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Daily Archives: 2009/05/20
Beyond child abuse…
Warning… this article is based on a issue that has me angry… I may use some strong language!
It is bad enough when a person abuses a child by beating them or mentally torturing them. These are the common forms of abuse that we are used to, if you can ever truly get used to something like that. But what has happened here, in my home town, goes beyond sick.
Angel Vidal Mendoza Sr. has been accused of, allegedly, biting his son’s eyes out, leaving him permanently blinded. He then proceeded to start hacking at his own legs with an axe. You can follow the story through either of the two links below.
Bakersfield Californian or the Silicon Valley MercuryNews
First off, to be as fair as I possibly can be in a case like this, Mendoza is awaiting trial, where I hope he gets exactly what is coming to him (Unfortunately, in California, that probably will not be much), so all these accusations presented by the legal system, and thusly my dialogue below, are dependent on that verdict.
Now… for my take on this.
What kind of sick bastard, drug induced or not, do you have to be to do something like this to a child? This is a child that will, more than likely, never see again. His only chance will be a transplant at some point in the future. This is a child who will be scarred for life because of what his father, allegedly, did to him. A person that is supposed to love and nurture the child. Teach him to be a good person and to live a good life, but whom, allegedly, took away his child’s sight.
If there were EVER a case for someone to cease to exist, it would be this person. This Mendoza character is a walking poster-boy for why there is such a thing at a death penalty. The only problem is that the death penalty is too easy of a way out for him.
The REAL punishment should be for him to be cleaned up, become free of the influences of the drugs, and made to look at pictures of his son’s mutilated face for the rest of his life. Made to see his son learn to live life as a blind citizen and grow up missing all the things that his father took away from him. Then… after this child has grown to be a man, confront this father with one thing.
Confront his father with forgiveness for his stupidity.
My personal message to Mendoza? Once you have been proven guilty of what you have done… and once you are cleaned up and off the drugs. I hope you have nightmares every night of your natural life, of what you have done to this child. I hope that not a moment passes that something does not remind you of what you have done and who you did it to. I hope the image of your son’s empty eye sockets are burned into your mind forever.
I am not normally a hateful person, but you… you are, allegedly, the exception to my rule about not “hating” people.
You are, allegedly, a monster and if there is, indeed, a hell, I doubt even they will take you.
Good Day.
Posted in ...In the news!, The Dumbshit Zone
2 Comments
Jury Duty…
This last week I had the honor of serving on a Jury.
I say honor and I mean it with all my heart.
Yes… I will also admit that there are parts of jury service that are boring beyond tears. The initial waiting for your panel to be called, then the process of selection where the various lawyers get to find new and exciting reasons that you do not belong on the jury. The silly questions that they ask you during this process that, many times, have nothing to do with the trial at hand.
I will take a moment and explain something to those of you that may not be aware of how jury service, or at least jury service in Kern County (California, USA) works. You see, we have this way of doing it called One day or One Trial. Where you get your summons, come in and wait. If through the course of the day you are not selected or called to a panel, you are released from service… you have met your obligation. More often than not, however, you will be called. Once that has been done, you will get to go through a selection process and placed on a jury panel, or you will be excused from that panel and sent back to the waiting area where you are placed back in the queue for another chance. Again, if you are not selected by the end of that day, you are done… having completed your service.
Now… I have been called many things for saying this, but I really enjoy jury service. Not only do I see it as one of your, our, obligations as US citizens, but it is fun to see the system work and to actually take part in it as a piece of the machinery. For that period of time, you are part of the legal system, making the system work. It is not so much a sense of power or control, but a feeling of purpose.
Short of being a member of the US military or working in the civil service, I do not think that people get to experience anything that makes them part of the “system” the way jury service does. Yes… I know… I probably sound a little like some demented zealot touting how great the system is. I will not lie and say that it is perfect, but we are humans, therefore perfection is not even in the equation.
Since 1987 I have been on, counting this latest one, five juries. Somehow, someway, I have been placed in the system soas to be chosen quite often. Of those juries, I have been impressed with the judges and many times discovered that the attorneys often live up to their reputation. But then again, I would have to think that in order for them to do the work they do, they would have to learn to be a little slick or silver-tongued in order to accomplish the things they do. That being said, I will not condemn them for what they do… just envy them the money they make for doing it.
While I cannot talk about the trial itself, I will say that the judge was probably the most amusing of all that I have seen. His name is John Brownlee and to meet him and listen to him, you would immediately think that this was a person meant for the entertainment industry. If Judge Brownlee happens to stumble upon this article, I hope that he understands that this is meant complementary. He has the personality of a intelligent, off-duty comedian and a voice that should have been reserved for radio announcing. His interaction with the jury led me to feel that he saw them as more important than the lawyers or even the defendants. Something that I was not used to in my trial experience.
The trial lasted for about four days and was interesting. There were no outbursts from anyone, no lawyers or defendants yelling, “You can’t handle the truth!”, no one threw chairs, punches or spitting… and no aging ex-football stars trying on gloves. It was, over all, a boring trial. In fact, Judge Brownlee started this little thing where he would look at the jury pit and give a thumbs up to us all… if we did not respond, he would have the bailiff shoot us with his taser… just kidding… I think he was doing this to make sure we were not falling asleep.
Now it is just a matter of waiting for the next one. At the present rate, I should see my next summons sometime in August of 2010 or 2011. To bad the court system does not issue “Frequent Juror Reward Cards”, I might actually have won something by now, but with the state budget the way it is, I would hate to see what the prizes would be.
As always… thanks for reading.
Posted in Law and Disorder
7 Comments
