Jurors in New York City have found a 22-year-old man guilty of murdering a 14-year-old girl, setting her body on fire, then placing her charred remains in a suitcase and throwing them into the ocean last January after she refused to have an abortion.
The New York Daily News describes Christian Ferdinand as “a subhuman Brooklynite.” (He was born in Jamaica.)
Ferdinand was 20 years old when he met Shaniesha Forbes, a freshman at the Academy for Young Writers, on Facebook, and the two became sexually active. Forbes' mother, Sandra Price, said she knew her minor daughter was dating someone but did not know his name, age, or what he looked like.
Forbes texted Ferdinand one night to tell him that she was pregnant with his baby, and she would not have an abortion due to her mother's religious beliefs.
“My n—a, are you serious? Kill that s–t,” he replied.
The two met at his cousin's house later, but as they cuddled on the couch, Forbes would not relent on her plan to keep his baby – so he took matters into his own hands.
Ferdinand smothered the girl with a leather pillow, then charred her body with a lighter and placed her remains in a suitcase. He eventually threw the remains into Gerritsen Beach.
Forbes was reported missing on January 4. Police found her remains two days later, washed up on the beach.
“The defendant hoped that the saltwater would destroy any evidence the flames didn’t,” the prosecutor, Robert Walsh, said in his closing argument. “He had a problem that needed solving: He didn’t want to pay child support, and Shaniesha got in the way.”
Police records show that Ferdinand denied any involvement in her murder, until they produced DNA evidence tying him to the crime.
“It didn’t deserve to live,” Ferdinand told them.
Police had another surprise for him: Tests on her remains showed that Forbes was not pregnant, after all.
Court documents reveal that after confessing to the murder of Shaniesha Forbes, the young man asked officers, “Do you think I can get some kind of community service?”
The district attorney charged him with second-degree murder, and the jury took only one hour to convict Ferdinand on Monday.
A female juror called the case “open and shut.”
“Young girls should be careful who they hook up with on the internet,” she said. “But he should not have done what he did.”
At his sentencing next month, he could receive 25 years to life.
“I don’t think God should forgive him,” Shaquana Forbes, Shaniesha's older sister, said.
“I hope he won’t see the light of day again. I will never see my baby again,” Price added.
Harold Crawford, a community advocate with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, told the Bangor Daily News in Maine he hopes that young people learn the dangers of internet hookups. “Anytime someone on a social media site tells you to keep secrets, that’s when it’s time to cut it off,” he said.
Unfortunately, Forbes joins a growing list of young women who have been murdered when they refused to cave to their boyfriend or husband's pressure to abort a child.
Chile: Dándole la espalda a la libertad
Chile está dejando de ser la esperanza latinoamericana. Eso es grave para todos, no sólo para los chilenos.
Durante décadas, especialmente desde la llegada de la democracia a ese país, en 1989 (aunque la transformación había comenzado en época de la dictadura de Pinochet), resultaba obvio que la libertad, el funcionamiento de las instituciones de derecho, la apertura al mundo, la competencia, el mercado y la supremacía de la sociedad civil en el terreno económico habían probado que ése era el camino de la prosperidad para toda América Latina.
En Chile se confirmaba que la democracia liberal era la vía. El país, dentro de ese esquema, se había puesto a la cabeza de América Latina, más de la mitad de la sociedad se inscribía en los niveles sociales medios y la pobreza había pasado del 46 al 12%. Una verdadera proeza.
La nación de la loca geografía –una larga franja de tierra temblorosa situada entre el Pacífico y los Andes– estabaa pocos pasos del umbral del Primer Mundo, definido como las naciones que alcanzan los 25.000 dólares de producción anual per cápita. Bastaba recorrer las calles de Santiago y hablar con las gentes para percibir una sensación de optimismo y progreso mayor que en cualquier otra gran ciudad latinoamericana.
Ese espíritu se está apagando. Los datos de la encuestadora chilena Plaza Pública (Cadem) no dejan lugar a dudas. Un 71% de los ciudadanos piensa que la economía se ha estancado. Sólo un 27% opina lo contrario. Tras dos generaciones de prosperidad anual notable, con pocas contramarchas, el primer año de la presidente Bachelet se saldará con apenas un 1,6% de crecimiento, pese a que Sebastián Piñera le entregó un país que funcionaba a plena máquina.
Naturalmente, eso tiene un costo. Cuando Bachelet llegó al poder, hace sólo ocho meses, un 78% de los chilenos tenía una buena imagen de ella. Hoy sólo la aprecia el 48, mientras su Gobierno es aún más impopular: apenas un 37% lo respalda.
¿Por qué se ha frenado Chile? Fundamentalmente, por una ruptura clarísima sobre el modelo de desarrollo. Los inversionistas locales y extranjeros tienen dudas y se abstienen. Ven a la señora Bachelet más cerca del viejo Chile estatista-populista que de una nación moderna basada en las ideas de la libertad económica, y no pueden evitar una desagradable sensación de deja vuque los retrotrae a los turbulentos años del allendismo.
La perciben como una persona encharcada en las supersticiones ideológicas del distribuicionismo igualitario, obsesionada con el Índice Gini y no con la creación de riquezas, que es lo que realmente importa. Al fin y al cabo, el coeficiente Gini de Venezuela es mejor que el de Chile y no creo que nadie en sus cabales piense que la gravísima situación del manicomio chavista es preferible a la chilena.
Si la presidenta Bachelet no rectifica, muy probablemente provocará la salida de la Democracia Cristiana de la coalición de gobierno. Es increíble que esta señora no advierta que la buena experiencia de las ideas de la libertad en su país ha corrido hacia el centrotodo el espectro político.
El socialcristianismo de izquierda de los años cincuenta y sesenta del siglo pasado ya no es lo que era. La democracia cristiana de Frei Ruiz-Tagle es diferente a la de Frei Montalva, su padre, porque entre ambos mundos existe medio siglo de inocultables éxitos liberales y el hundimiento de las recetas estatistas. El socialismo de Ricardo Lago tiene muy poco que ver con el de Salvador Allende, aunque respetuosamente cultive su memoria, porque en el camino de la lucha por la libertad Lago se transformó en un genuino socialdemócrata y enterró el lastre marxista.
En cambio, quienes no se han movido de su posición fanática son los comunistas (esos que Bachelet se empeñó tercamente en llevar a la Concertación), y continúan defendiendo un empobrecedor modelo de sociedad; pero en el pecado ideológico llevan la penitencia: la bonita Camilo Vallejo, quien era muy popular cuando figuraba como revoltosa líder estudiantil de la oposición, tras pasar al Parlamento, hoy apenas tiene el aprecio del 3% de los chilenos.
Ojalá Chile retorne al carril del sentido común y el buen gobierno. Fue un faro para orientar a los latinoamericanos. Perderlo, insisto, nos perjudicará a todos.
‘Hands Up Don’t Shoot’ Player Arrested Multiple Times
Rams’ Kenny Britt miraculously managed never to get shot by “racist” police despite several arrests.
12.2.2014
The St. Louis Rams player who initiated the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” protest at the game against the Oakland Raiders Sunday has a long rap sheet, but, despite multiple arrests, the Rams’ Kenny Britt has thus far managed not to get shot by the “racist” police he and his teammates protested.
Before taking the field Sunday, Britt encouraged his teammates Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, and Chris Givens to join him in raising their hands up in solidarity for Michael Brown, a gesture discredited by mounds of evidence released by the prosecutor earlier that week. Though Britt later said they weren’t taking sides, the implications of the action were obvious: the police were guilty of killing an innocent black teen, a provocative statement to say the least after a week filled with violent protests in the St Louis area.
Britt choosing to protest is particularly curious given his past experience with law enforcement, none of which involved him being shot by “racist” officers. Here’s a summary of Britt's recent trouble (h/t
D.C. Clothesline):
April 2011 - Arrested on
three charges after leading police in car chase:
Britt, 22, the former Bayonne High star, was arrested Tuesday afternoon after leading Bayonne police on a high-speed car chase, Bayonne Police Chief Robert Kubert said today.
Britt -- was charged with eluding the police, hindering apprehension, and obstructing a governmental function -- was traveling 71 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone, on 21st Street and Route 440 in his blue Porsche at 4:30 p.m., reports said.
A passenger in the car, Jerel Andre Lord, 23, also of Bayonne, was charged with resisting arrest, hindering apprehension, possession of CDS and obstructing governmental function, Kubert said.
Tennessee Titans football star Kenny Britt was arrested in Hoboken yesterday, only one day after he pleaded guilty to careless driving in his hometown of Bayonne,officials said.
Britt, now of Brentwood, Tenn., was arrested last night at Willow Avenue and 15th Street by Hoboken narcotics officers and charged with two counts of resisting arrest, official said today.
July 2012 – Arrested for
DUI:
Tennessee Titans receiver Kenny Britt was arrested early Friday morning at Ft. Campbell and charged with DUI.
Bob Jenkins, spokesperson for the military base, said Britt was taken into custody around 3:30 a.m. outside Gate 4 after he failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer.
His vehicle was impounded at the post after he was released by military police on his own recognizance.
The NFL suspended Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt one game for repeated violations of the league’s personal conduct policy, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The suspension comes nearly 3½ weeks after Britt was summoned to New York to meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell for the second time in a year.
After the protest, Britt
told reporters that he and his teammates weren’t taking sides:
“We just wanted to let the (Ferguson) community know that we support them," said Britt. "I don’t want the people in the community to feel like we turned a blind eye to it. What would I like to see happen? Change in America.”
The St. Louis Police Officers Association quickly responded to the provocative protest with a call to “throw the flag” on the players, but Rams Coach Jeff Fisher announced Monday that
no disciplinary action would be taken by either the league or the team.
