Blog Stage 5: Is Our Justice System Fair?

It's December 6, 1991, the police found 4 young girls gagged, shot, and burned inside of a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas lost their lives way to soon. This awful crime was and is now known as “I cannot believe it is yogurt murders” For 8 years, Austin Police interrogated suspects trying to get some leads to arrest the murderers. Some denied it while others admitted to the killings but were then released. The evidence that could have been used was destroyed by fire and water from the fire department.
8 years has gone by till Austin Police Department arrest 2 men, Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott, for confessing to the murder.
Michael Scott received life in prison while Robert Springsteen received the death penalty. Fortunately for Robert Springsteen, the Supreme Court found his case unconstitutional since juveniles at the time of the murder is not allowed to receive the death penalty.
Now it’s October 29, 2009 and on Thursday, both Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott were set free after prosecutors dismissed their case because of new evidence was found. The evidence was another man’s DNA in the vaginal cavity of the females.
Upon reading this, I asked myself, “Is our justice system really fair? Why do innocent people go to jail while others are set free?”
My heart goes out to not only the families that has lost their daughters in this tragic incident but also to the families that lost their sons for 18 years. Because of Detective Hector Polanco, the man that made these men confess with a coercive manner, Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott lost 18 years of their lives to the justice system. I also found out that Detective Hector Polanco lost his job for what he has done.
Because of the unfair justice system, the families of the four young girls are back to square one with pain in their hearts, knowing that the man that killed them is still out there.
Because of the unfair justice system, the man who is really responsible for this murder is still out there lurking in the darkness.
Because of this justice system, we now need to come up of a new way to stop putting innocent people in jail and letting the wrongdoers go free!

Allison Kilkenny on Grandma getting Tasered

I came across this blog about a grandma getting tasered in Travis County of this year written by Allison Kilkenny on The Smirking Chimp. To my surprised, she was actually defending the 72 year old great grandma who is named Kathryn Winkfein that got tasered on May 11, 2009. She also included “Winkfein deserved compensation, but she did nothing to warrant being tasered by a power hungry police officer. Victims, stop the apologies.”

What the heck is Allison thinking!? Has she not seen the dashboard camera that captured the whole fiasco? Maybe she needs to watch it multiple times!

I know what many of you are thinking? How could you be cold hearted to see an old woman getting tasered? Look, old woman or not, she should not have acted the way she did. Just because you are a senior citizen does not grant you to drive 65 on a 40 and also does not give you the right to act aggressively to a police officer.

Another thing I wanted to add that I disagree with Allison is the compensation for the action. In my opinion, Kathryn does not deserve to get one penny for her meltdown, it’s like rewarding a child a piece of candy when they did something wrong. According to Richard McCain, a Travis County Constable, he said “When the County wrote a check for $40,000 it rewarded this defendant for bad behavior, which is wrong." – I agree!

I will give Ms. Kilkenny credibility on this blog however. Not because of her biased blog on the issue but because of the fact that tasers are indeed harmful and/or fatal. I do agree that 50,000 volts of electricity could be a daring way to stop a heart from beating.

In conclusion, I would hate to see my grandma getting tasered and I will be very upset as well if she did (I know this will never happen). But Allison needs to realize that when a human being no matter the age puts herself or another person in danger, maybe the only way to solve the problem is getting tasered.

President's Race to Olympics

In The New York Times editorial named “Wonderful Copenhagen” written by Gail Collins. She explains that President Obama is flying off to Denmark to help the United States get an Olympic Bid for 2016. She goes to say that there has never been a president that has gone for the United States to win a bid.
Unfortunately though, our other political party like to think negative about this matter. For instance, the House Minority Leader, John Boehner, would like President Obama to stay here in the US and take care of our current issues instead of flying to Denmark. Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri is complaining that President Obama needs to keep our country safe instead of flying to Denmark.
If the president of Brazil, prime minister of Japan, and even the King of Spain are all attending for a lobby in the Olympic bid, shouldn’t the President of United States take a couple of days to fly out and give us a chance to have to Olympic in Chicago in 2016?
Even though Gail Collins is for President Obama to help get United States a bid of the Olympics; she had an open mind to also include the negative side affects that could affect Chicago personally. First is the fact that Chicago would have to spend a lot of money to make the city look presentable to the Olympic Committee. Which brings up the second issue, the citizens of Chicago are having doubts as to this event being a positive thing. The third and final, which is also the worst downside, President Obama himself said that he would not go because he wanted to keep his “promise” in making affordable health care for the Americans.
I agree with Gail Collin’s writing from the positives to the negatives of President Obama going to Denmark to win us a Olympic bid. It’s wonderful that he is thinking about the United States and putting the country on the world spotlight. But at the same time, it is not free and it will cost a major city millions of dollars just to showcase an event.
Gail’s writing in my opinion was not attended for any specific audience. The way I see it is that she was being unbiased about the issue. She had positive and negative aspects of the President going to Denmark. She had arguments for both sides of the debate.
Gail Collins is a remarkable woman. She joined The New York Times in 1995 and became the first woman to be appointed editor in the editor’s page 6 years later. She also wrote a book named “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present”