A Daughters Revenge

Journal #6

Bridgett Harris was just three years old when she was first raped by her father. he hadn't thought she'd remember this; being so young, but she did. and this wasn't the last time, he continued to do this to this young African American girl her whole life. He forced her to preformed oral sex, as he also preformed this on her to. One night she (Harris) awoken to her father in bed with her; she screamed and fought him to leave her alone for the first time that night. She moved in with her mother, although the abuse became so bad she actually went to live back with her father Eric. she had never told anyone about this, and i don't think even she knows why. But the time came to act when now as an adult; she watches her father bouncing her sisters young daughter on his lap . this scared her, it brought her back to when she was an Innocent child bouncing on his lap.

Harris went home and made a tap of why she is doing what she is about to do. she explained everything that has happened to her in her life (summed up) explain what Eric had done to her and how she hadn't wanted that for her niece. within a month she meet with her father at her place so they could "talk". she for the first time, explained to him her pain and how she hated him. Harris wanted nothing more for the man to admit what he had done. this same day; they fought and fell to the ground. the girl who had had been a security Gard in her past; naturally her instincts of training set in. her father who had been battling through a kidney stone fell and seemed as he wasn't breather. harris' intentions was not of death.

making sure the man was alive, she then gaged him and pulled down his pants. first she used some scissors, this was ineffective and she moved to a scalpel, removing his penis with one cut. Harris had been sent to jail for manslaughter in the second degree which is as lenient as they could have been. seeing how Eric had died but not from blood loss. he lost oxygen from being gaged and died before he could have from blood loss. she will be in jail for as minimum of 5 -15 years.

The way this story started out i was confused, but it kept me extremely interested because i had to know, what was going to happen next? what more could this child go through? One quote that i found the hardest to read was, "She remembers him getting on top of her and trying to have sex with her. She remembers the phone ringing and pleading with her father to go answer the phone�and him telling her �Don’t worry about it.� She remembers him getting off her in time. She remembers holding her doll. She remembers being in pain. She was 3 years old."

A bully finds a pulpit on the web

Journal # 6

Can google differ between positive and negative reviews for a website?
Shopping online is always a gamble, you never know exactly what your getting because u cant actually see it. Ms. Rodriguez went online to buy a pair of glasses. she had been a long time fan of lafont; a french company. Not long after her purchase, she received a call from the owner of the site saying they were all out of her brand and she had to pick another. she was not allowed to get her money back; although a few days later she got them in as planned. The frames were counterfeit and she demanded for her money back; that's when the man became angry, swearing at her. she was also charged an extra $125 .
what i found so interesting about this story was that, when Ms.Rodriguez went on google to find a good site this site was at the top of the list. the owner of this site, has hundreds of posts, all negative. One was even from him explaining to everyone that each time they post something on his web page his statues goes up which causes him to get more business. i find it amazing that even now that we cannot tell what is actually a safe site and what is not. google is my number one go to source of information on a day to day basis; reading this has really opened my eyes to keep a look out for people like this man.

The Invaders

Journal # 5

This story was about a man who's home town was of Arkansas, hot springs.his grandmothers husband shot a man, and to pay his bail of $50,000 he bet all he had on a horse. the name "the invaders" came from this line in the story "You don't know much about Charles Cella. His horses never win. Always bet on the invaders."  charles cella was the owner of the race track.

Hot spring has always been a "natural area" even back when the land was owned by Indians. Why is it that all of these mobsters where if they where to meet in any other place they'd kill each other. Although on this "tour of america" hot springs its for peace. People come from all over and everyone "left their beefs behind" or their disagreements with one another. The town is full of gambling, and for a while it was becoming very poor. All of its hotels roting and falling apart. the gambling revolved around casinos, although most were shut down; and at the race tracks. the young man in the story had been around this is whole life, and his family went through four generation's at the track. The dialogs was southern; you can always tell especially by the saying they have.

Man or Beast?

Journal # 4

“18 tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, three leopards, three Celebes macaque monkeys, three grizzlies, two wolves, and one baboon”

Can you imagine taking care of all these animals; in your own back yard? This story was actually very intriguing; I couldn’t stop thinking about how and why this man would have killed himself.

Terry; was a 63 year old man; he fought in the Vietnam war, flying helicopters is an extremely frightening job. I tried to put myself in his shoes; a young man, hundreds of feet off the ground while you watch multiple others burst into flames; as it free falls back to earth. After returning from the war, nothing satisfied him; no matter how thrilling it was it would never be enough. While at war, a stray monkey would visit him at camp; although he wished to take it home with him the army wouldn’t allow it. This is where I believe terry began to have his issues.

Terry also collected many things; he never threw a thing out. Reading this I had images of men and women from “hoarders”; a TV show; individuals that don’t throw things away; including used food wrappers, bags, mail...etc. When he found his first lion cub, from then on terry collected many stray and very exotic animals. Over all this time he collected a total of 56 animals! Not long after he was changed for animal cruelty, sent to jail; once released he started to sell gun and ammunition out of this home.

While all of this happened; I believe he became over whelmed. Caring for these animals must have taken up a huge part of this life; although him and his wife loved every animal and took good care of them. Although one night terry, let lose every animal he had locked up; they ran and roamed free across the grass. This night terry took his own life and his exotic pets gnawed and chewed on his dead caucus.

I'm aweare he had given a home to wild animals; but when the police came and started shooting the poor beasts it broke my heart. His man had given them a home; they'd lick his face and he loved them. Of course they got scared and there "instincts set in" ours would to if men with guns were shooting at us. I was distraught knowing they hadn't just tranquilizer them and put them back into there natural habitat.
To this day no one knows the real reason for Terry's actions; many assume he just "cracked" after all that had happened.

"Man Or Breast?"

The Gray Box: An investigative look at solitary confinement

Journal #3

I always knew solitary confinement must be a hard thing to deal with. But its more then that, it changes your life, makes you a new and changed person; and sometimes not always for the better.

To be put into this confinement you typically would have to be difficult, harmed/ assaulted a staff member, tried to escaping or killed an inmate. This type of behavior can get you locked into a small room only the size of “two queen mattresses”. Honestly how long do you think you yourself could be trapped and locked in there? No windows, no fresh air, little and horrible food; not a thing to look at or watch except the lines on that thick padded wall.

This was first started in the 1820s’ by Quakers. They thought putting criminals into these confined cells would help rejuvenate them in some way. Although, that was proven to not be true after one man who was released went crazy and killed him wife from it. The conditions are horrible and the people within are lucky enough to get a window, one said “One time I kept a single green leaf alive for a few weeks. And one time I had grasshopper for a pet.”

            I found it interesting how this woman remember the man she had defended in trial months before she had pneumonia; she was also separated for a long time, nurses hadn’t met her needs and she was left in her “quarantined room”. After a week this was much for the women to handle; this brought her back to the day in court. Osiel Rodriguez, “Intrigued, I went to hear Jordan represent himself in federal court by a live video feed from prison. Though he was shackled as he made his case, his arguments were as skilled as those of the most seasoned trial attorneys I had seen. He lost.” “A trial in which he’d be arguing for access to reading materials that seemed a reasonable way to cope inside a concrete box.”       

            Reading this I learned “Taxpayers are shelling out about $75,000 a year to house a single prisoner in solitary confinement – more than twice as much as spent housing prisoners in general population.” This I find a little outrages, they need more then two guards escorting these men in; also these prisoners aren’t allowed to work so hired staff has to clean after them. It seems as if they really go out for there way to keep these inmates in confinement, really confided; they aren’t even allowed to clean the place to knock off a few hours. Yes, a lot have done vicious crimes, although most haven’t and don’t deserve that kind of treatment.


"Gray Box:An Investigative Look At Solitary Confinement."

No Country for Innocent Men

Journal # 2

 “Timothy Cole, imprisoned while a 26-year-old student at Texas Tech University, had been failed by the justice system at every turn. But what makes his story particularly gut-wrenching is that he perished in prison even as the real rapist, Jerry Johnson, tried repeatedly to confess to the crime. By the time Johnson's story was heard, Cole had been dead nearly a decade.”

          This quote and article is exactly why I picked crime and justice. I do not know someone personally that has been convicted of a crime but I know how often it happens. It’s on the news, online and in the papers all the time. I feel sorry for a man or woman who dies behind bars, especially if they don’t deserve to be there.  Watching movies can intrigue you, almost as if you are living their story, I become very animated. I remember watching the movie Aladdin; I couldn’t believe they were going to cut off jasmines’ hand for giving a small child an apple! Although that wasn’t based in America; I understand that now –lol-.

          People can be sent to jail by mistake in a number of ways, but in this article he was accused of raping someone he had not raped. Even though the real criminal owned up to it, the police did not let the other man free of charges. This was in Texas back in the 60s’; laws were certainly different than now. But Governor, Rick Perry had let almost three hundred executions take place; “Perry famously said that he had lost no sleep over the possibility of an innocent man being executed on his watch”

One woman says “yes, I’m positive”,( that he’s the man who raped her), later DNA showed differently. “But researchers are learning just how often eyewitnesses are wrong: Nationwide, incorrect identification was a factor in the convictions of more than 75 percent of people eventually exonerated by DNA.”

How can you be sure of whom it was? Naturally, we believe what information our brain is sending us but it’s not always right, our mind creates things without us knowing. Sometimes we picture ourselves doing something that hasn’t really happened.  Have you ever tried to remember something and you get glimpses; although, it’s not through your own eyes? This isn’t uncommon to remember being somewhere and seeing yourself from an outsiders view; this most likely means it was a false memory. "By the time of trial, almost all of them were absolutely sure they were identifying the right person." But being put under the pressure, thinking “There is only ten men in the line up; but none look exactly as he; which one could it be?” I believe people often make mistakes.

This was an effective article; although the beginning was boring and I found myself dozing off and having to go back and read it for the right information later in the story. All the boring information should be put at the end where it’s relevant to the reader, and they understand it clearer.

"No Country For Innocent Men"

Should I Buy Gun?

Journal # 1

Guns have never been, let’s say an interest of mine as it is for young men. Although, the past few weeks I’ve had some peculiar dreams involving needing them to protect my life. I was even considering going to a shooting range; not because I want to carry one around or to harm anyone else, I just feel driven towards it. Instantly I felt irony seeing this on the top stories to read on the web page today. Not, ten to fifteen minutes before I had been searching and discovered tonight was “ladies night” at the shooting range not far from here.

            While reading the article I picked up on some paranoia, I think the author’s mother had; and she herself also started showing symptoms of this later on. Always thinking someone is out to get her; “But I also spent an unhealthy number of hours staring into the inky blackness of the front yard. I’d listen to the susurrus of the trees and become convinced that someone was out there rustling and whispering… I’d hear twigs cracking, likely from cats or raccoons, and think that it was branches breaking beneath a prowler’s feet.”

            She witnessed a lot of brake in to her home and office; it seemed as if she was being stalked. Although, through all of these nights scared, even when a man was screaming she’s a bitch and to let him in; physically violently throwing himself at her door, she never once got the gun. Her boyfriend had bought, she had no knowledge of this and she wondered when he had bought if; did he even have a license?

            She moves to Montana, here you can own a gun and almost everyone does. With a license you’re allowed to have it on you in public. “I have glimpsed quite a few guns idly resting, like a map or some other quotidian object, on the dashboard of a car.” I had no knowledge of this; living around here and hearing about fall rivers new gun laws I hadn’t know places were so open about it. Its almost a piece of there sub-culture, she showed this very well and It personally interested me in my own way, hopefully you’ll like it too J.

"Should I Buy A Gun?"