Yeah, Let's Punish The Victim Some More

[Kennedy 0]

What kind of kid is this woman raising, that even if we give him the benefit of the doubt about drugs, he calls a guy a snitch for reporting crimes?

This case smacks of Wilmette and NYC, prosecuting victims more than criminals.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_2598683

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Shooting stirs outrage, blame
Dispute between teen, activist splits community and highlights underlying public safety issues

OAKLAND — It all began with the word "snitch." It ended with the shooting of a 16-year-old boy and a still-raging controversy over who was to blame and whether someone should be criminally charged.

Scores of people across the city have offered an opinion, with many — including police — voicing opposition to charges being filed against Patrick McCullough, the man who shot Melvin McHenry on Feb. 18.

Many have hailed McCullough a "Citizen Crime Fighter" and have drafted petitions to the district attorney's office urging that he not be charged.

But McHenry's attorney, relatives and some residents think McCullough should be charged with shooting the unarmed boy who McCullough said was harassing him and seemed ready to pull a gun on him.

Ivan Golde, McHenry's attorney, acknowledged McCullough is "symbolic of people standing up and protecting his neighborhood, but this man simply lost his temper. He was trying to be the cop, the man on the street. He's the thug.

"There's no middle ground in this case," Golde said. "You're either faced with deadly force or you're not. He said he saw (McHenry) reach for a gun, but none of the kids had guns."

The case has sparked discussions about larger issues, including the community's responsibility in enforcing the law.

"This has become very polarized, and (McCullough and McHenry) are both symbols," said Don Link, who heads the Shattuck Crime Prevention Council. "McCullough is a symbol to rally around because the community has to stand together in the face of threats. The boy is a symbol of the fears that people have of street-level crime. Anytime that you make someone a symbol, you are ignoring some of the important details. We can create peaceful neighborhoods without using violence."

Still others believe there are bigger public safety issues the community has to address before resorting to blaming anyone.

"They're both victims of conditions that set people up to be violent," said Deane Calhoun, executive director of Youth Alive, a nonprofit Oakland-based youth advocacy group that works to prevent violence.

"We get so caught up in who's right, who's wrong, who's the perpetrator, who's the victim, but we forget to ask what's causing it all to begin with. What are the larger issues?"

Vice Mayor Jane Brunner said it's important to address these issues by creating more dialogue in a gentrifying neighborhood plagued for years by illegal drug activity.

"The best resolution is that we start talking and meeting, incorporating the community, the neighbors," said Brunner (North Oakland).

The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. Feb. 18 outside McCullough's 59th Street house.

McCullough, 49, says McHenry ignited the argument by calling him a snitch for reporting drug dealing and by throwing a few punches, prompting McCullough to defend himself. McCullough said the group of teenagers started throwing rocks at him and hit him with a branch. It was only when he heard McHenry call out, "where's the pistol?" and saw one teenager reach into his waistband that McCullough felt threatened.

"It looked as though (the friend) was handing (McHenry) a pistol, and I felt he was going to shoot me, and I was afraid," said McCullough. "It was in self-defense.

"I don't care if it was an infant," said McCullough, "If it had a gun and I felt threatened, then I would defend myself. Better him than me dead on the ground."

McCullough was arrested on suspicion of felony assault and was freed on $15,000 bail. Deputy District Attorney James Lee said the case remains under investigation, and he does not expect to make a decision on charges until later this week.

McHenry was shot in the right arm in front of children and neighbors.

The bullet went through his arm and lodged in his side. The wound was not life-threatening, but McHenry hasn't been the same since, family members say.

"He's terrified," said his mother, Stacy Hegler. "He doesn't want to go to school. He doesn't go outside. Nothing."

McHenry, who has received more than 15 football awards, which are stacked between rows of family portraits at his home, is a junior at Deer Valley High School in Antioch. The family moved to the North Oakland neighborhood about six months ago after the house they were renting in Berkeley was sold.

"I moved to this neighborhood only because we had to," said Hegler. "I was raised in Oakland, and I don't want to raise my kids in Oakland because this is the kind of thing I want to keep my kids away from — men like him."

Hegler said the most difficult part of her son getting shot is the way it has been portrayed in the media and how her son is being depicted as a drug dealer.

"The media keep stating it's drug deals, and this had nothing to do with drugs," said Hegler. "This has to do with a man being upset and offended at a group of kids who called him a snitch. The man is trying to get off shooting my son for no reason by calling it a drug deal. It's got nothing to do with drugs, and everyone is backing him."

But neighbor Brandon Dawson, 21, who said he watched the whole incident, feels McCullough overstepped his bounds and reacted out of fear.

"He's trying to be Inspector Gadget, James Bond, and there's no need for that," said Dawson. "I've been here for 19 years and none of the neighbors have had the problems he's had. He just has problems with the kids hanging out. ... What kind of a hero is it that puts his own family and other people's family in jeopardy?"

"I've never seen behavior like that," said a 31-year-old neighbor who has a child of her own. "To see a grown man shoot at kids as they were running away after they saw him pull out the gun, I think Patrick overreacted.

"I would feel safer if Patrick left because I don't want my kid caught in that crossfire. I also think Patrick should get to know the kids he's shooting at because, yes, we have drug dealing around here, but we also have kids who don't have anywhere to go, and I take the time to get to know them."

McCullough, who has lived in the neighborhood with his wife and son since 1994, has been active in his community policing group and is open about reporting drug-related crimes and illegal behavior.

'I don't have anything to hide," he said. "I'm not afraid of them. I'm a grown man and I'm not going to let (someone) intimidate me by calling me a snitch. I'm outside my house reporting to the police openly."

He says he has experienced threats and harassment during the years. He says he was physically attacked by three men about

18 months ago and still has a large rock someone threw into his living room.

McCullough says it isn't his responsibility to get to know the young people.

"I don't hang out with teenagers," said McCullough. "I don't associate with them. I don't interact with them. When I see them they're either dressed in hooded clothes or with gold teeth. I don't associate with this class of thug-looking people. I can't tell one from the other and I have no desire to."

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[mr2mk1g 10]

By some people's testimony he pulled a gun and shot at fleeing children. That at least needs investigating... even if they were punk kids bitching about him trying to stop their drug dealing.

Now if he felt his life was threatened even though there was actually no threat, as far as I'm concerned they're fair game... it's just the shooting at them after they've turned to run that could, and should IMO, get this guy into hot water.

[rasmack 0]

Anyway, that is what a court of law is there for. Deciding whether or not he was wrong in doing what he did. If it turns out he was wrong he is a criminal and should be punished, and no amount of discussion on these boards is going to change that fact.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[mr2mk1g 10]

hehe - when did that fact ever stop anyone here.

What surprises me is when people whine that an investigation occurs at all. Someone got shot. Some people say the shooter did wrong. Why is it bad to look into it?

If the shooter did actually do wrong, charges should follow and a court case will decide what really happened. If there's no evidence that they did wrong they should walk.

None of that stops half the town being up in arms about an incident where they have no idea what actually happened because they were not there and don't have all the information.

[TomAiello 26]

No, no, you've got it all wrong.

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"They're both victims of conditions that set people up to be violent," said Deane Calhoun, executive director of Youth Alive, a nonprofit Oakland-based youth advocacy group that works to prevent violence.

You see, they are both victims.

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"We get so caught up in who's right, who's wrong, who's the perpetrator, who's the victim, but we forget to ask what's causing it all to begin with. What are the larger issues?"

You're just caught up with these niggling issues of right and wrong. It's not about what's right and wrong, can't you see? It's about the system that perpetuates this. No one is actually responsible for their own actions. We're all just victims of these conditions. They've set us up.

Welcome to the homeland of Ebonics, where city councils have their own independent foreign policies...

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[markd_nscr986 0]

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Welcome to the homeland of Ebonics, where city councils have their own independent foreign policies...




all too f*#@ing true unfortunately

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004

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[Ron 10]

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McCullough, 49, says McHenry ignited the argument by calling him a snitch for reporting drug dealing and by throwing a few punches, prompting McCullough to defend himself

If the kid was throwing punches

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McCullough said the group of teenagers started throwing rocks at him and hit him with a branch.

Throwing rocks and hitting him with a stick.

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It was only when he heard McHenry call out, "where's the pistol?" and saw one teenager reach into his waistband that McCullough felt threatened.

And then asked for and reached for a pistol....I have no problem with him shooting.

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"To see a grown man shoot at kids as they were running away after they saw him pull out the gun, I think Patrick overreacted.

He should not have shot if they were running away.

But if they were attacking me with rocks, throwing punches and saying "where's the pistol?"...I'd shoot as well.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[gjhdiver 0]

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What kind of kid is this woman raising, that even if we give him the benefit of the doubt about drugs, he calls a guy a snitch for reporting crimes?

I live near there. Go for a walk on that block and it all becomes a lot more clear. it's a fucking urban war zone. There aren't many innocent parties there.

[rickjump1 0]

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Welcome to the homeland of Ebonics, where city councils have their own independent foreign policies...




all too f*#@ing true unfortunately

"The dog ate my homework" generation just won't go away

Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

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[Kennedy 0]

UPDATE:

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'd say the man's been vindicated. HE's got a long term restraining order against their whole family while they couldn't get one against him. He's not under threat of indictment anymore. His homeowner's insurance isn't paying out a dime.

(of course, I think they're all insane to keep living there, but hey, since when does anyone want to listen to a 20something cracker from the burbs?)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/16/BAG0PC9SOK1.DTL

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OAKLAND
Mother drops bid to restrain neighbor
Anti-crime advocate shot her son, saying it was self-defense

The mother of a teenager who was shot and wounded by vocal North Oakland anti-crime advocate Patrick McCullough has dropped her bid to get a long-term restraining order against him.

Attorneys for Stacy Hegler and her son, 16-year-old son Melvin McHenry, said they had dropped their application for a court order to keep McCullough, their neighbor in the 500 block of 9th Street, at least 50 yards away. Attorney Daniel Horowitz said he and his clients believed they lacked sufficient grounds for an extended restraining order. The temporary order expired Friday afternoon.

"I won't be giving them any reason to seek a new order," McCullough said.

Under a long-term court order that McCullough obtained March 11, Hegler and her son, who live 13 houses away on 59th Street, are supposed to stay away from McCullough and his family. But McCullough said that in order to keep his order in effect, he should avoid Hegler and her son.

"This is no problem," McCullough said. "I don't want anything to do with her. I'm more than happy to keep my distance."

McCullough, who has routinely chased away drug dealers who congregate near his home, made headlines when he shot and wounded Melvin McHenry, a teenager who was among a group of young men who, McCullough said, had assaulted him.

Police said McCullough had acted in self-defense after seeing the boy reach for a gun in another youth's waistband, and the district attorney's office declined to file charges against him or Melvin McHenry.

Hegler said she and her son were having nightmares since the Feb. 18 shooting. Her attorneys said they were continuing their efforts to sue McCullough's homeowners' insurance company for at least $300,000 in damages.

Because Hegler's stay-away order expired, McCullough is able to arm himself against potential attackers on his property. After she obtained a temporary restraining order last month, he was forced to give his firearm to police.

McCullough and his wife, Daphne, decided this month not to move from their home, against the advice of police. The February incident was the latest in a string of problems since the McCulloughs moved to the block in 1994 and began calling police to chase away alleged drug dealers.

McCullough was assaulted in 2003 by an 18-year-old man who called him a "snitch," and in November someone threw a 5-pound chunk of concrete through their front window.

On Sunday, Daphne McCullough saw several young men pulling flowers planted by other neighbors in a traffic barrier at 59th and Shattuck.

"She told them to stop and called police," Patrick McCullough said. "Then on Monday morning, there three plants with big dirt clods around them were sitting in my driveway."

Meanwhile, the activist group Uhuru House posted flyers in the neighborhood saying, "McCullough must be removed from the African community before he kills."

"Patrick McCullough is a criminal, a common criminal who needs to be put in jail," said Bakari Olatunji, local president of the International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement. "He's working in the interests of the state. That's why they let him go."

Several of McCullough's neighbors took down the posters Wednesday and Thursday. The posters allege that "the U.S. government hires sellouts like McCullough to make it look like we're killing ourselves." It goes on to ask "Whose side are you on? The people or the pigs?"

McCullough said he is "treating the posters like a threat."

"If it wasn't a serious threat, I think it would be kind of ludicrous. ... This is totally off the wall. Virtually every fact on that poster is wrong."

Lt. Lawrence Green, who heads police patrols in North Oakland, said he was not worried about the posters but was concerned they could prompt someone to violate the law.

"If something happens to Patrick, and it can be shown that it was inspired by their poster, there could be some liability, certainly civil liability but possibly criminal," Green said.

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*