[Other] News stories you wish you never read (Morbid Reality)

Mathias

Mathias

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...andle-to-Honor-Scotty-McMillan-281938761.html

I haven't heard a story that's fucked me up like this since Sandy Hook and the Nigerian kidnappings. That poor little boy... At three kids are just starting to awaken - cognitively speaking. All he could register in his brief life was complete hell. I'm not a religious person in the least, but I'm glad he has peace now.

I'm tired of reading revenge fantasies for these monsters in the comments sections of news reports. In my mind, revenge fantasy acknowledges that you're no better off than these horrible people. I just want a quick prosecution for the death penalty, and a short stint on death row with no appeals. These two should be dead in a year, and their accomplice should rot in prison for life with no chance of parole.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Yeah, I read about this yesterday. I was going to post it but couldn't. Three days of torture with his mom joining in. This is the kind of case the death penalty was invented for.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

Mathias said:
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/15000-to-Light-Candle-to-Honor-Scotty-McMillan-281938761.html

I'm tired of reading revenge fantasies for these monsters in the comments sections of news reports. In my mind, revenge fantasy acknowledges that you're no better off than these horrible people. I just want a quick prosecution
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*nodding in agreement*

for the death penalty, and a short stint on death row with no appeals. These two should be dead in a year,
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augh. so close to getting it. SO CLOSE.

my contribution: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/us/new-orleans-police-special-crimes-unit-inquiry.html

In one case, a 2-year-old was brought to the emergency room on suspicion of having been the victim of a sexual assault and was found to have a sexually transmitted disease. The detective did no follow-up and closed the case.
In another, a nurse collected DNA evidence from a victim in a rape kit, but the detective apparently never submitted the kit for testing. In a log book, the detective explained that the kit was never submitted “because the sex was consensual.” That same detective, the report said, told at least three different people that he or she “did not believe that simple rape should be a crime.”

...

That audit found that rape was routinely classified as another, lesser crime and that detectives had even backdated reports to make it appear that they had performed necessary work.
For this report, the inspector general focused on five detectives within the special victims section; there are typically 16 detectives in the section, with eight or nine dedicated to investigating sex crimes. Record-keeping was so meager in a large majority of their cases that, as Mr. Schwartz said, no evaluation of their police work was possible.
Out of 119 cases that were assigned to one of the detectives, only 17 were found to have any records beyond an initial report.
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Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

PatrThom said:
...because the salesman told them the fob was the only way.
Obviously these people are 0% engineers at heart.

--Patrick
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But wouldn't you at least fiddle with everything in the car, touch every possible button, anything if faced with possible death? These people were a hair away from a Darwin award.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Zero Esc said:
But wouldn't you at least fiddle with everything in the car, touch every possible button, anything if faced with possible death? These people were a hair away from a Darwin award.
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Me? Of course. But I'm > 50% engineer at heart. These people? I'd sure hate to be trapped in an elevator with them.

--Patrick
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Zero Esc said:
But wouldn't you at least fiddle with everything in the car, touch every possible button, anything if faced with possible death? These people were a hair away from a Darwin award.
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I remember when I was in college, I would arrive at class in the mornings to find a bunch of students waiting outside the door. And I would walk up and open it and walk in, prompting the rest to realize the door was unlocked and also enter.

Usually what happened, the first student to arrive simply assumed the door was locked, and the rest after saw them waiting and thought the same.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Ravenpoe said:
I remember when I was in college, I would arrive at class in the mornings to find a bunch of students waiting outside the door. And I would walk up and open it and walk in, prompting the rest to realize the door was unlocked and also enter.

Usually what happened, the first student to arrive simply assumed the door was locked, and the rest after saw them waiting and thought the same.
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In some high schools (mine, for example), you're not supposed to enter a classroom if there wasn't a teacher inside. Presumably this is for vandalism-related reasons. It's possible old habits die hard for these kids, even in college.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

bhamv3 said:
In some high schools (mine, for example), you're not supposed to enter a classroom if there wasn't a teacher inside. Presumably this is for vandalism-related reasons. It's possible old habits die hard for these kids, even in college.
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No, they'd just never fucking check the door.
 
Eriol

Eriol

Ravenpoe said:
I remember when I was in college, I would arrive at class in the mornings to find a bunch of students waiting outside the door. And I would walk up and open it and walk in, prompting the rest to realize the door was unlocked and also enter.

Usually what happened, the first student to arrive simply assumed the door was locked, and the rest after saw them waiting and thought the same.
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I will admit that me and a few friends of mine used to do this DELIBERATELY. Because it was so common to get there ahead of the prof, we used to just sit in the class early. Then one of us (maybe me, don't remember honestly) got the idea "let's just wait right at the door, and see if anybody else is going to try it" and they didn't for the next 4-5 times we tried it. Then some realized we were being dicks and tried it, and that was the end of that, but it definitely worked (even on engineers) for a while.

I'll admit the "ultimate" was one time the prof saw us all waiting, and then cursed and said they'd be right back with their keys from their office. After they were out of sight, we opened the door and let everybody in. When they got back they were told it wasn't locked. The expression on their face was great. ;)
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Mathias said:
I'm tired of reading revenge fantasies for these monsters in the comments sections of news reports. In my mind, revenge fantasy acknowledges that you're no better off than these horrible people. .
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I'm really glad to see someone echoing my sentiments about the revenge fantasies.
 
Dirona

Dirona

Eriol said:
I will admit that me and a few friends of mine used to do this DELIBERATELY. Because it was so common to get there ahead of the prof, we used to just sit in the class early. Then one of us (maybe me, don't remember honestly) got the idea "let's just wait right at the door, and see if anybody else is going to try it" and they didn't for the next 4-5 times we tried it. Then some realized we were being dicks and tried it, and that was the end of that, but it definitely worked (even on engineers) for a while.

I'll admit the "ultimate" was one time the prof saw us all waiting, and then cursed and said they'd be right back with their keys from their office. After they were out of sight, we opened the door and let everybody in. When they got back they were told it wasn't locked. The expression on their face was great. ;)
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Eriol told me where this thread had gone, and said I should share my version of 'no one ever checks the door.'

I was the TA for a large lecture course, and was the proctor/person at the front of the room for the final exam at the end of term. I'm there well in advance, get the room set up, lay out the left over assignments that the lazy fu..*ahem* students hadn't picked up throughout the term, and hang out for a bit. 20 minutes before the start, folks start to trickle in, and as they do I remind them to put bags at the front, silence cell phones, etc. etc. The time comes to start (7pm start if memory serves), I hand out the last of the exams and get them started. I get out the paperwork to take attendance (because that was mangatory), and at the same time notice that the room seems rather sparsely populated (the class had ~100-150 people in it), so I go and open the door; 5 mins after the exam started, and there's close to a quarter of the class hanging around in the hall. :facepalm:

So. Much. Stupid.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

And that's why I don't buy the "criminals wouldn't give up their guns anyways so who cares" argument. Accidents happen and she didn't need that gun.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Texas Child Protective Services employee told 14 year-old girl that she should become a prostitute if she wants to eat.



Far from the only story of children in the "care" of the Texas government being trafficked. All while Texas Republicans feel all smug about banning abortions to protect children, but are just ensuring that even more end up abused by the state.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Florida father and son shoot at innocent woman they thought tried to break in home, sheriff says

A package was misdelivered, and when the person it was mistakenly delivered to tried to get it to the correct address, the person the package was for freaked out because he saw a stranger on his surveillance camera. He proceed to exit his home with his son, both of them armed, and scared the crap out of a woman just sitting here in her car. She wasn't even the one who returned the package. When she tried to get away in a panic, they opened fire on her. They missed, but one of the shots went right through the baby carrier in the back seat, which was thankfully empty.

The state of gun ownership in this country is not acceptable.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
YouTuber shot at Virginia mall food court while filming prank, says he'll keep pranking after recovery

Asshole YouTuber who makes "prank" videos got shot while harassing people at a mall. I'm posting this here because I'm more upset the asshole survived than I am that gun violence occurred, and I don't like that part of myself, but damn I fucking hate "pranks". Don't harass strangers, don't harass people you know if they've asked you to stop. "Can't you take a joke?" is an abusive statement.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Yeah, I'm not a big prank fan at the best of times, but because of the internet's need to go always bigger, always harder, always more, there's been this escalation of things called "pranks" from "innocent joke played on people" to "literal assault and attacks that could leave people seriously hurt or traumatized". Some of the things I've seen passed off as "pranks" are downright vile. And if I dare say something I'm a boomer and all but, well, guess that makes me a boomer (does that mean I can get my retirement check now please?).
 
Frank

Frank

figmentPez said:
YouTuber shot at Virginia mall food court while filming prank, says he'll keep pranking after recovery

Asshole YouTuber who makes "prank" videos got shot while harassing people at a mall. I'm posting this here because I'm more upset the asshole survived than I am that gun violence occurred, and I don't like that part of myself, but damn I fucking hate "pranks". Don't harass strangers, don't harass people you know if they've asked you to stop. "Can't you take a joke?" is an abusive statement.
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NOT THAT I THINK HIS PRANKS WARRANT ATTEMPTED MURDER but his pranks are all borderline (in the case of the fake vomit, not borderline) assault, this guy was gonna get wrecked by this shit sooner or later.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

www.cbsnews.com

Southwest Florida roofing company goes viral for free turkey, AR-15 Thanksgiving sale

A Cape Coral roofing company's Thanksgiving sale special is stirring controversy.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
[The company] announced on its Facebook page that it is offering customers who buy a roof a free turkey and AR-15 with their purchase.
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I told my wife about this, and half-jokingly added that this was their attempt to encourage people to go GOP in tomorrow‘s election, since they would now not only have a shiny new AR-15, they would also have a brand new roof from which to vote.

—Patrick
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
I regret reading this most because it's the first news article I'm reading this morning. No one died, but it is infuriatingly stupid, and representative of an overall terrible trend in this country, which will lead to deaths.

Sherman (Texas) High School transgender student loses lead theater role over gender policy

A policy made specifically for this play. There has been no previous policy, and school leadership says that they may not do this for future plays, but for this one they're requiring that roles be cast according to gender assigned at birth.

"In a statement, the district said the whole show needs to be postponed because of sexual content and profanity."

The show is Oklahoma!, and the show has been previously performed at the high school. The film version of the show was broadcast in 1970 as a Thanksgiving special in prime time.

Additional article: High School Bans Trans Senior From Playing Lead In OKLAHOMA!

"...since there weren’t enough boys to fill out the male ensemble, girls were cast as 'cowboys,' but they have now been informed they can’t play those chorus roles."

This is monumentally stupid, and intentionally cruel. One of the fundamental aspects of theater is getting up on stage and pretending to be someone you're not. It takes an especially small minded, petty, and vindictive person to argue that a male student can't play a male part because they're not a cisgendered male. They're getting up on stage and pretending to be in a different year, in a different state, with a different name, in a fictional scenario. Why should it make any difference if someone thinks they're also pretending to be a different gender?

I don't even want to get into the long history of cross-gender casting in theater. Pointing out that men played all the female roles back in Shakespeare's day, or that female actresses are often cast as Peter Pan just confuses the point that this is a male student who was cast in a male role.
 
Shawn

Shawn

figmentPez said:
I regret reading this most because it's the first news article I'm reading this morning. No one died, but it is infuriatingly stupid, and representative of an overall terrible trend in this country, which will lead to deaths.

Sherman (Texas) High School transgender student loses lead theater role over gender policy
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Very dumb and insensitive. There's nothing about Oklahoma that says it's off-limits to modernizing (hell. There is a recent major revival that was touring last year that was basically "how can we diversify this casting as much as possible?"). I guarantee some of the locals (Texas. So yeah. It's clearly the locals) have made their threats and the school caved.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Shawn said:
I guarantee some of the locals (Texas. So yeah. It's clearly the locals) have made their threats and the school caved.
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Almost certainly. I only question if this is just part of the general trend of conservatives pushing transphobia? Or did the parents of a student passed over for the lead use politicized transphobia to try to get their son the lead in a play?
 
Shawn

Shawn

figmentPez said:
Almost certainly. I only question if this is just part of the general trend of conservatives pushing transphobia? Or did the parents of a student passed over for the lead use politicized transphobia to try to get their son the lead in a play?
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The answer to all questions is yes.
 
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