I have a friend who works in a DA’s office.  Recently, there has been a scandal concerning the processing of “downer” cattle–too sick or weak to be used as food, for both health and humane reasons.  This is terrible, of course, and the secretary has been fielding calls nonstop.  They’ve received 6000 emails from around the globe on the subject. It was terrible, too, when a mentally disturbed man poured lighter fluid over a dog and lit it.  They received emails from as far away as Australia on that one, urging them to throw the book at the guy. While the phone is ringing off the hook regarding the cows, John Michael Burton‘s sentencing was scheduled for Friday.  He’s a “boyfriend” who beat to death a 4-month-old baby girl in 2005, tried and convicted this year.  The biological family of the dead infant actually support the killer, and after the guilty verdict was brought, a couple of these people attempted to jump the DDA in the courtroom hallway.  He has to go about with agents, due to the death threats he’s received from these genetic anomalies. How many messages do you suppose the DA’s office has gotten, email, snail mail or telephone, on behalf of that murdered baby girl?  Care to guess?  If you guessed one, you guessed too many. There have been other such episodes.  I fancy myself an animal lover, but when our bizarre cult of The Other goes so far as to deprive members of our own species of their humanity so that we may lavish it elsewhere, we have ourselves become beasts. From the Ontario Daily Bulletin write-up of the trial:ÂÂ
 A Montclair man was convicted Tuesday of fatally assaulting his girlfriend’s 3-month-ÂÂ
old foster daughter. Jurors deliberated about five hours before announcing their decision in the trial of 29-year-oldÂÂ
John Burton. ÂÂ
Burton will be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison when he returns Oct. 5 to West Valley Superior Court.ÂÂ
“I’m glad the jury was able to see the facts,” Deputy District Attorney Jason Anderson said.ÂÂ
Authorities say Burton fatally beat Tiffany Eilders on Nov. 30 while he babysat her for about an hour at his homeÂÂ
on Monte Vista Avenue.ÂÂ
She was rushed to the hospital after he called 9-1-1 to report that she was struggling to breathe.ÂÂ
Doctors later determined that she had a fractured skull, broken ribs and internal and external bruises.ÂÂ
She died several days later from a brain injury related to the skull fracture.ÂÂ
Most of the broken ribs appeared to be old injuries, but the skull fracture seemed fresh, leading doctors toÂÂ
conclude that it must have happened while Tiffany was in Burton’s care.ÂÂ
Others who had been around the child reported that she seemed healthy before she was left with Burton thatÂÂ
morning.ÂÂ
Burton testified during his trial that he deeply loved Tiffany and did not harm her.ÂÂ
His lawyer claimed all the injuries occurred either before Tiffany was left alone with Burton or while Burton orÂÂ
paramedics handled her during rescue attempts. The defense attorney claimed Burton was being blamed for theÂÂ
abuse because he was the last one who watched the baby.ÂÂ
Prosecutors argued that Burton harbored ill will toward Tiffany because social workers had forbidden him fromÂÂ
living in the home with his girlfriend and the baby, leaving him with nowhere to go.ÂÂ
Staff writer Rod Leveque can be reached by e-mail at r_leveque@dailybulletin.com, or by phone at (909) 483-ÂÂ
9325.ÂÂ
ÂÂ
Even if the cow is sick if you cook your beef well enough you will be ok. On the other I clicked on the link and I didn’t get it really. They don’t really give much of a motive and it’s hard to believe someone would on purpose hurt a little baby. Also, Child Protective Services are stupid and evil a lot, so you should get a second opinion when they say stuff.
Also I don’t think having prior drug convictions when you are like a teenager predisposes you to baby killing ten years later. I’m really really sure it doesn’t in fact, but that’s not how the article is written.
Oh also the guy with the lighter fluid should be left naked in the outback to die a slow death. I saw this in a movie once except with clothes.
I know that’s not in the spirit of the post exactly, but I’m just really tired of mentally ill people torching puppies.
I’m tired of them deciding the outcome of elections.
To the outback with them too I say.
From the Humane Society video…”…even waterboarding them…” and “…so this meat processor could squeeze every last dime out of these hapless animals…” it’s easy to see what specific political group is targeted here.
Hmmm..I wonder if the Federal Reserve knows of this alternative source of dimes?
happyfeet, you can’t cook prions (short protein segments that cause Mad Cow disease) out of your meats. Prions aren’t alive, so you can’t kill them.
To inactivate prions, the temperature has to be high enough to destroy the meat. I’ve done that, but no one would eat it then.
Oh. Crap. Are you sure? That sucks.
right on, Dan. give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, unless of course it’s a human child… then, who gives a shit… give unto a dog that which is… erm, human?
So is this her mother’s kid, or her fathers kid? And if it’s the former, who is the father and where is he? Did CPS go looking for him before placing Tiffany with yet another child that they knew was in a toxic relationship?
Inquiring minds….
Serr8d is right.
Stupid prions.
Well, honestly Dan – dead babies are a dime a dozen. There is one here in Detroit that is being processed through the system – killed a months-old baby.
Prions are fascinating little bits of protein. Only a segment or so is needed to get wrapped into the RNA replication process, then, like cancer, it’s katy bar the door.
Eventually, large areas of the affected brain (which is largely protein) is left stripped and vacant, much like stripped wallpaper before you clean it up.
The prions are spread by consuming the bad protein masses (brains) of contaminated animals. We stopped feeding shredded cattle to other cattle as food because of that. Humans get it from eating contaminated meats, or, as was seen in some early human studies, during ‘endocannabilistic funeral rituals’, where some tribes in Papua-New Guinea removed the brains of relatives and…well, you know.
Carin, Detroit’s a special case.
It’s the thought that counts.
Dingos ate my baby.
Dan, my guess is the family is supporting the murderer, not because they believe it’s ok to murder a baby. It’s because they are choosing to believe the murderer’s story and denying that he harmed her, and believing that many of her injuries resulted from his attempts to revive her. I can’t explain that pathology underneath the denial, but it’s common enough. More to the point….
How commonplace is the story of the jacked up boyfriend who should never be left alone with his girlfriends kids? How internalized among the public is the idea that a young baby’s violent death will be thoroughly investigated and the bad actor’s brought to some sort of justice? I’d say very, to both. Whereas people are more likely to feel other, lesser crimes will be brushed aside, that calls and letters and political action are actually necessary to have anyone give a rats ass about a rats ass, or a dog, or any other beast. One might feel there is nothing public outcry can accomplish in the human atrocity – the nature of the crime ensures it will not go unincestigates, unnoticed, unprosecuted, or unpunished, yet there may be more concern expressed about a dog because people don’t take for granted that the crime will be vigorously investigated or punished unless people make a stink.
People act when they fear others won’t. My two cents.
It’s always the “boyfriend”.
hf –
“Also, Child Protective Services are stupid and evil a lot, so you should get a second opinion when they say stuff.”
CPS are truly the Gestapo of America. Absolute lowdown, slimy cocksuckers. They have almost no boundaries for their behsviour, and if they get your number (even if it’s from some moron who is trying to settle a score), start kissing bureaucratic ass – frantically.
I don’t think that I even have the words to express how despicable these people are.
If you want to fuck up someone’s family life, just call these CPS assholes and make an unsupportasble charge. It won’t matter how outrageous it is, CPS will descend on them like a nest of hornets.
They are a bunch of zealous morons, and like nothing better than to scare the shit out of you with threats that they CAN carry out anytime they feel like it. Yeah, yeah. They have to go through a judge, but the kicker is that the judges believe these worms 99% of the time.
Due process? Don’t make them laugh…as if they were capable of laughing to start with.
I remember when I did a brief stint sort of in that realm how alarmingly fresh out of school a lot of the CPS people were. And not like fresh out of good schools either.
CPS zombies are woefully undertrained for their duties. They hire them from the ranks of socialist, degreed advocate types, when they really need to screen and hire them as a sub-branch of law enforcement, complete with training towards a respect of civil rights.
You don’t generally* see people working in social services at that level, who are equipped to succeed at much.
*That means there are exceptions. In case anyone doesn’t get what “generally” means.
Where is all this violence coming from? People have got to get their lives together. If not, get anger management classes. How could there be so much cruelty against life? I hope it isnt a sign of the world about to end, when people start killing just to be able to survive.
Bubbles would not be happy.
There is no excuse for child abuse. People who harm children are insane and should be locked-up in jail or in an asylum! They don’t deserve freedom.
Oh, look. It’s the invasion of the Orgs.