Serious Business on a Wednesday Morning (aka I Need to Find My Happy Place)

[anogete]

Over a year ago, an elderly Korean couple in the neighborhood I was living in were brutally murdered. They were very sweet, and the husband always waved at me as I walked by his house each day. He had this neat little Yin Yang symbol made of white and black rocks in his front yard, and he was forever trimming the shrubbery and weeding the edges of the lawn. Anyway, I was shocked when I heard from another resident that they had been murdered, and I followed the case in the news. Nothing was taken from their home, but the husband was beaten to death and the wife was raped and strangled. Even now, I feel ill just thinking about it. Initially, the police arrested two twenty-something traveling salesmen, working with a national company. They have been held without bond since a few days after the murders, and it wasn't until just now that the District Attorney dropped the charges. Apparently, DNA was found at the scene linking Clifton Bloomfield to the murders, and the salesmen have testimony to place them across town from the crime scene. At any rate, Clifton Bloomfield is associated with a white supremacist group and is a career criminal. He's been charged with multiple other murders including the strangulation and rape of an eighty-one year old grandmother in her own home and shooting a forty-year-old newly-wed in a case of mistaken identity. Bloomfield only agreed to confess to the murders if the death penalty was removed from the table as an option in his sentencing. This is one of those instances where I really think the death penalty is merited. What a piece of scum. I feel like kicking him in the face.

In other news, my mother had another 'episode', or at least that's what she calls it. Last time I called her, she sounded as if she wanted to tell me something, but was dancing around it. Fifteen minutes after I hung up, I got an e-mail from her about it. She said my brothers were in the room and she didn't want them to hear. I have no idea if I've ever mentioned this here before or not, but my mom has a condition called vaso vagal. It's actually not all that uncommon and is usually triggered by stress. Anyway, when she becomes overly stressed or has a huge life change, she goes into convulsions and then passes out. During this, her heart stops. Within a few seconds, it restarts itself and she wakes up with a sense of disorientation.

Several months ago, my brothers (who are twenty-four and still live at home) were arrested and charged with a crime. It was something they did not know they had done, but it was still illegal. This all sounds very vague, I'm sure, but I don't feel like rehashing it. My mom was terrified they were going to be sent to jail, but the evidence was weak, at best, and their attorney recommended they sign a plea bargain for two years probation. My dad attended the meeting with the attorney, and then dropped by my mom's work to tell her about the good news. In the midst of him telling her, she had an attack and passed out cold in the middle of the office. A co-worker managed to stop her head from cracking open on the desk, but it was a near thing. Paramedics were called, and there was much fuss over the entire situation. My mom was embarrassed and shooed the paramedics away, refusing to go to the hospital since she and my dad knew exactly what had happened.

She didn't relate all of this to me over the phone because she didn't want my brothers to feel as if they were responsible for causing the attack. I think the two of them should know. They did a very stupid thing; they didn't think before acting, and they got in trouble for it. Saying you did not know it was illegal is no excuse, especially in the circumstance they found themselves. My mom coddles them far too much. They wouldn't have jobs if it weren't for her. They wouldn't know how to pay their student loan or car insurance bills. They wouldn't know how to file their income taxes or cook freakin' soup. So, whatever. They're mama's boys, and they must be sheltered at all cost. I like my brothers, but I'm not close with them. Maybe when they grow up and learn how to take care of themselves, we'll have more to talk about. Right now, if I can't hold a conversation about online gaming, then I can't speak to them. And I know fuck all about online gaming. I don't even know what an XBox looks like.

Comments

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they arrested the right person finally and he's off the streets. It does seem wrong that the traveling salesmen were held so long when there were witnesses that placed them elsewhere at the time of the murders. I'm sure that had to do with the kind of lawyers they could afford. The justice system, it is unfair.

I'm sorry for the family troubles. I know all too well what it's like.

[anogete.livejournal.com]

I was aghast at the idea that they could be held for months after another person had confessed to the murders. And I cannot imagine the impact that imprisonment will have on their lives. From the beginning, I alway thought that the brutality of the murders was very odd coming from two dudes who sell magazines door-to-door. Apparently, the DA (whom I despise and did not vote for last time around) has been playing politics with the case and holding these two fellow for far longer than was really necessarily. They've been in jail since December 2007.

[theredzebra1.livejournal.com]

That is unconscionable. O_O

[theredzebra1.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the brutality and the murders. That's awful, shitty awful.

Guys who still effing live at home....just...makes...me...argh! Bud has some younger brothers who have not yet left the nest, although they make occasional trips to college. I would feel that I had failed as a parent if my sons even wanted to live at home past 18. This is a "No Coddle" zone.

[anogete.livejournal.com]

My brothers are pieces of work. Really. My grandmother owns several rental properties. She offered my brothers a house across the street from her, rent-free!, if they agreed to pay the utility bills. They turned her down and continued living in my parents' house. My parents' house is approximately 1200 square feet. That's tiny when you're dealing with four grown adults. I really don't think they will ever move out. They'll live there until the end of time. And I bite my tongue every time my mom talks about helping them do this and that. I want to tell her to stop, but she gets offended if I say anything.

[neriah.livejournal.com]

If they had non-matching DNA how could they have held them for so long?

I have the sister quivalent of your brothers. Now that the parents are dead she has had to tread the waters solo.