Target Centermass

Day: May 12, 2005

  • Man Chops Off Hands of Protester in India

    Just in case you believed violent backwardness was limited to the radical Islamists, there’s this tale of butchery over what is essentially the practice of dealing off minors.

    A man with a sword cut off the hands of a government social worker in central India for trying to stop child marriages, officials said Wednesday. The attack on the woman highlighted the difficulty of ending the centuries-old practice in the region.

    Yeah. Hands chopped off with a sword highlighted difficulty. That, folks, is one heck of a freakin’ understatement.

    Shakuntala Verma, a supervisor with the Department of Women and Child Development in Madhya Pradesh state, was attacked Tuesday night in Bhangarh village, Superintendent of Police H. L. Borana was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India.

    Wednesday marked a Hindu festival in which hundreds of minors are married off.

    No arrests have been made in the attack in Bhangargh, 170 [sic, 170 what?] west of the state capital, Bhopal.

    Child marriage is illegal in India, but the ancient practice is still prevalent in some rural pockets of Madhya Pradesh. However, the number of marriages was down this year as a result of tough measures taken by police, the New Delhi Television News channel reported.

    Verma had been protesting child marriages in the area, officials said.

    In New Delhi, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, the state’s administrator, said it was not possible to end the practice with legal measures.

    “The (law) to prevent child marriage is so ancient. But even after so many decades of the law coming into being, child marriages continue to take place. We cannot stop it forcefully. What is required is awareness,” he said.

    Awareness of swords in the vicinity would also be of assistance to social workers, or so it would seem.

  • Homeless Man Dies Saving Miami Woman

    He lived a homeless crack addict.

    He died a nobler death than most of us will ever hope to see.

    A homeless man who did odd jobs for a local restaurateur was stabbed to death as he defended her against a knife-wielding intruder, authorities said.

    Kelcy Ruiz, 32, was mourned as a hero for coming to the aid of Melida Murillo during an attack Monday at her Colombian restaurant, Mama Leonor.

    Ruiz, described by relatives as a crack cocaine addict who lived mainly on Miami’s downtown streets, did occasional work for Murillo in exchange for food.

    “Even though he was a forgotten member of society, he acted better than most people who are not homeless,” said Detective Delrish Moss, spokesman for the Miami Police Department.

    Ruiz’s uncle described his nephew as “a lost soul” who had emigrated from Honduras four years ago in hopes of kicking his drug habit and finding work.

    Another homeless man, Tyrone Daniel Clark, 43, was being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and armed robbery.

    Clark was arrested in Miami on drug charges in March but was released, apparently because officials did not realize he had skipped out from monitoring required as a registered sex offender.

    May Kelcy Ruiz sleep well, a troubled life ended forever in honor.

  • Hard Labor for Missing Duty

    Convicted yesterday, leftist peacenik and so-called serviceman Pablo Paredes was sentenced today.

    A military judge ordered a Navy sailor on Thursday to complete three months of hard labor for refusing to deploy with his ship in protest of the war in Iraq, but he declined prosecutors’ requests for time in custody.

    Lt. Cmdr. Bob Klant also reduced Pablo Paredes’ rank from petty officer third class to seaman recruit, the lowest in the Navy.

    […]

    Prosecutors had asked Klant to sentence Paredes to nine months in confinement, three months less than the possible maximum, and a bad conduct discharge.

    “He is trying to infect the military with his own philosophy of disobedience,” prosecutor Lt. Brandon Hale said. “Sailors all over the world will want to know whether this will be tolerated. Sailors want to know whether doing what he did is a good way to get out of deployment.”

    Prosecutors left the courtroom without making any statements, but Sam Samuelson, a Navy spokesman, said Paredes’ guilty verdict sent a message.

    “His actions were in conflict with his duty and taxpayers’ obligations that the Navy maintain good order and discipline,” Samuelson said.

    Paredes got off way too easily. His lawyers know it and consider it a victory.

    Paredes’ lawyer, Jeremy Warren, called the judge’s lesser sentence “a stunning blow to the prosecution.”

    “This is an affirmation of every sailor’s and military person’s right to speak out and follow their conscience,” he said.

    Actually, a guilty verdict is exactly not that, jackass.

    Paredes and his ilk are cancers to the service and our society. Paredes himself is even worse — he’s a publicity whore of a cancer.

    Paredes arrived at the Navy pier that day wearing a T-shirt that read “Like a Cabinet Member, I Resign” and handed over his military ID card, telling a military police officer “I quit.” Paredes has alerted the media to his plans and a crowd of TV cameras was waiting for him.

    The judge seemed troubled by Paredes’ conduct – wearing a “silly T-shirt” with an incoherent message and staging a news conference that upset sailors and Marines who were saying goodbye to their families.

    With all that, I say again this immature little punk got off way to easily. I do wonder, though, how his fellow sailors will treat him in the future.