Month: October 2009

And the award for worst moral panic of the month for September 2009 goes to…

…the Richmond Times-Dispatch for their coverage of the murders of four people in Farmville, Virginia.

On September 20, 2009, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran a story with the headline “Police: Lyrics may have played role in Farmville slayings”:

Investigators are trying to determine whether a suspect’s fascination with violent rap lyrics fueled the killings of four people found dead Friday in a Longwood University professor’s home.

Farmville police said the victims, which include a church pastor, might have been killed on different days, although they still were awaiting completion of autopsies.

Police on Saturday captured the suspect, Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, at Richmond International Airport as he was waiting for a flight to California. That was one day after police found the bodies in the Farmville home of professor Debra S. Kelley, and her daughter, Emma Niederbrock.

The only victim police are identifying is Kelley’s husband, Mark Niederbrock, the pastor at Walker’s Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County. Authorities have identified the three others only as females, and they are not discussing how the victims were killed. Friends and associates identified the females as Kelley, Emma Niederbrock and Melanie Wells, a friend of Emma’s visiting from West Virginia.

[…]

People who know McCroskey described him as him as a fan and promoter of the horrorcore, which is hip-hop music adapted to violent lyrics, but they said they did not believe he was violent.

One song attributed to McCroskey on one of his MySpace pages discusses committing murder in a rage, trying to get rid of the remains and driving a stolen vehicle.

That’s right folks, music lyrics were responsible for the murders of four people.

It’s nice to see that the astute geniuses at the RT-D didn’t take a single college class that involved logic. See, you’re supposed to find the “independent variable” when talking about causes of crime and other problems. The independent variable in this situation is not “horrorcore” rap, it’s the fact that the guy (allegedly) responsible for the murders is frelling insane.

Is that so hard to figure out?

And the funny thing was yesterday, while on my way to Richmond in the morning, I turned to 96.9FM and was listening to the goofball they have on in the mornings and he was talking about the “weirdest songs” and whatnot. One song he mentioned was “Butcher Pete” by Roy Brown which was released in 1950. Check out the lyrics for the song:

(Part I)

Hey everybody, did the news get around
About a guy named Butcher Pete
Oh, Pete just flew into this town
And he’s choppin’ up all the women’s meat

[Chorus]
He’s hackin’ and wackin’ and smackin’
He’s hackin’ and wackin’ and smackin’
He’s hackin’ and wackin’ and smackin’
He just hacks, wacks, choppin’ that meat

Butcher Pete’s got a long sharp knife
He starts choppin’ and don’t know when to stop
All you fellows gotta watch your wifes
‘Cause Pete don’t care who’s meat he chops

Ever since Peter flew into town
He’s been havin’ a ball
Just cuttin’ and choppin’ for miles around
Single women, married women, old maids and all

Wakes up in the morning, half past five
Chops from sunrise to sunset
I don’t see how he stays alive
Meat’s gonna be the death of ole Pete, yeah

The police put Pete in jail
Yes, he finally met his faith
But when they came to pay his bail
They found him choppin’ up his cell mate

That Butcher Pete is a crazy man
Tries to chop down the wind and the rain
Just hacks on anything he can get
Say, turn this record over, you ain’t heard nothing yet

(Part II)

Well, they let ole Pete out of the jail
He went back to his store
All the women who payed his bail
Were waitin’ on Pete to chop some more

There’s an old woman, who’s ninety-two
Lives down the street
She said, one thing more I wanna do
Is find ole Pete and let him chop my meat

Pete went to church one Sunday night
He gave the preacher a fit
That crazy Pete started a fight
When he went hackin’ on the pulpit

Well, they put him in jail again
They tried to give him life
Pete beat the case, he pleaded insane
They gave him back his same ole knife

Well, he got out of jail on Sunday night
Monday he tightened his grip
He started to China to see the sites
Went nuts again and chopped up the ship

Brought ole Pete back to town
To electrocute him there
But Pete was crazy like a clown
He chopped down that electric chair

He’s a maniac!
He don’t do nothin’ but hackin’

So, my question to the Richmond Times-Dispatch is how many murders is “Butcher Pete” responsible for? 4, 8, maybe 12? Come on, give me a number.

Does this count as an in-kind contribution for Delegate Phil Hamilton from Old Dominion University or one of its employees?

As you may notice, I have a contact form on this blog that allows people to send information to me if they are so inclined. I often get inane stuff through it and yesterday was no exception.

A “john smith” sent this comment via the contact form last night:

Contact the EEOC: Floundering Newport News Candidate desperate for help, skirts Americans with Disabilities Act

I have been hearing rumors for some time that Democrat trial lawyer Robin Abbott has been disappointed in her ability to gain any traction in her race against Newport News Delegate Phil Hamilton. Prominent local Democrats like former Del. Alan Diamonstein and Mayor Joe Frank have been lining up in support of Hamilton. So, it is no surprise that the word on the street has been that Abbott is highly frustrated by her inability to recruit volunteers and raise money.

The most recent proof of Abbott’s trouble is a part time job posting at Christopher Newport University that lists a contact in Tennessee to call or e-mail about receiving hourly compensation to go door-to-door for Abbott.

But, Abbott may be running into some trouble with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The job posting seems to imply that it discriminates against individuals with physically disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits qualified individuals with disabilities from being discriminated against by potential employers.

According to the EEOC’s website, “An employer is required to make a reasonable accommodation to the known disability of a qualified applicant or employee if it would not impose an ‘undue hardship’”. It would seem that Abbott should really give individuals the opportunity to compete without prejudging them based on a disability.

Abbott’s campaign appears to believe that money will buy them anything in elections. This isn’t the first time that the Abbott campaign has had to resort to money to try and make the campaign a success. Several bloggers noted in September that Abbott’s law firm appeared to have used contributions of up to $50,000 to statewide Democratic candidates in order to attract their scrutiny of Hamilton.

Abbott’s law firm, Consumer Litigation Associates (CLA), has been serving as her life-line to keep the doors open on her campaign. According to vpap.org, CLA and its lawyers have donated over $100,000 to Abbott as of August 31st. CLA has also donated $70,000 to Minority Leader Ward Armstong’s PAC who turns around and makes sure that her staff gets paid.

CLA must be looking to get something back from Abbott in Richmond to be throwing money around so indiscriminately. But, this race is starting to look bleak for Abbott. There are less than 5 weeks till Election Day. Hamilton has been on television for over six weeks. Abbott has been throwing mud like crazy. So far people don’t seem to know who she is, what she stands for, or even what district she is running in.

Now, I have no idea what this guy is talking about (seriously, dude, I live in Caroline County, you might want to try one of the Hampton Roads blogs) but the first thing I do when I get these type of e-mails is to check the sender’s IP address.

Care to guess who the IP address is registered to? Well, the IP address 128.82.43.237 is registered to Old Dominion University according to the American Registry of Internet Numbers.

Wasn’t it ODU that hired Delegate Phil Hamilton after they received money through a budget amendment that Hamilton sponsored?

Just sayin’.