Sir Jessy of Anti
2003-07-03 21:26:19 UTC
Well she doesn't exactly come right out and Saaaaay it but......
There Are Two Sides to Windshield-Death Case
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vpmcc303352888jun30,0,1877581.colu
mn?coll=ny-news-columnists
June 30, 2003
This isn't the column I had planned to write about Chante Mallard, the
27-year-old Texas woman convicted of murder and sentenced last Friday to 50
years in prison for hitting Gregory Biggs, a 37-year-old homeless man, with
her car, driving home with his body jammed in her windshield and leaving him
to die in her garage.
Like everyone else who's heard about this crime, I was going to say how
appalled I was by the selfishness and the total lack of conscience of
someone who would allow this man to bleed to death rather than take
responsibility for the accident. And Mallard wasn't the only one to blame.
There were the people she called that night instead of dialing 911: the
girlfriend who first suggested that they burn Biggs' body; the ex-boyfriend
who, fresh out of jail, came up with the idea of dumping Biggs' body in a
city park; and his cousin, who helped him and Mallard do the deed. What a
despicable bunch they all were, I was going to write.
Gregory Biggs, his 20-year-old son testified, was a former bricklayer who
had struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, lost his business
trying to help a former girlfriend, and drifted into homelessness two years
before his encounter with Chante Mallard and her car.
Then I heard the testimony of Mallard's distraught parents, friends and
neighbors, and Mallard's own words as they appealed to the jury to spare her
a life sentence. And, to my surprise, I found myself feeling sorry for
Chante Mallard. Not because of the crimes she committed that night and for
her failure to help Gregory Biggs, but because of the long downward slide
that led her there.
Dorothy Mallard, Chante's dignified mother, James Mallard, her tearful,
upright father, and her brother, James Jr., a Fort Worth firefighter, told
the jury about Chante's upbringing in a proper, hard-working, middle-class,
churchgoing family. Fellow church members described how Chante Mallard used
to babysit the children of the church during Sunday services. And a former
employer told how Mallard, a nursing home attendant, had lovingly tended to
the woman's dying father.
But, after a year in college, Mallard dropped out. After using marijuana
occasionally, she started staying high all day long. She ran through job
after job, using clever ruses to foil the drug tests required by her
employers. Meanwhile, her relatives reprimanded her for her drug use,
intervened to take her to a doctor, and repeatedly stepped in to help pay
her bills.
The night her car plowed into Biggs, she had gone to a nightclub with a
girlfriend, had a few drinks, taken half an Ecstasy tablet and smoked some
marijuana. Her lawyer told the jury she was so shaken by the accident and so
impaired by alcohol and drugs that she was unable to think or act
responsibly.
"I was just so ashamed," Mallard said, when asked why she didn't tell her
mother what she had done. "I felt I had let everyone down."
I listened to the broad outlines of Chante Mallard's decline, and tried to
fill in the blanks. After hearing about Clete Jackson, the ex-con
ex-boyfriend who helped her dump Biggs' body, Terrance Smith, the
second-time around boyfriend who helped her burn the bloody car seats, and
yet another guy she took up with in the weeks following the the accident,
I'm betting Mallard's life was filled with lousy relationships with men. A
powerful fact of life for many young women like her is their inability to
find healthy relationships. The men in their lives are fouled up,
exploitative, in trouble, and often just not there. Mallard's family was
there for her, but young women are searching for lives independent of their
families. Religion doesn't fill the gap either. So some of these women turn
to pain-numbing drugs, and to a series of short-term and unsatisfying
relationships, as Mallard did.
I'm not suggesting that Mallard's behavior on the night of her crime was the
fault of her family, her friends or the men in her life. But I recognize the
emptiness that sent her spiraling downward. While I'm sure many people have
dismissed her as a terrible person who deserves to spend the rest of her
life in jail, I came away thinking she's neither evil nor a sociopath, but a
decent young woman who took a wrong turn.
This doesn't make her the victim here, by any means. But behind this
horrible crime there are two stories. And the stories of Biggs, the victim,
and Mallard, the perpetrator, are both tragic.
Sheryl McCarthy's e-mail address is ***@aol.com.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feminism is an ideology of hate because it:
Advocates lesser rights in law for the target group (men)
Propagates discrimination against the target group (men)
Teaches that the target group (men) is inherently inferior and immoral
Teaches that the target group (men) is a threat
Uses lies including historical revisionism to spread these views
Tolerates violence towards the target group (men)
Stolen from: http://members.tripod.com/feministhate/id143.htm
There Are Two Sides to Windshield-Death Case
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vpmcc303352888jun30,0,1877581.colu
mn?coll=ny-news-columnists
June 30, 2003
This isn't the column I had planned to write about Chante Mallard, the
27-year-old Texas woman convicted of murder and sentenced last Friday to 50
years in prison for hitting Gregory Biggs, a 37-year-old homeless man, with
her car, driving home with his body jammed in her windshield and leaving him
to die in her garage.
Like everyone else who's heard about this crime, I was going to say how
appalled I was by the selfishness and the total lack of conscience of
someone who would allow this man to bleed to death rather than take
responsibility for the accident. And Mallard wasn't the only one to blame.
There were the people she called that night instead of dialing 911: the
girlfriend who first suggested that they burn Biggs' body; the ex-boyfriend
who, fresh out of jail, came up with the idea of dumping Biggs' body in a
city park; and his cousin, who helped him and Mallard do the deed. What a
despicable bunch they all were, I was going to write.
Gregory Biggs, his 20-year-old son testified, was a former bricklayer who
had struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, lost his business
trying to help a former girlfriend, and drifted into homelessness two years
before his encounter with Chante Mallard and her car.
Then I heard the testimony of Mallard's distraught parents, friends and
neighbors, and Mallard's own words as they appealed to the jury to spare her
a life sentence. And, to my surprise, I found myself feeling sorry for
Chante Mallard. Not because of the crimes she committed that night and for
her failure to help Gregory Biggs, but because of the long downward slide
that led her there.
Dorothy Mallard, Chante's dignified mother, James Mallard, her tearful,
upright father, and her brother, James Jr., a Fort Worth firefighter, told
the jury about Chante's upbringing in a proper, hard-working, middle-class,
churchgoing family. Fellow church members described how Chante Mallard used
to babysit the children of the church during Sunday services. And a former
employer told how Mallard, a nursing home attendant, had lovingly tended to
the woman's dying father.
But, after a year in college, Mallard dropped out. After using marijuana
occasionally, she started staying high all day long. She ran through job
after job, using clever ruses to foil the drug tests required by her
employers. Meanwhile, her relatives reprimanded her for her drug use,
intervened to take her to a doctor, and repeatedly stepped in to help pay
her bills.
The night her car plowed into Biggs, she had gone to a nightclub with a
girlfriend, had a few drinks, taken half an Ecstasy tablet and smoked some
marijuana. Her lawyer told the jury she was so shaken by the accident and so
impaired by alcohol and drugs that she was unable to think or act
responsibly.
"I was just so ashamed," Mallard said, when asked why she didn't tell her
mother what she had done. "I felt I had let everyone down."
I listened to the broad outlines of Chante Mallard's decline, and tried to
fill in the blanks. After hearing about Clete Jackson, the ex-con
ex-boyfriend who helped her dump Biggs' body, Terrance Smith, the
second-time around boyfriend who helped her burn the bloody car seats, and
yet another guy she took up with in the weeks following the the accident,
I'm betting Mallard's life was filled with lousy relationships with men. A
powerful fact of life for many young women like her is their inability to
find healthy relationships. The men in their lives are fouled up,
exploitative, in trouble, and often just not there. Mallard's family was
there for her, but young women are searching for lives independent of their
families. Religion doesn't fill the gap either. So some of these women turn
to pain-numbing drugs, and to a series of short-term and unsatisfying
relationships, as Mallard did.
I'm not suggesting that Mallard's behavior on the night of her crime was the
fault of her family, her friends or the men in her life. But I recognize the
emptiness that sent her spiraling downward. While I'm sure many people have
dismissed her as a terrible person who deserves to spend the rest of her
life in jail, I came away thinking she's neither evil nor a sociopath, but a
decent young woman who took a wrong turn.
This doesn't make her the victim here, by any means. But behind this
horrible crime there are two stories. And the stories of Biggs, the victim,
and Mallard, the perpetrator, are both tragic.
Sheryl McCarthy's e-mail address is ***@aol.com.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feminism is an ideology of hate because it:
Advocates lesser rights in law for the target group (men)
Propagates discrimination against the target group (men)
Teaches that the target group (men) is inherently inferior and immoral
Teaches that the target group (men) is a threat
Uses lies including historical revisionism to spread these views
Tolerates violence towards the target group (men)
Stolen from: http://members.tripod.com/feministhate/id143.htm