The story has mainstreamed with the St. Louis Dispatch picking it up.
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Recent Comments
- In The Mailbox: 02.28.23 (Afternoon Edition) : The Other McCain on Hey, longtime pw readers…
- In The Mailbox: 12.23.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll truly IS a sad, embittered psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- In The Mailbox: 07.18.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
This story breaks my heart.
One life lost, 2 families irreversably damaged. Violence, vandalism, neighborhood acrimony, pain.
Moral: Try to at least consider the potential human toll when planning internet mayhem. Mrs. Drew’s contention that she felt better about Megan’s suicide because she had been suicidal before reflects a massively narcissistic ignorance of the above.
Just tragic.
You’d think that there’s something that the Drew woman could and should be charged with.. Something less than murder or manslaughter but substantial nonetheless.. She intentionally conducted a psyops campaign against a young girl she knew was treated for depression..
Maybe something like Reckless Endangerment or Gross Indifference or something.. That’s the best my Law & Order: CI trained mind can come up with …
Horrible, horrible story and I echo BJTexas in that care must be taken before the launch of internet havoc. I, for one, will do my part by directing all harassing, threatening comments toward Dan Collins only, from this point forward.
Well, since I’m a blatant narcissist, I’ll simply discount any such comments.
Typical.
Techies, law enforcement needs ya.
I was told to “get over it” when I, as a child geezer, complained about fights with friends. Not once did either parent undertake a plan to harm a child for my benefit or even suggest such a thing would be right.
What sort of monster parents are out there?
I was taught to work inside and uppercut.
Yeah?!?!
Why don’t you just try that with me sometimes, Dan Collins?
………nope. not fun.
It was part of our Irish-American education. I broke my right hand on my brother Tim’s skull, once.
A very droll doctor asked me how it happened, while Tim sat in the waiting room with a big lump on his forehead.
Heh, same, Dan. Same. I would teach my son to fight but tell him to only use it as a last resort. No psyops for me. That’s sadistic. I earned respect of a few with a well placed punch (usually just one.) Being naturally big, most fights – Musashi style – only consist of one or two blows.
I grew up with older brothers, so fear of pain was beat out of me early. My son does not have that advantage so I told him to swing his book bag. It weighs 80 lbs.
Where is the Homeowner’s Association in all of this? How does that work cause I would not want to move in near any of these people really because they are very dramatic. That’s not really the point I guess but it kind of is when you think about the Drews trying to sell their house. I don’t think getting them out of there makes that street all that more attractive.
Some people over at AoS were saying something similar about this site, last night, hf.
That saddens me. But you know what? They’re kind of well-meaning but stupid.
I’m sorry for Jeff. He came back from that YAF thing, seeming invigorated. Then I pull a shitmountain down on his place. We’ll have to think of some cool way of wishing him Happy Thanksgiving. Or I will, anyway.
A moment of silence?
Oh I went and found. Ace is good people. Rightwingsparkle is good people too. I feel bad cause one time I think I called something she said demented and that was wrong of me. But also some people over there are even snottier than Lutherans I think and I am displeased with them and have taken note of their names. Don’t tell them though cause I don’t want them to worry over the holidays cause it’s not that big a deal. But still.
Just as a point of information, I first saw the story in a Suburban Journal link on the stltoday homepage. The Suburban Journals are owned by the P-D. I thought at the time that the mother who set this up was out of her fucking mind…what sort of parent condones such a thing, much less participates in it?
I have zero sympathy for them and what they are experiencing right now.
Snottier than Lutherans? As if.
That was harsh. They’re still snottier than the situation calls for is all I meant. It’s like they don’t calibrate. Kind of like Megan’s neighborhood. Very apt analogy there Dan.
When she was still a freshman in high school, my sister got into a fight with another girl over a boy (whose name has no doubt been long since forgotten). Verbal sparring match, lots of heated words, and it got so nasty that my sister punched the payphone they were arguing next to.
Broke three of her knuckles and put the payphone out of order, but the other girl shut right the fark up.
You think that if someone busted a payphone over the heads of these parents that they would learn the same lesson?
You’ve never met an Episcopalian, have you?
I don’t know that there is any sort of “poison pen” legislation that would apply, but the historical remedy for situations like this is that the person responsible for driving a child to suicide feels so horrified by what he has done that he commits suicide himself.
Barring the invocation of that precedent, what about “contributing to the delinquency of a minor?” You don’t think a jury would convict these people as accessories? A little research shows that Missouri passed a law in 1984 (565.023.1(2), RSMo) that classifies assisting in a suicide as a Class B felony, punishable by five to fifteen years in prison. I don’t know if it’s still on the books post-Kevorkian, but come on. No one can even put a case together, not even enough to press charges? All you would have to do is get these people in front of a jury of their peers and it would be academic.
My guess, Gabriel, is that the PD/DA compartmentalized the suicide and the harassment. They’re seeing the harassment as a domestic dispute, which they don’t want to touch with a 10-meter cattle prod.
Otherwise, I would imagine charges would already have been made. Public pressure may force them to do it anyway, at which point the sick bitch Drew would of course claim to be the victim of mob action.
Started ugly, ends ugly.
“My guess, Gabriel, is that the PD/DA compartmentalized the suicide and the harassment. They’re seeing the harassment as a domestic dispute, which they don’t want to touch with a 10-meter cattle prod.
Otherwise, I would imagine charges would already have been made.” No, not really, Not so much.
On the vandalism thing: The only thing to occur in the past week (since the story broke) is phone calls, from EVERYWHERE. The worst being a phone call stating that someone had been shot at the Drew’s residence. Everyone was fine, it was a prank, but a scary, lights flashing kind. That was bad, but the PD has these crimes cross-referenced, as you can see on “The Smoking Gun” website. If you look, you can see this:
Game table ~11/25/06
Brick thrown 12/10/06
Yelling 01/21/07
Paintball 04/19/07
Lawn job occurred months ago, and the bereaved father is also charged with that.
So, this angry mob-and-pitchfork scene that certain “news” stories are printing is just NOT happening.
The PD did not report the crime to the Prosecuting Attorney. At leaset they didn’t follow the SOP to do so. A representative at the Sheriff’s office said to me in person yesterday that “She did not commit a crime”. Some stories quote the police as saying it was bad behavior, but not illegal. They are extremely irritated at the public for being outraged and at the Meiers for allowing the story to go public. So, it seems they need ideas and help from us.
Endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, penalties.
568.045. 1. A person commits the crime of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree if:
(1) The person knowingly acts in a manner that creates a substantial risk to the life, body, or health of a child less than seventeen years old; or
(2) The person knowingly engages in sexual conduct with a person under the age of seventeen years over whom the person is a parent, guardian, or otherwise charged with the care and custody;
(3) The person knowingly encourages, aids or causes a child less than seventeen years of age to engage in any conduct which violates the provisions of chapter 195, RSMo;
(4) Such person enlists the aid, either through payment or coercion, of a person less than seventeen years of age to unlawfully manufacture, compound, produce, prepare, sell, transport, test or analyze amphetamine or methamphetamine or any of their analogues, or to obtain any material used to manufacture, compound, produce, prepare, test or analyze amphetamine or methamphetamine or any of their analogues; or
(5) Such person, in the presence of a person less than seventeen years of age or in a residence where a person less than seventeen years of age resides, unlawfully manufactures, or attempts to manufacture compounds, produces, prepares, sells, transports, tests or analyzes amphetamine or methamphetamine or any of their analogues.
2. Endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree is a class C felony unless the offense is committed as part of a ritual or ceremony, or except on a second or subsequent offense, in which case the crime is a class B felony.
565.021. 1. A person commits the crime of murder in the second degree if he:
(1) Knowingly causes the death of another person or, with the purpose of causing serious physical injury to another person, causes the death of another person; or
(2) Commits or attempts to commit any felony, and, in the perpetration or the attempted perpetration of such felony or in the flight from the perpetration or attempted perpetration of such felony, another person is killed as a result of the perpetration or attempted perpetration of such felony or immediate flight from the perpetration of such felony or attempted perpetration of such felony.
2. Murder in the second degree is a class A felony, and the punishment for second degree murder shall be in addition to the punishment for commission of a related felony or attempted felony, other than murder or manslaughter.
3. Notwithstanding section 556.046, RSMo, and section 565.025, in any charge of murder in the second degree, the jury shall be instructed on, or, in a jury-waived trial, the judge shall consider, any and all of the subdivisions in subsection 1 of this section which are supported by the evidence and requested by one of the parties or the court.
Prosecuting Attorney:
Jack Banas
300 N. 2nd St., 6th Fl.
St. Charles, MO 63301
(636) 949-7355
Tom Neer, Sheriff
County Sheriff’s Department
101 Crossing Industrial Ct.
O’ Fallon, MO 63366
http://www.house.gov/writerep
Much to my regret, I voted for them.
Mizzou Rah–
Do you know whether it’s true that they profit from porn?
Does anybody profit from porn these days?
@#$!! amateurs!
I hesitate to call this disgusting lady an adult, but damnit all to hell, what is the matter with the adults in this story? Can any of you that do not have kids imagine your parents acting in this manner? Can any of you that do have kids even imagine doing something like this?
She is filthier than the mud on the bottom of a slug crawling slowly across a landfill. Unfortunately, it looks as though we are not able to legislate that away.
Not much farther removed from the monster kids they once were, Geezer. Imagine what those parents are spawning.
We’re seeing subsequent generations that are each showing a greater degree of separation from the ‘ideal’ adult humans we used to have, with correlating increased degradation in character, and character’s non-kissing cousin, morality.
Or as happyfeet so eloquently put it, they’ve ‘failed to calibrate’.
I’m so stealing that…
Oh, God, I am a bad person, but I’d never steal childhood from someone else.
Mom and Dad, baby never wanted you to split. She doesn’t care who loved her more. Awaken. Now.
I hate to sound unfeeling here, and the offending ‘adults’ are clearly rotten bastards to torment a kid, but…
If you had an emotionally fragile kid and they were being ‘cyber-bullied’, wouldn’t you cancel the internet access, shut down the computer and whatever else you needed to do to shield your child? Parents today have almost no idea what their kids are doing most of the time, on the cellphone and online.
“Mom and Dad, baby never wanted you to split. She doesn’t care who loved her more. Awaken. Now.”
Huh? What the hell are you TALKING about?
Is this a reference to the fact that the Meier couple is divorcing? If so, why so cryptic? That fact is not referenced in the initial post here. It’s not referenced anywhere in this comments thread. It’s a passing reference deep inside the linked news story. Yet you figure you can just abruptly plop down a bizarrely worded comment saying, “Mom and Dad, baby never wanted you to split,” and people will know what the fuck you’re talking about?
That’s the problem with the Dan Collins stuff that has come to clog up this blog. It’s goddamned abstract, clumsy, intended to be insightful but presented without any context. It’s as if Collins starts by assuming everyone is already in his head, aware of what he’s thinking about. In other words, it’s REALLY SHITTY writing, and bad blogging.
And it’s constant. His posts and comments completely dominate the landscape here now. Why can’t the guy go start his own blog somewhere and leave this one alone?
I hardly visit this place anymore, and when I do, stuff like this pretty quickly reminds me why.
Sometimes I put my turtles in the bathtub and turn on the shower and they think I’m a Rain God.
They only have the one paradigm is why.
Yep — your turtles don’t know any better. The same way a human being who hasn’t read about the Meiers’ divorce doesn’t know any better. The difference is that there’s no way for you to communicate to your turtles the relevant information. Collins can communicate the relevant information to other human beings.
He takes far too much for granted when he writes. To someone dropping in to read this blog, his posts and comments can look like a bunch of non sequiturs. It’s bad writing. It’s annoying. The reader shouldn’t have to do the work to figure out what the writer is trying to communicate — that is, if the writer actually cares about communication and not just word masturbation.
Maybe this is just one of those left-brain right-brain things though?
And also I myself can’t stop checking ever cause just in case Jeff posts something. This is key.
Also the part about how she was getting her braces off the next day just kills me.
It’s blogging. I’m sorry, but I make these posts in the moments I’ve got between 2 jobs and my family obligations. Surely there’s some value to keeping the ball rolling?
Anyway, you can always sign up for notifications when Jeff posts something, and not have to deal with my crap at all. I’d love it if Jeff regained his will to blog, and I could fade away. I have never claimed to be Jeff, I never will be Jeff. He is like himself.
Meanwhile, I’ve met some amusing people who recognize these clumsy, abstract posts as an opportunity to make something of it. I’m sorry to have let you down.
Honestly, though, I blog to see what those people make of my lame pretexts.
It’s interactive like that, and sometimes it’s up to you to tell them what they mean. It’s like public school in some ways.
“Maybe this is just one of those left-brain right-brain things though?”
How so? I’m not sure how one’s hemisphere leaning better equips one to divine an uncited factoid or piece of context.
Joe Average reads through a comments thread. He enjoys the banter. He likes the edification. He’s feeling good. He encounters a comment that reads, “I’d never steal a childhood from someone.” Joe understands why the commenter would write that about himself; the thread is about a stolen childhood, and the commenter is offering a relevant observation about that.
But then Joe immediately encounters the same commenter addressing “Mom and Dad.” Joe is puzzled. Why is this Dan Collins suddenly addressing his parents here? Maybe the rest of the comment will reveal the answer. He reads on. He sees a reference to “baby” and “she.” Nope, no help. Now Joe is getting more perplexed: OK, so Dan Collins is telling his parents that “baby” never wanted them to split? Huh? Who is “baby”? Is it Collins’ infant sister? Is Collins recounting something from earlier in his life? Maybe so. No, wait — Collins tells his parents to “Awaken. Now.” He’s talking about the present; this isn’t a recounting of the past after all.
Far as Joe can figure, Collins’ parents are splitting up, someone known as “baby” does not want them to, “baby” is a female, and Collins beseeches his parents to awaken. Joe figures this must be some insider thing for people who know Collins. Really, he doesn’t know what the fuck Collins is on about.
For Joe, this process took all of three or four seconds, but now he’s mildly irritated, because he just had to navigate a speed bump in his reading and yet was still left with an unsatisfactory resolution.
And that’s the way it is with so much of what Dan Collins writes here.
If Collins were merely some occasional visitor, dropping poorly explained posts into comment threads here and there, that would be one thing. It would be a nuisance, the way this post probably feels like a nuisance to a lot of those reading it. But he’s not merely a visitor. He’s been handed the keys to what used to be one of the web’s most kick-ass blogs. He posts and comments relentlessly. He has commandeered the place for his own use, presumptously asserting his persona as if it’s part of the blog’s elemental fabric. And he’s simply not good at presenting information: It’s as if he reads something somewhere, feels compelled to react to it, and dashes over here to do the reacting — without ever really explaining to the rest of the world what he’s reacting to in the first place.
Maybe Goldstein loves his stuff. I don’t know. If so, then obviously I’m the jerk. I get the sense, though, that what’s actually happening is that Jeff is just too polite or nice or something to finally step up and say, “Dude. You’re filling my entire front page every day with absolute CRAP. You’re not very good at blogging. Come on, just cut back the posting rate a little bit.”
Yes, I’m an asshole. And yes, I just wrote a whole lot of words about a frikking guest blogger. So make that an asshole and an overreactor with too much time on his hands. That’s fine. But it doesn’t make Dan Collins any more lucid, and it doesn’t make his ubiquity here any less intolerable.
Yeah, I’m an asshole, too. It’s a burden.
Also, I’m in this comment.
Right-brain people make connections between unrelated things more fluidly is all I meant. And also Average Joe already has lots of blogs made just special for him. I won’t name names cause the First Mate said that he’s kind of emotional during the holidays and if he gets agitated his ankles get all swole up.
Also believe me this is still one of the web’s most kick-ass blogs, vicissitudier than others maybe, but tv is inherently like that and no one bitches, least of all Average Joe. Dan beats the shit out of reruns, right?
I’m a reader (aka lurker), not terribly brilliant, no college, a loner, a wage slave and certainly no writer. But I put a high value on Dan Collins’ posts.
So there.
(ahem) Dan asked up there: Do you know whether it’s true that they profit from porn?
Not sure but I think this was an incorrect rumor. Seems the woman owns a small marketing company called “Draw AdVantage”, she put up the company’s info on some web directory of marketing companies, and someone did a little messing around with that entry on the web directory. Also I have seen zero corroborating info for the rumor, so my best guess is it’s not true.
Lori Drew is a psychopath. That part is clear.
But more disturbing than that are the actions of authorities: If it had been an adult MALE that “carried on” in a sexually explicit way with a 13 year old girl, even if it WERE for the purposes of revenge for his teen daughter, he’d be locked up as a pedophile.
Second, there are al-READY laws on the books that cover this type of harassment. For chrissake: just implement them!
What is particularly chilling to me, is that Lori Drew knew that the victim was known to be suicidal in the past. That means that her statement to her that the “world would be better off without you” or whatever it was… is even MORE chilling: it means she was TRYING to steer this girl to suicide. It means she had a desire to push it in that direction, and did so.
Reminds me of Charles Manson. He never “technically” put his own hands upon his victims either, but he “made it happen” by manipulating people, I mean that’s the premise upon which he was convicted: that he had INCITED it.
Same thing here. Lori Drew incited this suicide and should be just as responsible as Manson was when he incited those murders—and she should also be treated just like any other adult who engages in online relationships of a sexual nature with under-aged children.
There’s absolutely no proof of the “world would be better off without you†part, which seems very odd. It’s almost too perfect really, but who knows. Suicide is still a selfish and evil act I think is I guess something people have been reluctant to interject here. So there’s that.
I won’t try to speak for anyone else, but I just haven’t been able to put my reaction to this case into words more articulate than, “People today.”
Even now.