Trench Reynolds: DBKP This Week in Crime - Aug 31-Sept 6, 2008

August 31-Sept 6, 2008
Volume 29



I'm Trench Reynolds.

I blog about crime.


This is DBKP's This Week in Crime for August 31th-September 6th, 2008.


First I want to start off with an update of the story I posted about last time and that was the story of missing 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to update on. Giovanni was featured briefly on America's Most Wanted during Labor Day weekend and Clear Channel has donated a billboard in Lynn, Mass. asking people to call police if they have any information on him. Giovanni's father, Ernesto Gonzalez, is still in jail refusing to talk. Meanwhile the national media is still focused on the circus sideshow that is the disappearance of Caylee Anthony. Not that I don't hope that Caylee is found I just think that the media is focusing too much on the soap opera like aspects of it. Anyway if you want to be kept updated on the search for Giovanni Gonzalez you can go here.

So I have to apologize to DBKP readers. I took last weekend off because of the Labor Day weekend and speaking of Labor Day that usually marks when schools get into full swing for the new school year. With the way society is today along with the new school year has come a spate of plots to commit violence against the schools. Now some schools start their school years in August and that's how far I'm going back to bring you these plots.

18-year-old Colin McKenzie-Gude of Bethesda, Maryland had already graduated from high school. That didn't stop him from amassing a cache of weapons and explosives. Authorities also found a list of addresses of his former teachers and a map of the motorcade route that President Bush takes to Camp David. He also had forged documents that said he was a CIA agent and a U.S. contractor with protections from the Geneva Convention.

16-year-old Andrew Potts of Ardmore High School in Alabama was discovered to have been plotting an attack against his school. Potts was found to have hit lists that contained teachers and students names along with several swords and knives. Police also found Potts to be in possession of child porn in their search and Potts had been in previous trouble with the law for physically assaulting his grandmother. Potts has been charged as an adult.

Two 12-year-olds in Grand Rapids, Minnesota were arrested for planning a school shooting against Robert J. Elkington Middle School.

At Central High School 16-year-old Ryan McDonald was shot and killed by 15-year-old Jamar Siler. No motive has been released as of yet.

Not too far from me in Gastonia, NC a threat was made against Ashbrrok High School that was posted on a World of Warcraft message board. That threat turned out to be a hoax made by a juvenile from New Jersey.

18-year-old Allen Doelitsch of Boerne, Texas was arrested for plotting an attack against Samuel Champion High School, a school he didn't even attend. Doelitsch is also accused of trying to recruit a 14-year-old into his plot. He's blaming his actions on depression and the fact that his mom took him off his meds.

In Omaha, Nebraska 18-year-old Michael Tufly was arrested for threatening an attack against the Millard Learning Center which he attended. Tufly was an admitted 'fan' of Columbine and told police he was 'mad at the world'.

Am I trying to scare you into pulling your kids from school in fear that an attack is imminent at any time? No, not at all. More often than not these plots are discovered long before they ever come to fruition. The odds of a school shooting happening on the scale of Columbine or Virginia Tech are roughly the same as winning the lottery. However that doesn't mean that precautions shouldn't be taken or that parents shouldn't remain vigilant about what their children are up to. Most school shootings or plots could have been prevented if there had been just a bit more parental involvement.


by Trench Reynolds
image: Trench Network

Caylee Anthony Media Circus: Giovanni Gonzalez Gets No Attention

August 17-23, 2008
Volume 29



I'm Trench Reynolds.

I blog about crime.


This is DBKP's This Week in Crime for August 17th-August 23rd, 2008.

For the past 8 months I've pimped out my sites here at DBKP. This week I'm doing something different, original content. What a concept, I know.

There's been a story in the news lately, you may have hard about it. A small child is missing. The child's parent is in jail on child endangerment charges and refuses to give police any information. There's evidence that the child may have been severely injured or even killed.

That sounds like the case of Caylee Anthony doesn't it? But it's not. This story is about 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez from Massachusetts.

Giovanni's father, Ernesto Gonzalez, had his son at his home for one of his visitations. The parents are currently involved in a custody dispute. When this past Monday came Giovanni had not been returned. Ernesto Gonzalez was arrested on child endangerment charges and is being held on $500,000 bond. He has a cut on his hand that he refuses to explain. Over this past weekend a bloody mop was found in Ernesto Gonzalez's home in Lynn, Massachusetts. Police are in the process of conducting door to door searches and have roadblocks set up all over the area.

Outside of mine and a few other blogs you won't hear about this story outside of the Boston area. No bounty hunters are involved and no L.A. lawyers are being retained as spokesmen. No armies of media are parked outside Gonzalez's house. No Nancy Grace or Greta Van Sustern doing shows about Giovanni Gonzalez. No psychics volunteering their assistance.

Why do you think that is? I think you know why but not for the reasons you think. It's because Giovanni Gonzalez and his parents are Hispanic. That's all there is to it. However I don't think the media outlets are racist. For the media it's all about numbers. They're ruled by ratings or readership. It's a twisted game of supply and demand. It's the American viewers and readers that are racist. They salivate over every minute detail that comes out of the Caylee Anthony story yet when a Hispanic boy befalls a similar fate no one outside of the area even bats an eyelash.

I used to think this wasn't true but I was just kidding myself about it. Think about it, since the dawn of 24-hour news can you name a crime story that held the nation's attention where the victim wasn't white? I used to also think it was about social class and not color but Casey Anthony doesn't seem to be financially successful so it isn't that either.

The media keeps producing these circuses because we demand them. If we stop watching and reading about them maybe then more missing children can receive the media attention they deserve. In reality that's nothing more than a pipe dream and the media will continue business as usual.

More information on the Giovanni Gonzalez story can be found here.

by Trench Reynolds