Jody Ewing

Iowa Author

Jody Ewing

Victim Calls for Leniency

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What an inspirational read, and something one doesn’t see very often.

From the New York Times:

RIVERHEAD, N.Y., Aug. 15 – Every bone in her face was shattered last November when Victoria Ruvolo was struck by a 20-pound frozen turkey hurled through her windshield by a Long Island teenager. But when she came to court on Monday to hear the teenager accept responsibility for nearly killing her, she was there not for retribution but for his redemption.

The teenager, Ryan Cushing, pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court to a reduced charge of second-degree assault. Tall and lanky, and too thin for his gray suit, Mr. Cushing, 19, nearly whispered his admission that he threw the turkey from a rear window of a speeding car, hitting Ms. Ruvolo’s car with such force that it bent her steering wheel before striking her.

Read the Full Story: Deal in Turkey-Throwing Case After Victim Calls for Leniency – New York Times

Response to "Anonymous" comments on Three Names

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I’d been meaning to respond to the first Anonymous comment on my Three Names I’ll be Watching post (regarding the Fort Dodge, Iowa, youths who set opossums ablaze and videotaped the entire incident while laughing in the background), but now that a second Anonymous has responded to the first one, figured I’d better get busy so they know I “do” read my comments.

First, I’d like to thank both anonymous responders for their comments, and can see this is an issue important to many, with repercussions that ultimately have the ability to affect us all. For a brief recap:

Anonymous #1 said…

I’ve known David Bendickson since I was 11 years old. He’s been one of my best friends. He’s someone that a person could look up to and he’d be there for you. I admit what he did was stupid and immature… it’s not something you can really make excuses for. David grew up on a farm where animals are slaughtered all the time, it’s just a part of life, and that can really desensitize a person to that kind of thing.

All I know is that when David realized how big of a deal this made, he didn’t eat or sleep for three days. David would be the furthest person i could think of to a murderer, or a baby killer. I’m sorry you think this of him and the other two. I’m not trying to say that what they did wasn’t wrong, i’m just trying to let you see it from another point of view.

—————–

Evidently, Anonymous #2 “did” have another point of view. He said…

Hey anon,

Someone you could look up to? Wow. What your friend did was not stupid and immature. It was cruel and evil. There’s a big difference. Also, there’s a big difference between the way animals are slaughtered on a farm versus what he did. Farm animals are not slaughtered by dousing them in lighter fluid and setting them on fire — and then laughing and filming the whole thing. Oh, boo-hoo, David didn’t eat or sleep for three days?! Wow, those innocent animals won’t ever eat or sleep again! There are numerous ties between cruelty against animals and cruelty against people.

“…every time we hear of a young person abusing an animal, it is explained away by family and often authorities as a ‘youthful indiscrection’…What the authorities and parents of these young men fail to realize is that their behavior may signal that something is wrong with these men, which could very easily escalate into something much worse. The evidence is not just anecdotal; numerous studies, including the 1998 work of Randall Lockwood and Frank R. Ascione (“Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence,” Purdue University Press), have shown that children who engage in animal cruelty are more likely to commit more violent acts as adults. There is also a strong link between abuse of animals and domestic violence, with animal abusers much more likely to batter their wives or girlfriends as well…

Youthful violence toward animals is a very serious issue, and it needs to be taken seriously by not only animal advocates like myself, but by those who are concerned about violence in our society.” – Margo DeMello, Ph.D.

You should find someone else to look up to. He’s not worthy. BTW, lots of people never thought Ted Bundy would be a murderer either.

———————-

Although I have to admire Anon #1 for sticking up for his friend (all of us, at one time or another, can always use a steadfast friend when we do something “stupid and immature”), Anon #2 pointed out many things I’d had in my draft that made these youth’s actions cross a line between immature and evil.

Anon #2 hit the nail on the head, and the point I’d also wanted to make was that adult serial killers almost always have a childhood history of torturing animals. (See Katherine Ramsland’s excellent article on The Fledgling Psychopath at Court TV’s Crime Library.)

Violent acts toward animals have long been recognized as indicators of a violent psychopathology that does not confine itself to animals. Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer wrote, “Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives.” And, according to Robert K. Resler (who developed profiles of serial killers for the FBI), “Murderers…very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids.”

Anon #2 was also correct in that there are numerous studies out there by sociologists, lawmakers, and the courts that acts of cruelty to animals definitely deserve our attention. It’s often the first step in what becomes a very long road of violence throughout the rest of one’s life. The FBI also has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers (Daniel Goleman, “Child’s Love of Cruelty May Hint at the Future Killer,” The New York Times, Aug. 7, 1991).

Examples could fill a book, and though they’re extremely difficult to read, here are a mere five:

1) Brenda Spencer — who opened fire at a San Diego school killing two children and injuring nine others — had repeatedly abused cats and dogs, often by setting their tails on fire. (The Animals’ Voice, Fall 1990.)

2) Albert DeSalvo — the “Boston Strangler” who killed 13 women — trapped dogs and cats in orange crates and shot arrows through the boxes in his youth. (International Association of Chiefs of Police.)

3) In 1987, three Missouri high school students were charged with the beating death of a classmate. They had histories of repeated acts of animal mutilation starting several years earlier. (International Association of Chiefs of Police.)

4) Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had impaled dogs’ heads, frogs, and cats on sticks. (Daniel Goleman, “Child’s Love of Cruelty May Hint at the Future Killer,” The New York Times, Aug. 7, 1991.)

5) Earl Kenneth Shriner — who raped, stabbed, and mutilated a 7-year-old boy — had been widely known in his neighborhood as the man who put firecrackers in dogs’ rectums and strung up cats. (The Animals’ Voice, Fall 1990.)

Anthropologist Margaret Mead once noted, “One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it.”

Research also shows that those abusing animals may be repeating lessons they’ve learned at home. Violence is often directed to those more vulnerable than the abuser. It’s a “pecking order” that’s been documented time and again.

Though this is long, I want to reiterate that I commend Anon writer #1 for standing beside his friend, even though he knew what his friend did was wrong. It is people like you who often are able to redirect the paths their friends follow; peer pressure is a powerful thing, and it sounds as if you have a lot to offer your friend. If you’re there for him, steering him in the right direction, perhaps there’s hope.

If children and youth who abuse and kill animals don’t have a support or intervention system — either through family, friends, their community or the law — the statistics, sadly enough, are stacked against them from the beginning.

Thanks to both of you for writing. And to Anonymous #1, I encourage you to visit some of the websites referenced herein, print them out, and discuss them with your friend. He’ll thank you in the long run, and you may just save a life (or two).

Jody

Meet Josper Sanon: Puppy Killer

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Why, why, why must I insist on reading these terribly upsetting stories about people torturing and killing innocent animals? Perhaps because I’m an animal lover? Or because I treat my own two dogs as if they were my own children? This recent one, however, really got to me.

Yesterday, Josper Sanon of Miramar, Florida, flung his teenage son’s two-month-old black Labrador puppy off a fifth-floor balcony simply because the puppy had an accident on the floor. An accident on the floor? And it was only two months old? How ignorant must one be to not know this is what puppies do until they’re properly trained?

The puppy died after being tossed from the 50-foot high balcony.

Charged with felony animal abuse, Sanon was released yesterday from the Broward County jail after posting bail. If convicted of the dog killing, he faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Excuse me? This isn’t just animal “abuse” — he killed an innocent puppy!

Please join me in e-mailing Miramar’s city manager Robert A. Payton and mayor Lori Cohen Moseley to ask they do everything possible to encourage prosecutors to punish Sanon to the fullest extent of the law. You’ll find Miramar’s other city officials listed here.

— Jody

Three names I’ll be watching

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I’m embarrassed to even admit this took place in Iowa, but then again, people who like to torture live everywhere, including Iowa.

But when Josh Colvin, the cruelty intervention coordinator for the Animal Rescue League refers to this as “the worst animal torture I’ve ever seen,” I know I’ll be keeping an eye on the the names of three Iowa teens who were arrested and charged in dousing opossums in lighter fluid and setting them on fire — as they laughed and jeered and videotaped the entire horrific ordeal.

Their names — David Bendickson, Anthony Herrington and Kevin Calderon — all of Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Animal torture is punishable only by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. What on earth is wrong with this picture????? If it’s only punishable for up to two years, how long before these murderers are back on the street looking for their next victim(s)? And what does one do to “top” something like what they’ve already done?

I can see it now. When David Bendickson, Anthony Herrington and Kevin Calderon are arrested again in the near future for torturing and killing a next-door neighbor’s young child – or perhaps a young child going about his or her business of playing at the local park – the headlines will read:

“Killers Had History of Torturing and Killing Innocent Victims.”

I think it’s timeto write more letters to some state legislators.

Double Tragedy for One Iowa Family

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I can’t begin to imagine what Ann and Bill Byers of Schleswig, Iowa, must be going through right now.

One might think there could be nothing worse than losing a young son — with an infant daughter of his own — to a war launched under questionable circumstances. There is: losing another — the only remaining son and also a soldier — two days before the first son’s funeral. The double tragedy carries an unspeakable amount of grief, particularly for the residents of the small town of only 850.

Sgt. Casey Byers, 22 — a member of the Ottumwa-based Company B 224th Engineering Battaliona stationed at Ramadi — was killed Saturday, June 11, when a roadside bomb exploded directly beneath his Humvee south of Ramadi in Iraq. He was the 28th Iowan to die in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Another Iowa soldier, 28-year-old Spc. James Migues, Jr. of Ottumwa, was on foot patrol in front of the Humvee and injured during the explosion. Another soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Neal Prince of Colorado, also was killed in the incident.

According to unit commander Lt. Col. Todd Jacobus of Des Moines, the tragedy was intensely personal to the soldiers’ fellow comrades. In an e-mail to the fallen soldiers’ family and friends, Jacobus recalled that Byers “told people that his first name was ‘THE,’ as in ‘THE BYERS.’ He was very proud that he had a daughter, and told many of the other soldiers that he was ‘the world’s greatest dad,’ commenting how he couldn’t wait to get home and spend time with his parents and daughter.”

That wasn’t the only thing on the young soldier’s mind. Lt. Col. Jacobus went on to write that “Spc. Byers had told members of his platoon that he had a brother in a United States Army Reserve transportation company out of Sac City, and that his unit was supposed to be mobilized in the fall. Spc. Byers had humorously mentioned to many that ‘Iraq can’t handle two Byers at the same time.’”

Neither Byers, nor Jacobus, could possibly have foreseen the twist of fate about to take place.

Two days before Byers’ funeral, his 19-year-old brother, Justin “Paul,” was struck and killed by a truck while walking out of a ditch along U.S. Highway 30 about a mile west of Vail, Iowa. According to the Des Moines Register, the younger Byers was hit around 9:40 p.m. Monday night.

Funeral services for Casey Byers, a 2001 graduate of Ar-We-Va High School in Vail, Iowa, are scheduled for today at 11 a.m. at the Company C 1st-168th Infantry Iowa Army National Guard in Denison. His cremated remains will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at a later date. Services are still pending for his younger brother.

The brothers are survived by their parents and one sister, Jennifer, as well as Casey’s infant daughter, Hailey.

My heart goes out to this family who lives but 35 miles from me — “neighbors” as we rural Iowans call them — whose names I never knew until this June. May God, and peace, be with them all.

Americans Deserve Answers to These 5 Questions

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By now, most of you are aware of the “Downing Street Memo” – the document that quotes a high-ranking British official as stating that by July of 2002, Bush had made up his mind to take military action against Iraq. The memo flatly states that “the facts and intelligence were being fixed around the policy” in order to justify a decision that already had been made.

Another memo — the “Personal Secret UK Eyes Only” briefing paper from that July 2002 meeting — shows that British officials worried about creating the conditions in which they could legally support military action because they knew the facts made no case for the war Bush had decided to wage. Yes, you heard that correctly – “creating” the conditions. In the Introduction, Section I states:

“The US Government’s military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace. But, as yet, it lacks a political framework. In particular, little thought has been given to creating the political conditions for military action, or the aftermath and how to shape it.”

And in Section 3 of the Introduction:

This is particularly important for the UK because it is necessary to create the conditions in which we could legally support military action. Otherwise we face the real danger that the US will commit themselves to a course of action which we would find very difficult to support.

One can only imagine what’s going through the minds of parents who already have buried their U.S. soldier/children, or parents and spouses who might face burying their loved ones in the future? And all these deaths for military action where political conditions had to be created?

In response to these revelations, Representative John Conyers – ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee – is calling on the Administration to level with the American public about the decision to go to war. He has created a petition calling on the Bush Administration to answer five very important questions regarding the timing of its decision. The Bush Administration, however, has not yet replied to Representative Conyers’ letter, nor have they responded to 89 Members of Congress who submitted the very same questions on May 5, 2005.

Yesterday, members of Gold Star Families for Peace, a national organization of families whose loved ones died as a result of the war in Iraq, met with Members of Congress to call on them to support a “Resolution of Inquiry” into the so-called Downing Street Memo.

Today at 2 pm GSFP co-founder Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California will join others in testifying at a Democratic hearing before Rep. Conyers as well as other congressional members. Sheehan’s son, Army SPC Casey Sheehan, was killed in Sadr City, Baghdad, on April 4, 2004.

On the website Military Families Speak Out, member Lisa Gill put together her own list of (15) questions she would like to ask Congress, including (to name a few):

— Are you aware that over 1685 of our American children/soldiers have been killed as a result of “your” decision?

— Are you aware that over 6407 of our American children/soldiers have been so severely wounded that they have had to come home, most with lost limbs or other disabilities that will prevent them from doing the jobs they dreamed about doing when leaving the military?

— Are you aware that over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed or severely wounded as a result of your decision to go to war?

The last two, however, are real zingers:

— Is whatever political gain you personally received by supporting this war worth it?

— Do you have trouble sleeping at night?

You may want to click on the “Letters” section of the MFSO site, but grab your tissues first. These are Real families of military members with profound stories of anger and loss.

Writes one mother: “I had been conned, and this realization broke my heart. Was my son’s life and the lives of other mothers’ sons and daughters of so little value that our country would enter a war and put them in danger without concrete evidence?” She goes on to say:

“Sadly, on this Mother’s Day, mothers of U.S. service people in Iraq are confronted with the disconcerting knowledge that our government has been manipulating the news such as the TV shot depicting Iraqis carrying an American flag crying “Thank you, Bush, Thank you, United States” shown to Americans during the prime-time news. It was not filmed spontaneously in Iraq as the American public was led to believe, but rather filmed in the United States by our government. Our tax dollars at work, to deceive us.”

Another member writes: “God help us for who we have given privilege to the highest office in the land.”

Robert Kennedy, Jr., also has many concerns about the press and voters behaving irrationally. In an interview with “Planet” editor Tom Valtin, Kennedy calls the “Endless Negligence of Press” a “Top Threat to Democracy.” He says:

“The press is letting this president get away with policies without ground truth in them, and by that I mean the easily discernable lies of this White House on so many issues—from Medicare to the environment, the Iraq war to the budget. If we had an active, independent press that was willing to speak truth to power, the voters in this country would not be behaving irrationally. A democracy relies on an aggressive, independent press, and we no longer have that.”

If you’ve seen little media coverage of the Downing Street Memo and Eyes Only briefing, now you know why. Hopefully, if you’ve gotten this far in this post, you’ll want to click here to read Rep. Conyers’ letter and five questions and add your name as a co-signer.

Military families – indeed, all Americans – deserve answers to these questions.