AMY WINEHOUSE DEATH: SHOULD THERE BE CRIMINAL CHARGES?

In a nutshell, MJ died and his exclusive on call live-in physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, aka shoot-him up drug dealer, was charged with involuntary manslaughter. 

Bartenders who serve known alcoholics open their establishments up to liability for any consequent damage alcoholics may cause as a result of their impairment. 

According to Winehouse’s mom, Janis,  who saw her the day before Winehouse succumbed, she  believed that death was inevitable.  According to various news reports, Winehouse purchased heroine, cocaine,  ketamine and the speculative killer, “a bad ecstasy pill” the night before her death, in the midst of a “weeks-long” drinking binge. 

Should people who service known drug abusers be charged with criminal charges upon the untimely deaths-or timely considering their lifestyles-of known abusers when the cause of death is largely attributable to drug use?  Does the fact that some abuse is solely from the use of illicit drugs merit a different rational for dealer culpability?  Should medical doctors who service ill-advised  affluent patients with prescription drugs without a proper medical screening (over the phone) be held liable for lethal drug combination deaths?  Should drug dealers be liable for birth defects/abnormalities in newborn infants born to drug-addicted mothers?

Although many of these tragedies would not take place if  dealers and low-grade legal physicians were not accessible and failed to supply the abusers, we ought to be careful about increasingly transferring guilt and corresponding liability to the middle people.  Grown people who willfully begin a life of drug addiction, manipulate professionals to get their fix, or find themselves addicted to some substance that impairs their physiological abilities and live a life that affects themselves and may cause utter destruction to innocent bystanders, need to be held responsible for their own demise, and any additional damages.  We may mourn and seek to blame others who had a part in the tragedy because the end of death is to difficult to bear in the face of the vulnerability through which we often “see” addicts. What we have to face it the hardest fact:  people will find whatever they want to get whatever they want and their addictions may lead to DEATH.  While the ultimate eradiction of drug addiction should include controlling the availability of good drugs and annihilation of illegal drugs, no one is responsible for anyone else’s life and decisions.

Mulloverthis.

*Mulloverthis notes that in a few circumstances, drug addiction may be “forced” upon addicts, and in these circumstances criminal charges are clearly merited.    

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/us/09jackson.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/24/amy-winehouse-dies-mom-janis_n_907997.html

AMY WHINEHOUSE DEAD AT AGE 27

Amy Whinehouse passed away today, July 23, 2011.

Although Whinehouse enjoyed record-breaking music success as the first British artist to win 5 Grammy Awards in 2008  while winning Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Album of the Year, and tied the record of the female with the most Grammy wins at one time, her artistic accomplishments could not overshadow her addiction and battles with alcoholism, heroin and also mental illness.  Presumably, she died of a drug overdose, although official police reports have noted her cause of death as “unexplained”.

Amy Whinehouse joins the annuls of incredibly talented musicians, writers and performers who succumbed because of drug addiction.  MJ’s passing and now Whinehouse compels us to remember that drugs do not respect fame, notoriety, wealth, or recognition.  When prescription drugs or illicit drugs are abused, any human being is prone to suffering a tragic end, which like Whinehouse, may be the ultimate: death.

Don’t do drugs.

Mulloverthis.

Bill O’Reilly on MJ

Right on Bill. 

Groovy.

You hit the nail on the head and smashed it, with a few exceptions.

Although Sharpton has been a long-time friend of the Jackson family, he is “milking” the moment.   

MJ was just an entertainer to many.  Not all Black folks are drinking the kool aid on this one and certainly many of us have not “heroized”, or deified Michael Jackson.  Personally, MJ’s life was tragic and he did not live a life that anyone should want to emulate.  Human compassion causes the good in us to want to see the good in others.  So, even in death, as with most human beings, we don’t focus on all of the gutter talking points on a person’s life.  But the reality is, Michael Jackson did not provide an ideal life for celebrity children as they were reputedly never around any other children (while MJ has been quoted numerous  times as saying children were the only reason worth living) and significantly deprived them of normal socialization skills.  MJ’s conscious construction of his children through ensuring their sperm donors were White and carving their nifty womb-for-hire mothers out of their lives wreak of self-hatred.  Self-loathing Blacks could not have had a better spokesperson, being that MJ planned to and did legally procreate non-Black children, and actually “de-Blacked” himself as much as he could.  Forget the debt factor in relation to the philanthropic giving.  His spending on medication–allegedly because of  drug dependency–in what really needs to be examined.  Additionally, no well-adjusted stable grown man walks around in underwear entertaining and befriending young boys whether there was literal pedophilic contact or not.  People have the audacity to laud MJ for being a great father while living a life allegedly riddled with drug addiction.  I will have to agree with you, that only in this country can someone be so visibly inept and then celebrated because he was a paramount entertainer.  FYI Bill:  Many African Americans raise their children NOT to be like Michael Jackson.  Who wants to live and probably not be genuinely fulfilled?

Lastly Bill, you have conveniently overlooked a number of other endearing commentaries from White people during MJ’s celebration of life that was more than delusional.  Brooke Shields immediately comes to mind.   Please be equitable and just in your disdain for the post-mortem crowning of MJ by his fans, which may be quite difficult for you as is often the case for White folk who try to analyze Black folk.  By the way, some of MJ’s largest and most lucrative concerts were played before audiences of people that looked like MJ’s kids, MJ after enough plastic surgery to re-compose himself, and your own (Bill O’Reilly’s) family–White people.  So, the absurd international influence MJ has had has never been a Black thing, and cannot ever credibly be characterized as such.

Note:  Clearly, MJ’s fan base is not solely comprised of African-Americans and White people.  MJ’s influence crossed all so-called barriers and stratifications.  This post is specifically designed to respond to the criticism of Bill O’Reilly and his take on the media and public’s reaction to MJ’s death.

 

MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD

Some people are well-known enough to have world recognition by a letter, nickname, or merely initials. MJ, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop is said to have succumbed earlier this afternoon in L.A.

Reports say that MJ was rehearsing in L.A. for a comeback tour in London.

As when death hits any family, there is a great loss and deep feelings of grief. Let us remember the Jackson family in our prayers and well wishes. For those of us who are still alive and able to read this, where will you spend eternity?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/26/2609021.htm

Bynum’s Battle is Over–Weeks and Bynum Divorce Final

If you live long enough, you will experience the best of times and the worst of times, all at the same time.  This holds true, for example, when a doting father watches his only daughter get married.  The ultra dad may be exuberant while witnessing his daughter take on the life of a wife, all while grieving because his baby girl is now looking to another  as her strong man, protector, provider and leader.  Divorce often has this ambivalent effect on couples that don’t make it.  While each partner may be looking forward to a permanent dissolution of the marriage, it is often a painstaking reminder of the end of life as usual.  Psychologically, it can be as traumatic as experiencing a death, or loss of a loved one.  So, this divorce cannot be an easy time for Bynum or Weeks.

The couple received a final divorce decree on June 20, 2008 at the Atlanta area Gwinnett County Superior Court.  Bynum and Weeks were a high-profile ministry couple who had an unprecedented media exposed take-by-take coverage of the demise of their marriage.  Their union had challenges like most.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the August 21, 2007 parking lot incident where Bynum alleged that her then husband, Weeks, assaulted her by beating and repeatedly kicking her.  Weeks plead guilty to aggravated assault, after initially stating that he never put his hands on  Bynum.  He later changed his story and said he pushed Bynum away because she was attempting to assault him.  Bynum was the one with the documented bruises and the testimony of two black male hotel employees who had no prior relationship to Bynum other than seeing her frequent the hotel.  Even with Weeks’ alleged spousal abuse to his first wife, alleged physical altercations with a male and female church employee, a switch in stories before the world, and conviction, he still claims to be the victim. 

Had Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Marion Barry, Mike Tyson and most recently R. Kelly not been hailed as heros by a litany of supporters amidst alleged crimes against women and children, I might be alarmed.  This is the world we live in.  Where a prominent Baptist preacher petitioned for Mike Tyson, who has recently been linked to a murder plot in Bedford-Stuyvestant area of Brooklyn, New York, to have his prison sentence for raping Desiree Washington stayed.  Where were the church leaders petitioning for Bishop Weeks or other pastors with violent tendencies to have a stay from mounting a pulpit to lead people?  They couldn’t see past Bynum’s fiery personality, or whatever else became the focus.  I’m sure Desiree Washington understands.  Her commitment to dancing to win the competition for which she spent 6 months preparing, over 24 hour delay in reporting the crime, and willingness to visit the famous boxer’s hotel room–after having asked to re-schedule the date, after asking her roommate to go with her to Tyson’s hotel room (who declined)–made her a scorned girl who didn’t want to be treated like a one night stand.  Poor Mike, Poor OJ, Poor R.Kelly, Poor Weeks.  How dare anyone interrupt their lives and make them accountable for alleged criminal activity?

It will be a better day when the focus of crimes committed against women are on the actual criminal activity and not on all of the issues with which the women who were murdered, raped, beaten, and assaulted walk into the criminal activity . 

Should Bynum have stayed will always be a question.  I happen to think that Bynum is a woman responsible for her own life before the Lord and that calling is greater than her calling to influence what a world looking at this fiasco will think about Christians who divorce.  One thing is certain:  her decision to leave is between her and the Lord who knows whether she would have ended up in a coffin from the maniacal behavior of a man who a bellman had to pull off of his wife while stating, “I’m going to kill you”.  The same people with signs praying for their celebrity and religious icons to get off (who they tend to empathize with), would be the same dramazoids waiting to view her body and crying empty tears.  Bynum made the choice to live and I don’t believe God intended for her to part by death at her husband’s hands.

 

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/06/21/bynumgwx.html

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/03/14/weeks0314.html