No Word For a Parent Who Loses a Child

Royce Atkins

On Friday, Pennsylvania's Superior Court affirmed a four- year sentence against hit-and-run driver Royce Atkins, currently a guest at SCI Rockview. In 2015, his Mazda struck and killed nine year-old Darious Condash, a fourth-grade student at Shecker Elementary School. Condash had darted back onto a busy Schoenersville Rd to pick up a fallen piece of candy. Though there was no evidence that Atkins himself was speeding or impaired, he rushed off without stopping and spent several days concealing what had happened, perhaps because it was too terrible to believe. 

I have written a detailed story about this for some weekly papers. But I want to publish a small story here because Judge Koury had something to say about parents who lose a child.

Quoting from An Orphan's Tale, Judge Koury said,

"A wife who loses a husband is called a widow. A husband who loses a wife is called a widower. A child who loses his parents is called an orphan. There is no word for a parent who loses a child. That’s how awful the loss is."

I know some parents who have lost children, either to illness or a motor vehicle accident. Some of them get involved in different charities or organizations that will prevent other children  from suffering a similar fate. But there are a few who just lose it and get pretty ugly.

New Car Seat Law Takes Effect August 2

The change is explained in The Inky:

The current version of the law requires that all children under 4 years of age are restrained in an approved child passenger restraint system, and children between 4 and 8 years of age are restrained in a booster seat. Beginning in August, the new law expands this by specifically requiring children under age 2 to ride rear-facing. There two types of car seats that can be used rear-facing: convertible car seats and infant-only car seats.

For the first year, violators will get away with a warning.

We Are To Blame For The Surge of Unaccompanied Foreign Children

On Sunday, the local tea party established its complete disregard for children by conducting a boisterous protest at the doorstep of Salisbury Township's KidsPeace, a facility that houses children who already have enough troubles. American children, by the way. In addition to this child abuse, they donned surgical masks and carried signs saying things like "Illegal Mestizos are Bringing in Leprosy and Scabies". They are playing to our base instincts. But why are those children here? Are they hear to steal jobs? Is it because President Obama wants to recruit more Democratic voters, as some of these fear mongers suggest?  According to four-star Marine General John Kelly, who heads up the U.S. military's southern Command, it's our fault. Those Central American children are running for their lives and away from the drug wars fueled by our own appetites.

Mary O'Grady, in What Drove The Children North, sums up General Kelly's views:

In a July 8 essay in the Military Times headlined "Central America Drug War a Dire Threat to U.S. National Security," Gen. Kelly explains that he has spent 19 months "observing the transnational organized crime networks" in the region. His conclusion: "Drug cartels and associated street gang activity in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, which respectively have the world's number one, four and five highest homicide rates, have left near-broken societies in their wake." He notes that while he works on this problem throughout the region, these three countries, also known as the Northern Triangle, are "far and away the worst off."

With a homicide rate of 90 per 100,000 in Honduras, and 40 per 100,000 in Guatemala, life in the region is decidedly rougher than "declared combat zones" like Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the general says the rate is 28 per 100,000.

How did the region become a killing field? His diagnosis is that big profits from the illicit drug trade have been used to corrupt public institutions in these fragile democracies, thereby destroying the rule of law. In a "culture of impunity" the state loses its legitimacy and sovereignty is undermined. Criminals have the financial power to overwhelm the law "due to the insatiable U.S. demand for drugs, particularly cocaine, heroin and now methamphetamines, all produced in Latin America and smuggled into the U.S."

Gen. Kelly agrees that not all violence in the region is linked to the drug trade with the U.S., but "perhaps 80% of it is." That's because of the insidiousness of the vast resources of kingpins. It's "the malignant effects of immense drug trafficking through these non-consumer nations that is responsible for accelerating the breakdown in their national institutions . . . and eventually their entire society as evidenced today by the flow of children north and out of the conflictive transit zone."

That migrant children are drawn to the U.S. when they decide to flee may very well have to do with the fact that they believe they will be able to stay because of an asylum law for children passed in 2008 during the presidency of George W. Bush. But refugees from the Northern Triangle are seeking other havens as well. According to Marc Rosenblum of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, from 2008-13 Honduran, Guatemalan and Salvadoran applications for asylum in neighboring countries—mostly Mexico and Costa Rica—are up 712%.

Gen. Kelly writes that the children are "a leading indicator of the negative second- and third-order impacts on our national interests." Whether the problem can be solved by working harder to bottle up supply, as the general suggests, or requires rethinking prohibition, this crisis was born of American self-indulgence. Solving it starts with taking responsibility for the demand for drugs that fuels criminality.

I realize these facts are not what the tea party wants to read, so I expect them to ignore it.

A Miracle For 192 Kids

On April 27, the gate of Easton Rotary Field swung open for the Miracle League's first day of baseball this year. One hundred and ninety-two kids, formed into twelve teams, will play every Saturday on a $750,000 astroturf baseball diamond. There's a teletron in left center field, stands, and most importantly, lots of free ballpark franks.

This ballfield, built for kids whose physical and intellectual challenges prevent them from playing in the local little leagues, is already seeing double the participants who played there last year. Some might call it a miracle.

Dave Colver, whose Herculean efforts as Project Manager are yet another miracle, spent the entire day at the field, doing a little bit of everything. He's even managed to recruit his 17 year-old daughter, Paige, to play Homer, the League's mascot. Homer gave lots of hugs, and appeared in every game played throughout a long, but fun, day.

There is no score. Everybody hits. Everybody wins.

Easton Rotary Field is located right next to Chrin Community Center in Palmer Township.

You can see more pics on my Facebook page.

14 Year-Old Dieruff Student Sues Allentown Cop Who Tased Her

Jason Ammary has been an Allentown police officer since 2006. He moonlights with a limo service. Earlier this year, he volunteered for three hours behind a McDonald's counter to help raise $940 for PAL. He also received a commendation of merit. As of Friday, he is also a Defendant accused in federal district court of being a rogue officer.

According to a complaint filed by Attorney Rick Orloski, Ammary beat up and tasered a 14-year old bi-racial Dieruff High School student who was walking with two female companions after school let out on September 29.

Orloski's complaint claims that Ammary approached this child from behind, grabbed her shoved his forearm into her throat, went for his taser, and then proceeded to blast her in her groin. While he forced her to lay face down, the barbs from the taser dug into her private areas, and this was made worse when he handcuffed her. While doing this, Ammary was allegedly berating this girl's "socioeconomic status."

She had to be taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where the barbs were ultimately removed.

What crime dd this young lady commit? Murder? Robbery? Nah. Apparently, it was just a summary offense for being a "pedestrian on the street."

OK, OK. Police brutality charges are made all the time. Why take this seriously?

There's a video. Unbeknownst to the Officer, the City's vaunted camera system, designed to catch the bad guys, may very well have caught him. The Officer claims "hundreds" of students were blocking the street, but that's not what the video shows. The Officer claims he had to shoot her in the groin because she was blocking her chest with her backpack. That's not what the video shows.

Incidentally, since when do police officers use tasers on nonviolent female minors accused of a summary offense?

I am in the process of getting the video, and when I do, will post it. In the meantime, here's a link to the Complaint in Geist v. Ammary and Allentown.