by Diane Dimond on April 2, 2012
Do We Really Know All the Facts Yet?
There are two sides to every story. So, why do the media sometimes run whole hogged with the most sensational version of events and why do we eat it up like candy?
It is time for some critical thinking about a widely reported crime story currently in the news.
More than a month ago a tragic incident occurred in a gated community in Sanford, Florida when a Neighborhood-Watch volunteer shot and killed a 17 year old young man. The teen was black, the man with the gun was mixed race Hispanic. The teen was walking back from the store, the adult was in his car going to the store.
When I read the first accounts of how young Trayvon Martin died I was outraged! Seemed as though a 28 year old, gun-toting man named George Zimmerman – a guy who had called 9-11 dozens of times over the last year – was one of those modern day gunslinger types who went around his neighborhood hunting for suspects to bully. Several news accounts called him a, “cop wanna-be” who likely targeted the hoodie-wearing teen because of his race. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on February 13, 2012
Fr. James Manship, courtesy New Haven Independent
In a day when the words “Catholic” and “priest” often conjure up negative thoughts I want to tell you a story about a man who saw injustice and took on an entire police department to try to set things right. He would be the first to tell you he didn’t do it alone.
Father James Manship leads the flock at the New Haven, Connecticut St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. He had been ministering to this mostly Latino congregation for a short time when, in the summer of 2008, his congregants began telling him stories about rogue police officers who made their lives miserable.
Their tales of harassment, unwarranted traffic stops, needless arrests and beatings while in custody were mind boggling to this young priest, the nephew of a veteran State Police trooper. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on January 9, 2012
Some Schoolyard Bullies Never Change
Nobody likes a bully – especially me. But what if it is the United States Government that is the bully? What if certain people in Washington decide to target a citizen and then use all the resources available to them to crush that person? I must tell you about a story I researched recently because millions of your tax dollars were used to wage an eight year war against Robert Lorsch a successful California businessman and philanthropist who loves animals. I mean, this guy gets all weepy when he talks about helping animals and he and his wife, Kira, have donated astounding amounts of money to animal causes – like the 36 acre Wildlife WayStation refuge in Topanga Canyon, California. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on November 7, 2011
Lily the Therapy Dog Waits
A Golden Retriever named Lily patiently sits at the glass entryway of a red brick building tucked behind Good Samaritan Hospital in Rockland County, New York.
Lily is a specially trained therapy dog and she instinctively knows just what to do when the next troubled person arrives. She gives comfort to the physically and sexually abused and it doesn’t matter if they are young or old, male or female. Lily, and the new Spirit of Rockland Special Victims Unit in which she works, is a God-send to everyone who walks in the door.
This isn’t like the Special Victims Units you see on television. There are no officers with guns bustling about, no metal desks or low hanging florescent lights. There is nothing gritty about this SVU. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on October 3, 2011
Jaycee Dugard - Survivor, Mother, Activist
My annual Hero of the Year award usually comes up in December but this year I can’t wait. I’ve already picked the person who I think has most changed the world of crime and justice during 2011.
My hero is Jaycee Dugard. She was held as a sex slave, finally rescued and now instead of being withdrawn or bitter, she has embraced us all with details of her harrowing story and formed a charitable organization to help other families recovering from abduction.
Jaycee’s ordeal began when she was 11 years old. Now she’s 30 and finally free of a pair of kidnappers – a convicted sex offender named Phillip Garrido and his accomplice-wife, Nancy. They used a stun gun to pluck little Jaycee off a country road in South Tahoe, California in June 1991 as she waited for a school bus one morning. She remembers clawing at the ground to try to escape, clutching a pine cone as her last touch with freedom. [click to continue…]
by Diane Dimond on September 19, 2011
Sperm Banks Are Big Business
Many years ago I was assigned to cover a story about a certain sperm donor, a newly graduated doctor in Kansas who had donated on such a frequent and regular basis that he was suspected of being the biological father to 500 children. You read that right – 500 children!
My research led me to learn that professors and medical mentors had often urged their male med school residents to donate sperm as a way to a.) Put a little money in their pockets and b.) To help propagate future generations of intelligent children. The belief was that if the sperm came from a person smart enough and driven enough to study to be a doctor, well, all of mankind could benefit from the children they would sire.
An elitist viewpoint, to be sure, but a prevalent one back in the early 90’s. [click to continue…]
by Diane on August 29, 2011
The Day America Changed Forever
As anyone who hasn’t been living on the moon knows the 10th Anniversary of the horrific September 11th attacks is fast approaching.
I, for one, don’t want to hear about it. I really just want to stay in bed all day and bury my head under a pillow.
That doesn’t mean I won’t commemorate the anniversary – because I most definitely and painfully will. But the media drum beat toward the date has already begun and it has put a pit in my stomach the size of a grapefruit.
There are at least 40 different TV specials planned over the next few weeks leading up to the awful date of September 11th. Each of the top three networks – ABC, CBS and NBC has a big boffo special planned, plus extra coverage on their early morning and evening news programs. CNN has no fewer than four separate documentaries on the 9-11 attacks scheduled. The National Geographic Channel plans to devote a full week to its coverage. Countless other cable channels have their own 9-11 plans. And, of course, just wait till you see the onslaught of coverage from your local news stations. I predict it will be non-stop as the date approaches. [click to continue…]
by Diane on June 13, 2011
Dr. Kevorkian Helped Us Think About Death
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t remember holding my stricken mother’s hand as she laid on a special hospital bed we had set up in her living room. It was there she took her last breath. Almost every day I think about how my father died in the bedroom of the home he loved so much. Both my parents passed away exactly how they lived – on their own terms.
They wanted no heroic measures to prolong their lives and they adamantly told me – their only child – that they did not want to die in a cold, impersonal hospital room. They made me promise to abide by their wishes. And just in case, they signed a living will putting it all in writing.
I thank Dr. Jack Kevorkian for that. He started the national dialogue about death that opened up the topic for discussion in my household. [click to continue…]
If the Supreme Court Says Its Constitutional...
Saying, “I told you so,” is not becoming. So I won’t say it.
But I will remind folks of all those columns I wrote about the need for states to do something proactive about the problem of illegal immigration since members of the United States Congress have repeatedly fallen down on the job.
Frankly, I stopped writing about it because I figured anyone who was interested in the topic had already formed an opinion and nothing I would write would change any minds. Also, because there was the hate mail I got after I refused to call people who enter this country illegally “undocumented workers.” [click to continue…]
Taking a Seat Here Can Change Your Life
Having spent the better part of the last two weeks watching an excruciatingly long jury selection for a capital murder case I’m left wondering – is it time for the United States to begin using professional jurors?
During the last couple weeks I watched intently as prospective jurors took the stand to explain to the court the financial hardship that leaving work to judge another would bring to their lives. Some of them work for employers who grant paid leave for jury duty but often it covered only a day or two. Many others worked for struggling small businesses or are self-employed and they explained that every day they didn’t show up at work was lost profit or a day’s pay docked off their paycheck. [click to continue…]
