Writer's block is mainly an American syndrome. They don't have it, for example, in Europe. I'm from West Virginia where we don't have it either. Maybe we should, but we don't. I guess that's a good thing.
Thornton P. Knowles
Thornton P. Knowles
Monday, July 8, 2019
How Societies Deal with Crime
For thousands of years, human societies have sought to reduce the frequency and severity of such harms as murder, robbery, and rape. Various techniques for dealing with such crimes have evolved over time. Broadly defined, these techniques have had much in common across societies and over time. They may be outlined in the following familiar terms.
The first technique is to ensure that the potential criminal understands that he has far more to lose than to gain from committing the crime. This serves to disincentivize the act or deter the actor, by sending a clear and unequivocal message: not only will you not benefit from the act, but if you are caught doing it you will be severely disadvantaged. A useful example of this mechanism is the treble or punitive damage remedy, which disgorges all gains from the person who secured them improperly and imposes a punitive fine.
The second technique is to incapacitate those who would carry out the actions by imprisoning them, killing them, keeping them away from places they wish to target, or otherwise making it impossible for them to be in a position to undertake the undesirable actions. A useful metaphor for incapacitation is the zoo, where wild animals are kept behind bars. We are not seeking the change the animal's propensities but are simply erecting an impermeable barrier between it and us.
A third technique is to persuade the actor not to undertake the action, by rehabilitating, reeducating, or shaming him, convincing him that the action is wrong. A good example of this mechanism is requiring drunken drivers to attend classes or enter programs designed to influence behavior.
Alan Dershowitz, Why Terrorism Works, 2002
The first technique is to ensure that the potential criminal understands that he has far more to lose than to gain from committing the crime. This serves to disincentivize the act or deter the actor, by sending a clear and unequivocal message: not only will you not benefit from the act, but if you are caught doing it you will be severely disadvantaged. A useful example of this mechanism is the treble or punitive damage remedy, which disgorges all gains from the person who secured them improperly and imposes a punitive fine.
The second technique is to incapacitate those who would carry out the actions by imprisoning them, killing them, keeping them away from places they wish to target, or otherwise making it impossible for them to be in a position to undertake the undesirable actions. A useful metaphor for incapacitation is the zoo, where wild animals are kept behind bars. We are not seeking the change the animal's propensities but are simply erecting an impermeable barrier between it and us.
A third technique is to persuade the actor not to undertake the action, by rehabilitating, reeducating, or shaming him, convincing him that the action is wrong. A good example of this mechanism is requiring drunken drivers to attend classes or enter programs designed to influence behavior.
Alan Dershowitz, Why Terrorism Works, 2002
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Birthday Cake or Your Teacher's Lap Dance?
A 42-year-old teacher performed a "full contact" lap dance on a middle school student in front of his Texas classmates….Felicia Smith's performance on the boy celebrating his 15th birthday took place in February 2014.
The teen told investigators that he sat in the chair next to Smith's desk as she moved back and forth on his crotch and touched him over his body. Near the end of the dance, the student said Smith sank to her knees and put her head between his legs. The incident reportedly happened in front of the other students during class.
The student admitted that he spanked Smith's buttocks a couple of times….As music played, Smith said, "I love you, baby. Happy Birthday."…
Police claim that Smith said the students persuaded her to grind on the teen….Smith was removed from teaching in the Aldine Independent School District...
Michael McLaughlin, "Teacher Accused of Giving Student a Birthday Lap Dance," The Huffington Post, April 26, 2014
The teen told investigators that he sat in the chair next to Smith's desk as she moved back and forth on his crotch and touched him over his body. Near the end of the dance, the student said Smith sank to her knees and put her head between his legs. The incident reportedly happened in front of the other students during class.
The student admitted that he spanked Smith's buttocks a couple of times….As music played, Smith said, "I love you, baby. Happy Birthday."…
Police claim that Smith said the students persuaded her to grind on the teen….Smith was removed from teaching in the Aldine Independent School District...
Michael McLaughlin, "Teacher Accused of Giving Student a Birthday Lap Dance," The Huffington Post, April 26, 2014
Thornton P. Knowles On His Story "Twin Kill"
In my short story "Twin Kill," two awful people get married and soon come to hate each other. They each decide to resolve their marital problem the same way by hiring, unbeknownst to each other, a hit man. Two days before their first anniversary, they unknowingly hire the same guy to do the job. The greedy hit man, after taking upfront money from both murder-for-hire masterminds, carries out his assignments by killing them both. Three days after the double murder, the hit man's girlfriend shoots him dead and runs off with his hit money. A week later, she injects a dose of toxic heroin and dies alone in a shabby hotel room. I liked this story because it had no loose ends and the characters got what was coming to them. Unfortunately, magazine editors disagreed. The story ended up dead and alone in my wastebasket. I guess it got what was coming to it. And no loose ends.
Thornton P. Knowles
Thornton P. Knowles
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Killing Peyton Strickland
Shortly before midnight on December 1, 2006, 18-year-old Peyton Strickland, a welding student at Cape Fear Community College, was at home playing a video game with his roommate, a student at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. When Strickland heard knocking at his front door, he got up with the game controller in his hand to answer it. Outside the house, sixteen police officers--nine SWAT team members from the New Hanover Sheriff's Office, three with the Wilmington Police, and four officers with the University of North Carolina Police Department--were poised to charge into the dwelling.
Peyton Strickland and a University of North Carolina student who lived elsewhere, had allegedly struck a third student with a blunt object and had stolen two of his Playstation 3 game consoles. (The probable cause underlying the search warrant was based on information from an unreliable informant.) The police were at his door to arrest him for armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and breaking and entering.
Police officers at the front entrance saw Strickland approaching them through the door glass. For some reason, Strickland stopped, turned and walked back into the house. That caused an officer to strike the door with a battering ram. As Strickland turned in response to that noise, a deputy sheriff fired five shots, two of which passed through the door hitting Strickland in the head and chest, killing him on the spot. The officer discharged his weapon because he had confused the sound of the battering ram for gun shots coming from inside the house. Another deputy shot and killed Strickland's two dogs.
The Hanover County sheriff placed three deputies on paid leave pending the results of the internal investigation of the shooting. The sheriff fired the deputy who had fired the fatal shot.
A grand jury indicted the former deputy in December 2006 for second-degree murder, but a judge set aside the indictment due to a clerical error. (The grand jury foreman had checked the wrong box on an indictment document.)
In July 2007, the Hanover County prosecutor presented the case to a second grand jury, but only 12 of the 18 jurors voted to indict the ex-deputy.
Peyton Strickland's parents sued New Hanover County for the wrongful death of their son. In February 2008, pursuant to an out of court settlement, the county paid the plaintiffs $2.45 million. Nine months later, the family sued the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and their police department for leading the deputies to Peyton's door on the word of an unreliable informant. The defendants in that case, in February 2010, asked the court to dismiss the civil suit out on grounds of sovereign immunity. The judge allowed the case to go forward, and in July 2011, a North Carolina appeals court affirmed that decision. (As of April 2016, this legal action has not been resolved.)
The Strickland case illustrates one of the hidden costs of militarized policing. Every year, city, county, and state governments pay out millions of dollars in civil damages and court settlements created by bungled SWAT raids and excessive force cases.
Peyton Strickland and a University of North Carolina student who lived elsewhere, had allegedly struck a third student with a blunt object and had stolen two of his Playstation 3 game consoles. (The probable cause underlying the search warrant was based on information from an unreliable informant.) The police were at his door to arrest him for armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and breaking and entering.
Police officers at the front entrance saw Strickland approaching them through the door glass. For some reason, Strickland stopped, turned and walked back into the house. That caused an officer to strike the door with a battering ram. As Strickland turned in response to that noise, a deputy sheriff fired five shots, two of which passed through the door hitting Strickland in the head and chest, killing him on the spot. The officer discharged his weapon because he had confused the sound of the battering ram for gun shots coming from inside the house. Another deputy shot and killed Strickland's two dogs.
The Hanover County sheriff placed three deputies on paid leave pending the results of the internal investigation of the shooting. The sheriff fired the deputy who had fired the fatal shot.
A grand jury indicted the former deputy in December 2006 for second-degree murder, but a judge set aside the indictment due to a clerical error. (The grand jury foreman had checked the wrong box on an indictment document.)
In July 2007, the Hanover County prosecutor presented the case to a second grand jury, but only 12 of the 18 jurors voted to indict the ex-deputy.
Peyton Strickland's parents sued New Hanover County for the wrongful death of their son. In February 2008, pursuant to an out of court settlement, the county paid the plaintiffs $2.45 million. Nine months later, the family sued the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and their police department for leading the deputies to Peyton's door on the word of an unreliable informant. The defendants in that case, in February 2010, asked the court to dismiss the civil suit out on grounds of sovereign immunity. The judge allowed the case to go forward, and in July 2011, a North Carolina appeals court affirmed that decision. (As of April 2016, this legal action has not been resolved.)
The Strickland case illustrates one of the hidden costs of militarized policing. Every year, city, county, and state governments pay out millions of dollars in civil damages and court settlements created by bungled SWAT raids and excessive force cases.
Drunk Man Urinates On Waitress
Even in the freewheeling nightspots of Key West, Florida, a patron is not allowed to urinate onto a waitress…According to police, that is what Orion Jones, 20, did early Saturday morning January 24, 2015 at Ricks Bar. A bar employee flagged down a Key West police officer and told him that a man had urinated on a female member of the staff…
When officers confronted Jones, he was fighting with club security. They had chased him through the bar and had him pinned down. To subdue him, the officers had to use a Taser on him twice…
Waitress Tia Cruz, 26, told officers that she was talking with a customer when she felt something wet hitting her body. She initially thought it was rain until a fellow employee pointed out Jones who was urinating on her from a balcony above...
Jones was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest. His criminal record included two marijuana possession convictions as well as arrests for burglary and trespassing…
Jones told the authorities that he needed help with his alcohol problem. [If he can't drink without peeing on people, he has a bigger problem than just alcohol.]
"Patron Relieved Himself Onto Waitress," thesmokinggun.com, January 27, 2015
When officers confronted Jones, he was fighting with club security. They had chased him through the bar and had him pinned down. To subdue him, the officers had to use a Taser on him twice…
Waitress Tia Cruz, 26, told officers that she was talking with a customer when she felt something wet hitting her body. She initially thought it was rain until a fellow employee pointed out Jones who was urinating on her from a balcony above...
Jones was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest. His criminal record included two marijuana possession convictions as well as arrests for burglary and trespassing…
Jones told the authorities that he needed help with his alcohol problem. [If he can't drink without peeing on people, he has a bigger problem than just alcohol.]
"Patron Relieved Himself Onto Waitress," thesmokinggun.com, January 27, 2015
Talented Novelist Who Can't Pull It Off
No novelist has ever lived who did not at some time get stuck. And for every writer in working trim there may be a dozen persons of great ability who are somehow self-silenced. At long intervals they turn out remarkable fragments--embryo stories--but they cannot seem to pull themselves together and finish anything.
Jacques Barzum, On Writing, Editing and Publishing, 1986
Jacques Barzum, On Writing, Editing and Publishing, 1986
Friday, July 5, 2019
Get A Room
A Florida man was arrested for lewd behavior after a 6-year-old girl found him naked in a Walgreens bathroom--where he was having sex with his girlfriend. The little girl went into the restroom of the Winter Haven, Florida drugstore just as a nude Christopher Mahurin, 24, emerged from the stall where he was having sex with Jenna Lynn Frey, 22, about 8 PM….
Mahurin pushed the girl toward the door when she began to scream….But when her father heard the yelling, he burst into the bathroom and grabbed the girl. Cops arrived a short time later and found Mahurin and Frey sitting in a car parked in the lot outside the drugstore. The couple later admitted that they were having sex in the stall before the little girl walked into the restroom.
Mahurin was slapped with charges that include lewd exhibition, indecent exposure in public and battery….[I could not find the disposition of this case.]
Joe Kemp, "Naked Florida Man Scares Girl, 6, After Having Sex in Walgreen Bathroom," New York Daily News, March 24, 2014
Mahurin pushed the girl toward the door when she began to scream….But when her father heard the yelling, he burst into the bathroom and grabbed the girl. Cops arrived a short time later and found Mahurin and Frey sitting in a car parked in the lot outside the drugstore. The couple later admitted that they were having sex in the stall before the little girl walked into the restroom.
Mahurin was slapped with charges that include lewd exhibition, indecent exposure in public and battery….[I could not find the disposition of this case.]
Joe Kemp, "Naked Florida Man Scares Girl, 6, After Having Sex in Walgreen Bathroom," New York Daily News, March 24, 2014
A Fatal Case Of Misidentification
A father in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas is accused of fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy he found in his teenage daughter's bedroom early Thursday morning, March 13, 2014. Harris County investigators said the suspect's 16-year-old daughter let the boy into the house….Her father told investigators he heard noises coming from his daughter's bedroom about 2:30 AM and went to investigate. He found the 17-year-old in the bedroom, and there was an alteration before the boy was shot once….The accused shooter was not arrested or charged with a crime. A Harris County grand jury will decide, what, if any, charges will be filed against him. [When confronted by her father in the bedroom, the girl said she did not know the boy which led the father to believe he had a rapist in the house.]
Phyllis Stark, "Dad Kills Teen Hiding in Daughter's Bedroom," 13 News Houston, March 13, 2014
Phyllis Stark, "Dad Kills Teen Hiding in Daughter's Bedroom," 13 News Houston, March 13, 2014
Thursday, July 4, 2019
A Second-Grader's Walk on the Wild Side
In the fall of 2013, Jason and Damia Dillard enrolled their 7-year-old daughter Samaya in the Jefferson Elementary School not far from their home in the Sacramento suburb of South Natomas, California. Samaya had been a good student at St. Hope Public School 7, a Sacramento charter institution. The Dillards made the change because Jefferson Elementary was much closer to their home.
At 9:30 AM on December 18, 2013, Samaya did something that upset her second grade teacher, Lupe Rodriguez. When Samaya knocked over a glass of water (I presume on purpose), the teacher flew into a rage. She grabbed the back of Samaya's chair and dragged it and the girl out of the classroom and out of the building. The student, wearing a pink and gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, sat outside where it was 46 degrees.
After sitting outside for almost an hour, Samaya decided to take a walk. She left the campus through a fence gate and walked down a busy road that crossed over Interstate 80.
As the 7-year-old walked over the interstate, the teacher who had expelled her from the building realized the student was not where she had left her. When school official didn't find the girl inside the school or on campus, they called her parents and the police.
While no one from the police department responded to the call, the parents rushed to the school in two cars, and from there began driving around in a frantic search of their daughter.
As the panicked parents drove around aimlessly looking for their missing daughter, Samaya paid a visit to a Walmart store. At a nearby shopping center, about two miles from the school, she entered the On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina and asked for a glass of water. The restaurant employee, after Samaya drank her water and walked off, called the police and reported a young girl wandering around the area without parental supervision. No one from the police department came to the restaurant to investigate.
About two and a half hours after Samaya was dragged out of the school by her angry teacher, her father came upon her walking along a street not far from their house. According to Mrs. Dillard, the incident traumatized her daughter who felt that she had been abandoned.
Samaya's parents enrolled her in another school and have threatened to sue the Natomas United School District. School administrators placed the teacher on paid administrative leave. (I couldn't find an update of this case on the Internet but would be shocked if the school fired her. In California, to qualify for dismissal, a teacher has to do a lot worse than this.)
At 9:30 AM on December 18, 2013, Samaya did something that upset her second grade teacher, Lupe Rodriguez. When Samaya knocked over a glass of water (I presume on purpose), the teacher flew into a rage. She grabbed the back of Samaya's chair and dragged it and the girl out of the classroom and out of the building. The student, wearing a pink and gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, sat outside where it was 46 degrees.
After sitting outside for almost an hour, Samaya decided to take a walk. She left the campus through a fence gate and walked down a busy road that crossed over Interstate 80.
As the 7-year-old walked over the interstate, the teacher who had expelled her from the building realized the student was not where she had left her. When school official didn't find the girl inside the school or on campus, they called her parents and the police.
While no one from the police department responded to the call, the parents rushed to the school in two cars, and from there began driving around in a frantic search of their daughter.
As the panicked parents drove around aimlessly looking for their missing daughter, Samaya paid a visit to a Walmart store. At a nearby shopping center, about two miles from the school, she entered the On the Border Mexican Grill and Cantina and asked for a glass of water. The restaurant employee, after Samaya drank her water and walked off, called the police and reported a young girl wandering around the area without parental supervision. No one from the police department came to the restaurant to investigate.
About two and a half hours after Samaya was dragged out of the school by her angry teacher, her father came upon her walking along a street not far from their house. According to Mrs. Dillard, the incident traumatized her daughter who felt that she had been abandoned.
Samaya's parents enrolled her in another school and have threatened to sue the Natomas United School District. School administrators placed the teacher on paid administrative leave. (I couldn't find an update of this case on the Internet but would be shocked if the school fired her. In California, to qualify for dismissal, a teacher has to do a lot worse than this.)
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