Last edited Sat Aug 24, 2013, 12:00 AM - Edit history (1)

there are no words

I hope they catch the other punk too (the correct punks, of course) and put them away for a very long time.

like the whole world is f-ing nuts! One day I hear about a couple of teens being bored and deciding it would be fun to kill somebody. A few days later I read about this 88 year old being beaten to death, probably a robbery gone bad.

I know there has always been terrible crimes, but somehow they seem worse now than they were even 10 years ago.

Am I just getting too old and can't understand the young brain?

for child welfare for Alameda County. She was telling me about events like this. There's a name for it, gas lining or gas lighting, not sure if I have the term correct. But it's these random killings for no apparent reason. They are not that uncommon, at least in the high crime areas.

This one got plenty of attention because of who the victim was and where it happened. Scary to think there are young people thrill killing.

it's a jumped up farm town. hardly a high crime area whenever i'd visited

When I was growing up there I don't think there was much crime at all. But that's not the case now. I know there are major problems with drugs. But that's true of everywhere.

Spokane has changed and parts of it is dangerous now ...

I have taken family to that ice rink during the day, but there are neighborhoods in Spokane where one wouldn't
think of going at night ...

Mr. Belton, who deserved a far more dignified end, is violently murdered.

Two young men, with their whole lives ahead of them, make the worst possible choices, and now will likely rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

Lot of community policing here and it helps out.

Or especially Chris Lane, the Australian baseball player. And the large marches, etc. I wont hold my breath Too many of these stories to go around.
What a waste.

beaten to death but still deserving of a public acknowledgment

Not so easy to find...but gone now.

I hadn't heard that story before.

There are so many senseless killings.

Get out there and do it.

If you are just waiting, you don't give a shit.

Of course, the fact is you don't give a shit about Delbert. You only care about the twisted message you're trying to peddle. Or repeating the babble you heard somewhere else.

There is a double standard when it comes to the reporting of these types of crimes. The number of these crimes are terrible. If that's "twisted" then I cant help you.
Dont accuse me of not caring when your response shows little caring on your part.
I do and have gotten involved many times. Petitioning legislators for legal changes and donating to victims funds are a couple things.
Do some research on crime and get back to me.

Please tell us more about this double standard of which you speak. Because, in the post to which I responded, you didn't talk about reporting. You expressed your ire regarding t-shirts and large marches. So please explain more about this reporting problem you see and what it has to do with t-shirts and large marches.

compared to most others had to do with the reporting. In the very beginning the media used a picture of a much younger Martin that stoked the flames. Some never quit using it. Something happened between Z and M prior to that doofus zimmerman shooting, no one knows for sure what. But racism was injected by others. The massive coverage led to all the protests and t-shirts and etc etc. The president even gives a speech about it. But when a random attack like these mentioned here happens, one including a racist attacker, all the news talking heads are silent for the most part. No speech from the President. Maybe 20% of these make the news outside their local areas.

...of Trayvon Martin, who was picked out as a "suspect" while doing something most of us do without incident all the time, namely walk through a neighborhood.

I guess the memo has gone around that sowers of discord are supposed to exploit the cruel deaths of Delbert Belton and Christopher Lane, but that ain't going to fly here. One can be grieved about the World War II vet and the Aussie ballplayer, and demand justice, and still say that Trayvon Martin was a victim of racial profiling, whatever that 90th-rate columnist Kathleen Parker inflicts upon us.

Curious DUers can read her piece below, but be warned that the experience may disgust you.

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-obamas-race-remarks-exacerbate-tensions/2013/08/23/7491bb2e-0c1f-11e3-9941-6711ed662e71_story.html[/url]

to avoid confronting the fact everyone knew what Zimmerman did would happen any day after the "stand your ground" legislation was passed. That's why it was designed. Everyone knew it.

Far more was involved in that hideous, god-forsaken event than just another opportunity for the filthy racists in this country to turn their ugly little sociopath into a white power hero, shower him with money, drag him and his pathetic brother out to do Fox tv interviews, and make him their poster boy to regenerate the fire of their ignorant, perverted hatred, using someone else's suffering as their stimulant.

Your decision to seize the moment to try to bitch and whine that there aren't T-shirts, and large marches is dishonest. You are attempting to pretend there was nothing at play other than some people in power in the media trying to deprive you of your personal natural bodily superiority.

The lash-back after that actual murder came from people who KNOW the dirtiness, dishonesty, the cowardly advantage it gives to people like Zimmerman, and any person wealthy enough to hire expensive lawyers, or enough fellow racists to finance a good defense while he takes evil pot shots at helpless, unarmed, unsuspecting people. The law was meant to allow criminals like Zimmerman to create a climate of fear. It was meant to be a tool to sociopaths.

"T-shirts!" "Large marches!" Derp!

until you posted it. Thanks for the link. But both of you miss the point I am making by instantly trying to make me out to be a stupid zimmerman supporter or some hick-sounding W lover. This is what happens anytime the subject is brought up. Attack the person, make them look like a racist, and push aside the facts of the argument. That way its easier to continue to ignore it. The fact is crimes like what are mentioned in this thread happen a LOT more than crimes like zimmerman's. Do the research. And if the national public got as upset about ALL of them then maybe it would start to make a difference in some of the minds of young people who are usually the perpetrators.
Look at what happened to Don Lemon of CNN. He calls out black youths and instantly is labeled an Uncle Tom, race traitor, etc. Never mind the fact that he has, in the past, also spoken of being profiled, of white privilege in the US and many other things. And here on DU the mention of anything to do with this type of stuff becomes the dog whistle to many to attack, attack!
You guys keep living in that world where nothing I said is true.

What would you wish to gain from said "large marches"?

And if you are inferring a double standard of sorts between the murders of Lane and Delbert and the murder of Trayvon Martin, do you know exactly what the purpose of the marches for Trayvon Martin was?

Thank you. I'll take your answer off the air.

What i would wish to gain is an end to the senseless crimes that go on in this country. The youths that dont care at all about what theyre doing and dare someone to call them on it. And white or black we dont send the criminals away for as long as someone who is holding a bag of pot in his car. We hear about overcrowded prisons being the reason crooks are set free early only to do it again, yet thyere overcrowded with a bunch of low level drug crooks who would probably be more severely punished if they were made to pick up trash in their old neighborhoods.
I dont know about previous criminal histories of the ones involved in the 3 crimes mentioned above, but in so many of these types of crimes there is a long list of priors.

Those "Justice for Trayvon" dealt with people's specific concerns about that case, where people were upset that an individual who shot an unarmed team was given a cursory police investigation and then was essentially treated as being completely exonerated. Then, after charges were brought and a trial was had, the judge couldn't even instruct the jury whether it could consider whether the defendant acted as an initial aggressor, which was an extremely relevant and critical question given the facts of the case.

These protests were meant to address very real concerns about the justice system itself.

With Delbert Belton and Christopher Lane, no such concerns existed. Full investigations were taken, suspects were identified and then promptly taken into custody. If what is alleged turns out to be true, all bets is that all persons accused will serve significant prison time for their actions, hopefully for the rest of their natural lives.

What's there to protest? Where was the breakdown of the justice system for Belton or Lane?

You talk about protesting "senseless killings" and that's all good, but who's your audience? Senseless killers?

These were horrible murders but they don't speak to any greater issue than murder being senseless, which we've known to be true since the dawn of man.

these two little shit stains as adults. If convicted, no chance of parole until they're the same age as Mr. Belton was when they murdered him.

to wreak havoc, and steal people's lives, leaving suffering, heartbreak, grief behind.

It puts too much power in the hands of people who shouldn't have that kind of power over other human beings.

What a shame for everyone.

who shot the baseball player someone in this thread took the time to drag out to add to the fire.

My question was actually directed at the poster who wanted to take a shot at "long marches." I am curious, still, of course, about what the poster has against the civil rights movement.

Maybe you'll want to help with that, too.

if only you had as much self-righteous indignation against those who act on the notion about taking shots at innocent people

and if only there were rehabilitation options available to the murder victims...no amounts of taxpayer money can fix that.

Again, thanks.

and I dont know how on earth you thought I was being critical of the civil rights movement??
And my point is that all of these stories deserve the same reaction as the martin case. As a matter of fact, one of the shooters
of the Australian man had tweeted his hatred for white people. Will he be charged with a hate crime as well as murder? While zimmerman may have been an idiot, race was inserted by everyone else.
And there are countless cases that mirror the two mentioned above. And they rarely garner national attention. If you cant admit that there is a double standard in these types of crimes, then you are the one needing a bit of help.

90% of black murder victims are killed by other blacks.
83% of white murder victims are killed by other whites.

However, blacks commit 50% of the violent crime (not just murders) while making up only approx. 13% of the population.

So you know with absolute certainty that these two young men are guilty?

the meanness. I see it everyday as I work in middle school.

I truly believe that middle school is the last chance to truly salvage these pre adults and yet we can scarcely get funding for programs that we know will work (this is in Texas, need I say more). I am in a large city so we have more funding than most, yet still doesn't meet their needs.

I look at my present, I fear for our future.

to build privatized prison systems, so all that's left is just enough cops with super weapons to keep those jails filled to the rafters, to keep that money flowing in to the private investors.

should be sentenced to at least 20 years of hard educational time in prison. At least they would have a chance for parole with a degree and it is, after all, easier to get money from the GOP to fund prisons than for education. Do I really need to use this for the ironically impaired.

to the "big house."

Who said Republicans only care about the "unborn!"

We have to get to them BEFORE they become teenagers to make a positive impression.

They beat the guy with flashlights.

Young or not, they don't belong loose on the streets.

I hope they stay in jail until they reach Mr. Belton's age.

in a cage to contemplate their crime. Not that it will likely matter that much - they are probably just pissed because they were caught.

My condolences to Mr. Belton's family. I can't imagine the pain and anger they must be feeling.