[Gray Ghost]

What about poor people? Poor people from all walks of life are severely disadvantage in the courts than those that are wealthy. Poor people usually get stuck with crappy public defenders and you know how that turns out.
You don't see that many rich humans get convicted of harsh crimes in America.

[Avatar]

True. And poor people are disproportionately black.

[Cristofle]

True- some refresher statistics on this matter:

Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12.1 percent of Asians. Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. In 2010, 31.6 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 15.8 percent of households headed by single men and 6.2 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty.

National Poverty Center | University of Michigan

And then compare it to this...



Project America: Crime: Prison Population: Prison Population by Race

[sunnykerr]

Jacob, that is an excellent point. She was probably doubly railroaded because she was poor.

[Avatar]

What the...?

In Thailand, roasted fetuses found stashed in luggage Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Six roasted fetuses covered with gold for black magic rituals were found in a Bangkok hotel room, and the gruesome discovery led to the arrest of a British citizen Friday, Thai police said. Chow Hok Kuen, a 28-year-old Briton of Taiwanese origin, faces charges of hiding and covering dead bodies and a jail term of up to a year, police said. The arrest came after police were tipped off about a website advertising the sale of the fetuses. Police searched Chow's hotel room and found the fetuses packed in a box inside Chow's baggage, they said. Chow said that he planned to sell fetuses in Taiwan and that one could be worth up to 200,000 Thai baht, or $6,300, police said. He told police that the black magic rituals with fetuses are believed to bring good fortune for businesspeople. Police say it's unclear where the fetuses came from. The British Foreign Office confirmed the arrest and will provide consular assistance if necessary. Source: In Thailand, roasted fetuses found stashed in luggage - CNN.com

[sunnykerr]

And the possible sentence is up to a year in prison?

I mean, it's a Thai prison, but still...

I suppose he's not on the hook for murder, but I wonder about the desecration of corpses not being taken more seriously.

[Cristofle]

My morbid question (and I see on the article that they don't know yet) is where the hell he got them. To have fetus corpses in mass, so to speak, I'm thinking he must have stolen them from some kind of medical facility? But who knows.

[sunnykerr]

Yeah, I had the same morbid thought... which is how I got to murder, but your idea of the theft of human remains, possibly from a medical facility, makes more sense on both a practical and a human level.

Odd that I seem to be able to find a limit to what a person who will sell human remains for Satanic rituals will be able to do.

[Avatar]

Abortion, maybe? It's all very weird to me.

[sunnykerr]

Unless those fetuses (sp?) were deliberately murdered, I have to imagine they came as the result of "medical waste," to use the official term.

Meaning that they're the result of either abortions indeed (although one wonders how prevalent late-term abortion is in Thailand) or late-term miscarriages.

I would add grave-robbing to the list of possible "sources," but that's gotta be a tricky operation, what with looking for specific kinds of human remains.

Anyway, I have no problem speaking very clinically about a lot of things, but even I am starting to get creeped out here.

[Cristofle]

There's been an arrest in the Etan Patz case.

Former stock clerk arrested in death of Etan Patz - CNN.com

New York (CNN) -- Pedro Hernandez, a former Manhattan stock clerk who once lived in the same neighborhood as Etan Patz, was arrested Thursday in connection with his death, more than three decades after the 6-year-old went missing. A then-19-year-old Hernandez allegedly lured Patz to the store with the promise of a soda, choked him in the basement and then disposed of the body using a plastic bag, placing it in the trash about a block and a half away, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters. "Detectives believe in the credibility of the statement," Kelly said, referring to the man's earlier confession. Authorities were alerted to the suspect by a tip. Hernandez, who had been working in construction until an injury sidelined him, is expected to be charged with second degree murder, Kelly said. He has no prior criminal record and is the father of a teenage girl, he added.

The article keeps going at the link- this confession hasn't been confirmed yet (remember the issues in the JonBenet Ramsey case a few years back), but that there IS reason to possibly believe this story.

[sunnykerr]

I think it's good to exercize cautious optimism about this outcome... but I wonder why he waited till now to confess.

[Cristofle]

There are rumors he has cancer:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1084303

...so if he did do it, maybe it's remorse that comes from facing death? This is supposedly not the first time he's indicated to people he knows well that he did "something bad" to a child in NY.

I'm skeptical, but I also really do hope for the sake of Etan's poor parents that this is true, just so they'll know. They have never moved from their house or changed their phone number, just so he could always find them if he was still alive. It must be unimaginably awful, to never know one way or another what happened to your child.

[Avatar]

I'm sure they've harboured hopes of a different outcome, but if it's true, then at least the parents would know.

[sunnykerr]

Well, I think after decades upon decades... I mean, I'm not a parent so I can't say... but part of you must suspect that this would be the outcome.

But I can imagine how the specter of impending death could push someone to confess their crimes.

It just seems bizarre that a man who, apparently, has no criminal record of any kind, once committed such a horrendous one, you know?

Like, it's not hard for me to imagine that there are monsters who target kids, but that's it. I can imagine them targeting more than one.

And now it sounds like I'm saying he should have killed more. Obviously, that's not something I'm wishing.

It just feels random.