by Karol KaluzaWe know his DNA. We know she fought back. We know where her body was, how it was found. We knew her daily routine, we knew she ran in the daytime. Someone must have seen or heard something. We also know she ran alone this day. To me this seems like such an overwhelming amount of evidence that we as a community, and our law enforcement, should have somebody behind bars. A crime was committed and if there’s no one to pay for it, that just makes it worse. We start to lose trust in our criminal justice system. Karina Vetrano was murdered on Aug. 2, 2016 as she jogged alone in Spring Creek Park in Queens, New York, in a remote area that locals call the “Weeds.” She was a young woman (30) who had a passionate personality, who had her own blog and thousands of followers on social media. Why hasn’t the perpetrator been served justice yet? Vetrano usually went running every day and had a set schedule. She and her father use to run daily around 5pm. Until this one day when her father was nursing an injury and repeatedly told Vetrano not to go running by herself. She was brutally attacked and murdered on her jog and dragged into the weeds. Her socks were wet, her headphones, shoe, and cellphone were scattered all over the place. After a few hours her father became curious about where she was, so he called three times. She didn’t pick up. He contacted the police and went to look for her. After pinging her cell phone her father noticed his daughter’s body in the weeds with her hands still grasping the weeds, reflecting her struggle with the perp. Many say that part of the reason the killer picked the spot was to confuse the police, because the area has been a killing and dumping ground before. It must be hard on a father to find his own daughter murdered on the one day he didn’t go running with her. Does he take all the blame for it? I know for a fact how hard it is to find somebody hurt, yet alone murdered. I was walking with my friend one day in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and we went our separate ways heading home. We were texting each other and all of the sudden communication stopped. As I was right in front of my building I tried to call him and his phone was off. After several minutes, assuming something might have happened while walking at night, I hopped in my car and just headed over to his house. I found him beat up and robbed steps away from his house. I felt some sort of guilt for not walking with him; he’s the one who wanted to take the cab home in the first place. The investigation started immediately Vetrano’s body was discovered. Detectives and investigators started by noticing the bruises she had on her body and face. Her teeth were knocked out either from the struggle or biting the criminal. They found DNA on her neck, fingernails, and cell phone. They ran the DNA thought the national and state databases but they got no matches. There are two reasons why there are might be no matches. One--the perpetrator was a teen and never convicted of a crime before, or two-- that he was incarcerated before they routinely took DNA samples. There was also no DNA at the crime scene to connect it to any sexual assault. DNA analysis is still evolving; today maybe it more accurate than ever before. The innocence project has been exonerating falsely accused people due to DNA samples which don’t match or were obtained wrongfully. A week later Vanessa Marcotte, a New York City resident who worked at Google, went to visit her family in Massachusetts. She, just like Ventrano , went on a jog and never returned home. It’s not known whether she was attacked head-on or from behind and what he used to hit her. The perpetrator fought and struggled with Marcotte, and his DNA was left on her body so he decided to set her on fire. If he had committed a crime in the past his DNA might be in the system and might lead law enforcement straight to him. Burning the body would have destroyed this evidence, but the evidence was not wholly destroyed when the entire body was not burned. Marcotte’s death is very similar to the case of Vetrano , killed a week earlier. There is no direct evidence that these two murders are related but there is also a high chance that they are. Back to my story, my friend called the police from my phone immediately. They came to take a report and asked about what had been stolen. His phone, his backpack containing his computer, his camera and his wallet, my friend said. Since there had been so many robberies in that area, the police were acutely anxious to catch these attackers. They collected surveillance video from nearby houses, which gave a clear shot of the attackers but surveillance didn’t catch their face 100%, not enough to confirm the identification . The attackers used masks or hoodies to conceal their faces. These crimes haven’t been solved. Crimes go unsolved all the time, from basic robberies to murders. How is it possible that we live in this day, in an age of advanced technology, yet crimes still go unsolved? We shouldn’t we be worried every time we leave our houses, shouldn’t be to forced to look over our shoulders, shouldn’t be scared to walk down the street at night. My friend’s case and the two murders above never got solved. Our communities need to come together to help law enforcement. People in the area near a crime can be the biggest break to any case. If you have any information in regards to any case, please call Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). Finding a murderer isn’t easy, but we can’t leave any case on the shelf. We need to keep talking about it and posting about it on social media so nobody can forget. Cases usually go unsolved and unheard of after a few months—we can’t let that happen here.
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by Kevin TranAs of September 28, 2016: 571 total homicides 700 plus projected murders at the end of 2016 3308 total people shot 2 murders a day 1 person shot every two hours These are the statistics of crime in Chicago. The violence in Chicago—in the form of shooting deaths--has become the deadliest in almost two decades and unfortunately the city is one of the deadliest in the United States. This problem did not occur overnight but over the course of many years, with only lackadaisical efforts to try to combat such violence. Much of the crime committed in the city is gun-related and the addition of readily-available illegal weapons, has led to an average of 82 shootings per week. [Chicago Tribune] shockingly, social media has led a public campaign for the gang violence that has occurred. On a larger scale, we will examine the leading factors that cause the upsurge of violence, how lead poisoning correlates with crime, and ways to find reform that might make Chicago a safer place to live. The violence in Chicago is closely related to the rising number of gangs there and accounts for almost 80% of all crimes committed. [Social Sentinel]. The correlation between gangs and crime show that a majority of the crimes committed are in Chicago’s West and South sides. The first gangs of Chicago date back all the way to the late 1800s and were not originally violent. The sole purpose of the original gangs was social; for example in the 1800s a gang named the “Fire Kings” made up of volunteer firefighters was formed to compete against other volunteer firefighters for a positive departmental review. That was a friendly competition but today gang rivalry has turned into something detrimental. Gang rivalry has been fostered by social media. “Gang members use publicly available social media to sell drugs and weapons, threaten or harass rival gang members, and even brag about crimes” says Social Sentinel. Gangs compete to match each other’s violence and lawlessness. Jens Ludwig, the director of the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago has stated that “Chicago’s Police Department, overwhelmed, can respond only to the most serious problems, leaving citizens to feel responsible for their own security” [NY Times]. He adds, “People carry guns in public because other people are carrying guns. It’s an arms race.” This has an impact on the safety of the people of Chicago. The crimes committed happen to occur in the most segregated communities within Chicago and violent crime rates show a correlation with neighborhood poverty. A study conducted by the Chicago Tribune in 2016 links childhood lead exposure and violent crimes. The lead accumulating in young brains disables the frontal lobe, leaving young people with learning difficulties, attention deficits, and lowered IQ. The map of lead poisoning shows a positive correlation with a map of aggravated assault crimes, created much later when those kids were 17 to 22. The scientific journal Environmental Health found that “exposure to lead during early childhood significantly increased the chance that a student would fail reading and math tests, even when controlling for other factors such as poverty, race, birth weight, and the mother’s education level.” The city of Chicago is taking steps to combat the amount of crime. The police department is attempting to seize all guns off of the street. By doing this, Chicago has been able to lower the amount of crime committed with weapons. The city is also trying to get more police officers on the streets and has done do so by using mapping to determine where crime happens the most. There are important proposals on how to stop the violence that involve structural change and thus have not yet been implemented. Creating summer jobs for youth would give teenagers skills and experience while keeping them off the streets. Help in finding employment for those who are getting out of prison would prevent ex-convicts from turning back to the street, the gang and to violence after their records prevented them from finding jobs. A change the drug laws themselves would help, since a majority of first convictions stem from misdemeanors. “Instead of a man of peace and love, I have become a man of violence and revenge” said Hiawatha. In Chicago’s case, instead of finding peace and love for one another, they all have filled with violence. Yet Chicago will find itself with peace one day; it is only a matter of time. Crimes can happen anywhere in the world. Would you take action toward it if it happened in your backyard? It only takes one man/woman to change the world. Will you be that change? by Samantha SheetsCan you imagine being enclosed in one location—a single room--for months on end? Or only leaving that room for an hour a day? Or simply being accused of a crime you may or may not have committed? Imagine you are rotting in a cell as hope begins to fade away like it did when the jury first declared you were “guilty”. Will anyone be able to reach you or help you? One Thursday evening, instead of getting off the R train at the Whitehall station in downtown Manhattan, I got off at Queens Plaza. I was heading toward the Q100 bus, embarking on a journey to the last stop. The last stop is Rikers Island, the penitentiary for criminals with short sentences. I was to wait at the bus station for my coworkers who would also be receiving this once-in-a-lifetime tour. I am a “College Aide” for the Department of Probation, and since Rikers Island is affiliated with the Department of Corrections, we were able to visit, and to bear witness to the lives of those incarcerated. The bus ride to the correctional van that would take us through the security gates was filled with discussions. The things we discussed were the do’s and don’ts of what is acceptable behind the eldritch wired fence. We were to leave our electronics in the locked van, and carry an identification card at all times. We entered the facility and quickly learned it was on lockdown for reasons they chose not to specify. One week prior to this, we were given instructions on how to dress. All skin was to be covered, including our feet. While this struck me as abnormal at the time, once we passed security and a rigorous metal detector, I realized why these limitations were put in place. We were led down a series of lengthy hallways, into an area with a set of five holding cells. The five cells were divided by borough and held a variety of inmates with a range of ages and races--all men. These inmates had their arms stretched out through the bars and were making obscene statements and gestures from the moment my group entered; the entire scene was extremely intimidating. This was not how prison was portrayed on Orange is the New Black. We were given a brief presentation of what to expect from this tour, but with these noisy grown men looming around us it was difficult to remain attentive. We learned about the establishment of Rikers Island prison in 1932, and the creation of a new section within the facility which was opening later that day. The new facility exclusively includes men ages 18-21. The unit is supposed to create new initiatives in hopes of getting these men back on their feet, and on the right side of justice. We never heard what these initiatives were to be. The room itself reeked of bleach, and although it had been recently painted, the walls were already chipping. The cells themselves remained bare, with heavily stained bedding. Not far from the cells was an “education center”, which included six metal tables and chairs, spaced several feet apart. Long chains were attached to the chairs to ensure prisoners would not attempt to move their seating. The restraints made me think back to a giant corkboard chart shown to us at the beginning of the tour. The chart showcased the number of ”incidents” that have occurred within the facility in the past month. Color-coded pins were used to indicated where the event occurred and the type of incident. Whether it is a simple fight, or the more extreme a murder, they used the board to keep track of potential gang activity within the facility. An assortment of pins scattered the entire board. A majority were blue, indicating a fight had occurred involving the use of a weapon. As the tour commenced we continued to see more disturbing aspects of the facility. This included a bleak five-by-five concrete fenced-in box for inmates to get some “fresh” air. Then, from the compact outdoor area, we were speedily led to the medical center. On the walk there, a heavily chained inmate passed us. Both his feet and hands were chained as he shuffled through the hallway. Our tour guide suggested we not make eye contact with him. Aside from this particular inmate, every other inmate we passed in the halls was simply instructed by a single officer to hug and face the wall. But in this inmate’s case, he was surrounded by several officers who were covered head to toe in protection gear. We were not supposed to pass him but were rapidly pushed into the next area of the tour. This made me question: what else were they not showing us on this tour? The inside of Rikers Island penitentiary was grim. And my final question arose: is Rikers Island an inhumane place? The location fills you up with mixed emotions. You pity these people, but you are constantly reminded of the crimes they committed because pictures of their faces are plastered on the door to their cells with notes on their arrest. Feces cover their walls, but you are reminded by the guards that they not only smeared it there themselves, but they put themselves into this situation. You hear only the guards’ side of situations, while inmates can be heard screaming from their solitary cells. Their basic needs may be met, but their lives are immensely restricted. And while you know they are let out for one hour’s recreation time, you understand that all these restrictions exist for specific reasons. As you walk down hallways that feel labyrinthine, you are reminded of the giant corkboard that they showed you earlier, showing the levels of violence all over the institution. You are reminded of an area in which a murder possibly took place, potentially hours before your arrival. You ask yourself: is this the only way a prison can be run? Do people come out more violent than they went in? The experience was eye-opening; the glorification of prison on television shows masks the grim truths that occur behind these closed walls. Being inside those enclosed walls as a visitor for only a few hours, I felt my own hope slowly slip away. The sense of hopelessness endured is truly what makes Rikers Island inhumane. |
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