“He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine.”
Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, R.I.P.:
On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.
Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop.
Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 41/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.
Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
“It is an awful story,” said Alberta Holt, the young Marine’s aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.
Crutchfield was attacked on January 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.
“They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn’t have any money he didn’t deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him,” Holt told The Associated Press.
… Connie LaNasa, who works in [Crutchfield's high] school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.
“He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine,” LaNasa said.
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here 30 … you need this
Wonder where Al $harpton and Je$$e Jack$on are?
I didn’t see this in the story … but I suspect they are not to be found because the killers were not caucasian and thus they can’t yell “race” … just guessing of course …
It was a rhetorical question… but thanks for answering. If those two shakedown artists would attend to black on black crime, maybe they could actually help. But then, who would they shakedown for money?
No money in it? They don’t care about it.
I think killing a military man is the rough moral equivalent of killing a cop. It is a crime not just against the victim, but against the bedrock institutions that allow a free society to exist. The murderers deprived a man of his life, and our nation of an invaluable defender. Death is the only reasonable punishment in such circumstances.
We will never forget.
When sentencing, judges have to go by sentencing guidelines, which are set according to respective state laws.
If the guidelines seem lenient (and in this case it certainly appears so), then the guidelines must be changed, and that can only be done via state legislation, which is prompted by the people.
It’s up to us to make those changes and tell our representatives to legislate them.
Every crime is a hate crime, and carry the same harsh sentencing. I’m betting that it’s also not the murderer’s first rodeo either, and if their priors are ever made known they’d probably stretch back years. You don’t just wake up one day and decide you’ll execute someone for $8.00 and/or for being a Marine. Depraved, sick animals.
Prayers for the surviving family and girlfriend. God’s arms were opened wide when this young man returned home.
Which is yet another reason why we should not close Guantanamo. In the incredibly off chance that an innocent detainee was ever entered there, which I do not believe happened, he surely will not exit innocent.
On June 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 am, anne said:
This makes me so very sad and so very angry all at once.
What is wrong with people?
RIP Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, and thank you.
There would be something wrong if they were people seeing as they are little less that animals they should be put down as such.
Another life, full of potential, wasted, because aimless, mindless animals decided robbing a young man for his bank card and 8 bucks was better than getting their lives together and turning away from gangs and guns.
My heart just weaped when I saw this. There are so many packs of these thugs roaming the streets, looking for an easy score. The Dems’ answer is to give them more freebies, job training, college assistance, nothing earned, nothing gained. It’s sickening. What about the rest of us, from all kinds of backgrounds, who turned away from such senseless violence, worked their butts off, and made a choice.
Who the hell is protecting all of us hard-working, law-abiding Americans from these roaming packs of ravenous, craven thugs who think a Marine Lance Corporal’s life is little more than a reason to take because they think his bravery and service to country is worthless? Can someone explain this to me?
How many people don’t think this country isn’t going down the tubes with young men, especially violent BLACK MEN, killing other black men for stuff they can’t get on their own. What has happened to us?
The thugs’ anti-military sentiments alone give this military spouse pause at the vitriolic hate I see on a daily basis from the black community directed at whites who never did anything to them. Plus all the other Americans who like to scapegoat the military and place all their grievances on them.
This young man lead an exemplary life. Rest in Peace, Lance Corporal Crutchfield. You will not be forgotten.
To the animals who cut this Marine down: nothing but the death penalty is what should await you. You don’t know the meaning of life so why should the taxpayers have to fund your lives in prison?
Bad parenting, poor role models, low self-esteem. It has long passed reached a crisis level. Too many of my criminal clients fit this model.
Expectant mothers out there:
If you are currently addicted to drugs and or alcohol, and you don’t plan on stopping during the course of your pregnancy, please get an abortion.
If you think it’s perfectly acceptable parenting to phyically abuse, and mentally devalue your children, please get an abortion.
If you don’t plan to protect your children from child molesters, or don’t think it will be that big of deal, because it happened to you, please get an abortion.
This would go a long way in cutting down my criminal case load, and generally protecting society at large. I don’t care who I have offended with my statement here, becaues I live this VERY REAL world every day and have hands on experience in what bad upbringing will create. If any of you have survived it like Oprah did, oh well congrats. Not everyone can be a hero, and far too many, will simply commit cold-blood crimes, like shooting people in the neck, because they are irreparably damaged from childhood.
You wanna help out Emjem24, adopt a black male child with fetal alcohol syndrome, or born addicted to drugs, whose also been abused, and treated like trash. Show him nothing but discipline, love and compassion. Teach him self-worth and love for his fellow man. Then hope for the best.
Mistressjustice – Abortion is the cause, not the cure.
Abortion causes the mentality that life is worthless. More black children are aborted in this country than any other race. Should we be surprised they have the highest rate of violence and fatherlessness too?
“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love – that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. ” Mother Teresa
I couldn’t disagree more, but I do humbly, honestly, understand and respect your viewpoint.
May these two SOB’s get the death sentence they deserve for killing this honorable US Marine.
Rest In Peace, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield. It is not only your family that weeps, but a nation.
Oh please. Poor self esteem???
No, the problem is POOR OTHER ESTEEM! These scum don’t have any “esteem” for anyone else but themselves!
Enough of the PC bulls***!
I keep seeing this kids face and it pisses me off a lot. I can almost see what happened in my mind. That pig thug pulling the trigger on this Marine. Why wasn’t the Marine strapped? Pisses me off real bad. F*cking liberals and their gun laws. If anyone should be carrying a weapon it should been this guy. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the Marine was on leave but seriously…
They should bring back burning at the stake for these types of crimes.
Wow, the silence from LGM (little girly man) is overwhelming. Where is he to say that the Marine should not have been where he was?
Thanks a bunch, liberals.
Thanks a bunch, code pink.
Thanks a bunch, Hollywood.
Thanks a bunch, Murtha.
Thanks a bunch, John Kerry.
Thanks a bunch, Pelosi.
Thanks a bunch all of you who have demeaned our military which is the ONLY entity standing between us and death, death by evil, death by islam, death.
Our military deserves so much better than they receive.
Thanks for NOTHING, liberals. You must now change the horrific mindset that you taught so easily in our schools.
Now, here is your change.
God Bless Our Military!!!!
This story makes me sad and sick!
Why does a young man that had a dream and lived it have to die at the hands of thugs in this country? I don’t have an answer. Except maybe a very simple answer. Liberalism! It isn’t the total answer but it has to be a very big part of the answer.
My heart goes out to this young Marine and his family. The death penalty for those that killed this fine person and all the others that love him is too kind but I don’t have a substitute so send them to a quick death.
Someone thanked all the liberals. I second the motion. Thanks Nancy, Ted and all the others listed in the post. In fact, thank you liberals for you are the ones that should be on trial for the death of the Marine. All of you and all of your anti American policies, for all of your desires to destroy our economy! You liberals are really disgusting beyond words for your hatred of our country.
Lance Cpl Robert Crutchfield, we thank you for your honorable service to our country. Rest in Peace now with our Lord. May God comfort and bless your Aunt Alberta and all who love you. Lord, hear our prayer.
If the world listened to the MJ’s of our society we would never have had a brave young man like Lance Cpl Robert Crutchfield make it out of a rough family childhood being raised by his grandmother and aunt to becoming a shining beacon of duty, honor and integrity as a United States Marine. He would have been murdered in the womb.
Amen Little Ma, Amen.
I reply to 109 and 110:
I’m going to say something controversial here. Abortion of black children probably does depress the amount of crime somewhat insofar as it reduces the population of a subset of society more prone to commit crime.
However, that does not make abortion right. Just because it is a solution, doesn’t make it the right solution. We could murder every black person in the country and it would result in reduced crime, but it would be morally reprehensible to do so.
However, I would not go so far as to say abortion, however evil a process it may be, is the cause of the disease that leads to the topic of this discussion. Rather, it is yet another symptom of a greater disease infecting many American blacks (and others as well).
MistressJustice:
The reason that there are so many violent BLACK MEN is because the black community decided, as a whole, that it was too much work to emphasize things like:
1. Personal Responsibility
2. Knowing right from wrong
3. Marrying your baby’s momma
4. Financial management skills
5. Respecting people who don’t kill, abuse, or cheat
6. Laziness breeds resentment, entitlement, complacency
You wanna know something, MistressJustice? I saw this all the time, especially in minority students of both genders. I worked in a transient community where either Mommy or Daddy would drag their kids to a town, stay for a while, have a flavor of the month (girlfriend/boyfriend) and when it didn’t last, move on, dragging their kids with them. I met lots of kids like this as a public school teacher.
It’s not this country’s or white people’s fault that black kids had a poor childhood. My mother, who grew up poor, emotionally/physically abused, worked it out that she could leave that environment, make a life for herself, and never do that to her own children. You’re making tired old societal excuses for the black community. I’ve seen it in my Master’s classes…. and I’ve seen it in the public school system.
By the way, what you’re also describing is what’s happenning on reservations all across the country. Society has tried for years to pore money into the problems you describe through welfare and other social entitlements to no avail. I don’t think it’s my responsibility to adopt a black kid who’s either drug/alchohol addicted. Many blacks fuss when whites try to adopt black children (perhaps jealousy/resentment). That’s all my husband and I need.
Making excuses or saying, “hey, get an abortion so you can prevent more abuse,” isn’t the answer either. Where are your solutions, MJ?
My mother grew up in the worst environment, yet she found her way out. Why is it so different for other races? Because of the color of their skin? Or because liberal whites pat them on their heads, and go, “there, there, we’ll take care of you and keep you indebted to us forever.”
RE: abortion is the solution to prevent this violence.
An unborn baby is THE MOST innocent of all innocents. The marine who was viciously murdered could not even be more innocent than a baby with no voice.
I heard a statistic the other day that
50% of pregnancies are accidents. I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I would support government-subsidized tube-tying and vasectomies. If it was offered through the SRS office, I know some people would take advantage of the opportunity. Birth control is the solution for people who do not want or need more children. And for those here who think it is another money pit of entitlments, I say, it is MUCH cheaper than the cost of an abused/neglected child.
The Black Community didn’t decide anything as a whole. You are generalizing again. What you are listing is a certain segment of society that is unfortunately disproportionately black, but also applies to white and brown. I, like many other black people am appalled by the state of things regarding our young men. No place in my post will you find a single sentence where I have blamed white people or the country.
This is a paragraph directed to Strawwoman. It doesn’t apply to my viewpoint. I focus on bad parenting, poor role models and low self-esteem. I will now add lack or respect for society in general, our history or our future. Many are dead inside. There is no blame to white folks or America anywhere. I also call on all expectant mothers regardless of race to consider abortions if you plan on subjecting your child to drug/alcohol inflicted impairments, and abuse throughout their formative years. Of course birth control is preferred. Your mother survived some abuses(like Oprah). That sure as hell doesn’t mean her abuses and hardship compare to those of others. Remember the whole “walk a mile in the shoes of another” parable. Brain damage, abuse, and community violence aren’t excuses, they’re explanations, and tangible problems that must be addressed. Your mother’s example just shows that she overcame her own specific race and gender related abuses and hardships. I’ve seen mitigation packages that will make you cry and throw up, and want to give up. Of course you can’t.
You often seem to make these broad based assumptions that ALL black people feel X, Y, and Z and somehow want something from you. No matter how negative your experiences with Black people have been, it doesn’t make your grand assertions based in any type of universal fact. You’re just another jaded person with prejudices, and I mean prejudices in the objective sense of the term, so please don’t go on one of those tangents with it.
If you care to look on the net, or in your surrounding community, you’ll see that many black people are working their asses off to improve our lot, and mold our youth in a positive direction.
As Condi Rice said, “America has a congenital birth defect” when it comes to race problems, but I believe it will be increasing difficult to overcome if Blacks embrace victimhood, and non-Blacks cloak themselves with a two-ton chip on their shoulders filled with resentment and judgment.
Emjem, since you aren’t my employer,or my son’s teacher, your generalizing about “Blacks as a whole” doesn’t affect my life at all, so it really doesn’t matter how you feel about my race, but like you, I’m just stating my opinions here. Good day.