When I look at my kids, I find it hard to imagine that even my 8-year old would even be capable of conceiving death by hanging. But then again, how “sophisticated” can a child become when pushed into a sick parody of sexulized adulthood.

I guess I am thankful that my wife and I are determined to let our kids enjoy their childhood for as long as they can before the ugly real world intrudes, even if it means they can’t do some of the things that their friends and “everyone else” is doing. Sigh…

Then imagine the parents finding her body and a mother a bit too obsessed about publicity that would brand her a terrible mother. Anything would seem better. That explains the bizarre note in her handwriting, a kidnapped child who never left the home, and the odd way of dying, garroted by a cord. The neck injuries would cover a little girl’s crude attempt to hang herself almost perfectly.

But given how the local police bungled their investigation–all too common with VIPs–we may never know what actually happened.

–Mike Perry, Inkling blog , Seattle

I also think that someone in the family was involved in Jon Benet’s murder. They circled the wagon’s a little too quickly.

Having been an actual cop for 19 years,(6 as a detective specializing in family violence and sex crimes) is where I am coming from with my opinion. I agree that there were a tremendous number of screw-ups by the police in the JonBenet case. That is why there are no arrests. There are a large number of things about the case which just weren’t properly followed up on.

Do I know that either one, or both of the parents were involved? No. Were they tried and convicted in the press without solid evidence? Yes. In spite of that, I still have that nagging feeling.

John Ramsey is putting himself in the spotlight and subject to having all this stuff opened up again though, by virtue of running for office.

Oh, and I’m sorry about your sister-in-law, and I’m glad it all turned out OK in the end. Sometimes these things happen, and it’s hard to have to go through it. The real problem is when the media becomes involved. More investigations are screwed up due to media involvement than you can imagine. Not to say that the media is not important, its just that many times I wished they would let us do our job first, THEN report on the investigation.

I am well aware of the tendency for DAs to run away with dragging innoent families thru the mill, stubbornly holding to weak evidence. To wit, the number of daycare owners railroaded on overly fantasist sex abuse conspiracies, encouraged by none other than Reno. Equally frustrating is when DAs refuse to drop a case, even after a jury of peers have spoken.

Yes, the investigation was botched, but all the same, this particualr case reeks.

What I was bemoaning is that sometimes it seems that the best “candidate” that parties come up with are those with questionable backgrounds.

4 people in the house… 0 others entered… only 3 leave alive…

Mathmatically somebody in the house had to…

And you’re right. Ramsey has not been charged and he is free to run for office. Note that I didn’t say he shouldn’t.

If you look at the way the media handled this, you may come to a different conclusion about the Ramseys. There is one instance where a reporter even asked the cops if there was any help they could give to “nail these creeps”, meaning the Ramseys. The cops screwed the pooch on this – they had a very inexperienced forensics team, and very inexperienced investigators. And this commentary comes to you from a cop’s son.

I speak from a bit of experience. My sister-in-law was accused of shaking her baby based on scant evidence by an emergency room doctor with 3 years of experience. (He fell off his changing table – my brother-in-law was home, and watched my sister-in-law re-enter the room after the boom). The media hyped it, and the cops rode it, for all it was worth. Those charges were eventually thrown out due to lack of evidence. The prosecutors and media would never admit they were wrong, although 3 different pediatric neurologists (including one of the best in my state) argued that the exact symptoms were not consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.

My point is, it’s not that difficult to hang someone for a crime they didn’t commit in this country. I especially don’t trust it in highly emotional, media sensationalized cases such as the Ramsey case. I agree that this is the best justice system on the planet, but it still has political leanings (especially a prosecutor or DA), so I will still be skeptical.

And regardless of whether it was an “inside” job or not, I don’t believe John or Patsy are guilty of anything. So why shouldn’t he run for office?

TV (Harry)

Thinking back to 1996, I don’t recall “beheadings” being in the general conciousness as a “top-ten” form of execution. In otherwords, had it been used in Family Feud, survey’s response would have been a big red X.

In a weird way, I guess that is a positive that anyone can run and while the party leadership may opt to deny active support, they can’t deny “membership” or a slot as long as the person in question has met all of the requirements.