Zachary Sowers, R.I.P.
The brutal beating of young Zachary Sowers in Baltimore–and the continuing story of his vigilant wife, Anna–have touched many lives over the past 10 months. A pack of thugs pummeled Sowers into a coma last summer. They received measly sentences; Sowers’ wife is fighting for tougher laws. On Tuesday night, Sowers died of his injuries. He was 28:
In the 10 months since teenagers set upon Zachary Sowers and pummeled him into a coma, he lingered in oblivion. While his swollen face gradually resumed its natural form, he fought off infections and seemed to react, almost imperceptibly, to sounds in his hospital room.
But Sowers never recovered consciousness. He died Tuesday night at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center “after a long and treacherous battle” against his injuries, a Web site set up in his name announced yesterday. He was 28.
His wife, Anna, to whom he had been married just nine months at the time of the attack, said in a brief interview that she was grateful that “we had so many supporters to help us get through all of this.”
He will be buried on Saturday in Circleville, Ohio, where he was born and spent part of his childhood.
The apparently random attack on Sowers occurred on a June night as he walked near his Patterson Park home. His wallet, cell phone and watch were stolen. One of the teenagers was seen stomping on Sowers’ head, and was later sentenced to 40 years in prison.
News of the Sowers case stirred an uproar over rampant criminality on Baltimore’s streets, particularly in Southeast Baltimore neighborhoods that city officials had sought to paint as safe for up-and-coming professional couples like Sowers and his wife. None was more vocal than Anna Sowers herself, who called her husband’s main attacker, 16-year-old Trayvon Ramos, “an evil person, completely soulless.”
After hearing of Sowers’ death, Mayor Sheila Dixon issued a statement saying she was saddened, and offered prayers for his family and friends.
“His loss is a tragedy for the entire city of Baltimore,” Dixon said. “We must continue to work hard to ensure the safety of every citizen.”
Apologists for punks in the city haven’t worked hard enough.
Sowers was attacked after spending a Friday evening with friends in a bar. Because his wallet was stolen, he remained unidentified at Johns Hopkins Hospital for more than a day. His wife, who was in Chicago at the time, began to worry that something had happened to him because he failed to return phone calls or text messages, and his friends in Baltimore couldn’t track him down.
With the help of city police, Anna Sowers learned that there was an unidentified man at Hopkins who had been found unconscious in the street. When she arrived at the hospital - nearly a full day after the attack - her husband’s face was so badly bruised and swollen that she had trouble identifying him.
For months after the beating, Anna Sowers would rub Burt’s Bees balm on his lips to keep them from drying as he lay unresponsive in bed, she said in an interview last year with The Sun. It was a tip she had learned from a nurse.
Ten days after the attack in the 300 block of S. Robinson St., four teenagers were arrested. Police discovered that the teenagers had used Sowers’ credit card to rent two movies - Déjà Vu and Smokin’ Aces - and reviewed surveillance camera footage from a gas station that showed the car they drove.
Arthur Jeter, 18; Wilburt Martin, 19; Eric L. Price, 17; and Ramos were charged with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and related offenses. In December, Price, Jeter and Martin pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery after agreeing to testify against Ramos, who was accused of beating Sowers while Price watched. The other two had observed from the car.
In exchange for their guilty pleas, Price, Jeter and Martin received 30-year prison terms with all but 15 years suspended. They stand to serve about eight.
Ramos, the ringleader, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted first-degree murder.
Anna Sowers, who had nothing but praise for the city police detectives who worked on her husband’s case, said after the court hearing that the sentences “disgusted” her. “I feel that today, justice was not served at all,” she said. “I feel like I’ve got no rights.”
Amid all the crimes last year in Baltimore, the brutal attack on Sowers struck a chord. Politicians promised to step up law enforcement.
Anna Sowers told a reporter that she wanted politicians to do something about crime. “It’s people like me and Zach who will make Baltimore a better city,” she said. “I should be able to walk two blocks to my car at night and feel safe.”
The Zach Sowers website has info on how to help:
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be sent to the Zach Sowers Support Fund, which will be used for The Zach Sowers Brain Trauma Research Fund at Johns Hopkins and/or continuing legislative efforts for Zach’s Law. Contributions can be mailed to:
Frederick County Bank
30 West Patrick Street
Frederick, MD 21701
301-620-1400
Contact Person: Lori Cromwell at Frederick County Bank
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Since Mr. Sowers has, sadly, passed on, could his attackers now be charged with murder? That should certainly get their sentences extended.
News reports say no. And that is what Anna Sowers is trying to get changed.
How sad. These democrat controlled cities are the equivalent of hell on earth.
MM,
I hope the law gets changed. This young man and his wife deserve more. If those thugs and societal miscreants had not attacked him, he would be alive. Matters not to me that he died months after the attack, the fact of the matter remains, they caused his death because of their attack.
May God the Father Almighty rest his Soul and comfort his wife.
Exactly right Rockstar. Baltimore, DC, St. Louis, Chicago, LA, Birmingham the list goes on and on. Democrap rule has ruined those once great cities.
I think those punk criminals know what’s in store for them in the years ahead.
I say leave the Democrat controlled hell on earth cities to the animals who live there and move elsewhere….life is respected in many counties that surround these hellholes…let them fall into the abyss.
Two words:
Concealed Carry.
If the news reports no, then it is probably a result of a written plea agreement, not a flaw in the law (unless they are going to make it illegal for a DA to waive the potential for increasing charges later if the level of criminality for the same offense rises like it did here).
2 more words… capital punishment.
a 10 month old case? SHAME on Baltimore for trying this case WAY TOO EARLY!
If they didn’t leave a door open for murder charges, they should be fired.
Right to speedy trial doesn’t give freedom from murder charges.
I guess there must be some sort of stupid clause in the law. Attempted murder and murder are two different crimes. There is no double indemnity. The law should be changed.
May he rest in peace.
Our prayers and condolences to the Sowers family and friends may they find some piece that Zachary no longer lingers from this savage attack.
There seems to be no description of the animals who committed this crime.
If the animals were white, this would have been in bold in the 1st sentence. Am I correct to surmise that these animals that committed this heinous crime are “typical black people”?
When are these hate crimes commited by “typical black people” going to be prosecuted as hate crimes.
This is the end result of the Rev. Wrights of our country and their hate whitey preachings.
God Bless and comfort Mrs. Sowers and the families of the victim of this senseless violence.
We can only hope the God grants:
Hell on Earth to the convicted!
We know He’ll grant grace and love to Mr. Sower and his selfless wife.
God Bless them both!
This cesspool needs to be flushed. The lawlessness and dispare that the democratic regime produces is smothering America. Wright was wrong. It is the liberals who are damning America. So God, please do something with them.
Concealed Carry.
“When seconds count, the police are minutes away!”
I haven’t followed this story so I may be asking dumb questions. If so, please enlighten me.
This person has died of his injuries. The injuries were caused by the beating he recieved. Isn’t this a new crime now? Probably not first degree murder, but at the very least manslaughter.
I don’t think double jeapardy applies in this instance.
RIP. The human debris that caused the departed man’s injuries should be composted a la “Fargo.”
Citizens of Maryland need to make some serious noise to get these 4 savages re-tried for felony murder and accessories to felony murder.
If Maryland law doesn’t allow for this it needs to be changed.
At least some states, if the victim of an assault dies of their injuries within a specified period of time (often 1 year) the assailants can be re-charged with manslaughter or murder even if previously convicted of say aggravated assault.
The death of the victim makes it a new crime.
And double jeopardy only applies to acquittals, where the State may not re-indict or appeal a “Not Guilty” verdict.
If the prosecutor in this case made a deal where no murder charge would be sought in the event of Mr Sowers’s death in return for guilty pleas, that prosecutor should be fired post-haste!
If such a deal is legally binding on the State of Maryland, their Legislature needs to change the law.
Plea bargaining needs to be abolished for serious crimes.
If the State doesn’t have the evidence needed to sustain its charges it should not bring the case. If it does, then the defendant can enter a plea, if the plea is “Not Guilty” a trial is held on the State’s evidence.
The “bargain” should be if the defendant is guilty and pleads so, that can be used as evidence of contrition at their determination of placement or parole hearing.
this article mad me so angry i actually started crying.
i went though the web site and read many of the posts - one included an article written in the BaltSun where a black man was offended at the thought of some new facility on Gay Street “locking up our babies”…well, maybe if people didn’t raise their children to act like park apes, they wouldn’t have to be caged. and they’re lucky they’re being caged, because in my world, they’d simply be dead. i could care less about a thugs rehabilitation.
there’s a reason people are moving out of these liberal bastions…
This story really got to me and I went to the website of the family and friends. Many parts touched me. One, in particular, brought home the reality of this couples’ plight.
[November 5th, 2007] 4:00am
After the wedding, Oct 2006Zach is still stable at Hopkins. He has his own room, which is great. We are starting to fill his room with photos, cards, stuffed animals and other memories again since he will remain at Hopkins. There isn’t much to report on Zach’s progress but we thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
I’d like to thank all of Zach’s coworkers for the money that they have raised and continue to raise. Their fundraising skills have raised over $15,000 and they even had a huge quilt made as part of the fundraising plans. The money will definitely come in handy because Zach’s insurance will probably run out in a few months and I will need to figure out how to pay about $1,000 a day for his care. The state will ask that I spend down all of our money before they consider helping. So, I will soon have to spend down all of our savings, including Zach’s retirement, to pay for hospital care, while the 4 boys’ families sit at home and owe nothing to us, the city or the state.
After reading this, can anyone tell me a good reason to even attempt to “Rehabilitate” the animals who did this?
Talk about a sentence: Zach got death and Anna got life without parole!
The killers: We can only hope they TRUELY get what they deserve!
NHMagenta said:
Plea bargaining is a useful tool that frequently gets some jail time in questionable cases or politically loaded instances.
That said, if this DA signed away the ability to increase the charges when they had 3 accomplices available to testify against the killer, that is a demonstration of ludicrously bad judgment. We elect D.A.s to practice what we believe is good judgment in enforcing the law (even if different people have different standards of what is “good judgment”)
The next step is recall petitions, not necessarily new law (maybe narrowly tailored to preclude D.A.s waiving authority to increase charges in the case of deaths subsequent to the plea date)
It seems odd to me that the killers could not be punished in this case - even under the old common law rule, a death need only occur within a year and a day from the original attack to be a murder, and this rule has largely been overturned.
In any case, according to the article, the “ringleader” who appears to have delivered the fatal blow, received 40 years in a plea deal - likely about what he would have received had it been a murder in a plea deal. The light punishments for the rest, however, are unlisted. I’m not sure what legal argument exists against going after these thugs for murder.
Sick, sick, sick.
I’ve followed this story for a while now and if I remember correctly, the lead assailant’s plea suspended all but 40 years of a life sentence. Had he been charged with murder, given his record, the sentence guidelines were 15-30 years. He could have been out in 7. As absolutely ridiculous as it is for this thug to not be charged with murder, the plea guarantees the 40 years.
Read this comment on Baltimore Sun:
“Racism ?
9 blacks almost beat to death a white woman on bus = No Hate Crime.
4 blacks beat white man into coma who dies 9 months later from his injuries = No Hate Crime.
But on the news yesterday there’s a bill about to be passed that if you hang a noose = Hate Crime.
And they wonder why there is Racism.”
And I agree with #17, the crims in this case were not tried for murder or manslaughter, but since the victim has now died from the attack, it’s murder and they should be re-sentenced. NOT re-tried - they’ve already been found guilty - just re-sentenced.
I was raised in Baltimore, and I visit a few times a year, but I will never again live in a state that doesn’t allow me to carry a concealed firearm. I live in Florida, and if this type of crime was tried on me, there would be dead thugs instead of dead me.
1. I was never even aware of this case!
2. Where the hell is Sharpton concerning this civil rights violation?
3. Is there a declared war on white people amongst Baltimore teens…or for every Zachary Sowers, are there two innocent black victims we never hear about?
This seems to be getting out of hand down there.
On March 27th, 2008 at 11:23 pm, BrianNY
I was unaware of this crime prior to tonight.
Sharpton should race bait it but he won’t (because he only does that for African Amenrican victims),
Four on ONE is an “Unfair” fight my friend - ANYWAY you cut it!
People who have to live in places like Baltimore need to carry, licensed or not.
He died because a gang of sub-humans beat him. If he had died that night, it would have been murder.
Because his agony was prolonged by several months, why is it not still murder? If these disgusting things who try to pass as humans had not beaten him, he would still be alive. Where the hell is the justice?
Obama and his “Minister” would no doubt have a complex explanation about the scourge of anti-white, oriental, Mexican crime unleashed on America. And Bush would likely agree. This man provoked his death. Or his ancestors did. Or some garlic nosed Italian did 2 mellenia ago….
Baltimore Crime Blog Site December 8: According to Friday’s plea deal, if Eric Price, Arthur Jeter and Wilburt Martin, three of Zach Sowers’ admitted attackers, testify against the fourth assailant, Trayvon Ramos, or if Ramos accepts a plea agreement, their sentences will be eight years, and they will not be charged with murder should Sowers die as a result of the attack. Arthur Jeter and Wilburt Martin also pleaded guilty yesterday to another robbery two days after the Sowers attack, and Price pleaded guilty to stealing a woman’s purse a day after.
I’m wondering if these four are forgiven the customary first 100 felonies as on the job training. This is not my thought and I know not its origin but I concur: we may be a nation of laws but we are not a nation of law enforcement. Where this is true I find diversity is the mother of incompetence.
“After hearing of Sowers’ death, Mayor Sheila Dixon issued a statement saying she was saddened, and offered prayers for his family and friends.”
yeah right. I’ll bet. More like she probably prayed for the criminals that they don’t get caught next time.
That’s an awful story. I’ve had a pretty bad experience in a “good part” of baltimore so I can understand. Not to mention the rampant, aggressive, and rude panhandlers. I try to avoid that city if possible.
A good friend who went to school there was robbed at gunpoint twice during college.
Absolutely sickening that this violence committed all too frequently on whites at the hands of black thugs who are no better than a jihadist!
I’m sick of it!
For 10-15 years I was imagining the day I finally retired and moved back to the states. That time has come and I am sickened by the moral decay at the hands of the PC bastards in our nation!
And Rev. Wright wonders why we are building more jails for these animals?
Outrageous.
My heart breaks for the family of Zachary Sowers, especially his young wife. What a nightmare.
Thanks, liberals, for creating a culture where the CRIMINALS have more rights and deserve more “justice” than the VICTIMS they rob, rape, maim and murder. Way to go.
I made the mistake a couple weeks ago of setting my GPS to “avoid highways” when traveling back to northern Virginia from Lancaster, PA…..I was ok until the damned thing routed me through what I thought was the most frightening area I’ve EVER driven through…in Baltimore. My wife was following me in another car and I was praying out loud the entire time…LOUDER when there was a red light or stop-sign. Inner Harbor or not, I’m NEVER going back to Baltimore.
What happened to Zach Sowers should not be tolerated. These four monsters (and I use the term literally) should rot in prison for murder not attempted murder. To know 3 of these thugs will get out in 8 years is not good enough. I agree with Anna Sowers: they all should have to serve lengthy prison sentences in the general prison community and when her husband died, they should all gone on trial for murder.
Does anyone know what these 4 ruffians have to say for themselves? Did reporters in the Baltimore area interview them? What do they have to say for themselves?
Baltimore is as much a “charming” city as Philadelphia. I don’t much care for cities with the kind of criminal antics teenage thugs commit for the gain of a victim’s credit card. When will the citizens of these two cities say enough is enough, have the laws changed, and the politicians act accordingly and clean up the streets once and for all?
This Ramos kid especially should be on death row. When you blatantly stomp on someone’s head, and have careless regard for that other person’s life… your life should be taken away. Where’s the justice for the victim and his wife Anna when even the laws are applied so loosely and in favor of criminal hooligans instead of the victims they’re “supposed” to protect?
We are creeping towards the european style of justice. More punishment will be meted out against violaters of tax laws that represent revenue, than what should be given violent criminals.
What the heck are you talking about? This is the fault of a prosecutor who gave too lenient of a plea deal. Under normal conditions, these four would be charged with murder immediately.
So are you looking for a law that would limit plea bargains? As much as I hate the deal these people got, the dirty little secret of the American judicial system is that it absolutely depends on plea bargains. Criminal court cases cost too much money and way too much time to make them worth it.
As for the “Democrat Hell on Earth cities,” give me a break. That doesn’t even make sense.
I’m reposting this link again. Where a Philly man was just beaten to death in the center city subway line by four high school kids.
I wonder what Obama has to say about this. Is it whitey’s fault for creating this atmosphere 50 years ago? Or are people responsible for their own words and actions?
tommad, I actually walked from Pimlico in Baltimore to the closest subway station at 11pm. The walk was a little over a mile.
The entire time I kept thinking to myself, “What the Hell am I doing?”
Yeah, all the signs there that say “Charm City” and “The Greatest City on Earth”… well, I respectfully disagree.
Baltimore, New Orleans, Camden, Philadelphia, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans. What do these cities have in common? They are controlled by the democrats, and ahve been for decades, and they all have extremely high murder rates. What’s so hard to understand about that?
???
So obviously anytime a white male commits a violent crime you are going to wonder what Senator McCain has to say about it? Because otherwise the statement you just made is the worst kind of racial double standard.
Thank you Rusty for your insight on the white racist race in America……knucklehead!
Hmm, it seems to me that McCain didn’t just go out and make a speech excusing his mentor for hate speech.
i think it’s time victims of criminals who are repeat offenders start suing municipalities that let these thugs out, ESPECIALLY when they do not serve their entire sentences in jail. it’s the job, THIS IS WHY WE PAY TAXES, of cities/counties/states to keep its citizenry safe. we’re discouraged from carrying our own weapons, only to put our lives in the hands of the state who is 1) wholly incapable of protecting us all and 2) consistently working against us when they’re lenient on actual criminals.
If John McCain were to say that a KKK member was justified because his mother was raped by a black man,, then yes I’d expect to know what his excuse was for every other racially motivated crime where the perp is a white guy. Since he’s never made such an excuse, I don’t expect him to have to defend anything.
OTH, Obama made the point of saying Wrights speech was a direct product of the environment he lived in. And given that environment, you should not have expected Wright to say anything else. Now supposing that the Bmore attack and the Philly attacked I linked to had a racial component, then why, by the same logic shouldn’ Obama be blaming Whitey for what happened here?
Maryland laws make it impossible to defend yourself against animals like the ones that killed Mr Sowers.
Is it no wonder theses sub-human beasts are running rampant given that the liberals in MD coddle them and never hold them accountable for the consequences of their actions?
The people of MD need to put fear into their lives - and the way to do it is allow people to arm themselves in self defense, whether at home or out in public. Change the laws to allow “must-issue” concealed carry permits. Put a few sheep dogs out there amongst the sheep.
Only after a few of these mutts get gunned down things will change.
“pour encourager les autres”…
Carry a gun. If everyone was armed, these cowards would either be dead or have fewer victims.
This makes me sick. These boys, every one of them, should be taken to garbage dump, walked to the ledge, and shot.
Add Milwaukee to that list. And keep an eye on the city because our new Chief of Police, Ed Flynn, is in the hot seat for saying he won’t let his department be a “punching bag” for special interest/grievance groups, in relation to this case, where a cop was nearly run over by a drunken man, forcibly removed said man from the car, and is now accused of “brutality”.
Rusty - Obama just got on television, made excuses from here to eternity for his pastor’s racist comments, called his grandmother a “typical” white person and really made no acceptable apology or gave no real explanation of why he stayed at that church.
Wright’s attitude is that whatever happens to America (or white people) we somehow deserve for the past. Guess what - Zachary Sowers was born in 1980. Not 1780. Not 1880. Like many of the white victims of crime, he had nothing to do with slavery, Jim Crow, or the Civil Rights movement.
Yet people like Wright blame *us* (read: typical white people) for the crime that black people cause. That *our* policies have somehow driven thugs like this to beat a man to death over a wallet.
So taylork’s comment was not only appropriate, but spot-on. Like me, I’m betting you hadn’t heard much about this story until today and it’s not unreasonable to think the media template regarding racism had something to do with that.
Rusty:
Quick question, are you a criminal defense attorney?
I think you are because, for the last two days and on two separate cases/threads, you have argued ceaselessly on behalf of criminals’ rights, while almost negating the rights of the victims and their families to receive justice.
Obama should have apologized for the wacky AIDS paranoia that rev. Wright was spewing. He doesn’t need to apologize for anything else any more than the students at Liberty University had to apologize for the things that came out of Falwell’s mouth.
And regardless, what Rev. Wright ahs nothing to do with four black people murdering a white man. Nothing at all.
The old stale moral equivalency argument. Racist black ministers can spew hatred from the pulpit and continue to capitalize on a victim mentality because of Jerry Falwell. You take everyone for a fool.
Rev. Wright has everything to do with this in that his anger and hatred justifies the actions of such young men. It is his hate whitey speech. He is not the only one, but obviously it has worked on Obama who has even turned on his white grandmother.
My heart goes out to the Sower family and every other victim of black on white hate crimes that is occuring way to frequently.
BTW-don’t feed the trolls guys.
taylork-I agree with your assessment-now get out there and get your own talk radio show man!
GSP
The issue is the Wright’s hate speech was excused based upon the notion that previous racial injustices had occured.
So the issue is what behavior gets to be excused under the guise of previous racial injustice? Given that Obama made appoint of saying that black families couldn’t accumulate wealth do to redlining and shadey loan practices, does this excuse burlary. Does it excuse 4 teenagers who were supposed to be in school bt were truant because the education system is unfair?
Obama brought up a list of grievances, despite saying he woulnd’t two sentences prior BTW, so one has to wonder what actions are excusable based on those grievances, and which ones aren’t.
Obama painted himself into a corner and now he has to deal with it.
Rusty, you don’t seem to understand that what Rev. Wright says and those like him, do have an impact on the congregants of his church. I don’t remember Falwell blaming the black man (not sure if he ever did, if he did it was probably 30-40 years ago) for anything although he was stupid to blame gays for 9/11 (even some of his own students denounced him for that but I know you’re not a fan of his anyway so it wouldn’t matter to you regardless). Wright blames the cracker for every conceived slight against the black man. So by living in this “up and coming” neighborhood whitey is taking over what should rightfully be the blackman’s kindgom in the minds of many blacks. Where do you think that comes from? Saw a story on the NBC affiliate here in DC yesterday where blacks were complaining about the new baseball stadium and how they were being “pushed out” by all this progress. You don’t think they blamed whitey for that?
I remember seeing something about this story in Oct. (probably on here). There’s a reason we don’t go to the Charm City anymore.
Yes, a conceal/carry permit is the way to go. I happily conceal my weapon at all opportunities with my permit in my wallet as well.
Pity, Patterson Park used to be a fairly nice place when I was growing up in the Baltimore metro area. Like a previous poster, I too no longer live in Maryland, but do return a few times each year to visit my surviving parent. Its sad to see what were once nice neighborhoods, now gone bad. The Inner Harbor is nice, but stray a few blocks north towards Lexington Market and the picture changes dramatically. Don’t think its useful to blame democrats either -with the expection of Spiro Agnew, they pretty much ran things while I was growing up.
And people in Columbia Heights are very nervous about the new super mall. The Target, Best Buy, and dozens of restaurants is going to drive up property taxes and force some to leave. I won’t deny rapid gentrification’s net benefit to the city, but it still hurts neighborhoods.
And people should be upset about the stadium. We wasted over $670M of public money to give people a fancy playground.
Full disclosure: I am kind of a hypocrite. I love the Target and I’ve already bought a slew of baseball tickets. But this progress is indeed coming at the expense of poorer communities. In this case Latinos and blacks. The people hurt by this should be upset.
Not just sue municipalities but the criminals that did this. Take them and their enabling families to the cleaners. The criminals should be paying the medical bills of their victims, not the victim. Unfortunately, how many of these criminals lead responsible lives (both socially, sexually, or fiscally) before they commit their crimes?
Yeah, I know… you can’t get blood from a stone or money from a deadbeat.
Well Rusty, glad to see you admit what you are. I refuse to go any professional sports games anymore and actually haven’t since the 1981 baseball strike. I can never understand why cities all over this country bend over backwards and take millions and millions to build these pampered athletes a great stadium. Heck, even in FL where my parents live they want little castles for the 6-8 weeks they’re there for spring training. It is ridiculous.
Why should they get mad though if it can bring employment to the people of the neighborhood as one man stated. Of course if they can hire illegals instead for a cheaper wage I’m sure they’ll do that.
I realize that many will think I’m un-American for not getting excited about professional sports. I enjoy college sporting events but not pro ones. I just remember being 17 years old, making $3200 a year carrying out groceries in all kinds of wintery Chicagoland weather and these clowns were making (yes much less by todays standards) money playing little kids games. We used to go to Comiskey Park all the time on Opening Day as a kid and had partial season tickets for the rest of the year. After that fiasco we missed Opening Day in 1982 and never went back.
Now that’s nonsense! Very nervous about having jobs coming to their areas? Oh yeah…I forgot…if jobs are actually being created in these areas….some folks will run out of an excuse to stay on the public teat! Maybe they are upset because one of their excuses is being taken away when the opportunity (key word here) arises to actually apply for employment at one of these new establishments? Work? What’s that? That’s for stupid whitey……now where’s my forty oz.? I can’t get no 24″ DUBS on my car or purchase that bling I’ve been scopin’ with a low wage Best Buy job no how! And I ain’t gonna bus no tables neither…that’s slave work yo!
Surveyor, do not speak of what you do not know. Your casual racism nonwithstanding, obviously you’re right that Target and Best Buy provide jobs. But if you own a house in the area, can you afford your taxes jumping by 500%? A local charity by the new stadium has already been forced to leave since they couldn’t afford the new costs.
If you’re a renter in a rapidly improving area, your landlord/apartment is going to jack up the rent. Why? Because he/she/they can and there’s nothing to stop them.
The city is taking in boatloads of cash, but it comes at the expense of the people in neighborhoods dominated by minorities.
To be fair, it’s the ownership that typically demand the new stadiums, not the players.
I’ve also be incensed at the driving up property taxes logic. Do the people who make this claim not understand that if they can’t pay their property taxes
because they substantially increased, then the value of their homes has substantially increased as well? Boo hoo your house is worth more.
If you’re taxes increased by 500%, then the assessed value of your house jumped 500% as well. Take the profits and move somewhere cheaper. Furthermore, most cities have programs in place to deal with sudden increases in property taxes. Here in Philly, if you’re elderly, you get to stay at the previous assessment, rather than pay the new assessment.
Furtermore, why should some people be protected from landlords who increase the rent, while others aren’t. Now’s the opportunity to move to a nicer, cheaper area.
Ha that’s funny! First…I do know what I speak Rusty. I live in North Texas…north of the DFW metroplex and in one of the fastest growing cities in the country! Within one mile of where I live…let’s see….we have a new Target, a new Circuit City, several new restaurants, new roads and new subdivisions going up left and right…new bank locations aaaannnndd…oh yeah, a new Super Wal Mart too! One thing I haven’t seen is my property taxes go up 500%. That seems a little steep don’t ya think?
Casual racism?….PUHLEEEZE Rusty….I’m not gonna lose any sleep over that you know.
But, back to the topic at hand….Rest in Peace Mr. Sower.
I won’t live in the inner city of any town no matter how much lipstick they put on the ogre and call it gentrified. What happened to this poor gentleman is why. If you have projects two blocks away, you will also have crime two blocks away: prostitution, drug dealing, gang activity, robbery, murder, and all of the other fun things that go with the euphemism “affordable housing.” Put some well-heeled professionals close by and it’s too irresistible to the predators.
Let’s hope this kicks Marylanders in the butt and get the laws changed.
And why have we not heard more about this case? Warning, this story is extremely violent, true, and may upset the more fragile viewers, although MM has covered it in the past.
This is why you need a death penalty. These creatures are are whack-a-mole IEDs on legs.
I think that what will preclude resentencing or a further charge of murder in this case will be the terms of the plea deal, or a variation of the prohibition against double jeopardy, or both.
A conviction for attempted murder is treated the same as a murder conviction when it comes to sentencing; if you’ve been convicted of the attempt, you’ve for all practical purposes been convicted of murder.
A question in this regard is whether the rule against double jeopardy, which prevents multiple prosecutions for the same or “similar” charges based on the same facts, would lump the two crimes together. That is, does the failure to convict for attempted murder invoke double jeopardy against a murder prosecution when the victim later dies?
If the attempted murder charge was dropped in a plea bargain, then even if the plea terms didn’t specifically preclude bringing later murder charges the deal itself could still constitute a final judgment: not only of the attempt charge, but also the “similar” charge of murder - and double jeopardy is invoked.
It looks like the prosecutors opted to take the quick and comparatively easy path to securing convictions without trial. Whether the resulting sentences were worth the bargain is debatable, but it would seem there’s no going back for a mulligan on this one.
I remember this story, Azygos. I read it on another website/blog and was absolutely horrified. As someone who has been touched by senseless crime that happened to both family and friends, all I can say is that I think what happened to these two Tennessee college students was a hate crime. They were not only killed but their bodies were desecrated. These are the actions of animals, not civilized human beings.
Though I know nothing of these sick individuals, all I can do is speculate and make observations as to the reasons why they killed two people. I think the breakdown of the family, especially in the black community, is a huge underlying reason why these animals did what they did. Nobody in their lives saw fit to give them morals, consciences, or ethics. No adult role models in kids’ lives usually results in one thing- more prison inmates to shelter and feed.
Some other reasons, based on my years as a teacher, and through observation:
1. Lack of impulse control. When you don’t take a minute to think about what you’re doing, you and others have to live with the consequences.
2. Glorification of violence. In can be anything from video games too mature for kids that their stupid/ignorant parents buy them or the existence of gangs. Either way, young minds are molded nonetheless.
3. Peer influence. If kids get into the wrong crowd (and I’ve seen this through personal experience), trouble follows.
4. No goals in life. If you have nothing to strive for, carjacking, petty crime, and felonies are a given.
5. Hip hop or what I like to call “gutter culture.” When culture teaches you that violence, disrespecting women, and disrespecting yourself is normal… what kind of individual results from such influence?
6. Culture of dependence… if you haven’t learned to do for yourself, then commiting crimes against others is a given.
While I don’t know if any of the “reasons” I just described lead to this horrific, senseless incident, I think that any functioning humanity in these individuals was already gone when they commited their crimes. Let’s not waste our precious resources on these thugs… end their lives as quickly as they did to this young couple. Unfortunately, the black thugs in this case will be celebrated as heroes by some in the black community and wider circle of “friends.”
Rusty. You should think before typing. On your last comment you were speaking about property taxes going up on the properties where there is urban renewal. Then in the next paragraph you are complaing that the landlords raise the rent in these same areas. What do you think the landlords should do? Just except the loss. That was a very lame argument. And if they don’t improve those neighborhoods they just fall apart because the folks that live there just spray tags all over the place and do nothing to improve their conditions. That is always somebody elses job as far as they are concerned. If the entrepeneurs try to build further out. Then another person like you starts complaing about sprawl. And the minorities complain that the stadium is too far away for them to attend. Please tell us the solution Soloman.
This is an intersting story related to Mr. Sowers death. A police officer who was shot 41 years ago died as a result of the wounds he incurred 4 decades ago. The shooter served his time for attempted murder and is now being charged for murder.
I would think the same thing could apply for this case in Baltimore, but I’m no lawyer.
I don’t think anyone is doing anything wrong. The city benefits tremendously. Landlords confronted with skyrocketing taxes should charge more for rent.
I’m just saying that these benefits come also severely hurt many people. Tenants and homeowners may be forced to move or face financial ruin.
I can only really speak to the specifics of Columbia Heights in DC. The scenario you envision didn’t apply there.
taylork, I was looking for another case like that but couldn’t find it on the Internets.
I know there’s no statute of limitations for murder, but if a person serves their time I think that charging them with a more serious offense after the fact is a bit much.
That’s an interesting story, taylork - it would seem, at least from the prosecutor’s take, that attempted murder and murder can be tried separately, and decades apart.
I’d still expect the defense to raise arguments related to proximate causation and double jeopardy; it’ll be interesting to see how the trial turns out.
No, it isn’t. Their actions directly resulted in the death of Zachary Sowers. There is no statute of limitations on murder so murderers don’t go unpunished.
This new case is still pending, though he has been charged. I’ve never heard of anything like it before, and from what I remember its an extraordinary case, so we’ll wee how it plays out.
The case I remember was a person who was paralyzed. The perp spent a decade in jail and a few years after he was released the victim’s body failed and he died. So they wanted to recharge him.
Let me be clear that I think there’s a difference between someone dying eight months after an attack and someone dying 40 years later and after the criminal spent a good deal of time in jail. In a perfect world, the four Baltimore murderers would be tried on murder charged but a prosecutor punted that to get a quick and easy conviction.
Being in the affordable housing field, the issue of tenants not being able to pay for their rent once the landlords improve is something I deal with on a constant basis( I’ve said before I don’t have much sympathy for homeowners since their home would have had to substantially icnreas in value for them to be impacted by a large increase in property taxes).
Unfortunately, there’s not a fantastic solution, supposing, that the old tenant doesn’t benefit from the improved economy, that benefits all sides, unless the prior tenant can move to a better area that has a cheaper cost of living; however, that typically means moving to another city or state.
Thi is one of the more compelling reasons for mized use housing, wherein the landlord receives a tax-credit for keeping their housing affordable, thus offsetting the the difference between what they are getting in rent and what they could be getting in rent.
The only surefire way to help is to continually improve the economy, which also means that people must take it upon themselves to do the extra work to benefit. Unfortutnately, thhey don’t always do that(I recognize that some can’t, although I think it’s a small minority), and the problem just shifts to another area.
I think that’s the same case I linked to, unless the one you’re thinking of happened more than a year ago.
gentrification (w/o the use of eminent domain) hurts cities specifically because of liberal policies in force there. it was THIS issue that started my conversion to conservatism.
I was still in high school so I think it was a different case.
By the way, regarding gentrification, the point you make about people needing to move somewhere else. The dirty little secret of DC is improve things here and let the poor people move into Maryland. So gentrification is not a concern at all. It becomes someone else’s problem.
gentrification is only becoming PG Co’s problem…another bastion of liberalism.
as the poor from DC move into PG and ruin it, those with the means are moving from PG to other counties (Howard, MontCo, AA, and Charles) to escape.
There was a case in GA last year where a teacher was attacked by a student. She went into a coma and the boy was tried in juvie court. He served whatever time (I believe he was released on the 21st birthday but I could be wrong) and was out a few months before the woman died of her wounds. They were going to try him for murder. I wish I could remember the names but it was in the Augusta region. We moved so I don’t know what became of the case.
nods Azygos (#70), there’s been almost zero in news about the Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian murders.. it’s weird the lack of publicity, considering the severity of those murders.
nyc123me,
Its the same here in Tennessee, and I have been following the case from the Knoxville newspaper and its being buried deep in the paper.
The bigger issue is why non-black on black crime gets lots of media attention, protest marches and etc, and yet when the same thing happens of black on non-black-there is rarely a peep. Most people would not have heard about the Christian-Newsome murders if it hadn’t been for the bloggsphere.
HHmmm….12% of the population committing 49% of the violent crimes of rape, murder, and assualt. Just something to think about.
GSP
To be extremely blunt, I am finding it more and more difficult not to become a racist. Unfortunately, however, there are no easy solutions even within the moral universe of my own head. I can not write off a whole race, but it is becoming increasingly hard not to.
In my opinion, there is a significant — but depressingly small — portion of the black community that utterly rejects all of the social pathology that stews within sick black American culture. I’d put that number — those who utterly reject the criminality, the drugs, the gangsta culture, fatherless childrearing, welfare dependency, corrupt urban politics, always blame whitey, etc — those in the black community who utterly reject all of this I would guess to be less than 30 per cent. I think I am being generous.
An even larger chunk of the black community, IMO, attemps, more or less, to live reasonable, responsible lives. They go to their jobs everyday and generally obey the law. But they are ~enablers~ and apologists. They listen to the crap in the black media, they go to churches with “pastors” like the Rev. Wright, they support corrupt black politicians, and they generally support the culture of entitlement, historical grievance, and denial or black responsibility.
Then, of course, there is the fruit of all of this, the twenty per cent or so of the black population that has turned our inner cities into third world jungles. They are vicious predators. They are mostly semi-literate, at best. They are utterly unsocialized savages. They are scum. And they are having a devastating impact on American life.
In my own area, a couple of these thugs recently murdered Eve Carson, the lovely, beloved, and incredibly bright and promising young woman who was student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At least one of them had participated a few weeks earlier in the home invasion, robbery, and execution-style murder of a Duke University graduate student.
These particular crimes touched me because they are close to home. But this kind of senseless brutality from these mad, black, often teen-aged, dogs happens all the time, usually within their own sick “communities,” but plenty often taking innocent and promising young lives from the larger community.
I am sickened to read about this typically senseless and brutal Baltimore killing as I was yesterday about some urban thugs who similarly beat to death a fellow waiting at a transit stop in Philladelphia. And then there is the celebration of urban gangsta/black nationalist cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. All of it makes me so sick and so angry. And it is utterly impossible for a sane person not to make a strong connection between blackness and this breakdown of civilization.
This pains me. Truly I have had great black friends, yada yada, yada yada. And I see some black people in the media and in public life who are wonderful, thoughtful, talented Americans who are as sickened by all of this as I am.
But, sad to report, my overwhelming feeling about black America is that it is a cesspool of social pathology. And that is the sad way it is.
#90
Interesting perspectives and its understandable.
But remember this;
to allow this disgust for a group of people to take root because of the victocrats that are actively preaching racism, bigotry, and hatred is to become exactly what you (and others) fear the most: You have become a bigot and you give their position crediabilty.
This is a battle that most white males living in the south that have been victims of reverse racial discrimination face almost daily and you are not alone. I rest in knowing that every wrong will be made right-either in this lifetime or in the day of judgement.
Respectfully,
GSP
#90. It’s not the race, it’s the pseudo-culture these ethnic groups have adopted since the turbulent ’60s. And the behavior is being enabled by the liberal courts. I can’t stand the double standard. It is pushing good people toward vigilantism. I have to fight the urge everyday.
Is this not a new crime? Should all of these little bastards not be brouht back into court and all of them now tried for murder? No more plea deals, no more apologizing…bring them in and let them, again, face this guys family while they are tried for murder now. Let them have to sit there and feel the eyes of his family burning into what should be their souls, until they are sentanced and then allow the family to have their say.
40 years is not enough. The other sentances are a frickin joke. THese guys need to be removed from the gene pool…PERMANENTLY