Marriage and Divorce

I thought the statistic of children who come from divorced families are more likely to divorce was interesting. I never knew that.


Via: Spodek Law Group

Weddings and marriages

Remember kids, after you’ve been married 25 years you can tell your partner that if you killed them you’d have been out by now.


Via: Divorce Lawyer NYC – Paul Rudder

Could anyone have helped the FSU shooter?

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First off I wonder how many people actually remember that there was a shooting at Florida State a few weeks ago? But I digress.

The week before last Myron May shot up the library at Florida State University, injuring three before police shot and killed him. According to some people who knew him May was extremely mentally disturbed. He allegedly thought that the government was stalking him with an ‘energy weapon’. He is also said to have called police to report a hidden camera in his apartment even though police failed to find anything. This was beyond your typical conspiracy theory nonsense and devolved into dangerous paranoia.

The question is what could have been done to help May before he became dangerously violent? People who are this disconnected with reality aren’t going to seek help for themselves since more than likely they perceive any one in any kind of authority as a threat. His family could have had him held for his own safety but we don’t know if they were aware of his mental illness. He also must have been good at hiding his illness because his co-workers and colleagues said he was fine. However some of his neighbors lived in fear of him.

Unfortunately even in a perfect world I don’t think May could have been stopped. He was a perfect storm of mental illness, violence and just enough of an actor to hide his psychosis from those who could have gotten him help legally. Even if the act of asking for psychiatric help was less stigmatized in our culture I don’t think that would have made a difference.

Philly woman offers children for sex on Kik

kik

In the past I have posted stories about how suspects have been busted by police posing online as parents offering their children for sex. One of the arguments I get from the pedo-defenders is that there aren’t really parents online offering their kids for sex. Well, federal investigators might disagree.

32-year-old Christine Yoder of Philly was arrested for allegedly offering her children, ages 6 years and 16 months, for sex over the instant messaging app Kik. Investigators say she was also willing to give her children away to any pedo who wanted them and would send them explicit photos of her kids.

In one correspondence, she allegedly wrote, “I don’t want any contact after u take her.”

Yoder described to the man the size of clothing he would need to buy for the child and told him she hoped he would get the girl pregnant one day so she could be a grandmother.

So yes, people like this do actually exist.

45 ‘Craigslist Killings’ Since 2009

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There’s been a report floating around that says there have been 45 craigslist killings since 2009. That sounds about right but there have also been more since at least 2006 not to mention those killed through Backpage as well. Yet neither site really does anything to try to protect their users.

Backpage murder in Jacksonville, FL

Chad Richard Hurst

Chad Richard Hurst

Back in late October, 30-year-old Chad Richard Hurst was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida and is believed to have stabbed 28-year-old Jennalee Miles to death after arranging a ‘date’ with his victim on Backpage. Hurst is also charged with stabbing another woman from Backpage who escaped.

I’m sure Liz McDougall and Backpage just think that Hurst was exercising his right to display his knife skills.

Standing up to child prostitution on Backpage

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Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is one of the few journalists who has taken a stance against Backpage. He has been penning columns about them for years. In his latest column about Backpage he talks about the lawsuit against Backpage filed by two Massachusetts women who were underage at the time they were trafficked for sex on Backpage. I can’t do his column justice so I’ll post some relevant selections.

About the so-called freedom of speech argument…

Some readers may scoff that this is about censorship of free speech. No, it’s about human rights — because one of the most searing rights abuses in America is the sexual exploitation of children.

On Backpage’s screening process…

Backpage also makes it hard to search for missing girls by allowing scrambled phone numbers in sex ads. If you sell a dog on Backpage in the pet section, you must post a numeric phone number; sell sex with a girl, and you can use a nonsearchable version — such as zero12-345-six78nine — that makes it more difficult for police or family members to locate a missing child with a simple Internet search.

Likewise, Backpage allows ads to be paid for with untraceable credit cards or even with Bitcoin. It doesn’t require any age verification or real names.

And Backpage’s obvious hypocrisy…

Liz McDougall, the lawyer for Backpage, declined to comment on the allegations in the lawsuits, but she told me: “We remain committed to effective measures of prevention and successful prosecution of this heinous crime.”

That’s absurd. Backpage claims to report possible sex-trafficking cases, but Yiota Souras, the general counsel of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, says that “Backpage’s reporting is not conducted in good faith.”

Yet even people who work to get trafficking victims off the street continue to believe that Backpage actually wants to solve a problem that they themselves are not only perpetuating but making millions of dollars from. Without the ads that traffic women in children in sexual slavery Backpage would wither and die, they know that and any thing they say or do is only done with the objective of continuing to make money at the cost of their victims.

The bullied school shooter myth still needs busting even in 2014

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In the wake of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting Vox.com looked into the bullied school shooter stereotype. What did they come up with? I think the title of the article kind of gives it away.

“Think school shooters are usually bullied and unpopular? You’re wrong.”

It makes me wonder if people will read it with an open mind or just dismiss it so they can continue to live with a comfortable lie.

Anyway, friend of the site, and Columbine author, Dave Cullen was interviewed for the article and once again brought his A-game to the discussion when it came to discussing the Columbine cowards.

“Everybody knows who commits these kind of murders. They’re outcasts, typically goth or other sorts of kids that dress funny and live on the fringes,” Cullen said. “That’s well known. It’s also wrong.”

“It’s complete nonsense,” Cullen said. Both shooters had a healthy circle of friends. Their social calendars, which were released to the public, were “packed.” They went bowling every Friday, and they typically occupied four lanes — enough for 16 people.

There’s also “no compelling evidence,” Cullen explained, that the shooters were bullied more than anyone else or that bullying drove them to the shootings. “We have their journals and videos,” Cullen said, adding that they “never mention bullying” directed at the shooters.

The article goes on to state that depression and mental illness are the main causes of school shootings. It was suggested that schools should hand out questionnaires to students to monitor for signs of depression. I’m afraid that while it may assist in getting some kids some help there are definite flaws by doing this. The first that a lot of kids with problems at home will lie so their parents won’t be notified by the school. Another problem is that any kid with depression will be labeled a potential school shooter and that doesn’t help anyone. Lastly, I don’t want to see depression become an excuse at trial for criminal behavior like bullying and Asperger’s have become in the years since Columbine.

Getting back to the bullying aspect I also wanted to add that this article is a great example of how school shootings have actually done a disservice to the victims of bullying. As I’ve said before now people are more concerned about finding the next shooter than actually doing anything about bullying.

Solving crimes with social media

There used to be an old saying that there was 100 things that could go wrong with any crime if you can think of a dozen them you’re a genius. I think that with the proliferation of social networking those numbers have increased exponentially.


Via: NYCCriminalLawyers.com

NC teen killed in craigslist robbery

Jarrion Hood

Jarrion Hood

This past Tuesday night 18-year-old Jawad Ali Razai was shot and killed in Durham, North Carolina, after responding to a craigslist ad for a cell phone for sale. Instead, police say, that 18-year-old Jarrion Hood shot and killed Razai during an attempt to rob him. Somehow Hood was shot as well but unfortunately survived. Hood also has been previously charged with kidnapping and assault with intent to kill.

What can I say that I haven’t already said in the past 8 years since I’ve been tracking craigslist crimes? It’s not a safe way to do any kind of business no matter what side of the transaction your on, what time of day the transaction takes place or even how public the meeting place is. If someone is determined enough to try to take what you have nothing will stop them from getting it, including a possible murder charge.