Friday Follies...
Another nice day here...again with temperatures in the low 80s...Indian Summer is still here.
Going to be a good weekend, too..weather-wise. Not a lick of precipitation to be found.
Got some interesting things to pass along today, so let's get the ball rolling...
*** Regular readers here know that I'm a straight-forward kinda guy...just the way I was brought up.
(blame my parents)
And the last time I checked, the Internet was mostly a free-reign domain.
Bloggers share pictures all over the damn place, and many see fit to publish those that attract one's attention, or make a certain point.
I'm like that.
I don't "steal" any pictures, and from what I've seen, whatever will "copy" is FREE, got it?
If I encounter a photo that has a HOTLINK-BAN on it...that means "hands off"...no problem.
I "get it".
But there is this bloke in the UK that "feels" that since I used ONE of "his" photos (back on 25 January), he should be "compensated"...
(( *ROLLS EYES* ))
Really? REALLY???
Well, the picture was secured through "open" means (no ban on copying), so what's good for one should be good for all, hmm?
Not to mention that "his" photo got some FREE PUBLICITY, courtesy of this blog...and I never asked for a check or any compensation.
(I know...I'm a nice guy along those lines)
But HE wants to arrange payment...yeah, like THAT pig is gonna fly.
(BTW, you can copy the photo as I did at ZAZZLE...DUH!)
So, I REMOVED the picture from the post, and I say good riddance.
And it's times like this that we see how "small" some people can be.
The sheer pettiness involved by this individual is beyond belief.
He's got a thriving photography business (apparently) and is all over facebook, twitter, and other social media.
Must be nice to go out and take pictures all day, every day of anything and everything ( and still find time to harass bloggers).
Wish I could do that...AND get paid to sell prints of them, as he does.
(Note to self: NEXT life)
In the meantime, we've more IMPORTANT things to attend to...
*** This is a followup to the story about the baby-beater (on whose jury I was "supposed" to sit, and was dismissed from).
Here's the story in it's entirety:
(( Published: October 7, 2011 3:00 a.m.
Boyfriend gets 18 years for beating baby - Rebecca S. Green The Journal Gazette
FORT WAYNE – Locked up and awaiting sentencing for beating his girlfriend’s baby into unconsciousness, Marquise Holmes laughed when he heard that the baby’s mother had been beaten badly after his conviction.
An audio recording of Holmes, 23, of the 900 block of Eliza Street, gleefully receiving the news about the assault on Leeandra Woods was played Thursday in Allen Superior Court before Holmes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the injuries he inflicted on the 6-month-old baby in late May 2010.
In February, Allen County prosecutors charged Holmes with battery to a child causing serious bodily injury and neglect of a dependant causing serious bodily injury.
According to testimony and court documents, Woods received a call from Holmes while she was running errands, telling her that the baby had stopped moving. The baby had seemed to be ill for days, and Woods took him to the hospital on two occasions.
Woods said that she found a "smushy" spot on the baby’s head, as well as lumps.
She said he was more mellow than normal and then began having trouble keeping food down. But the two times she took him to the hospital, doctors sent her home with prescriptions for a skin infection he didn’t have.
When the unconscious baby was taken to the hospital by ambulance, tests revealed he had suffered multiple skull fractures, some in varying stages of healing, according to court documents. The fractures were on the base of the baby’s skull, which doctors said would require a great deal of force.
The most recent injury, according to court documents, would have rendered the baby immediately unconscious.
Allen County Deputy Prosecutor Patricia Pikel played the jailhouse audio recordings for Allen Superior Court Judge John Surbeck to consider as evidence of Holmes’ lack of remorse for the damage he inflicted.
While Surbeck refused to consider Holmes’ apparent lack of remorse, citing his right to assert his innocence, the judge said he was offended by Holmes’ attitude, displayed in court and on the recordings.
As the recordings were played, a group of young women, one carrying a small child, shook their heads and smiled at Holmes.
After Holmes received the news that Woods had been attacked, he immediately called one of the women with whom he has a child.
"You shoulda beat the (expletive) outta her," he said to the unidentified woman on the phone.
"I knew she was going to get crashed. Everybody said she was going to get crashed."
Then it appeared Holmes called his sister, again laughing and cheering the beating.
"Porsche told me," he said on the recording, "I was like ‘yeah.’ "
He then told his sister to get onto his Facebook page and post that he was grateful to whomever it was who had administered the beating.
The woman on the other end of the line said she’d do it, adding "that’s what she get."
Holmes expressed a belief he would be out of the Allen County Jail and free in just a short time.
"I’ll be right back in a minute," he said. "Keep me in ya’ll prayers … the bitch got what she deserved."
Throughout the hearing, Woods sat in the back of the courtroom with her family, wiping tears from her eyes and glaring at Holmes.
When it was her turn to speak, Woods expressed the disruption and pain Holmes’ actions have brought to her life – continued therapy and struggles for her son, and more recently threats and violence toward her.
"When this person get out," she said, crying, "who knows what’s going to happen."
Holmes told the court he has four children and treated Woods’ son like his own.
Surbeck sentenced Holmes to 18 years in prison on each of the charges but ordered the sentences to be served at the same time.
"I’m candidly offended by the defendant’s attitude," Surbeck said. "But it’s not particularly surprising, actually."
Holmes said he intends to appeal his sentence.
Prosecutors said no additional charges have been filed in the case. ))
*AHEM*
Somehow, you just KNOW a piece of crap WHEN YOU SEE ONE...
And Marquise Holmes fits the bill.
Surbeck surprised me by refusing the evidence as Holmes' lack of remorse...are you KIDDING ME?
This "person" HAS no remorse, and the fact that he probably "contracted" a beatdown on Woods pretty much seals it.
The phone audio SHOULD and NEEDS to be taken into account.
And whatever happened to ONE phone call? Didn't know we had a message service ongoing at lockup.
Wonder if he managed to "tweet" about it?
This is ridiculous.
Surbeck SHOULD be offended by the defendant's attitude, and SHOULD have amended the sentencing accordingly.
THAT is why the judicial system is as screwed the hell up as it currently is...
The only justice would seem to be NATURAL justice.
We'll stay on top on the "appeal"...and I hope that only nets this jerk MORE time in the slammer.
Human refuse like this NEEDS to be put away...for a LONG time.
Elsewhere, around the ghettohood...
*** Last night started out as most every other night...a few boomcars interrupting either The Battle for Okinawa, or Transformers 2 - The Rise of the Fallen (a decent flick, too), but it was manageable for the most part, until I got up to look out the front door (as I like to do every 30 minutes or so)...
Imagine my astonishment (at about 2135 hours) when I saw about FIVE "plain-wrappers" out front of the house (several types of unmarked FWPD vehicles, along with sevral marked cars), with men getting out of them...ARMED men...with SHOTGUNS and M4 carbines being cocked (complete with tac-lights)...
(( "WTF???" ))
It was then that Wifey came in and said: "What's with ALL the police out front of our place with guns?"
I answered: "Wasn't me...I didn't shoot anyone...yet."
A burgundy pickup was stopped further down the street, and the officers were looking about.
(This was certainly NOT your "typical" 30T/S - traffic stop...unless the FWPD has gotten REAL strict about the failure to use your signals.)
I leaned out the door and one officer said "Stay in your house".
I asked another officer if he wants a larger spotlight (he was using a hand-held mini tac-light), 'cause I have one.
He answered: "Thanks, I'm good".
'Nuff said, there.
I closed the door and then proceeded to watch the "action" unfold.
(damn, and I so wanted to assist, too)
The officers canvassed the side of our property, then proceeded to the neighboring (vacant) house, checking out the back really well. Lit the thing up like nobody's business with all the handheld lighting they carried.
They swept the area well...just like in the movies (and I never felt safer around here in some time, due to that).
Didn't know if it was a WEAPON they were searching for, or CONTRABAND.
The officers didn't seem to find anything, and after a time, let a white female go in the truck.
There must have been another involved (male), because one of the officers mentioned to another:
"Did you see that guy?...he was really jacked."
I couldn't see if he got a "cuff n stuff", as they pulled the truck over between street lights (damn).
As it wound down, I asked Wifey if she heard any radio chatter....nothing.
(must have been on a tactical channel)
Plus, most of the chatter was officer-to-officer vocally...no radio needed.
When the officers were going back to their respective vehicles, the one black officer I offered my spotlight to waved at me and nodded...
I waved back a slight salute..I knew he appreciated the offer.
This was over and done within 20 minutes...end of story.
((Editor's note: FYI - This call was listed as a signal *62* - party armed.))
All this does is demonstrate that we DO have a problem down here (I've said so for YEARS), and that sometimes, it DOES get addressed.
Personally, I'd love to see a lot MORE police presence down here...got no problem with that at all.
I mean, I see ALL kinds of sh*t going on daily...stuff the FWPD never gets to "enjoy" in the manner that I do.
Our quadrant captain never even got back to me about that fight on our lawn last month, either...wonder why?
I'd be the first one to readily admit that we have some houses around us that could use a bit of surveillance (hint, hint).
*** We have a Hispanic family moving into the vacant house 2 doors down, and I'll bet they know NOTHING about what goes on around here...and they have a child (and from what a neighbor tells me, they seem very nice and proper).
Hell, the male's been pumping OUT the damn basement of the house for 2 days, so at least he knows what WORK IS.
He didn't know the house came with an "indoor water feature"...that's the way real estate is transacted around here...by word-of-mouth, and I'd wager that the local housing authority doesn't even show this kind of stuff on their radar.
When a house USED to change hands (person-to-person, or bank-to-person...whatever) there USED to be an INSPECTION PROCESS...having some official "take the tour" and determine the habitability of a property...long list of items to check, too.
Electrical, sewage, plumbing, walls, roof, basement, square footage (per person occupancy limits), heating, kitchen, functional "amenities" where provided (fridge, stove, etc)...lotsa stuff that needs going over.
All too often, this is BYPASSED when a person rents or even sells to another "off the books", as it were.
Inspectors never get a chance to enter the house at all.
And that's why we have HOVELS instead of houses sprouting up around us THESE days.
That also explains WHY property values are in the crapper...no accountability by whoever owns these places.
Talk about a real SCAM...against the people who buy such a place, as well as a scam against the city and real estate agencies.
When it comes to most ALL the other people who inhabit our former neighborhood, it comes down to one thing:
"If it wasn't for DOUBLE-STANDARDS, these people wouldn't have ANY standards AT ALL...!!!"
One person can make a difference...I've always believed that.
I also believe in strength in numbers, and when confronted by a belligerent individual meaning to do you harm, it's better to shoot first, and let God sort it all out, because I'd much rather be judged by TWELVE, than to be carried by SIX.
(even if those 12 aren't smart or truthful enough to get out of jury duty...lol)
Life is full of people who are fantastic to come to know...it's also filled with a lot of the "small" folks...those who are set on making things rough for the rest of us. We need to discern who we want to have around us, and who needs to be called out for being an asshat.
I've got enough idiots around us down here, so anyone that comes CLOSE to being NORMAL will work for me, any day.
Whatever time I've got left is best utilized in self-improvement and "fine-tuning" who I AM.
And I think that should be the case with ALL of us.
The day we stop improving is the day we start taking that long dirt nap.
I'd like to postpone that as long as possible...too much still to see and do.
Have yourselves a marvelous weekemd.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and as always...
Stay safe out there, America.