What the hell is this world coming to?

[tt11758]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20101116/us-iowa-store-slayings/

Minn. teen charged with killing Iowa store clerks


November 16, 2010 02:13 PM EST | AP

ALGONA, Iowa — Authorities have charged a Minnesota teenager with murdering two convenience store clerks at separate stores in northern Iowa.

The Kossuth County attorney's office says 17-year-old Michael Richard Swanson, of St. Louis Park, Minn., was charged Tuesday as an adult with two counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in separate slayings at stores in Kossuth and Humboldt counties.

Authorities say Swanson fatally shot 47-year-old Vicky Bowman-Hall at the Crossroads gas station in Algona at about 9 p.m. Monday. They say he shot and killed 61-year-old Sheila Myers about an hour later at the Kum and Go store in Humboldt.

Swanson was arrested at a McDonald's shortly before midnight Monday. He is being held at Kossuth County jail in Algona.

These incidents did not occur in crime-ridden, inner-city neighborhoods.  These two communities (about 2 hours from here) are each about 5,000 population.  The closes either town has to a bad neighborhood is one or two houses that could use a coat of paint.  If Mayberry existed anywhere, it would be there.

It's a sad day when hard-working, innocent women have to be afraid to do their jobs.  Pity there wasn't a legally armed citizen in the first store.

[Hazcat]

What is St Louis Park like?

[tombogan03884]

We just had a similar case here. 3 teenagers broke into a house simply to kill who ever they found there.
F#cked up people are not a new thing,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrill_killing

May 21, 1924: University students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, believed themselves to be Nietzschean übermenschen who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder). Both were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years; Loeb died in prison at the age of 30, while Leopold was paroled in 1958 after serving 33 years in prison.[1]

Exit question, What is / was wrong with executing these people ?

[JC5123]

We just had a similar case here. 3 teenagers broke into a house simply to kill who ever they found there.
F#cked up people are not a new thing,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrill_killing

May 21, 1924: University students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, believed themselves to be Nietzschean übermenschen who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder). Both were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years; Loeb died in prison at the age of 30, while Leopold was paroled in 1958 after serving 33 years in prison.[1]

Exit question, What is / was wrong with executing these people ?

Absolutely nothing. People just don't have the stomach to do what needs to be done anymore.
Funny how it happened a lot less, earlier in history, when we simply exterminated them. Now we have to diagnose them with something so that some liberal attorney can get them off on an insanity plea. 

When did we as a society lose our testicles?

[MikeBjerum]

I just read this in the Star Tribune and was going to post when I saw tt's title - figured it could be the same.  Damn, it is proven that we are starting to think a like  

The stories are not clear other than saying that the first clerk complied and then was shot, but were the clerks allowed to protect themselves?  Under Iowa's current law and with the mindset of corporate America, I doubt it  

Haz - St. Louis Park (SLP) is part of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Twin Cities metro area.  It has typically been a middle class working family area made up more of low level white collar and blue collar families.  When I was in second and third grade we lived in St. Louis Park, and it hasn't changed much over the last 45 years.

St. Louis Park is located in the middle of a horseshoe shaped affluent class around it, and the beginnings of the more violent North Minneapolis to the north.  In the local media we hear about the troubles of the rich from Edina to the south and Minnetonka (Tonka toys) to the west, and the beginnings of violence to the north, but not much out of SLP it self.  Geographically it is located in the southwest quadrant of the 494/694 loop around the Twin Cities.  WatchmanUSA can maybe shed more light, because he works closer to that area.  Our corporate offices are about eight miles north of SLP and on the northern edge, by blocks, of the death zone.

There is a reason that I carry, study self defense, stay observant, and hone my skills through study and teaching!  

[Sponsor]

[tt11758]

I just read this in the Star Tribune and was going to post when I saw tt's title - figured it could be the same.  Damn, it is proven that we are starting to think a like  

You say that like it's a BAD thing.   

The stories are not clear other than saying that the first clerk complied and then was shot, but were the clerks allowed to protect themselves?  Under Iowa's current law and with the mindset of corporate America, I doubt it  

My assumption is that these two ladies, like most every other convenience store clerk in the country, had probably been told to just give up the money.  Hell, even wish the robber a nice day.  And I would doubt that either was armed.

There is a reason that I carry, study self defense, stay observant, and hone my skills through study and teaching!  

Amen, brother.

[TAB]

You say that like it's a BAD thing.   

My assumption is that these two ladies, like most every other convenience store clerk in the country, had probably been told to just give up the money.  Hell, even wish the robber a nice day.  And I would doubt that either was armed.
Amen, brother.

lets just say they were armed, had guns all over the place, on thier person, under the counter  etc etc.  Trying to out draw a gun pointed at you head is a losing deal all around.

Ever been robbed at gun point?   I have, twice, I was armed one of those times.  Drawing my weapon, would at best ended up with me killing them at worst I'd be dead.

[PegLeg45]

I asked the same question years ago when this area had an incident where two elderly store owners were beaten to death with a bat during a robbery after offering the money without hesitation.

Arm yourselves.

[tt11758]

lets just say they were armed, had guns all over the place, on thier person, under the counter  etc etc.  Trying to out draw a gun pointed at you head is a losing deal all around.

Ever been robbed at gun point?   I have, twice, I was armed one of those times.  Drawing my weapon, would at best ended up with me killing them at worst I'd be dead.

In this instance, I don't disagree with what you were saying.  I was merely addressing a question that had been posted in an earlier response.

Without question, the best course of action is to give them the damn money!!  NO amount of money is worth dying for.  ESPECIALLY somebody ELSE'S money!!!

The entire thing is a tragedy.  And it only serves to piss me off further that Iowa is NOT a capital punishment state.  Oh well, I'm sure this 17 year old will be VERY popular once he gets to prison.

[tt11758]

I asked the same question years ago when this area had an incident where two elderly store owners were beaten to death with a bat during a robbery after offering the money without hesitation.

Arm yourselves.

The sad fact is that not all wild, predatory animals walk on 4 legs.