`Badfinger – Come and get it

Last Thursday night at 2:30 am someone tried to break in to my house. I heard the outer (screen) door and my cats freaked and ran upstairs. While creeping around peeking out windows I saw him with his hand on my doorknob, then he walked into the backyard. I’m so glad I stay awake all night. The cops were here in less than 5 minutes. They could see where he’d walked across the neighbors yard and went into my backyard and out the other side. Because he was on foot they said he was probably looking for a bike. Huh? At a house with the lights on, when my garage is in the back? A bike would logically be in the garage. My therapist thinks he was a potential rapist, especially since once it got light out I realized I could see out the side door window where he was standing. With the light on in here he had to have seen me and he tried getting in anyway. I also heard a door the night before. He was testing to see if he could find an unlocked door.

So when morning came I emailed this NRA instructor and asked if he still had handgun classes open for Saturday. Signed up for basic handguns Saturday and home protection Sunday. Half the day was classroom and second half firing at the range. I used a .357. that’s a revolver. I wasn’t strong enough to slide the slide on the automatics. I feel a bit safer with a revolver, they don’t jam, you can’t accidentally leave a bullet in the chamber and they have a hard trigger pull so aren’t likely to go off accidentally. I think I have only shot a handgun once in my life. Surprisingly, even though I haven’t shot a gun in probably 30 years, I am still a damn good shot (I was the best in my company with an m16 in the army). These are now hanging on my side door window where I saw the creep.

I also ordered door alarms and will attempt to install them on the screen doors, since I don’t intend for any intruder to make it inside.

Then there’s my not so secret weapon…

I got him at animal control and learned quickly on the ride home what a good watchdog he was going to be. He barked and growled at every pedestrian he saw. He was perfectly friendly at the shelter and I thought he wouldn’t be much of a deterrent but I’ve changed my mind. He doesn’t have many manners yet, but we have mastered sit in less than a day. Heel works somewhat as long as there is nothing too interesting going on. I dared take him for a walk today and 2 guys were coming off their porch, he was on his hind legs, lunging and growling. They didn’t act like they believed me when I said he was fine 😀

Hopefully I won’t be messed with again anytime soon and hopefully he trains fast because this is exhausting.

I’m sure most of you have read about this. So it may sound strange when I say that for just one day I wish those boys were my sons. Because I would beat them to within an inch of their lives. The ones who participated will be punished (if they manage to find them all) but the ones who came out there thinking this was some kind of spectator sport are completely off the hook. If she had just been a year younger they would have been culpable too.  Do those boys have no sisters, no mothers? How could they stand by and watch a girl be brutalized and raped for over 2 hours? My God I want to get my hands on them. I hope they are proud of following like sheep and not having the courage to stand up and say stop! I would have and then I’d probably have suffered too but I’d make sure I hurt a few of them in the process. I hope that poor girl can move past this with time. She’ll never forget.

I just saw an article on Time.com saying “a bill was introduced in Congress that would protect all students — including gay or transgender ones — from bullying and harassment and would require schools to report on the prevalence of such harmful activity to the Department of Education each year.” Well, it’s about time.

My daughter was bullied in middle school. She wasn’t gay, transgender, ugly or socially inept. So this bunch of bratty girls were probably just jealous, but obviously that doesn’t make it any less painful to experience. At first I contacted the teacher whose class it was happening in and she said they absolutely do not tolerate that kind of behavior and it would be stopped. It didn’t stop, and it wasn’t just nasty remarks, but also got physical. Then I talked to the principal. He threatened the girls with suspension. Amazingly, even that didn’t work. I went back to him and ask for contact information for the parents. I felt like if we could just discuss it, we could resolve the problem. He said he couldn’t give that out. I suggested a meeting at the school with the parents of the girls involved. He refused. The next time I went in he suggested I just move to a new school district! Awesome management there. Then the ringleader was going around telling kids her dad was going to sue me (he was a lawyer). Okay, that really cracked me up, because I was barely making it and anyway, who was doing what? But, it was all good because after that she absolutely left my daughter alone and that was the result I wanted. If the school had assemblies teaching tolerance and respect for others I think they could help a lot. If parents aren’t teaching their kids what is appropriate behavior then someone needs to. If schools would be willing to allow conferences with parents over issues like this it would help too. I always felt like if I could just talk to the parents there would be no problem. I mean come on, the only thing I was asking was for their little brats to ignore my daughter.

If an adult received that kind of treatment they have the legal recourse of filing harassment charges. Well, I guess I could have done the same but if I had to hire a lawyer I was out of luck to begin with. People have a right to not be harassed. Our children deserve that protection every bit as much as adults do. I hope it passes and I hope schools start programs to educate the kids on how to treat their fellow human beings. Someone needs to and a lot of parents are sure missing that point…but look out if it happens to their kid.

When I lived in a quiet little community in California, a crime took place that shocked everyone. There were so many rumors, it was years before I found out the truth of things. I had moved back to Michigan so lost touch with it all. Two of the boys convicted lived directly across the street from me. My kids were younger so didn’t really have contact with them. My youngest daughter was friends with their little sister though.

Basically, it was a short teenaged brawl, except one kid ended up dead. The aftermath is the real tragedy though I think. The teenagers involved all got life without parole under California’s Felony Murder rule. Now mind you, one of those kids did kill someone, the others did not. Whether it was during the commission of a crime is questionable. No, I guess buying pot is a crime but the prosecution asserted that they went there to steal pot. Then there is the fact that the one who died was the son of a LAPD officer. Upstanding young man he was, hanging out with a drug dealer. They were all troubled youths but now they have had their entire lives taken away. The parents of the one who died are very bitter and vindictive and seem to think this was an appropriate punishment. It won’t bring their son back. He was clearly no angel himself, I wish they could see it for what it was.

I’ve been working on Prison News Blog and it really brought me back to the injustice for these boys. There was a 60 minutes episode on this case that is excellent (see below), it’s too bad prison sentences are so hard to amend. Documentary filmmaker William Gazecki examines this case in the documentary Reckless Indifference, it’s a good movie to see.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ0P66NGQ0U

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jashfN3CbuI

Is prison for punishment or rehabilitation? To me, there are priorities:

• To keep society safe from serial offenders; murderers, rapists and violent predators. Lock them up permanently, no second chances. But do you know how many child predators are released after very short sentences?
• Punishment. Yes, I think many crimes deserve the punishment of incarceration for a period of time. But having people languishing in prison for years for non-violent crimes, that is a crime itself.
• Rehabilitation. It’s something we had better start trying to work on. Our prison system now has more than 1 out of every 100 adults incarcerated. Most do not deserve long prison sentences but helping them learn skills so they can be successful on release would be in this countries best interest.

More reading on the case from Brandon Hein’s website. His parents have been the most vocal about getting the word out to the world. I hope these boys see justice someday. Even the one who killed, in the heat of the moment, protecting his brother, does not deserve life without parole. Rolling stone magazine had an article titled “Lynching in Malibu” that explains the facts of the case, including the fact that the brawl took about 60 seconds.

A petition for Brandon Hein here. I’d like to see one for all of them. This recent article is from a minister who came to know Brandon while he was awaiting trial.

There are many kinds of injustice. It’s an injustice that a boy is dead because of a stupid fight. It’s an injustice that the rest have lost their freedom for the rest of their lives for the same stupid fight. It’s an injustice that we let repeat predators loose everyday and then keep these people locked up for life.

I hear the ominous scratching coming from the dining room, where my beautiful chairs live. I hear the crackling of the aluminum foil that is supposed to be scaring the critters away from the plants. I find plants vomited up on my floor, why do that over and over if it makes you sick?

The victims:

The usual suspects:

What? You think they look like such innocent pussycats? Well, indeed, one is and the other is a hardened plant and chair defiler. I’ve threatened declawing, deteething, even death, to no avail. Drastic times call for drastic measures! Enter…..The Solution…

The ‘Solution’:

It took me a while to figure out the assembly on this baby. It’s got the works! The funniest part is that Baby (the innocent kitty) thinks this is the greatest new game ever! Beemer seems less intimidated than I hoped but he’s learning, I grab the solution, he knows he’s going to have projectiles flying at him and he books it out of town.

“A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.” The woman has already been shamed all over the internet but maybe now real justice will be done. Lori Drew proved herself to have the maturity of a 10 year old and she doesn’t even have the decency to be ashamed. I truly hope she ends up with some consequence for her actions.