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【中文标题】2012年十大犯罪
【原文标题】Top 10 Crime Stories
【登载媒体】时代周刊
【原文作者】Madison Gray
【原文链接】http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/04/top-10-news-lists/slide/cocaine-queen-griselda-blanco-murdered/
10，“可卡因女王”格里塞尔达•布兰克被杀
70岁的格里塞尔达•布兰克因其恶行被称为教母，她在家乡哥伦比亚麦德林被枪杀，非法毒品产业的一个支柱倒下了。70年代，她和丈夫在纽约开始经营毒品生意，后来丈夫被她杀害。最后，她建立了一条从美国到哥伦比亚的毒品供应链，有效地回避了黑手党中间人。她因此而暴富，80年代初，她在迈阿密成立了一个基金会。几乎与此同时，这座城市发生了残暴的毒品战争，据说布兰克曾经参与了大屠杀。
迈阿密执法部门相信，至少有40件谋杀案与她有关，她下令暗杀的原因往往只是为了娱乐。她最喜欢的杀人方式是让她的心腹骑摩托车枪杀敌人：一个人驾驶摩托车，另一个人在后座上开枪。
她在1985年被联邦政府判定毒品罪成立，在监狱服刑10年之后，被送往佛罗里达接受一项审判，被起诉的罪名是对手的孩子被谋杀。但是，迈阿密检察官犯了一个低级错误，让她仅获刑20年，2004年她被遣送回哥伦比亚。她在那里过着平静的生活，她说已经完全放弃了以前大毒枭的生活方式，靠出租房屋挣取微薄的收入。但是她的敌人显然没有忘记以前的事情，也并不打算饶恕她。
9月的一天，她和前夫的女儿正准备进入一家商场，一辆载有两个人的摩托车开过来。刺客跳下车，向她的头部连开两枪，之后绝尘而去。她前夫的女儿没有受伤。一个认识布兰克的目击者说：“这是个职业杀手，在为以前的事情报仇。”
9，德鲁•彼德森被判有罪
最大的谜团在于，为什么女人都觉得德鲁•彼德森那么有魅力，还愿意嫁给他？从他的婚姻史来看，他走的完全是一条烂路。这位来自伊利诺伊州博林布鲁克的前警官已经离过两次婚，之后遇到了第三任妻子凯瑟琳•萨维奥。6个月之后，又是一次不欢而散的婚姻，他的妻子在2004年3月1日死亡，原因被断定为意外溺水。3年后，彼德森与比他小30岁的史黛西•安•卡尔斯第四次结婚。史黛西•彼德森在2007年10月消失之后，当局重新开始调查凯瑟琳•萨维奥的案件。
萨维奥的尸体被取出，死亡原因最终被确定为“伪装成意外的他杀”。2009年，彼德森以谋杀罪名受审。庭审过程中，辩护律师说，没有证据证明萨维奥死亡时彼德森在她的房间中。而原告证人说曾经被彼德森带到房间里，只是为“发现”萨维奥的尸体。彼德森的律师反对说，他不可能用武力将其溺死，因为房间中没有任何打斗迹象。陪审员花了一天的时间裁定，彼德森犯有一级谋杀罪。
辩护律师表示将对此判决上诉，声称这些证据不能支持一次新的审判。判决原本定于11月底发布，他将面临至少20年的监禁。判决日期后来改为2013年1月10日。与此同时，史黛西•彼德森依然没有被找到。
8，安德斯•布雷维
在相当长的一段时间里，安德斯•贝林•布雷维似乎在享受历史上最恶性的单人大规模谋杀案件的审判过程。庭审现场变成了他表达自己立场的平台，他认为穆斯林和非基督教已经渗入了“白色”欧洲。他的罪行毫无疑问：在奥斯陆引爆汽车炸弹，炸死8人。然后驾车到附近的于特岛，在那里又枪杀了69人。问题在于，判决是否量罪而行——尤其是他是否精神失常。如果他的确精神异常，自由的挪威法律有可能会让他先接受治疗，直到恢复正常重返社会。这种可能性让全国陷入恐慌。
庭审一开始，布雷维宣读了一份声明，声称自己是“挪威抵抗组织”成员，宣扬“不能剥夺我们的种族权力”。他认为自己的行动是正当防卫，是“二战以来针对欧洲策划最精密、最大规模的政治进攻”。他说：“我做这些事是出于善意，并非恶意。我还会继续这样做。”他甚至对受害者的父母说，这些孩子要对自己的死亡负责，她们并不是无辜、与政治不沾边的儿童，而是他所谓不可饶恕的、多元文化的积极推进者。
尽管如此，在经过辩论之后，法官采取了一组精神病专家的意见，认为33岁的布雷维罪大恶极，并未丧失理智。审判过程中，这位自吹自擂的凶手的信心明显遭到动摇。21年监禁是全世界都难以相信的轻判，但挪威人已经很满意了。如果刑满之后他还被认为对社会具有危害性，法院还可以在他的余生里增加5年刑期。
法官阿恩•林在90页的判决书中读到：“尽管法院认为释放被告人不是一个恰当的决定，但法院依然会允许不同的文化和宗教并存。在服过刑期之后，罪犯或许还会有暴力行凶的倾向。”
7，金•达康传奇
2012年2月22日，Megaupload网站的老板在奥克兰法院获准保释。
金•达康注定要过上与众不同的生活。他的文件分享网站Megaupload一度存有50千兆兆的数据，他的资产达1.75亿美元。同时你也无法忽视他的身材：身高6英尺7英寸、体重300磅。
如果他被美国法院判处长达20年的监禁，所有这些尺寸都不重要了。司法部官员正在等待他的案件从新西兰被引渡回国，起诉的罪名是他的网站非法运作盗版电影、电视节目和软件。然而，这个案件上的司法态度却在慢慢发生转变。法律上的一些困境导致他的听证会从2012年8月推迟到2013年3月。
一些技术细节问题阻碍了听证会正常进行，主要是一名最高法院的法官取消了搜查令，并且认为FBI复制电脑硬盘资料的行为的不合法。达康和他的同事目前处于保释状态。
38岁的达康原名金•施米茨，出生于德国基尔，儿童时代生活困苦、麻烦不断，现在已经是世界上最专业、最富有、最招摇的黑客。在经历了年轻时代的几项法律诉讼之后（他躲过了刑事惩罚），达康和他的合作伙伴找到了一个分享无法在电子邮件中传送的大文件的方法。
他的网站用户慢慢学会利用Megaupload的空间散播盗版资料，达康说只要有要求，他的公司就会撤下资源，但是司法部认为他有选择地删除或者保留资源。1月份，在经过FBI长达两年的调查之后，当局搜查了达康在新西兰科茨维尔的豪宅。面对牢狱之灾，达康并未停止他的数据事业。他和同伴又找到一种分享文件的云端方案，用户可以自定义上传加密文件，他们为此起了一个简单的名字：Mega。上线时间定在2013年1月19日，正好是他被逮捕一周年的日子。司法部暗示，推出新的文件分享网站可能会对他不利，因为局方认为他已经承诺在保释期不推出任何新产品。
6，杰瑞•桑达斯基的审判
2012年10月9日，前宾夕法尼亚州州立大学橄榄球队助理教练杰瑞•桑达斯基在在宾夕法尼亚州贝尔丰特被判性侵犯儿童罪名成立，之后他离开县中心法院。
大陪审团的声明指出了杰瑞•桑达斯基的52项儿童性侵犯罪行，其内容相当令人反胃。在长达两个星期的庭审结束之后，很多人认为这个前宾夕法尼亚州州立大学橄榄球队助理应当在10月份被判处30到60年监禁。
68岁的桑达斯基是传奇教练乔•帕特诺的第二助理教练，他的丑闻影响范围颇广。不仅大学球队被闹个天翻地覆，帕特诺也被耻辱地解职。（桑达斯基曾经是他任职时间最长的助理教练。）那么为什么桑达斯基不收手呢？
桑达斯基在审判过程中一直坚称无辜，尽管一个又一个受害者详尽描述他们在他指导的Second Mile项目中丑恶的行为。这是一个旨在帮助家境困难的年轻人的非盈利项目，目前已经被解散。他不但毫无悔改之意，而且大放厥词，坚称一个“诉讼老手”设计陷害他。但是这都无法撼动8名受害者的证词——这些男孩现在已经变成年轻人了。即使桑达斯基被判决的刑期让他无论如何没有机会活着出狱了，这些人依然在继续追求正义。一名受害者在判决现场说：“我不会原谅你，永远不会！我长在一个糟糕的环境中，而你更是让我万劫不复。”
5，威斯康星州锡克寺庙枪击案
2012年8月10日，威斯康辛州奥克里克市奥克里克高中锡克寺庙枪击案发生后，社区居民向6名死者致敬，两名妇女抱在一起。
8月5日，威斯康星州密尔沃基郊外奥克里克市锡克寺庙中，人们正在做星期天的晨祷。韦德•迈克尔•佩奇出现在现场，开枪射杀6人，另有4人受伤。如果不是65岁的寺庙主持Santwat Singh Kaleka试图夺下他手中的枪，并且用刀划伤疑犯，会有更多的人丧命，大多数人趁机逃离现场。但是他也成为了枪手的靶子，佩奇毫不迟疑地杀害了Kaleka。
警方到达现场后与他交火。51岁、有21年警龄的奥克里克少尉布莱恩•墨菲出生于布鲁克林，他在战斗中身中9弹，其中一个伤口在颈部。当警察试图救助受害者时，佩奇伏击了他。墨菲英勇地继续指挥警察救助寺庙中被佩奇打伤的受害者。萨姆•林达警官开枪击中了佩奇腹部。他自觉无法逃脱，用非法购买的9毫米手枪对准自己头部，扣下了扳机。
当局后来推断佩奇与几个激进的极右组织有关，说他是新纳粹主义分子，曾经参加过一个白人至上的朋克乐队。没有发现枪击案的犯罪动机。除了他曾经在1992年到1998年之间在美国军队服役，我们对他一无所知，目前也无人知晓他为什么选择这所寺庙，或者为什么专门针对锡克族。
锡克族社区并没有关闭这座寺庙，而是决定将其清理、翻修之后继续礼拜活动。韦德•迈克尔•佩奇犯罪的目的或许是为了彰显其个人或他极端的意识形态，但是，这起事件让公众看到，普通人在面对突如其来的恶行时，是如何展示他们的英雄行为的。
4，最糟糕的“丢脸”
左起：鲁迪•尤金、罗纳德•普普
人们依然不明白，鲁迪•尤金到底为什么会啃食一个人，把脸部的肉都吃光——这种恐怖行为唯一的解释就是被魔鬼附身。5月26日早晨，他开车前往一位迈阿密朋友的家。后来车子抛锚，他沿着麦克阿瑟堤道往回走。当天气温是华氏90度，这位31岁的男人边走变脱衣服，直到全身赤裸。在立交桥下，65岁的流浪汉罗纳德•普普趟在铁道上睡觉。尤金跳到普普身上，先是试图脱掉他的衣服，然后开始咬他的眼睛、鼻子和嘴。这些行为都被一个监控探头拍下，几个路过的骑自行车的人目击事件的发生，打电话找来警察。在无法阻止尤金的情况下，警察开枪将他打死。
普普75％的面部肌肉被撕掉，一直在接受全方位的治疗。他后来说，尤金“把我撕成一条一条的”。
普普在接受《迈阿密先驱报》采访时说：“他显然在海边遭遇了不愉快，于是才往回走。我猜他是在拿我出气还是怎么样，我不知道。”
尤金有一些轻微案底，包括轻微犯罪和持有毒品，还有一次因为威胁要杀死他的母亲而被带到警察局。对尸体的毒品检测只显示出神经系统有大麻的痕迹。
尤金的家庭是海地后裔，社区居民害怕尤金是受巫毒的蛊惑才会袭击普普。她的母亲找不到一个愿意为他举办葬礼的教堂，两个星期后才找到一个殡葬管举行葬礼。他的女友Rikkia Cross后来在接受《迈阿密先驱报》采访时说：“鲁迪身上肯定发生了超自然事件，人类无法解释，太多问题我们无法搞清楚。我只希望他会出现在我的梦里，告诉我这一切。我只希望知道他那天究竟发生了什么事。”
3，伊坦•派兹谋杀案尘埃落定？
2012年11月15日，佩德罗•埃尔南德斯和他的律师哈维•菲什拜因出现在纽约曼哈顿刑事法院中。
早在曼哈顿豪华的办公区出现之前，休斯顿大街以南地区居住的大多是工薪阶层：手上长满老茧的工人、穷困的艺术家和年轻的追梦人。1979年5月25日，一个名叫伊坦•派兹的6岁男孩得到父母的允许，自己走路去校车站。他的父母从此再未见到他。
这个案件成为美国所有父母的城市噩梦。绝望的斯坦•派兹在临近街区贴满了孩子的照片，随后又贴满了整个城市的角落。伊坦成为了“奶盒孩子”（译者注：孩子的照片被登于全美国的牛奶纸盒上），象征这个国家所有失踪的儿童。一名法官后来发现，一名被判有罪的骚扰犯是杀害孩子的凶手，但是那个人已经去世了。伊坦的尸体至今没有被找到。
时间到了今年，51岁的佩德罗•埃尔南德斯突然说自己就是凶手。埃尔南德斯当时在伊坦每天路过的一家酒店工作。由于受到内疚情绪的煎熬，埃尔南德斯向纽约警方坦白，他用一罐饮料把孩子骗到店里，把他扼死后将尸体丢在商店的垃圾箱中。埃尔南德斯已经被以二级谋杀的罪名起诉，但是由于缺少尸体等证据，检方必须找到除被告坦白之外的方法定罪。让事情变得更复杂的是，埃尔南德斯的律师已经表明他的委托人有精神病史。
2，黑暗骑士崛起大屠杀
7月20日晚，数百万影迷包围了这个国家几乎所有的电影院，他们都在等待观看《蝙蝠侠：黑暗骑士崛起》的首映式。但是在科罗拉多州奥罗拉，银幕上还没有开始出现演职员表，死亡的恐怖就开始降临到观众身上。24岁的科罗拉多大学辍学生詹姆斯•伊根•霍尔姆斯从紧急出口进入这个16世纪的放映大厅，据说他先向人群投掷一枚毒气弹，然后掏出一支史密斯韦森M&P15步枪、一支雷明顿870速射战术霰弹枪、两支格洛克22手枪向人群开火，造成12人死亡，58人受伤。
枪击案发生后几分钟，霍尔姆斯就向警察自首。警察发现他全身的军事装备，包括防毒面具、战术背心、防弹衣和钢盔。由于担心他还私藏武器，当局搜查了他位于附近的公寓，发现那里装有炸弹机关，只要有人进入就会引爆。
枪击案震动了整个社区，那里的居民依然还记得仅在15英里外的利特尔顿，1999年发生的科隆比纳高中枪击案。但是，与科隆比纳凶手无政府主义的作品不同，奥罗拉大屠杀背后似乎并没有什么具体的动机。7月30日，检方以24项一级谋杀罪和116向谋杀未遂罪名起诉霍尔姆斯。
1，特雷沃恩•马丁枪击案
2月26日发生在佛罗里达桑福德一个封闭社区中的枪击案，似乎不大可能在佛罗里达州以外的地方造成多大效应。但是，社会媒体利用案件中的种族和阶层因素，把17岁的特雷沃恩•马丁的死转化一种全面效应，24小时霸占了新闻媒体和报纸头条。
2月底的那个晚上，这位迈阿密高中学生在他的父亲家，和几个亲戚观看NBA全明星比赛。半场时，他离开房屋到便利店买了一袋糖果和一罐冰茶。几分钟后，他被社区守护志愿者乔治•齐默曼开枪打死。
两人的冲突因何而起是争议的核心问题，黑人马丁和西班牙裔白人齐默曼据说曾扭打在一起。依其申诉，齐默曼怀疑这个少年在追打邻居；而马丁是因为怀疑有人跟踪才找到这位守护志愿者的。
这件事情并未登上全国各大媒体的头条，直到3月8日，哈佛大学法律系学生Kevin Cunningham在Change.org网站上呼吁对齐默曼正式起诉。他后来把请愿书送到马丁的父母Sybrina Fulton和Tracy Martin手中，那时已经有200万人在网站上签名支持。3月23日，争议的声音又达到了一个高潮，奥巴马总统发表讲话，说：“如果我有一个男孩，他也会长得像特雷沃恩•马丁。”在文艺界，从迈阿密热火队篮球队员到密歇根州前州长Jennnifer Granholm都穿上特雷沃恩被打死时穿着的连帽衫，以表示抗议。
齐默曼随后以二级谋杀罪名被起诉。辩护律师说齐默曼当时被马丁殴打，没有办法只好开枪。如果辩护律师无法向法官说服齐默曼依据“不退让法”——这项准则在一定程度上可以“证实”杀人的合理性——而有权开枪，那么将在6月19日组建陪审团听审这起谋杀案件。
（译者注：文章发表时康涅狄格州纽顿镇桑迪胡克小学枪击案还没有发生。）
原文：
10. ‘Cocaine Queen’ Griselda Blanco Murdered
Griselda Blanco, 70, was known as La Madrina, the godmother—and for all the bad reasons. Blanco, who was gunned down in her hometown of Medellin, Colombia, will go down as one of the architects of the illegal drug industry. She began her career in New York City during the 1970s with her husband—whom she later killed. Eventually, she would build the supply line that stretched all the way from the U.S. to Colombia, effectively bypassing mafia middlemen. She became fabulously wealthy, establishing a foundation in Miami at about the same time the city’s violent drug wars were underway in the early 80s. Blanco likely had a hand in the carnage.
Miami law enforcement authorities believe at least 40 killings were connected to her. She became legendary for ordering assassinations for her own amusement. Her preferred method of execution was to send her henchmen to kill her enemies via motorcycle drive-by shooting: as one henchman drove, another on the bike opened fire.
She was convicted of federal drug charges in 1985, and after serving her 10-year sentence, was sent to Florida to stand trial for the capital murder of a rival’s child. But a blunder in the Miami-Dade District Attorney’s office allowed her to cut a deal to get a 20-year sentence and be deported back to Colombia in 2004. There she lived her life quietly, saying that she had sworn-off her old narco-chieftain lifestyle, instead earning income off of rental properties. But the enemies she had apparently did not forget or forgive her.
In September, while entering a market with an ex-daughter-in-law, a motorcycle pulled up with two riders on it. The assassin got off the bike, aimed and shot her twice in the head, then rode off without being followed. Her ex-daughter-in-law was unharmed. A witness who knew of Blanco and her deeds simply said: “He was a professional, it was vengeance from the past.”
9. Drew Peterson Convicted
The big mystery is why women found Drew Peterson charming enough to marry. From his matrimonial record, he was several hundred miles of bad road. The former police sergeant from Bolingbrook, Illinois already had two marriages that had ended in divorce when he met his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Six months after a nasty divorce, she died on March 1, 2004 of what was then ruled an accidental drowning. Three years later, Peterson would be married for a fourth time, to Stacey Ann Cales, 30 years his junior. After Stacey Peterson vanished in October 2007, authorities reopened the case of Kathleen Savio.
Savio’s body was exhumed and her death was eventually declared to be “homicide staged to look like an accident.” In 2009, Peterson was put on trial for murder. During the proceedings, his defense lawyer said there was no proof he was even in Savio’s house when she died; even as prosecution witnesses described being taken to the house by Peterson only to “discover” Savio’s body. Peterson’s defense countered that he couldn’t have forcibly drowned her because the house was virtually undisturbed. Jurors took a day to return with a verdict: Peterson was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Defense lawyers have vowed to appeal the conviction, saying that the evidence could not hold up in a new trial. His sentencing date was scheduled for late November and he is facing a minimum sentence of 20 years to life. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan 10, 2013. Meanwhile, Stacey Peterson is still missing.
8. Anders Breivik Sentenced
For an eerily long time, Anders Behring Breivik seemed to enjoy being on trial for one of the worst single-handedly executed mass murders in history. The court proceedings became a platform to repeat his stances on the infiltration of Muslims and non-Christians into “white” Europe. There was no question of his guilt: after detonating a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people he drove to nearby Utoya island and shot 69 others. The question was: would the sentence fit the crime—especially if he was deemed insane? If he were mentally ill, liberal Norway’s laws would have remanded him to medical care until he was considered well enough to be released into society. The thought of such a possibility horrified the country.
At the beginning of his trial, Breivik e read a statement in which he claimed to be a member of a “Norwegian resistance movement” and demanded that “our ethnic rights not be taken away from us.” He called his attack one of self-defense saying it was “the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack in Europe since the Second World War.” “I did this out of goodness, not evil,” he said. “I would do it again.” He even told the parents of his victims that the teenagers bore the blame for their own deaths, that they were not innocent, nonpolitical children but rather young people who worked to actively uphold what he said were unforgivable, multicultural positions.
Nevertheless, after some controversy, judges sided with a panel of psychiatrists who deemed Breivik, 33, bad but not mad. And in time, during his trial, the boastful killer’s self confidence was visibly shaken. While the rest of the world would be stunned at what seemed to be a brief sentence—21 years in prison—Norway was satisfied. If he is still considered a danger to society at the end of that spell in jail, the courts can extend his sentence in five-year increments for the rest of his life.
“Although the court finds it improbable that the defendant will be released. Our democracy will still exist, it will still have different cultures and different religions,” said Judge Arne Lyng, reading from a 90-page judgment. “After having served his sentence, the perpetrator will probably still have the desire and the will to carry out violence and murder.”
7. The Saga of Kim Dotcom
Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom looks as he is granted bail in the North Shore court in Auckland on February 22, 2012.
Kim Dotcom just had to be bigger than life. His filesharing website Megaupload once held 50 petabytes (50,000,000,000,000,000) of data; all of his assets were worth $175 million; and you could not ignore his physical presence: he is 6-foot-7 inches tall and weighs 300 lbs.
All that size may not matter, however, if he is sentenced to as many as 20 years by an American court. U.S. Justice Department officials are now awaiting his extradition from New Zealand on charges that his website was a front for an illegal operation that pirated movies, TV programs and software. The wheels of justice are however turning slowly in his case. Legal complications have moved his extradition hearings from August 2012 to March 2013.
Technicalities are holding up the hearing, including a high court judge invalidating the warrants used to raid his home and the judge stating that the FBI’s shipping of copied hard drive images was illegal. Dotcom and his associates are currently free on bail.
Dotcom, 38, born Kim Schmitz in Kiel, Germany, came out of a difficult and troubled childhood to become one of the most proficient, richest and flamboyant hackers in the world. After several bouts of legal trouble as a young adult (he beat the rap on all of them), Dotcom and a partner came up with a way to share files that were too big to e-mail.
At some point, his site’s users began to take advantage of Megaupload’s capacity to pirate copyrighted material. Dotcom says his company took down the data when they were asked, but the Justice Department says he chose what to take down and what to leave up. In January, authorities raided Dotcom’s megamansion in Coatesville, New Zealand after a two-year investigation led by the FBI. Jail hasn’t stopped his digital dexterity. He and his partners have since come up with another cloud-based scheme to share files, allowing user-manipulated uploading and encryption that they called simply: Mega. Launch is slated for Jan. 19, 2013, precisely one year after his arrest. However, the DOJ has hinted that a launch of a new filesharing site could jeopardize him because the agency says he has already pledged not to launch anything new while free on bail.
6. Trial of Jerry Sandusky
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky (2nd R) leaves the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced in his child sex abuse case in Bellefonte, PA on Oct. 9, 2012.
The grand jury statement indicting Jerry Sandusky of 52 counts of child sexual abuse was so stomach-turning that many people found some closure in the fact that the former assistant coach of the powerhouse Penn State football team was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison in October, after a trial that lasted two weeks.
But the scandal involving Sandusky, 68, second in command to the legendary coach Joe Paterno, remains troubling. It not only turned the university upside down but led to the dismissal in disgrace of Paterno (Sandusky had been one of the coach’s longest serving assistants). Why was Sandusky not stopped in the first place?
Sandusky insisted throughout his trial that he was innocent of the charges against him, despite victim after victim describing in detail the flagrant behavior they experienced under his tutelage in the Second Mile program — a non-profit focused on helping underprivileged youth, which has since disbanded. He showed little remorse and was even defiant, insisting that a “veteran accuser” conspired against him. But nothing could shake the testimony of the eight victims who came forward—all of whom are young men now. And even as Sandusky received his verdict and looked at a prison term that he is unlikely to emerge from alive, they were unrelenting in their pursuit of justice. “I don’t forgive you, and I don’t know if I ever will forgive you,” one victim said at the sentencing. “I grew up in a bad situation, and you only made it worse.”
5. The Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting
Two women hug as community members pay respects to the six victims in the mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin at the Oak Creek High School in Oak Creek Wi., Aug, 10, 2012.
On Aug. 5, as worshippers at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, a Milwaukee suburb, gathered for Sunday morning services, Wade Michael Page walked into the complex and opened fire, killing six people and wounding four others. He might have killed more had not the temple president Santwat Singh Kaleka, 65, tried to disarm the gunman by slashing him with a knife, possibly giving others time to get to safety. But it also meant that he was an easy target for the attacker, who killed Kaleka without hesitation.
Police rushed in and engaged him in a firefight. During the melee, Lt. Brian Murphy, 51, a Brooklyn-born 21-year veteran of the Oak Creek police took nine bullets including one to the neck. Page had ambushed him as the policeman was to trying to help a victim. Heroically, Murphy still waved his fellow officers on to tend others Page had already hurt in the temple. Officer Sam Lenda fired at Page, hitting him in the stomach. Page’s wound left him unable to escape, so he turned his 9 millimeter semiautomatic, a weapon he legally purchased, on his own head and squeezed the trigger.
Authorities later linked Page to several radical far right groups, saying he was an active neo-Nazi who had played in a white supremacist punk band. No motive for the shooting was discovered. Little else is known about him other than his U.S. Army service from 1992 to 1998. It is not known why he chose to target this particular temple, or Sikhs in general.
The Sikh community, rather than shutting their temple down decided to clean and repair the building and continue worshipping there. Wade Michael Page may have staged his attack to shine a spotlight on himself and his racist ideology but, in spite of the carnage, the incident became an example of how ordinary heroism could shine in the face of a sudden onslaught of evil.
4. The Worst Possible Way to Lose Face
From left: Rudy Eugene; Ronald Poppo
People are still puzzled as to what exactly possessed Rudy Eugene to gnaw on a man until he chewed his face off—so much so that some have concluded that it could only have been demonic possession. He began the morning of May 26 driving to his friend’s house in Miami. But then his car broke down and he chose to walk back home over the MacArthur Causeway. Temperatures were in the 90s, and the 31-year-old began to strip off his clothes until he was completely naked. At the end of the bridge was Ronald Poppo, 65, a homeless man who was sleeping under the Metromover tracks. Eugene then jumped on Poppo, first trying to strip off his clothes and then literally eating him, attacking Poppo’s eyes, nose and mouth. The assault was captured on a surveillance camera and witnessed by passing cyclists who called police. Unable to stop Eugene, they shot him to death.
More than 75% of Poppo’s face was ripped off and he has been undergoing extensive surgeries ever since. He later said Eugene “ripped me to ribbons.”
“He apparently didn’t have a good day at the Beach,” Poppo told the Miami Herald “and he – he was coming back. And I guess he took it out, took it out on me or something. I don’t know.”
Eugene had a record of petty crime and drug offenses. He had also once been taken in by the police after threatening to kill his mother. Toxicology tests on his corpse showed he only had marijuana in his system.
Eugene’s family is of Haitian descent and the community feared that vodou played a role in Eugene’s attack on Poppo. His mother could not find a church that would hold his funeral. It would take two weeks before a funeral home agreed to hold the service. “What happened to Rudy had to be supernatural, something humans cannot explain, something that leaves us with a lot of questions,” his girlfriend Rikkia Cross later told the Herald. “I just wish he would come to me in a dream and answer all the questions. I wish he would tell me what happened that day.”
3. Solved at Last? The Murder of Etan Patz
Pedro Hernandez appears with his lawyer Harvey Fishbein in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Nov. 15, 2012.
Back before Manhattan’s SoHo district was posh, the neighborhood south of Houston street was a working-class area populated by calloused workers, poor artists and young dreamers. And on May 25, 1979, a six-year old boy named Etan Patz was allowed by his parents to catch the bus to school by himself. His parents never saw him again.
The case became the archetypal urban nightmare for American parents. A desperate Stan Patz plastered his son’s photo all over the neighborhood, and then the city. Etan became the “milk carton kid,” symbolizing missing children all over the country. A judge later found that a convicted molester was the child’s killer—but that alleged perpetrator was by then already dead. Etan’s body has never been found.
And then this year, Pablo Hernandez, 51, said he was the murderer. Hernandez worked in a bodega in SoHo that Etan passed by daily. Wracked by guilt, Hernandez told the New York Police Department that he used a can of soda to lure the child inside, strangled him to death and later disposed of the body in the store’s garbage. Hernandez has been charged with second-degree murder. But without a body or much evidence otherwise, prosecutors must now figure out how they will convict him simply based on his confession alone. To further complicate the case, Hernandez’s lawyer has already indicated that his client has a history of mental illness.
2. The Dark Knight Rises Massacre
Millions of theater goers packed movie houses all over the country on July 20 for the opening night screenings of The Dark Knight Rises. But in Aurora, Col., before the opening credits even rolled, deadly and uncinematic terror was visited on the audience when James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year-old University of Colorado dropout, allegedly walked into the Century 16 multiplex from an emergency exit. He reportedly threw a noxious gas bomb into the auditorium, then brandishing a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle, a Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun and two Glock 22 handguns, opened fire, killed 12 people and wounded 58.
Holmes gave himself up to police just minutes after the shooting. He was found wearing military-style attack gear including a gas mask, a tactical vest, bullet-proof leggings and a ballistic helmet. Fearful that he may have had other weaponry, authorities searched his nearby apartment and discovered it was booby-trapped to explode the moment people entered it.
The shooting sent shockwaves through a community that still remembered the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton just 15 miles away. But unlike Columbine and its shooters’ anarchist writings, there seemed to be no motive behind the carnage in Aurora. On July 30, prosecutors charged Holmes on 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder.
1. The Trayvon Martin Shooting
The Feb. 26 shooting within a Sanford, Fla. gated community did not seem likely to make news outside of Central Florida. But social media would take the factors of race and class inherent in the case and transform the death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin into a full-fledged phenomenon, dominating 24-hour newscasts as well as tabloid headlines.
On that night in late February, the Miami high schooler was visiting his father and watching the NBA All-Star game with relatives. During halftime, he left his father’s home and went to a convenience store to purchase a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea. Within a few minutes he would be dead, apparently shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.
How the two men collided is at the heart of the controversy Martin, who is black, and Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, were said to have scuffled. Zimmerman was allegedly suspicious that the teen was casing the neighborhood; Martin may have confronted the neighborhood watch volunteer because he was suspicious that a stranger was following him.
But the case did not make it to national headlines until March 8, after a petition calling for Zimmerman’s prosecution by Howard University law student Kevin Cunningham on Change.org went viral on social media. He later transferred the petition to Martin’s parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, which to date has more than 2 million signatures. The controversy achieved even greater heights on March 23 when President Obama said “If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon.” In cultural terms many from the Miami Heat to ex-Michigan governor Jennnifer Granholm donned a hoodie similar to the one Trayvon was wearing when he died as a form of protest.
Zimmerman has since been charged with second-degree murder. Defense lawyers say Zimmerman was being pummeled by Martin and had no choice but to wield his handgun and open fire. If the defense team does not convince a judge that Zimmerman was within his rights to open fire based on the “Stand Your Ground” statute—which allows for such “justified” killing—then a jury will be convened on June 10 to try him for murder.
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狗仔卡
发表于 2012-12-19 23:12
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发表于 2012-12-20 13:23
