Tag Archives: #Crime

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Mugshot and photo hypocrisy from the Lexington Herald-Leader

We noted on Sunday that the Lexington Herald-Leader declined to post the mugshot of Brent Dyer Kelty, a man previously convicted of “several prior felonies in Fayette County since 2010,” in their story about him being indicted for the murder of an infant. In that, the newspaper followed the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, despite the fact that Mr Kelty, even if acquitted of murder, is still a multiply convicted felon.

The McClatchy policy is due to the possibility that an accused person might not ever be convicted, and thus having his mugshot published could harm him later in life. Of course, someone’s name is far more easily searchable, and just printing the suspect’s name can have far wider implications. For instance, prospective employers who do their due diligence on an applicant, will be searching for his name, not his photo.

But it seems that the Herald-Leader has no compunctions about printing the photo of someone accused of, and convicted of, a simple misdemeanor:

    Woman who attended University of Kentucky pleads guilty in U.S. Capitol riot case

    By Beth Musgrave | August 30, 2021 | 1:21 PM EDT

    Gracyn Dawn Courtright, a University of Kentucky student, faces charges linked to the Capitol riot on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2020. This photo was included in a criminal complaint filed against Courtright and allegedly shows her holding the “members only” sign. PHOTO VIA FBI.

    A woman from West Virginia who attended the University of Kentucky pleaded guilty Monday to charges related to entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.

    In federal court in Washington D.C., Gracyn Dawn Courtright pleaded guilty to a charge of entering and remaining in a restricted area, according to federal court records. She had faced more charges.

    Courtright will be sentenced Nov. 16. She could face up to six months in prison in addition to other fines and restitution.

There’s more at the original.

It might be complained that Miss Courtright is a convicted criminal now, but the Herald-Leader published the same photo on June 28th, before she was convicted of anything.

Miss Courtright is hardly the only one of the Capitol kerfufflers whose photo has been published by the Herald-Leader, even before they were convicted of anything. The newspaper had at least two articles on Lori Vinson, one of which was before she was even charged with any crimes, which featured her photos.

Both Miss Courtright and Mrs Vinson are facing maximum sentences of six months in jail; Mr Kelty is a multiply convicted felon looking at spending the rest of his miserable life in prison, but the Herald-Leader protected the photo of Mr Kelty. On March 3rd, the newspaper published a story which identified 12 Kentuckians by name, with photos of 10 of them — some difficult to identify — who were charged with crimes related to the demonstration, but at the time not convicted of anything.

The Herald-Leader also declined to publish the mugshots of two men sentenced to a year for their part in assaults during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city. Their crimes were more serious than any of the ones of which the Capitol kerfufflers were convicted.

Of course, the very liberal Herald-Leader probably sees the Capitol kerfuffle as a hideous and heinous crime, because that’s what the left do, when it was, in reality, little more than an out-of-control, disorganized frat party. The only shot fired was from a Capitol policeman, and even though a few firearms were recovered from a couple of the protesters’ vehicles, none were taken from protesters in the Capitol Building.

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Haven’t the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer noticed the numbers? Homicides and shootings in the city have dropped significantly

We have previously noted the recent decrease in the number of homicides in the City of Brotherly Love. We noted, on July 9th, that there had been 291 killings as of 11:59 PM on July 8th. 291 ÷ 189 days in the year, = 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year. If I recall correctly, that 562 number was my highest projection for the year.

But then, as of the 221st day of the year, 325 homicides had been recorded. 325 ÷ 221 days in the year, = 1.4706 homicides per day, for a projected 537 for the year. That number stayed fairly consistent, as a week later, with ‘just’ 339 homicides in 228 days, Philadelphia was seeing ‘only’ 1.4868 homicides per day, which works out to ‘just’ 543 over the course of 2021.

As of 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 22nd, the Philadelphia Police Department reported that there had been 345 homicides in the city. 345 ÷ 234 days = 1.4744 per day, or 538 projected for the year. The big news is that, over the past 31 days, a full month, if not a calendar month, there have been ‘just’ 31 homicides, ‘just’ 1.00 per day. With 131 days remaining in 2021, if that rate could be maintained, there would be ‘only’ 476 killings in Philly for the year. If The Philadelphia Inquirer has noticed that decrease, I haven’t seen it mentioned. It certainly doesn’t seem as though their Editorial Board has noticed.

    In Philly, someone has been shot every day since Jan. 2 as multiple crises plague the city

    January 2nd was the only day in 2021 in which no person was shot in Philadelphia.

    by The Editorial Board | August 23, 2021

    If you’re looking for ways to quantify the depths of the gun violence crisis in Philadelphia, there may not be many bleaker statistics than this: There’s only been one day so far this year — Jan. 2 — when not a single person was shot in the city.

    Since then, nearly 1,500 people have been shot in Philadelphia, including 295 fatalities. At least 50 other people were murdered by an assailant who used a weapon other than a gun.

    Gun violence drives Philadelphia’s murder rate, which is on pace for a record this year, but it’s essential that the city also address three other factors if officials hope to stem a seemingly unrelenting tide of killings — increasing the rate at which murders are solved, fostering more cooperation from witnesses in criminal prosecutions, and rooting out corrupt officers whose bad practices later lead to convictions being overturned.

    In Philadelphia, murderers have a better chance of winning a coin toss than being arrested. Last Wednesday, during the most recent briefing on the city’s response to gun violence, the police presented data showing that through Aug. 15, only 43% of homicides this year led to an arrest. That homicide clearance rate, or the percentage of killings that lead to an arrest, is on par with recent years.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Editorial Board ought to be noting that fewer people are being killed?

But it’s not just that fewer people are being killed. According to data provided by the city, there were 272 shootings during the 31 days of July, and ‘only’ 145 through the first 22 days of August. If that rate of 6.59 shootings per day holds up for the rest of the month, there would be 204 total shootings in August, a 33.33% decrease.

There’s more at the original, but, if you remember when publisher Elizabeth Hughes said she was going to make the Inquirer “an anti-racist news organization“, you won’t be surprised that the Editorial Board turned quickly to a Larry Krasneresque condemnation of the Philadelphia Police Department, noting Mr Krasner’s ongoing attempts to overturn what they claim are false convictions.

    These exonerations, as well as recent reporting by The Inquirer, have shed light on the coercive and illegal tactics detectives used to get false confessions. This month, Krasner charged three former homicide detectives for lying in the 2016 retrial of Anthony Wright, whose murder conviction was vacated due to DNA evidence.

    Also this month, Krasner asked a judge to hold the Philadelphia Police Department in contempt for failing to turnover police misconduct records.

    Philadelphia’s twin crises of gun violence and homicides are multilayered and intertwined. To reduce the number of unsolved murders in the city, the homicide clearance rate needs to go up. For the homicide clearance rate to go up, witnesses need to have faith that the system is actually seeking justice — not simply trying to improve its statistics by throwing another person in prison.

I’m trying to figure out how the Editorial Board are trying to give witnesses “faith that the system is actually seeking justice” by continually slamming the performance of the Police Department, and so far, I’ve got nothing. When the Board say that the Police Department needs to be “rooting out corrupt officers,” the impression the #woke at the Inquirer are giving — and, I suspect, trying to give — is that most of the city police officers are corrupt.

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The decrease in the homicide rate in Philadelphia It's still way, way, way too high, but some progress has been made. Will it last?

We recently noted that the gang bangers have slowed down their rates of murders in the City of Brotherly Love. With ‘just’ 339 homicides in 228 days, Philadelphia is seeing ‘only’ 1.4868 homicides per day, which works out to ‘just’ 543 over the course of 2021.

That would still shatter 1990’s record of 500, and 2020’s 499, but it’s a far cry from the 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year, that the homicide numbers for July 8th yielded.

But, with 314 homicides reported as of July 22nd, the 203rd day of the year, and 339 reported on August 16th, the 228th day of the year, Philly has seen ‘just’ 25 homicides in the last 25 days, ‘only’ 1.00 per day. If that rate were to be maintained for the rest of the year, Philly would see ‘only’ 476 murders in 2021.

Screen capture from the Philadelphia Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page, August 17, 2021, 11:33 AM. Click to enlarge.

Of course, that’s still a lot, more than any year between 2007 through 2019. And, with 339 so far this year, 2021 has already exceeded the homicide totals for any full year from 2008 through 2017.

We’re still in the long, hot summer, and will be for another month, but it has to be noted: the decline in homicides in Philly occurred during this long, hot summer.

Screen capture from the Philadelphia Police Department’s Current Crime Statistics page, August 17, 2021, 9:00 AM. Click to enlarge.

But there’s a sad part to this post. I began it around 8:50 AM, and a screen capture taken right at 9:00 AM showed ‘only’ 337 homicides. The electricity went out here at 9:11 AM, due to a limb falling on a power line somewhere. When the sparktricity came back on, at 10:52 AM — something I didn’t notice for a few minutes, because I was out on the screened in porch, reading a history of the Tudor monarchs in my Kindle — I saw that the Philadelphia Police Department had to update it a second time this morning, to report two more homicides as of 11:59 PM yesterday.

It’s a great thing that the homicide rate has taken a drop over the last almost four weeks; it would be nice to know what has led to that.

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!

The Lexington Police Department apprehended a young man who stole a vehicle, and then, after the vehicle owners tracked down the car, shot one of the owners.

Oh, come on now, the paper could have given whatever low-level staffer wrote this a byline, anyway! It might be his first, something he can cut out, frame, and put on the wall!

    Javon McMullen. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center. Click to enlarge.

    Lexington police have arrested and charged a suspect who allegedly shot one of two brothers who were hunting for a stolen vehicle in the city late last month.

    Javon McMullen, 19, was arrested about 9:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 1600 block of Claywood Court, Sgt. Donnell Gordon said.

    McMullen is accused of shooting when confronted by a man who had located and followed his stolen vehicle, Gordon said. The shooting happened about 1:35 a.m. on July 26. Police previously said the victim had been accompanied by his brother.

    The 31-year-old victim’s injuries reportedly weren’t life-threatening. He was taken to University of Kentucky Hospital in a passenger car following the shooting, police said.

    The stolen vehicle had crashed in the area of Buckhorn and Alumni drives.

    Police said immediately after the shooting that they would advise against people trying to track down their stolen vehicles themselves.

There’s a bit more at the original. But while the Herald-Leader does not publish mugshots, The First Street Journal does. The suspect’s name, birthdate, height, weight and the charges are all public records.

Mr McMullen, if convicted, well, picture the stereotypical sheriff and his comical line, “You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!” Mr McMullen is charged with Assault, first degree, and Wanton Endangerment, first degree, along with leaving the scene of an accident and an automobile theft charge. Assault in the first degree is a Class B felony, punishable by no less than 10 and no more than 20 years in the state penitentiary, along with a fine of between $1,000 and $10,000. Wanton endangerment in the first degree is a Class D felony, which is punishable by between 1 and 5 years in prison.

There are potential sentence enhancements for persistent felons, but the Herald-Leader made no mention of that. Given that he is charged with shooting someone, but not charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, he may have no previous adult felony record, and if he has a juvenile record, that would almost certainly be sealed.

Of course, the greater probability is that his public defender and the Commonwealth Attorney will work out some kind of idiotic plea bargain, sentencing him to far less time in prison. 🙁

Rudy Giuliani showed New York City, and America, what can happen when criminals, even at the lowest levels, are treated seriously, and harshly: crime goes down. Now, with all of the ‘defund the police’ idiocy, crime is skyrocketing. If Mr McMullen is found guilty, he should be locked up for the maximum time allowable under the law. The problem isn’t, as the left claim, “mass incarceration,” but that not enough people are incarcerated, for not enough time.

We can’t know that, if Mr McMullen is convicted but treated leniently, that he will commit another crime or three during the time he could have been locked up under a maximum sentence, but we do know that, for as long as he is locked up, he won’t be committing crimes against law-abiding citizens in the Bluegrass State.

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Have the bad guys run low on ammo in Killadelphia? The homicide rate has dropped dramatically in the last three weeks

As of 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, July 22nd, the bad guys, thugs and gang bangers of the City of Brotherly Love had killed 314 people. At the end of Tuesday, August 9, 2021, “only” 325 people had been murdered. That’s “only” 11 dead bodies in 18 days! We noted, on July 9th, that there had been 291 killings as of 11:59 PM on July 8th. 291 ÷ 189 days in the year, = 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year. If I recall correctly, that 562 number was my highest projection for the year.

Now, as of the 221st day of the year, 325 homicides have been recorded. 325 ÷ 221 days in the year, = 1.4706 homicides per day, for a projected 537 for the year. Yeah, that’s still a record-setting number — there were 500 homicides recorded in 1990, and 499 last year — but it’s a significant decrease in the past few weeks.

Have the gangs called a truce? Have most of the ‘scores’ been settled? Are the bad guys running low on ammo?

If The Philadelphia Inquirer has noticed this, I have managed to miss the stories.

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Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader hides a mugshot

We have often mentioned the McClatchy Mugshot Policy that the Lexington Herald-Leader is obligated to follow. Of course, the Herald-Leader did not publish the mugshot of the defendant in the following story, despite having published several recently, all of white criminal suspects.

    Massive bond set for man accused of killing Richmond couple. Not guilty plea entered

    By Rayleigh Deaton | August 9, 2021 | 11:58 AM EDT

    A $5 million bond has been set for the man charged with two counts of murder in the slayings of a well-known Richmond couple.

    At an arraignment Monday, a plea of not guilty was entered on behalf of Thomas Birl, 51, who is accused of killing Christopher and Gracie Hager. Birl was also charged with arson, evidence tampering and receiving stolen property.

    Birl allegedly shot and killed the Hagers outside of a duplex they owned in Richmond, according to police. Birl was staying with his girlfriend. After the shooting, Birl set the duplex on fire and jumped out of a bedroom window before being arrested, according to court records.

What does the sentence, “Birl was staying with his girlfriend,” mean? Does it mean that he was staying at the apartment building owned by the Hagers? Perhaps Miss Deaton will update the article to fix that.

This has been a story that the newspaper has been all over:

But, all over it or not, the newspaper declined to print the mugshot of the accused, even though it has been freely broadcast all over the area by the local media, by Channel 18, WLEX-TV, and Channel 27, WKYT-TV, among others. Of course, The First Street Journal, which believes in the public’s right to know, does publish mugshots; they are a matter of the public record.

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Is the Lexington Herald-Leader guilty of sheltering a criminal suspect?

As we have previously noted, the Lexington Herald-Leader is bound by the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, which states that McClatchy publications will not print photos of criminal suspects, unless certain conditions are met. One of the exceptions editors are supposed to consider — and all exceptions to the policy must be approved by an editor — is “Is there an urgent threat to the community?”

On Wednesday, July 28th, Lexington police officers, working with United States Marshals, attempted to arrest Mr Dockery at a home in the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court. The suspect allegedly shot at police, and at least one officer returned fire and wounded Mr Dockery. The Herald-Leader was all kinds of upset that the LPD would not release the names of either the suspect or the officer who shot him.

    Officials haven’t identified the Lexington police officer who fired his gun, nor have they identified the suspect who was shot. He was served with a murder warrant after being taken to a Lexington hospital, according to Lexington police. Police hadn’t yet confirmed who shot the man. It was unclear if U.S. Marshals also fired at him.

    Kentucky State Police are investigating the shooting and Lexington police told the Herald-Leader the release of any additional information would have to be approved by the state agency. Lexington police declined to answer several questions about the shooting during a press conference Wednesday after providing a news release.

The Kentucky State Police, rather than the Lexington Police Department, investigates all officer involved shootings. It would normally be considered a good thing that an agency not involved in the incident would do the investigations.

Well, for the Herald-Leader, which is reluctant to print the mugshots of even “armed and dangerous” criminals, not knowing which officer shot the suspect was just too, too much, so the newspaper kept investigating. At least so far, the officer has not been publicly identified.

    Documents divulge name of man injured in shooting involving Lexington police officer

    By Karla Ward | July 30, 2021 | 9:45 PM EDT

    Court documents provide a description of what police say led up to a shooting in which law enforcement officers injured a homicide suspect at a Lexington home Wednesday.

    The man who was shot is identified as Brandon Dockery, according to documents filed in Fayette District Court in a related case.

    Police said in the court documents that when they went to a home on the 1600 block of Thirlstane Court and made contact with Dockery at the front door, he kept “his hand in his pocket as if he had a weapon” and “continued to ignore officer’s commands.”

    Dockery can be heard saying “I don’t want to die,” on body camera footage, police said in the documents.

The article continues to note that the police initially used a stun gun to subdue Mr Dockery, and an exchange of gunfire followed when the taser apparently failed to incapacitate the suspect. A jammed handgun was found in Mr Dockery’s possession, which has investigators believing that the suspect shot at the arresting officers until it jammed on him.

While the Herald-Leader does not print mugshots of criminal suspects, The First Street Journal does, if we can obtain them. The mugshot of Mr Dockery is not from any Herald-Leader article, but from the Lexington Police Department’s homicide investigations page. I obtained this photo at the time of June 25th story, when Mr Dockery was still on the loose.

So, how did Karla Ward, the newspaper reporter, find out the name of the suspect shot, a name officials had declined to release prior to the completion of the investigation?

    Courtney Jade Brown. Screen capture from WKYT-TV.

    The information was included in a criminal complaint charging Courtney Jade Brown, 26, with first-degree hindering prosecution/apprehension in connection with Dockery’s apprehension. . . .

    The complaint against Brown states that officers and federal agents were doing surveillance at Brown’s residence on Thirlstane Court after learning that Dockery had been in contact with Brown recently and had been “staying there regularly since June.”

    When they saw Brown leave Wednesday morning, Lexington police immediately stopped her at the Speedway at New Circle and Meadow Lane.

    During an interview with a detective from the U.S. Marshal’s Service at the gas station, Brown said she didn’t know where Dockery was and lied when asked if he was at her home, the complaint states.

After interviewing Miss Brown, the LPD and US Marshalls went straight to her home, where Mr Dockery was found. Miss Brown was arrested, charged and released on Thursday.

Of course, the Herald-Leader did not choose to print Miss Brown’s photo either, even though my source for it, WKYT-TV is the newspaper’s ‘news partner,’ and the WKYT story was published at 4:38 PM EDT, three hours and 7 minutes prior to the Herald-Leader’s story. The Herald-Leader certainly had access to the photo.

Obvious question: if Miss Brown is guilty of sheltering Mr Dockery from the police, is the Herald-Leader guilty of the same thing? The residence in question is on a single family homes street, and if the Herald-Leader had published Mr Dockery’s mugshot, perhaps one of the neighbors might have seen it, recognized him, and reported it to the police. The police clearly suspected that Mr Dockery was at Miss Brown’s residence, as they were keeping the place under surveillance, but must not have had enough evidence he was there to execute a warrant there. Had a neighbor spotted the suspect, and reported it to the police, perhaps the warrant could have been executed weeks earlier.

Yes, I know: that would be a difficult case to make. But the McClatchy Mugshot Policy is clearly not helping law enforcement, or serving what so many media outlets have termed the “public’s right to know.” The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists states:

  • Responsibility: The public’s right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media. The purpose of distributing news and enlightened opinion is to serve the general welfare.
  • Freedom of the Press: Freedom of the press is to be guarded as an inalienable right of people in a free society. It carries with it the freedom and the responsibility to discuss, question, and challenge actions and utterances of our government and of our public and private institutions. Journalists uphold the right to speak unpopular opinions and the privilege to agree with the majority.
  • Ethics: Journalists must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know the truth. . . . . Journalists will seek news that serves the public interest, despite the obstacles. They will make constant efforts to assure that the public’s business is conducted in public and that public records are open to public inspection.

Can someone tell me how the McClatchy Mugshot Policy and the Lexington Herald-Leader’s adherence to it, even in the case of armed and dangerous suspects, serves the public’s right to know or the general welfare? How does it serve the public’s interest, despite the obstacles? Mr Dockery has been criminally charged with murder, the most serious crime there is, yet the Herald-Leader chose to withhold from the public information which could have led to his apprehension as much as a month earlier.

Perhaps the McClatchy newspapers have chosen instead to adhere to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journolists.[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term … Continue reading

It’s simple: in their efforts not to “disproportionately harm people of color,”[2]Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy. the Herald-Leader is sacrificing the public’s right to know.

References

References
↑1 The spelling ‘journolist’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.
↑2 Quote is actually from the Sacramento Bee, the lead McClatchy newspaper, and the first (as far as I know) to implement the no mugshot policy.
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Street justice The kind of justice you seek when you are boneheadedly stupid

Michael Lemond. Photo: Fayette County Detention Center.

We have previously noted the shooting, and blinding, of then-five year old Malakai Roberts; Michael Lemond and Teyo Waite, both 18, have been charged.

So why did they do it? It was a f(ornicating) mistake! They were shooting at the wrong house!

    Detective: Shooters accused of blinding Lexington boy ‘simply got the wrong house.’

    By Jeremy Chisenhall | July 27, 2021 | 10:49 AM | Updated: 12:05 PM EDT

    The young men accused of blinding a 5-year-old Lexington child shot into the wrong house, a Lexington detective testified Tuesday.

    Detective Jordan Tyree said Tuesday that the suspects in the Dec. 21 shooting intended to target the home of another person with whom 18-year-old Michael Lemond had gotten into an argument on social media. The intended target allegedly disrespected the victim of a 2019 homicide. But the suspects had the wrong address.

Teyo Waite. Photo by Fayette County Detention Center.

I understand that ‘disrespect’ used as a verb is a part of street language, but it seems to me that Jeremy Chisenhall, the article author, and Peter Baniak, the Lexington Herald-Leader’s editor, showed great disrespect for the English language by doing the same thing.

So, Messrs Lemond and Waite, the alleged shooters, were doubly stupid: they were ‘beefing’ with some other guy, looked up his address, and got the wrong one. They had to show him good, but didn’t even have the courage to face him. Instead they fired into a house, from the street, and blinded a child for life.

Young Mr Roberts has also lost his senses of smell and taste.

Detective Tyree said, “There were numerous bullet holes all through the upstairs and downstairs of the house.” In other words, spray and pray, the mark of a poor shooter. Young Mr Roberts mother, Cacy Roberts, was also struck by a bullet, which entered and exited her arm.

    Lemond also allegedly texted someone else about an hour before the shooting and told them “I love you … but I can’t let this s**t slide,” Tyree said.

    The intended target, who lived near where the shooting happened, allegedly “disrespected” Bryant Gaston, the victim in a fatal 2019 shooting. A 15-year-old was charged with murder in Gaston’s death.

Well, at least Mr Chisenhall put “disrespected” in quotation marks this time, indicating that it was slang.

Mr Lemond, again allegedly, got into an argument on social media with someone, so, again allegedly, he went after them with a gun. Street justice!

The detective revealed that Mr Lemond confessed, and gave up Mr Waite on the shooting as well.

So, over an argument on social media, Messrs Lemond and Waite decided that it would be a wise idea to show up at someone’s house and spray it with bullets. They got the wrong house, had no idea at whom they were shooting, and even if they had gotten the right house, had no way to tell if they were actually going to hit their target.

The Herald-Leader stated that each man male faced two counts of assault and two counts of wanton endangerment.

508.010 Assault in the first degree.

(1) A person is guilty of assault in the first degree when:
(a) He intentionally causes serious physical injury to another person by means of
a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument; or
(b) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human
life he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to
another and thereby causes serious physical injury to another person.
(2) Assault in the first degree is a Class B felony.

508.060 Wanton endangerment in the first degree.
(1) A person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under
circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he
wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious
physical injury to another person.
(2) Wanton endangerment in the first degree is a Class D felony.

A Class B felony is punishable by 10 to 20 years in a Kentucky state prison, while a Class D felony is punishable by at least one year and no more than five years in state prison. In theory, if convicted on all charges, the offenses are all charged in the first degree, and sentenced to the maximum with sentences to run consecutively, each suspect could get fifty years (20 + 20 + 5 + 5 = 50) in the state penitentiary. Fifty years could keep them locked up until they are 68 years old. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that, if convicted, the judge would set sentencing in that fashion. Sadly, the attorneys and prosecutors will probably work out some sort of plea bargain arrangement which will let the defendants out of jail while they are still relatively young men males. If the prosecution really does have the goods on the defendants, they should not agree to any plea bargain which does not sentence the defendants to the maximum.

Young Mr Roberts will never see anything again, never smell or taste anything again, for the rest of his life; the defendants, if convicted, should spend the rest of their miserable lives behind bars.

I urge you to donate to young Mr Roberts.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer proves my point

We have said, umpteen times, that The Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t really care about homicides in the City of Brotherly Love unless the victim is an innocent, a ‘somebody,’ or a cute little white girl.

    Two young athletes were fatally shot this week, leaving West Philadelphia school communities shattered: ‘This can’t be normal’

    “This can’t be normal, this can’t be accepted,” a Boys’ Latin football coach said he told his players. “You have a victim, but you also have a family behind them that are left to pick up the pieces.”

    By Anna Orso | Friday, July 23, 2021

    It had been just a few weeks since K.J. Johnson got his driver’s license. He picked up friends, including his childhood pal Tommie Frazier, and headed to play basketball on Wednesday, a sunny afternoon in West Philly.

    The ride ended in tragedy. Johnson, 16, and Frazier, 18, were fatally shot just after noon while seated in a car on the 200 block of North 56th Street in West Philadelphia, after unidentified gunmen fired into the vehicle. Another 16-year-old was wounded by the bullets fired in broad daylight near a day care and a bus stop.

    As of Friday, no one had been arrested and homicide investigators were still searching for video and witnesses. Police said they found 17 shell casings at the scene.

There’s plenty more at the original, but it all boils down to the same thing we’ve written about before: the victims were good high school athletes, the victims were somebodies.

A previous story noted that:

    The shooting happened at 12:10 p.m. on the 200 block of North 56th Street, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on the teens as they sat in a car, said Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Naish.

    Two males, ages 16 and 18 — whom police did not identify — were pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center after each was struck several times. The other teen, a 16-year-old boy, was taken to Lankenau Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

Seated in a car, each struck several times, and the police recovered 17 shell casings at the scene. This wasn’t random; these victims were deliberately targeted.

Was Mr McCain telling me that I’ve been too much of a broken record on Philadelphia murders? 🙂

Next came another story:

    He ‘didn’t deserve to die this way,’ says family of the 22-year-old killed outside Pat’s Steaks

    Police have charged a Reading man with murder in connection with the killing of David Padro Jr., a 22-year-old from Camden.

    by Anna Orso and Mensah M. Dean | Updated: July 23, 2021

    David Padro Sr. expected to spend this weekend like he did the last one: surrounded by family and hanging out by his pool in South Jersey with his 22-year-old son.

    Instead, he’s planning his son’s funeral.

    David Padro Jr., 22, was fatally shot early Thursday morning in South Philadelphia outside Pat’s King of Steaks, the famed cheesesteak joint where he had stopped for a bite. His father said Padro, of Camden, was in Philadelphia with his girlfriend to go to a nightclub when they stopped to eat and an argument broke out among patrons.

    Then, police say, Paul C. Burkert, a 36-year-old from Reading, pulled a gun. Padro was shot in the shoulder and abdomen and transferred to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m. Police said Burkert fled the scene and then turned himself in to National Park Police at Independence Mall.

Burkert faces murder and weapons charges. Court records show he pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge in Berks County in 2019 and was prohibited from possessing a firearm. No attorney for him was listed in court records Friday.

Gee, a convicted druggie, probably a drug dealer, carrying a handgun while out to buy a cheesesteak. He may have been from Reading, but that was real Philadelphia of him!

The Inquirer reported that, despite previous rumors that it was an altercation between Eagles and Giants fans, it was an altercation over a parking space. A photo accompanying the story shows just how crowded Philly’s narrow streets are in that area.

But both cases show what the Inquirer does. They pick some unusual aspect, high school basketball players, or out-or-towners who didn’t know each other, while the typical murders, one bad guy shooting another bad guy, get ignored, and they get mostly ignored because the city doesn’t want to face the real problem: it’s not guns, but a culture which says it’s perfectly reasonable to pull out your Glock and blast someone else.