Somebody’s Gonna’ Get Killed

It’s NOT mere “courtesy,”
IT’S THE LAW!

I was run off the road while riding my 10-speed bicycle.

It happened in a residential part of town, very near home, and upon one of the widest roads in town…

Capable of 4 lanes of 2-way traffic, with parallel parking along both sides, the road also ran adjacent the football stadium & high school.

I loved to ride my bicycle, and would do so almost daily, for at least five miles. And that was long before the song “Bicycle” by Queen was popularized. In fact, it was upon a “road bike” much like the ones seen in the video below.

Recollecting that

Alabama Teen Pleads Guilty to Racist High School Bomb Threat

How did all this unfold?

A teacher found a notebook left behind by the teen, in which he had written a detailed plot for bombing the school, and named students who he would kill.

“… apparently, not one faculty member or administrator at the racially mixed school intervened in the blatantly racist behavior until early January, when a teacher found one of Shrout’s notebooks left behind in a classroom. In it, the teacher discovered detailed plans for mass murder.

“Shrout allegedly named and targeted five black students and a black teacher for serious harm in a series of bomb attacks, using improvised hand grenades that authorities say he was assembling in his military family’s home. A white classmate, who Shrout suspected of being gay, was also on the alleged hit list.

“The authorities were alerted to the journal and Shrout was arrested and charged with felony attempted assault. “By his own admission, he is a white supremacist, but we haven’t been able to link him to any specific organization or any organization to him,” Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told the Intelligence Report in an interview about Shrout and his plans, which Shrout had “obviously put a lot of thought into.”

“When sheriff’s investigators searched the teenager’s home they discovered a couple of dozen small tobacco cans and two larger metal containers marked “Fat Boy” and “Little Man.” The names are apparent references to the code names “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” used for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States during World War II. All of the containers were filled with pellets and had holes drilled in them. Sheriff Taylor said other ingredients needed to complete the devices, such as black powder and fuses, were not found.

From Homeless to Harvard: North Carolina teen gets Ivy League full ride scholarship

To read of this story causes several emotions and thoughts to arise within me.

One, is of sorrow and pity.

Another, is of relief that the community pitched in to assist.

Another is of joy that she is on a trajectory for success.

Yet another is of frustration that these scenarios exist… and do so largely without others’ knowledge.

Even another is of a tinge of anger, for the injustice.

While another is of pride for her resolute attitude and dogged determination.

On the whole, however, it is a “happy ending” to an otherwise difficult, even horrifically tragic story. And it is precisely those kind of success stories we so love to hear. The stories of those whom have overcome adversity – to have excelled despite the most severe adversity, even affliction – is the type of success story, the proverbial Horatio Alger story, that we Americans and all people, love to hear.

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From scrubbing floors to Ivy League: Homeless student to go to dream college

By Vivian Kuo, CNN

updated 9:14 AM EDT, Fri June 8, 2012

Lawndale, North Carolina (CNN) — It’s before sunrise, and the janitor at Burns High School has already been down the length of a hallway, cleaning and sweeping classrooms before the day begins.

This particular janitor is painstakingly methodical, even as she administers a mental quiz on an upcoming test. Her name is Dawn Loggins, a straight-A senior at the very school she cleans.

On this day, she maneuvers a long-handled push broom between rows of desks. She stops to pick up a hardened, chewed piece of gum. “This annoys me, because there’s a trash can right here,” she says.

The worst, she says, is snuff cans in urinals. “It’s just rude and pointless.”

With her long, straight dark blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses, Dawn looks a bit like Avril Lavigne. But her life is a far cry from that of a privileged pop star.

She was homeless at the start of the school year, abandoned by her drug-abusing parents. The teachers and others in town pitched in — donating clothes and providing medical and dental care. She got the janitorial job through a school workforce assistance program.

She’s grateful for the work. But it’s where she’s going next, beyond the walls of Burns, that excites her most. She applied to four colleges within North Carolina and one dream university. She’ll graduate soon before heading off, leaving her dust pan behind.

Dawn Loggins is working as a janitor to make ends meet.

For now, there’s

Hello? Teens! Do NOT drink hand sanitizer. Duh!

Huh?

What IS up with that?

Please, please, please…

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More hand sanitizer drinking cases reported in dangerous trend

April 25, 2012, 10:36 am PST

The California Poison Control System has received 60 reports of teenagers drinking hand sanitizer since 2010, showing the dangerous trend is not unique to Los Angeles.

Hand sanitizer, which has 62% ethyl alcohol, produces a potent drink that can cause alcohol poisoning. Some of the cases involve teenagers who used salt to separate out the alcohol.

There were also 147 cases involving children ages 6 to 12 and 2,180 cases ages 0 to 5, believed to have accidentally ingested the gel, according to poison control service, part of the UC San Francisco‘s Department of Clinical Pharmacy.

The vast majority of all the cases statewide were minor and treated at home, but about 50 of the youths went to a hospital or were referred to a hospital for treatment.

In Los Angeles County since March, there have been 16 cases of teenagers requiring medical attention, according to the California Poison Control System.

Officials began separately tracking hand sanitizer cases in 2010.

“It’s quite a concern,” said Stuart Heard, executive director. “It’s like

Hammad Memon, Huntsville Alabama Murder Suspect Caught in Dallas Fleeing with Mother

The murderers parents are now criminals.

Hindering prosecution is a Class C felony in Alabama.

Code of Alabama, 1975 – Section 13A-10-43

Hindering prosecution in the first degree.

(a) A person commits the crime of hindering prosecution in the first degree if with the intent to hinder the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of another for conduct constituting a murder or a Class A or B felony, he renders criminal assistance to such person.

(b) Hindering prosecution in the first degree is a Class C felony.

(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §4636; Acts 1979, No. 79- 471, p. 862, §1.)

http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/codeofalabama/1975/13A-10-43.htm

Bend over, and kiss your career and life ‘bye-bye.’

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UPDATE: Local doctor charged with aiding teen murder suspect flee

Dr. Iqbal Memon, MD, booking photo, Madison County Sheriff Department, Huntsville, Alabama

April 16, 2012

By Kelly Kazek kelly@athensnews-courier.com

MADISON — A doctor who practiced in Athens was arrested Friday night by Madison police, accused of hindering prosecution for allegedly aiding his teen son, a murder suspect, in an attempt to flee Alabama.

Dr. Iqbal Memon, who occasionally wrote medical columns for The News Courier several years ago, was arrested after his son, Hammad Memon, 17, was captured in Dallas with his mother and 6-year-old sister. Authorities said Hammad had a Pakistani passport in his possession.

The family members apparently left Alabama Wednesday or Thursday after an express mail delivery person reported Hammad had signed for an envelope believed to contain a passport, which was a violation of the terms of Hammad’s bail on a charge of shooting to death classmate Todd Brown, 14, at Discovery Middle School in 2010. Brown lived in Madison with his mother at the time; his father Michael Brown is from Tanner.

The Memon family lives in Madison, where Memon had a second physician’s office.

Hammad was 14 at the time of the shooting but was to be tried as an adult on June 18.

Dr. Memon was charged with hindering prosecution after Madison Police investigators suspected he was not being forthcoming about his family’s location.