Hooked!
By kate on May 1st, 1998
This comic is part of a 1970s Christian comic book called “In His Steps.” Loreen is eventually “saved,” but later is killed while saving the life of the other woman, Gini. We can’t have such a fallen woman around in the end, now can we?
If you want to use this graphic, go ahead. It’s not mine. But please tell me (in the comments), so I can have that satisfying feeling that comes from knowing that someone thinks I’m cool.
Filed under: ephemera, humor | Comment now »
Why I Like Target
By kate on January 14th, 1998
I’m finally going to come out of the closet as someone who not only shops at, but loves Target. Now that you’re sitting down, let me explain why. For one thing, it’s got everything. Any possible thing you want for your household is there. Things I’ve bought at Target: Racquetball gloves, clothes, toys, snacks, seasonal candy, shoes, lingerie, a shower curtain, dishes, CDs, closet-organizing containers, a grilled cheese sandwich, cosmetics. Where else can you get all those things in one place? I hear someone saying “Fred Meyer.” Perhaps, but all the clothes at Fred Meyer are ugly.
Second reason is that there are so many cheap things there.
Third is that I actually like some of their clothes. Sure, they have the PTA-mother-wear section, and lots of maternity clothes; but it’s a great place for finding things I will wear. I hate spending money on clothes I don’t love, so I’m kind of picky. Once I got a pair of purple velvet jean-style pants there, for about $17! And I’m not, I swear, a woman who loves to shop. Not at all. I can go to Target and get anything I need in one fell swoop.
But, I know, there are several stores like Target. (Incidentally, why isn’t there a name for them? They aren’t really “department stores”…) K-Mart, Walgreens, Fred Meyer, Mervyns. What makes Target better? It’s kind of hard to put a finger on. But I think it’s because Target is unpretentious. Its color scheme is simple: RED. It knows its niche and is comfortable there.
After reading this, Sean Blair sent me a handy tip:
- “I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you find something on clearance that ends with a ‘4’, that’s as low as the price gets. If something is $3.20, it’ll go lower. If it’s $2.64 (notice the last number is a 4), that’s as low as it gets. How do I know? I worked at Target for a year before I went off to college. Not only is the store a great place to shop, it’s a great place to work. I absolutely loved it; not to mention my employee discount.”
Filed under: consumerism | Comment now »
Teens on Trial: Kate as Observer
By kate on December 20th, 1997
These newspaper articles were not the first I heard of the story. It was told to me by a friend of the accused “teen-agers”, as the story of Jessica’s death.
I don’t know anyone in the story personally, with the exception of one brief meeting. I’m not involved… except the story involves me, because I am struggling with where to place myself, how to understand.
The “Victim”
This man killed Jessica. We hear about death everyday, but I heard about this death as the death of a friend, a young girl, who bled to death from a stomach wound in a Texaco parking lot. I saw the parking lot. I have heard a song written for Jessica. My friend mourns the loss of her. This death is real, more real than murder victims on the news, or the startling early deaths of celebrities. This death is real, and it is the only permanent injury that came out of this event.
And the killer is not even being tried. I realize he’d probably get off on a plea of self-defense. But why isn’t he being forced to PROVE it? Why isn’t a jury watching his character on trial just as this jury watched a 16-year-old “unnamed” girl’s character be defamed with rumors of gang association? From the newspaper stories alone, I know that the man is the sort of scum that meets underage girls at coffee shops and agrees to pay them for sex, despite being married. He obviously pulled a gun on people who only had a knife. And he’s a Shriner clown, a fact that somehow is important enough to be mentioned in all three articles. What kind of person is a Shriner, anyway?? It’s creepy.
The “Perpetrators”
And yet, what’s on the other side of the story? Two girls who decide to rip off a dirty old man, and agree (even if they didn’t mean it) to have sex with him. A boy who came with them with a knife and stole stuff from him. I don’t understand this. I mean, I understand the events as they happened. But… I don’t have friends that do these things. I don’t mean simply breaking the law, or even stealing. I mean, being intentionally hurtful and mean to people. Like robbery.
(The difference between theft and burglary and robbery: Theft is stealing. Burglary is stealing from a building (after breaking in). Robbery is stealing with the victim present and a threat of violence.)
So I don’t know anyone who robs, and so I’ve never talked to anyone about why they would rob. Or accepted it as something if not normal, plausible.
Complicating matters is that, according to her friends, Jessica was the instigator. It was her idea, and her that persuaded the others to come along. This is what I was told. But in the trial, and in the trials to come, will her friends speak so poorly of the dead? Will they instead claim responsibility?
The “Unbiased” Media
Having the perspective I did (already knowing the story), I was shocked at the bias of the three newspaper stories. Maybe it’s not as blatant to everyone, but it glared out at me. There are, of course, obvious reasons for it: the man was the “victim” in the trial, not the accused; and society’s unreasonable fear of non-conforming teenagers (pot! gangs! eek!). But you would think that a journalist would be trained to recognize these biases and keep them out of what they call “news”. The bias belongs on the editorial page (where there was no mention of the case).
The reporters try to cover themselves by repeating over and over, “…Hansen testified,” “…Hansen said,” so, technically, it wasn’t the reporters who told the story from Hansen’s perspective, but Hansen himself. Nothing from the girl’s perspective was even mentioned, aside from some small quotes.
Jessica’s death lies buried in the second- or third-to-last paragraph in the stories and is completely unadorned with emotion or comment. As if it was an inconsequential detail; a by-product. As if a death like that was to be expected.
And the other thing that bugs me about these articles is the giving of names and addresses. Is this peculiar to San Antonio (the setting of the whole thing) or do most papers do this? They gave the full name, age, and address of two suspects who are under age, and supposedly innocent until proven guilty. And yet the paper is so very virtuous about not releasing the name of the girl. What is this? The newspaper obviously considers these kids throwaways.
The Observer
So how do I process all this? Where do I put it? If I had only read the newspaper articles (which I might just have skimmed otherwise), I probably would have ended up with a similar bias. They deserved it.
But, really. Even without the realness of this particular death, when I think longer about it, that seems ridiculous. Yes, these kids robbed a man. They threatened him with a knifepoint and took some valuables. Does that call for the loss of one of your best friends, permanently and forever? Do you deserve to watch her die, bleeding, in your arms?
Does this crime really call for forty years in prison? We hear the length of prison terms tossed around on the news all the time. But when I think about a friend, or an acquaintance, spending the NEXT FORTY YEARS of their life in prison, that seems ridiculous, unreal. She committed the robbery when she was 16. When she got out of jail, she would be fifty-six! What a waste of life.
Forty years is the maximum. Her sentence was fifteen years, which sounds reasonable only in contrast to forty years. However, she will be eligible for parole in three years. Is that just? I don’t know. There is no question she participated in a robbery, though passively.
What angers me is the lack of consequence for the “victim”. It’s hard to call him that when he started it all by propositioning two underage girls. No criticism was heard about that. And HE KILLED A GIRL. Am I the only one that really noticed this (other than her friends)? Why isn’t he required to defend his action? Does his volunteer work as a fucking Shriner clown neutralize his predilection for statutory rape and pedophilia?
This is scary. When you think of it happening to someone you know. This is serious. I can’t imagine going through a trial like this. It makes me sad, and frightened, for them.
So, I can’t help but come down on the side of the kids. I have trouble understanding what it is like to be them, even though I have had friends who committed crimes. Mostly, I mourn for Jessica. I suppose her death could be considered her fault or that of her friends. But I’m really not a fan of circumstantial blame. Hansen pulled the trigger.
I write about this because it has been occupying my mind, the struggle to understand, to place this. I don’t know how to end. It’s really only beginning; a jail sentence for the girl; and a new sense of doom to the boys who are awaiting trial.
Click here for a legal case summary.
Filed under: justice, teens on trial | 2 Comments »
First Article
By someone else on December 19th, 1997
Man, 65, tells of terror at hands of four youths
But he said he changed his mind after he took them home and they started wandering through his house without permission.
Hansen testified he took the girls back to the coffee shop where he had picked them up and they threatened to blackmail him if he did not pay them.
A few minutes after he got home, the two girls returned to his home with a male friend, Hansen said.
One of the girls said she had forgotten her cigarette lighter in his house, he said.
As he headed back into the house to look for the lighter, Hansen testified, the man with the girls came at him with a knife.
“He kept hitting me on the head. I told him, ‘Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.’ I begged for my life,” Hansen testified.
During the assault, he said, a second man joined the trio in his house.
One of the girls, a 17-year-old, was shot and killed by Hansen during the confrontation at his house in the 4600 block of Iron Weed. Hansen was not charged.
The second girl, a 16-year-old, is on trial before District Judge Andy Mireles. She faces up to 40 years in prison.
Two men, Charles David Cameron, 17, of the 13200 block of Larkplace Drive, and Robert Edward Kennedy, also 17, of the 3400 block of Ridge Smoke Street, are awaiting trial on aggravated robbery charges in state court.
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Third Article
By someone else on December 19th, 1997
Teen sentenced for role in violent robbery
“I thought the sentence was appropriate,” said prosecutor Jill Mata, who had recommended the 15-year sentence.
“The parents haven’t exhibited an ability to supervise her, and you can’t just watch her 24 hours a day in a confined environment and expect her to do well,” Mata added, referring to testimony earlier from the girl’s parents that she received constant supervision.
The girl’s attorney, Diane Rivera, said she was surprised by the sentence and promised to appeal it.
“I’m very surprised because the judge noted that she wasn’t a principal participant in the crime,” Rivera said.
The girl, whose name is not being printed because she was a juvenile at the time of the offense, was convicted Wednesday of aggravated robbery after a jury deliberated just more than 50 minutes.
Prosecutors presented several witnesses Thursday, including school and law enforcement officials, who testified the girl had persistent behavioral problems, was known to associate with gang members and that she once was convicted of marijuana possession.
The girl also had a shoplifting charge pending at the time of the aggravated robbery, they said.
But in emotional defense testimony, the girl’s parents described her as an average teen-ager who sometimes used bad judgment, but one who never was violent.
“She’s a normal teen-ager. She’ll push her curfew a little bit, back talk a little bit . . . but she’s not aggressive or violent,” her mother testified.
Juvenile probation officer Carol Sawtelle tearfully recommended the girl be placed in a Texas Youth Commission facility.
“She has to answer for what she did,” Sawtelle said.
According to prosecutors and state’s witnesses, the girl and a companion on April 8 negotiated a price of $100 to have sex with Hansen while the three were meeting at a Northeast Side coffee shop.
Hansen, an Army retiree and volunteer S h r i n e r C l o w n, then drove the girls to his house.
After a few minutes there, Hansen testified the girls began wandering through the house without his permission.
Hansen said he then changed his mind and took the girls back to the coffee shop. After a short period, the girls returned with two male companions, one of whom attacked Hansen with a knife.
It was during the attack that Hansen pulled a gun and fatally shot Jessica Longoria. The others fled after taking liquor, power tools, jewelry and other items.
The two males, Charles David Cameron and Robert Edward Kennedy, both 17, are awaiting trials in state district court.
Filed under: teens on trial | Comments Off on Third Article
Second Article
By someone else on December 18th, 1997
Borge Hansen
Jury says teen is guilty of robbery
By Matt Flores _ Express-News Staff Writer _ December 18, 1997 A jury convicted a teen-ager of aggravated robbery Wednesday after she was accused of baiting a 65-year-old man into having sex in exchange for money, then participating in a subsequent attack on him that left an accomplice dead. The girl, now 17, was ordered detained. The punishment phase of her trial is set to begin today before Juvenile District Judge Andy Mireles. She faces up to 40 years in prison.
Although the girl now is an adult legally, the San Antonio Express- News is not printing her name because she was a juvenile at the time of the offense.
The verdict, returned by a seven-woman, five-man jury after less than an hour of deliberations, capped two days of testimony in the guilt-and-innocence phase of the trial.
Defense attorneys Diane Rivera and Joseph C�rdova rested their case without calling any witnesses.
In her closing argument, Rivera maintained that the defendant was not involved in the attack, she didn’t take anything from the home and she did not encourage others to harm the victim, Borge Hansen.
“What’s her participation? How does all this pertain to her?” Rivera asked the jury.
But prosecutor Jill Mata said the girl had set up Hansen, and noted she told police in a statement that she and her friend planned to take Hansen’s money without having sex with him.
“Her counsel tells you what she did was stupid . . . this is criminal,” Mata said. “They were out to take advantage of him.”
Most of Wednesday’s testimony came from Hansen, an Army retiree and volunteer Shriner clown who said he was propositioned for sex after meeting April 8 with two teen-age girls at a Northeast Side coffee shop.
After both sides agreed on a $100 payment in exchange for sex, the girls accompanied Hansen to his home. But after spending only a few minutes at the house in the 4600 block of Iron Weed, the girls declined sex, then wandered throughout his home without permission, Hansen testified.
As he was driving them back to the coffee shop, Hansen said the girls threatened to tell his wife about their encounter if he did not pay them.
A short time later, Hansen said the girls returned to his home with two men. One of the men attacked him with a knife.
During the struggle, Hansen fatally shot one of the girls, Jessica Longoria, 17.
Among some of the items taken from him after the struggle were jewelry, liquor and power tools. Hansen was not charged in the incident.
Two men, Charles David Cameron, 17, of the 13200 block of Larkplace Drive, and Robert Edward Kennedy, also 17, of the 3400 block of Ridge Smoke Street, are awaiting trial on aggravated robbery charges in state court.
Filed under: teens on trial | Comments Off on Second Article
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