evans other cousin then — again allegedly — drove a stolen Dodge Challenger to Frankford, and spotted the victim. They trailed the victim, and Mr Pointer then jumped out and shot Miss Johnson twice in the back, killing her and her unborn child. I have omitted direct quotes of how the Philadelphia Police put together the evidence, but this part is important:
In a series of recorded conversations, Pointer and his brother, who is serving a 70-year sentence for murder in Maryland, laid out the motive for the crime, (Homicide Detective Robert)Daly said.
“Bro, our cuz … he been dropping babies like motherf— flies bro,” Pointer said on Sept. 7. “He dropping babies like flies but one of them he trying to trim up so I … I mean, I don’t condone this … but like, for that paper I would do it bro.”
“(P)aper” means cash in this instance.
Here is the underlying culture part: the distinguished Mr Evans had “been dropping babies like motherf— flies,” which means that he had been f(ornicating) and knocking up other women, women being plural, and that was part of the street culture in which he lived. Though the newspaper article does not specify it, he didn’t want Miss Johnson to have her baby, I assume because he didn’t want to pay child support. He had a cousin who was willing to commit murder for “paper,” and another who is a convicted murderer in Maryland.
Life meant nothing to these people!
Of course, these guys were all as dumb as a box of rocks, because they were making calls to a man in prison, and everyone knows that those calls can be recorded.
It took more than a year for Pointer’s preliminary hearing to go forward because he was in custody in Delaware for committing a separate shooting. He pleaded guilty to assault and illegal gun possession in that case, Pope said, and was sentenced to 12 years.
Yeah, these guys aren’t exactly models of classy citizenship! And here’s more of the cultural problem:
Johnson’s grandmother agonizes over a hope for justice for her baby, whom she raised from the age of 3. Johnson’s mother struggled with addiction before dying of a fentanyl overdose in October 2021, Waters said, and her father spent most of her childhood in prison.
Despite years of therapy, those traumas affected Johnson’s decisions and personal relationships, Waters said. She struggled with school, and often found herself surrounded by friends and boyfriends who weren’t always looking out for her best interests, her grandmother said.
Did young Miss Johnson ever have a chance in life? Her mother was a long-term junkie — I refuse to use reporter Ellie Rushing’s mealy-mouthed “struggled with addiction” — and her father is a criminal. At age 17, and possibly younger — the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania — she was running with a bad crowd; that’s what she “often found herself surrounded by friends and boyfriends who weren’t always looking out for her best interests” means.
The final paragraphs of Miss Rushing’s story tell readers that young Miss Johnson was a good, strong-willed, and independent girl. She was described in glowing terms by the grandmother who was responsible for rearing her. But she was also running with a bad crowd, and had been f(ornicating) a bad guy from a bad family. It would take an absolute [insert slang term for the anus here] to say that she was at least in part responsible for her own killing, but I can live with that epithet; sometimes you have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here] to tell the unvarnished truth, and the unvarnished truth here is that there is a terrible culture in some parts of the City of Brotherly Love, and Miss Johnson participated in it.
Would Miss Johnson be alive and happy today if she had grown up with two decent parents in Chestnut Hill or University City . . . or Jim Thorpe? That’s something only God can answer, and he didn’t tell me what that answer is. But the truth is that the rotten culture where she grew up, and which she at least partly embraced, greatly decreased the probabilities that she’d grow up healthy and happy and a credit to society. And that’s a truth which has to be told.
Every Sunday morning during Mass, Catholics make our Profession of Faith, which ends:
I look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of world to come. Amen.
Other than Christ Jesus, we believe that no one has yet been resurrected from the dead. That is the case with the victims of murder here on earth, but some people seem to believe that those who commit murders should be released from prison before the person they killed is resurrected from the dead.
Should life without parole be mandatory for second-degree murder? The Pa. Supreme Court is weighing the issue.
Efforts to challenge the statute and the penalty have been persistent but unsuccessful over the years
by Chris Palmer | Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | 2:07 PM EDT
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court justices on Tuesday debated whether the state’s mandatory sentence of life without parole for second-degree murder is constitutional — an issue that has long been eyed for reform by a mix of advocates and some legislators.
Under state law, people who participate in a deadly felony — such as a robbery — can be charged with the crime, also known as felony murder, even if they didn’t commit the killing or intend for anyone to die. A conviction leads to an automatic life sentence, and more than 1,100 people are serving that penalty in Pennsylvania, which is one of only two states nationwide to mandate incarceration for life for felony murder convictions.
The law is Pennsylvania Title 18 §2502(b), reproduced above. I point out here that even if the perpetrators did not go into their crime intending to kill anyone, if they were committing a crime, while carrying weapons, they had to know that someone being killed was a possibility, and that they might not have intended for someone to be killed does not make someone who was killed during such a crime is no less dead than the victim in an intentional murder. Title 18 §1102(b) specifies the penalty as life imprisonment.
Efforts to challenge the statute and the penalty have been persistent but unsuccessful over the years. The issue landed before the state’s high court this week because an attorney for one of those defendants — Derek Lee, who took part in a fatal robbery in Pittsburgh in 2014, but whose coconspirator committed the killing — filed an appeal saying that the penalty is unduly cruel.
Isn’t killing someone “unduly cruel”?
Further down, we get the typical leftist argument:
Legislators have debated Pennsylvania’s sentence for felony murder for years. Beyond the challenge to the sentence as potentially cruel, advocates have pointed out that those imprisoned for the crime are disproportionately Black, that about half are from Philadelphia, and that hundreds have already served decades in prison, putting them beyond the age at which they’re likely to commit another crime.
Is the purpose simply to lock them up until they have passed the ages “at which they’re likely to commit another crime,” or is the purpose also to punish them for the crimes they have committed? Perhaps they will have passed the ages in which they are likely to commit other crimes, but their victims are still stone-cold graveyard dead.
“(A)bout half are from Philadelphia”? Perhaps they are, but it’s also true that about half of all murders in the Keystone State occur in the City of Brotherly Love.
“(D)isproportionately black”? According to the Philadelphia Shooting Victims Dashboard, accessed at 8:58 AM EDT on Wednesday, October 9th, the data on fatal shootings in the city from 2015 through October 7th, 75.71% of all fatal shooting victims were black males, and another 5.85% were black females. 11.1% were Hispanic males, while 1.25% were Hispanic females. Only 3.97% were white males, 1.25% white females, and less than 1%, 0.78% were Asians of either sex. Of course the criminals who killed them are going to be “disproportionately black”!
(Bret)Grote[1]How unserious is Mr Grote? He couldn’t even be bothered to clean up his beta male beard before going before the state Supreme Court. has been among the most vigorous advocates for change. He and the organization he works for, the Abolitionist Law Center, filed a lawsuit in 2020 contending that the state’s ban on parole eligibility for felony murder was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court rejected that appeal two years later.
Image from main page of Abolitionist Law Center website, screencaptured on October 9, 2024.
Ahhh, the Abolitionist Law Center, which we have previously mentioned. What reporter Chris Palmer failed to mention, and did not hyperlink, is that the Abolitionist Law Center is opposed to incarceration for anything, opposes all prison sentences, and would, if they could, free every murderer, every rapist, every drug dealer, and every assailant locked up in Pennsylvania’s prisons.
We challenge every point on the criminal punishment conveyor belt including policing, courts, jails and prisons, and various forms of legal supervision, as well as other aspects of the carceral machine.
Boldface in the original.
TribLive.com carried more on this story:
Grote told the seven justices that if his client’s sentence is not struck down, Lee will some day die in prison because of the unintended consequences of his crime.
“This must no longer be the case in Pennsylvania,” Grote said.
Why not? After all, Leonard Butler of Pittsburgh died in his own basement, the result of a crime committed by Paul Durham and Derek Lee! Why shouldn’t Mr Lee die in prison?
Lee ordered Butler and his girlfriend into the basement and demanded money from them. Butler handed over his watch, and Lee went upstairs in the home, leaving Durham and Butler in the basement.
Butler attempted to lunge at Durham, the girlfriend testified at trial, and Durham shot him. . . . .
Justice P. Kevin Brobson countered (Mr Grote’s argument, saying) that Lee engaged in a violent home invasion, entered with a gun and pistol-whipped the victim.
So, Mr Lee was armed just as the actual shooter was!
Justice Brobson questioned whether Mr Lee’s case was the right one on which to base the Abolitionist Law Center’s case. I have to ask: what good would be served by releasing Mr Lee, either now, after he has served only eight years, or ever, for the people of Pennsylvania, or the family of Mr Butler?
Perhaps Mr Lee will find faith in God while he’s locked up; perhaps he already has. Perhaps he will be able to do some good while in prison, counseling others who do have hope of eventual release. Regardless of that, he participated in a felony murder, and should not be released until the day his victim comes back to life.
References
| ↑1 | How unserious is Mr Grote? He couldn’t even be bothered to clean up his beta male beard before going before the state Supreme Court. |
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