Mother Strangled, 2 Children Die in Fire

[bin.dare]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4693895,00.html

Sunday December 26, 2004 12:31 AM


CHICAGO (AP) - A woman found dead in her apartment after a fire that killed two of her children had been strangled before the fire spread, officials said Saturday.

The county medical examiner ruled the 37-year-old woman's death a homicide. Her 5-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son died in a local hospital after being taken from a room that had filled with smoke after the fire started late Friday.

...


Social workers had removed the woman's four other daughters after finding a lack of working utilities and other unsafe conditions in the home.

...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. but the richest people in this country

needed more money, so we didn't have the funds to make sure everyone lived in a safe home...we didn't have enough social workers or police to make sure if people had problems we could help them to safety...may God have mercy on the souls of those who perished, and upon our souls as well.

[iamjoy]

2. I've Often Wondered

How many of the single mothers declared "unfit" who have their children taken away are really just overworked and underpaid.

Even two full time minimum wage jobs don't really pay enough for a decent place for six kids, and don't leave much time to spend with the kids and take care of them or the home.

so now we are punishing people for being poor.

If they're looking for a suspect, they should look for the woman's boyfriend.

And it's a triple homicide.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I hope they

are able to find out who did this. You are right that it is probably a boyfriend or perhaps a former husband.

[bin.dare]

3. we think of bad Christmas tales occuring only in Dickens' novel ...

... but very sadly they are occuring right now under our noses. if only a Dickens could come forward and energise the sensibilities of the ruling elite to the plight of these unfortunates. It happened in the nineteeth century, why not also now in this advanced 21st century?

[bluedeminredstate]

5. Unfortunately, news is now sordid entertainment

I don't see a great awakening to the plight of the poor in this country, especially when you contrast it to what it cost to pay for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which the press largely ignored. All that unearned wealth must be protected from the clutches of the evil government while so many working Americans are busting their asses for a minimum wage that Congress hasn't increased in years!

The media is too busy breathlessly overdoing coverage of that poor pregnant woman who was murdered for her baby. That's like a media jackpot! Talking policy and how this administration treats the poor and the rich is just too boring for the networks and cable news shows.

How sad.

:grr:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I once heard a former NPR reporter tell how

pressure from corporate sponsors once spiked a story she had prepared on people being hurt by cutbacks during the Reagan administration.

Many DUers know that I'm a huge mystery fan. One reason is that this is one of the few popular forms of entertainment that even approaches social realism. One writer I heard speak siad that since he wasn't suited to running for political office, his writings were his way of making people aware of social injustice.

[Joy Anne]

9. I'm a big fan, too!

Sounds like Pelecanos--was it?

[mzmolly]

6. It seems odd they removed 4 children for *safety* reasons and deemed the

other children were "expendable?"

[crimson333]

10. the article said they had been removed

but the mother had met the conditions to gain custody of them again.

[diamond14]

8. it's the bush* PRO-LIFE program of cutting social safety nets.....

give tax breaks to the wealthy, and SQUEEZE those who have the least....and this PRO-LIFE stuff is the result...

the reTHUGlicans relish in this stuff...they THRIVE on it....