We’re literally talking about people that somehow made it to adulthood while having the mental capacity of a five year old. In prior generations, most of these people would be in institutions, destitute and living in squalor, or dead. Now they get elected to Congress and Mayor.
They get elected because, like student government, the kids, being kids, promise everything because they have no concept of the real world or what they can actually do in student government.. In student government though, once elected, the student body soon forgets the promises because student government does very little.
Mamdani is a great example of someone who has a 5 year old mind in an adult body. He promised all this free stuff and thought it could all be paid by taxing millionaires and billionaires. He is learning he cannot institute the taxes he planned to pay for the free stuff because he is constrained by state laws.
The rich are not prisoners of the city. They can simply move elsewhere that has lower taxes and fewer regulations. All he needed to do was look at CA. Not only the rich but also the middle class is fleeing. By the definition of the state, anyone earning over $150,000 is rich. I am in the process of leaving CA because of high taxes and high crime. I hate shopping in this state, everything is locked up and you have to wait 20 minutes for someone to unlock the cabinet, and then they walk it up to the front. It is a pain when you want to buy more than one item that is locked. Each section has a different person and they cannot get things outside of their department. When you get to the front, you have to tell the cashier the list of things waiting for you and they have to find them in the pile of items waiting for others to pay for them.
He is further constrained by the fact that he does not have dictatorial powers. So, he has to get permission from the New York City bureaucracy. As mayor, he also gets blamed for everything, including things he has no control over.
Our republic form of government requires an intelligent electorate. We no longer have that because parents no longer parent and public schools keep lowering the bar. Now one disruptive student can interfere with the education of all the others and they cannot be kicked out of the classroom because they have a right to education.
You’re right across the board. And, while I live in a blue state, it isn’t nearly as bad as CA. Good luck with your move and hopefully it’s to somewhere red!
I have personal experience with this. After my parents divorced, my mother married my step-father who was an absolute POS. He convinced. my mother to move to Santa Cruz, CA in 1972. We had lived in a conservative farming town in Central CA. He wanted to move to isolate us kids. He was abusing us when mom was away.
We moved to Santa Cruz and it was a culture shock. Many of the hippies in San Francisco had migrated to Santa Cruz. It was extremely liberal. In the spirit of equal rights, women could walk around town without a shirt. The local courts ruled that if men can do it, so can women. There was a clothing optional beach and it was also the only beach that you could run your dogs. My mom loved her dogs. It was my job to take them to the beach to run them at least 4 times a week. We did not live far from the beach.
So I witnessed nudity and people engaged in sexual activity. I was 10. People smoked pot openly, including the police that were patrolling the beach and boardwalk area.
My step-father became even more physically abusive. He never did it when mom was around. Mom just thought we were all prone to accidents because we needed stitches often and there were more than a few broken bones.
I finally had it and told my mother. She had a talk with him and said he denied it and I was mistaking discipline for abuse. Then mom took me to the doctor because I had lost 40 pounds within a year. I was overweight by about 15 lbs before we moved (I weighed 80 lbs) and my doctor was working with me. The idea was to eat a little less and exercise more. In a couple of years, I would grow into my weight. I started riding my bike at least 2 hours every day. It was not a chore, it was fun riding around the neighborhood playing games on our bikes with my friends.
When I got down to 40 lbs, mom knew something was wrong. The doctor examined me without my mom present. He saw the bruises that were hidden by my clothing. He just asked me who was beating me, I told him my step-father. He called my mother in to show her and then said he was reporting it to the police. He left the room for a few minutes and came back to inform mom that the police were on their way to the office and we needed to wait. The officers entered, the doctor showed them the bruises, pictures were taken and report was made. The officers then told us to wait, they were on their way to arrest my step-father.
I thought it was over. Well, he gets to court and makes a plea deal, 6 weeks of counseling. At the end of that, I was told I was making him angry and I needed to bye nicer.
Well, it was okay for a few months, then he went back at it. He just got better at it and made threats what would happen if I ever told. I eventually reached a point where death was preferable to the daily beatings, so I told my mother. Wash, rinse, and repeat. 6 weeks of counseling. I knew I was screwed then. My mother wanted to divorce him but the counselor and our church told her not to. So he came back home.
A few months later, it started again. Then he started the sexual abuse. That was a nightmare. Then one day, when I was 12, he stripped my sister in front of us children and was fondling her telling her he was getting her ready for sex. He had my brother, who was 5 years younger, get involved. When he left for work, I made plans to leave. The next morning, I boarded a bus for our hometown. I then called my grandmother and told her what I was doing, when I arrived at the city I needed to transfer busses. She picked me up then called my mother. Mom already knew, my step-father figured it out and confessed that he was beating me again. He knew I was going to tell about the sexual abuse.
Mom brought all the kids to my grandmother's, returned and put the house up for sale. She told him she was divorcing him. I was promised that he would never be in my life again.
Well, the courts in Santa Cruz gave him 6 more weeks of counseling. Then he moved back to where we were living and joined our church. He was a Catholic, we were Baptists, but he switched to convince my mother he was reformed. He did several months of counseling with our pastor who then convinced my mom to not divorce him. I was beyond angry.
He was good at controlling himself for several months. Then he lost it and beat my brother. A few minutes later he left for his bowling league. I called the police. This was different. They took pictures and a report. They called my mom and told her she had to be home in 30 minutes or we would go to the local children's home. She left work immediately. By the time she got home, he was arrested. The next day CPS showed up and made it clear, if she ever let him back, she would lose us kids.
After a week, he was released from jail with a court date for felony child abuse. He tried to make the same deal as before. In this county, they did not make deals, he could either plead guilty as charged or go to trial.
As the court date got closer, he realized he was going away for a very long time. He got wind that I was going to testify. I told the DA he did much more but I was not going to talk until I was in court. I wanted to be sure I was heard and it could not be swept under the rug. My step-father learned about this and knew, I was going to spill the sexual abuse and the sex crimes he committed in Santa Cruz. He was the Santa Cruz rapist that was drugging and raping coeds from UC Santa Cruz.
So he decided that I had to go. He had a rifle that he swore to the judge that he did not have. Was was not to possess firearms while he was awaiting trial. That worked. He came after me when I was delivering papers. I am thankful he was lousy shot. I insatiately knew it was him and tore out of there. I knew of several places I could hide from him. A customer saw me and I told her to call the police, the gunshots were from my step-father.
As a result, he ended up dead.
Counseling never helped, it just made him hide it better. He was afraid of prison. He knew what happened to child molesters. When he knew he was going away and he could not talk his way out of it, he was willing to resort to murder. The note he left behind made it clear. He would rather face murder charges than those he would face when I testified.
Today, prison time is not much of a deterrent. Chances are good that that most sentenced to prison will be out quickly due to time off for good behavior or prison overcrowding. They can also spend years filing appeal after appeal. Even before the trial, they will be free awaiting trial. They can use that time to harass potential witnesses or commit more crimes. Our legal system no longer protects the victims and the innocent. It protects the criminals. It has gone so far in the wrong direction that I expect vigilante justice to become common.
The liberals cannot fathom that there are predators in society. They cannot be fixed by therapy. All prison does for them is to make them better criminals.
Prison is not about reforming criminals, it is to keep them away from society. It makes society safer for the law abiding.
I also believe that those in prison need to earn their keep. Why should society pay to keep them isolated so they cannot harm the innocent. We need to go back to prison farms and other prison industries where they have to work to cover the cost of incarceration.
I've gained even more respect for you, Jerry Meyers. I don't know how you could be so tough that you could get through all of that without turning out either bad yourself, or into an almost paralyzed with fear recluse! That stepfather was a monster and hell is exactly the place for that sort of filth! As far as soft on crime advocates go, I wish on them to personally reap the rewards of letting violent criminals back on the streets. Let them be beated, robbed, raped and murdered; they'd be getting what they deserve for failing to protect the community. I guess it's wrong for me to blame your mother for that whole farago; but dammit she put all of you in incredible danger and would not listen to any of the facts. She couldn't believe you, ever? Of course I'm looking back with 20/20 hindsight, but that is just wrong for a mother to be that way. God bless you, Jerry, and I'm amazed and thankful that you survived.
After the monster died, I was an angry young man that hated the world. What helped is I had made a couple of very good friends when I started Jr. high. I started 7th grade right after we moved back from Santa Cruz. He tried to murder me on my birthday at the end of May when I was finishing 7th grade.
It also helped that I rode my bike everywhere. I would go 10 or more mile rides just to get away.
That summer, my mother used the life insurance money to make a down payment on a house and bought a horse for my sister. That was a 2 for 1 deal. The second horse was unrideable. She had been abused severely by her previous owner, a man. She would go nuts if a man approached her. The previous owner was the son of the person who owned a horse boarding facility. He was a retired farmer and when he could no longer physically farm, he converted his land to a horse boarding facility. The son was living with his father because he refused to work. Dad let him stay if he worked on the ranch. When the horse got too dangerous and hurt a couple of workers, the father had enough. This horse had a close bond with another horse, the one my mother was buying. That horse was a high strung thoroughbred that would remain calm if the other horse was around.,
I was not interested in horses but I went with my mom and sister to the place we boarded them. The physical work of cleaning stalls, moving hay, and all the other things that needed done was good therapy for me.
Well, I felt bad for the wild horse, she was just left in a stall and ignored by my sister. My mother would groom her once a week, but not much more. I befriended the horse over time using carrots and apples. We understood each other because of our shared pain. I started working with her. I would go slow and I would let her see anything that I had in my hand before I would use it. Where I live, summers often get over 100. It took time, but I was able to get her to let me hose her down and wash her. She loved it on hot days.
Eventually, she made it clear to me she wanted me to get on her back, so I did, bareback. She only had a halter rope (no reigns) and she walked me around the ranch. When my mother and our horse trainer saw me, they had a fit. They were yelling at me to get off and move away because she hates men and will do me great harm.
Eventually my mother calmed down when she realized I was doing things with that horse that no one else could do. I was not immediately bucked off. When I got off, she would nuzzle me. I then proceeded to ride across the road to a river on the other side. She loved the water and she would eat the grass while both of us were cooling off.
She was 12 at that point. As long as I was present, she could be shoed or the vet could give her shots or do anything else. If I was not there she would not let anyone near here. I had her for 8 years before she passed away, but that was the best therapy for me.
I met my now wife in high school when I was a sophomore and she was a junior. We developed a close friendship long before we started dating. She loved the outdoors, so we did a lot of things together. The mountains were a 90 minute drive and I had a car. We eventually started dating and married when we were in college. That was 43 years ago and we are going strong.
I did have a complete mental breakdown soon after our son was born. I could not handle life and could not leave the house. I eventually saw a psychiatrist who taught me how to put my life back together. He just gave me the hard realities and helped me to do what I needed to do, one step at a time. I eventually was able to work. My life greatly improved when I realized I cannot change the past, but I am in charge of my future. I also became the father I wished I had. My son and I are very close. After he graduated from college, he told me he thought everyone had a great childhood, like he did. He learned that most of his friends had to deal with parents that had major issues that they placed onto their children.
My son and his wife have an 11 month old son. My son loves being a father. He was worked when his son was born, but it did not take him long to realize that I gave him a great example to follow. He cannot wait to start using the dad jokes.
As for my mother, she had her own set of issues. She graduated at the top of her class and had a full ride scholarship to UC Davis to study Vet Med. If she successfully completed her undergraduate work, she had a spot reserved for her in the Vet school. My grandfather said no daughter of his was going to college. She was raised in a strong Baptist church and she was supposed to get married young and have children. She ended up marrying the man my grandfather wanted her to marry. At 18 she was married and a few months later she was pregnant with me. I was born when she was 19. The problem was my father had a bad temper and when my mother spent money to take us to the doctor or to buy meds, he would beat her. When started abusing me, she filed for a divorce. The church and my grandparents turned against her.
Then she met my step-father, who was Filipino and our church and my grandparents were livid. They did not approve of an interracial marriage. I think my mother married him just to be spiteful. Ironically, his ex-wife told my mother to stay away from him. She divorced him when she caught him fondling their then, 5 year old daughter. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
He told my mom that was a bunch of BS. He divorced her when he came home and found her with another man. I learned many years later that man was her brother and was helping his sister to pack up and move out with the 2 children. When he got home, he beat the living snot out of the brother and put him in the hospital for several weeks. He then beat his wife and the police arrived just in time to prevent him from murdering her.
My mom was blinded by spite and everyone telling her to not marry him. Interracial marriage had only been legal in CA for a few years at that point.
My mother also suffered from severe depression and other health issues. There were times when she was just not available. When I was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, I had a long private talk with my mother to ask some tough questions and to let her know all that the first sep-father had done. She was shocked
I have only covered a few things he had done. He was bipolar to the extreme. His mother was in the state hospital with severe schizophrenia. He was the perfect predator. He was charming to people he wanted to impress. To those that he viewed as weak, he was an absolute monster. He was trained as a psychiatric nurse but lost his credentials when it was discovered he lied about graduating high school and passing a couple of classes in Junior College that were prerequisites to enter nurses training. He forged transcripts. He attempted to pass the college level English class 4 or 5 times when we were in Santa Cruz. He always failed. The last time my mother wrote all of his essays and when the instructor saw that the essays did not match his test grades or in class writing skills. He was accused of plagiarism and permanently banned from all CA public colleges.
He hated me because I tested at a high IQ and was placed in what is today the Gifted and Talented program. In 5th grade, my writing skills were ahead of his. That was a whole other dimension to his abuse.
I don't totally disagree with the abolitionists that prison's don't really "work".
It's why I consider the death penalty underutilized. Since prisons don't work, why keep them alive at all? What is the point of keeping them in cages for 40 years? If there is no fixing them then just execute them.
We’re literally talking about people that somehow made it to adulthood while having the mental capacity of a five year old. In prior generations, most of these people would be in institutions, destitute and living in squalor, or dead. Now they get elected to Congress and Mayor.
Yes, it's not just that these obvious idiots exists, it's that people ELECT THEM TO RUN THINGS. It;s rewarding ignorant crazy.
They get elected because, like student government, the kids, being kids, promise everything because they have no concept of the real world or what they can actually do in student government.. In student government though, once elected, the student body soon forgets the promises because student government does very little.
Mamdani is a great example of someone who has a 5 year old mind in an adult body. He promised all this free stuff and thought it could all be paid by taxing millionaires and billionaires. He is learning he cannot institute the taxes he planned to pay for the free stuff because he is constrained by state laws.
The rich are not prisoners of the city. They can simply move elsewhere that has lower taxes and fewer regulations. All he needed to do was look at CA. Not only the rich but also the middle class is fleeing. By the definition of the state, anyone earning over $150,000 is rich. I am in the process of leaving CA because of high taxes and high crime. I hate shopping in this state, everything is locked up and you have to wait 20 minutes for someone to unlock the cabinet, and then they walk it up to the front. It is a pain when you want to buy more than one item that is locked. Each section has a different person and they cannot get things outside of their department. When you get to the front, you have to tell the cashier the list of things waiting for you and they have to find them in the pile of items waiting for others to pay for them.
He is further constrained by the fact that he does not have dictatorial powers. So, he has to get permission from the New York City bureaucracy. As mayor, he also gets blamed for everything, including things he has no control over.
Our republic form of government requires an intelligent electorate. We no longer have that because parents no longer parent and public schools keep lowering the bar. Now one disruptive student can interfere with the education of all the others and they cannot be kicked out of the classroom because they have a right to education.
You’re right across the board. And, while I live in a blue state, it isn’t nearly as bad as CA. Good luck with your move and hopefully it’s to somewhere red!
I have personal experience with this. After my parents divorced, my mother married my step-father who was an absolute POS. He convinced. my mother to move to Santa Cruz, CA in 1972. We had lived in a conservative farming town in Central CA. He wanted to move to isolate us kids. He was abusing us when mom was away.
We moved to Santa Cruz and it was a culture shock. Many of the hippies in San Francisco had migrated to Santa Cruz. It was extremely liberal. In the spirit of equal rights, women could walk around town without a shirt. The local courts ruled that if men can do it, so can women. There was a clothing optional beach and it was also the only beach that you could run your dogs. My mom loved her dogs. It was my job to take them to the beach to run them at least 4 times a week. We did not live far from the beach.
So I witnessed nudity and people engaged in sexual activity. I was 10. People smoked pot openly, including the police that were patrolling the beach and boardwalk area.
My step-father became even more physically abusive. He never did it when mom was around. Mom just thought we were all prone to accidents because we needed stitches often and there were more than a few broken bones.
I finally had it and told my mother. She had a talk with him and said he denied it and I was mistaking discipline for abuse. Then mom took me to the doctor because I had lost 40 pounds within a year. I was overweight by about 15 lbs before we moved (I weighed 80 lbs) and my doctor was working with me. The idea was to eat a little less and exercise more. In a couple of years, I would grow into my weight. I started riding my bike at least 2 hours every day. It was not a chore, it was fun riding around the neighborhood playing games on our bikes with my friends.
When I got down to 40 lbs, mom knew something was wrong. The doctor examined me without my mom present. He saw the bruises that were hidden by my clothing. He just asked me who was beating me, I told him my step-father. He called my mother in to show her and then said he was reporting it to the police. He left the room for a few minutes and came back to inform mom that the police were on their way to the office and we needed to wait. The officers entered, the doctor showed them the bruises, pictures were taken and report was made. The officers then told us to wait, they were on their way to arrest my step-father.
I thought it was over. Well, he gets to court and makes a plea deal, 6 weeks of counseling. At the end of that, I was told I was making him angry and I needed to bye nicer.
Well, it was okay for a few months, then he went back at it. He just got better at it and made threats what would happen if I ever told. I eventually reached a point where death was preferable to the daily beatings, so I told my mother. Wash, rinse, and repeat. 6 weeks of counseling. I knew I was screwed then. My mother wanted to divorce him but the counselor and our church told her not to. So he came back home.
A few months later, it started again. Then he started the sexual abuse. That was a nightmare. Then one day, when I was 12, he stripped my sister in front of us children and was fondling her telling her he was getting her ready for sex. He had my brother, who was 5 years younger, get involved. When he left for work, I made plans to leave. The next morning, I boarded a bus for our hometown. I then called my grandmother and told her what I was doing, when I arrived at the city I needed to transfer busses. She picked me up then called my mother. Mom already knew, my step-father figured it out and confessed that he was beating me again. He knew I was going to tell about the sexual abuse.
Mom brought all the kids to my grandmother's, returned and put the house up for sale. She told him she was divorcing him. I was promised that he would never be in my life again.
Well, the courts in Santa Cruz gave him 6 more weeks of counseling. Then he moved back to where we were living and joined our church. He was a Catholic, we were Baptists, but he switched to convince my mother he was reformed. He did several months of counseling with our pastor who then convinced my mom to not divorce him. I was beyond angry.
He was good at controlling himself for several months. Then he lost it and beat my brother. A few minutes later he left for his bowling league. I called the police. This was different. They took pictures and a report. They called my mom and told her she had to be home in 30 minutes or we would go to the local children's home. She left work immediately. By the time she got home, he was arrested. The next day CPS showed up and made it clear, if she ever let him back, she would lose us kids.
After a week, he was released from jail with a court date for felony child abuse. He tried to make the same deal as before. In this county, they did not make deals, he could either plead guilty as charged or go to trial.
As the court date got closer, he realized he was going away for a very long time. He got wind that I was going to testify. I told the DA he did much more but I was not going to talk until I was in court. I wanted to be sure I was heard and it could not be swept under the rug. My step-father learned about this and knew, I was going to spill the sexual abuse and the sex crimes he committed in Santa Cruz. He was the Santa Cruz rapist that was drugging and raping coeds from UC Santa Cruz.
So he decided that I had to go. He had a rifle that he swore to the judge that he did not have. Was was not to possess firearms while he was awaiting trial. That worked. He came after me when I was delivering papers. I am thankful he was lousy shot. I insatiately knew it was him and tore out of there. I knew of several places I could hide from him. A customer saw me and I told her to call the police, the gunshots were from my step-father.
As a result, he ended up dead.
Counseling never helped, it just made him hide it better. He was afraid of prison. He knew what happened to child molesters. When he knew he was going away and he could not talk his way out of it, he was willing to resort to murder. The note he left behind made it clear. He would rather face murder charges than those he would face when I testified.
Today, prison time is not much of a deterrent. Chances are good that that most sentenced to prison will be out quickly due to time off for good behavior or prison overcrowding. They can also spend years filing appeal after appeal. Even before the trial, they will be free awaiting trial. They can use that time to harass potential witnesses or commit more crimes. Our legal system no longer protects the victims and the innocent. It protects the criminals. It has gone so far in the wrong direction that I expect vigilante justice to become common.
The liberals cannot fathom that there are predators in society. They cannot be fixed by therapy. All prison does for them is to make them better criminals.
Prison is not about reforming criminals, it is to keep them away from society. It makes society safer for the law abiding.
I also believe that those in prison need to earn their keep. Why should society pay to keep them isolated so they cannot harm the innocent. We need to go back to prison farms and other prison industries where they have to work to cover the cost of incarceration.
I've gained even more respect for you, Jerry Meyers. I don't know how you could be so tough that you could get through all of that without turning out either bad yourself, or into an almost paralyzed with fear recluse! That stepfather was a monster and hell is exactly the place for that sort of filth! As far as soft on crime advocates go, I wish on them to personally reap the rewards of letting violent criminals back on the streets. Let them be beated, robbed, raped and murdered; they'd be getting what they deserve for failing to protect the community. I guess it's wrong for me to blame your mother for that whole farago; but dammit she put all of you in incredible danger and would not listen to any of the facts. She couldn't believe you, ever? Of course I'm looking back with 20/20 hindsight, but that is just wrong for a mother to be that way. God bless you, Jerry, and I'm amazed and thankful that you survived.
After the monster died, I was an angry young man that hated the world. What helped is I had made a couple of very good friends when I started Jr. high. I started 7th grade right after we moved back from Santa Cruz. He tried to murder me on my birthday at the end of May when I was finishing 7th grade.
It also helped that I rode my bike everywhere. I would go 10 or more mile rides just to get away.
That summer, my mother used the life insurance money to make a down payment on a house and bought a horse for my sister. That was a 2 for 1 deal. The second horse was unrideable. She had been abused severely by her previous owner, a man. She would go nuts if a man approached her. The previous owner was the son of the person who owned a horse boarding facility. He was a retired farmer and when he could no longer physically farm, he converted his land to a horse boarding facility. The son was living with his father because he refused to work. Dad let him stay if he worked on the ranch. When the horse got too dangerous and hurt a couple of workers, the father had enough. This horse had a close bond with another horse, the one my mother was buying. That horse was a high strung thoroughbred that would remain calm if the other horse was around.,
I was not interested in horses but I went with my mom and sister to the place we boarded them. The physical work of cleaning stalls, moving hay, and all the other things that needed done was good therapy for me.
Well, I felt bad for the wild horse, she was just left in a stall and ignored by my sister. My mother would groom her once a week, but not much more. I befriended the horse over time using carrots and apples. We understood each other because of our shared pain. I started working with her. I would go slow and I would let her see anything that I had in my hand before I would use it. Where I live, summers often get over 100. It took time, but I was able to get her to let me hose her down and wash her. She loved it on hot days.
Eventually, she made it clear to me she wanted me to get on her back, so I did, bareback. She only had a halter rope (no reigns) and she walked me around the ranch. When my mother and our horse trainer saw me, they had a fit. They were yelling at me to get off and move away because she hates men and will do me great harm.
Eventually my mother calmed down when she realized I was doing things with that horse that no one else could do. I was not immediately bucked off. When I got off, she would nuzzle me. I then proceeded to ride across the road to a river on the other side. She loved the water and she would eat the grass while both of us were cooling off.
She was 12 at that point. As long as I was present, she could be shoed or the vet could give her shots or do anything else. If I was not there she would not let anyone near here. I had her for 8 years before she passed away, but that was the best therapy for me.
I met my now wife in high school when I was a sophomore and she was a junior. We developed a close friendship long before we started dating. She loved the outdoors, so we did a lot of things together. The mountains were a 90 minute drive and I had a car. We eventually started dating and married when we were in college. That was 43 years ago and we are going strong.
I did have a complete mental breakdown soon after our son was born. I could not handle life and could not leave the house. I eventually saw a psychiatrist who taught me how to put my life back together. He just gave me the hard realities and helped me to do what I needed to do, one step at a time. I eventually was able to work. My life greatly improved when I realized I cannot change the past, but I am in charge of my future. I also became the father I wished I had. My son and I are very close. After he graduated from college, he told me he thought everyone had a great childhood, like he did. He learned that most of his friends had to deal with parents that had major issues that they placed onto their children.
My son and his wife have an 11 month old son. My son loves being a father. He was worked when his son was born, but it did not take him long to realize that I gave him a great example to follow. He cannot wait to start using the dad jokes.
As for my mother, she had her own set of issues. She graduated at the top of her class and had a full ride scholarship to UC Davis to study Vet Med. If she successfully completed her undergraduate work, she had a spot reserved for her in the Vet school. My grandfather said no daughter of his was going to college. She was raised in a strong Baptist church and she was supposed to get married young and have children. She ended up marrying the man my grandfather wanted her to marry. At 18 she was married and a few months later she was pregnant with me. I was born when she was 19. The problem was my father had a bad temper and when my mother spent money to take us to the doctor or to buy meds, he would beat her. When started abusing me, she filed for a divorce. The church and my grandparents turned against her.
Then she met my step-father, who was Filipino and our church and my grandparents were livid. They did not approve of an interracial marriage. I think my mother married him just to be spiteful. Ironically, his ex-wife told my mother to stay away from him. She divorced him when she caught him fondling their then, 5 year old daughter. He was arrested, but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
He told my mom that was a bunch of BS. He divorced her when he came home and found her with another man. I learned many years later that man was her brother and was helping his sister to pack up and move out with the 2 children. When he got home, he beat the living snot out of the brother and put him in the hospital for several weeks. He then beat his wife and the police arrived just in time to prevent him from murdering her.
My mom was blinded by spite and everyone telling her to not marry him. Interracial marriage had only been legal in CA for a few years at that point.
My mother also suffered from severe depression and other health issues. There were times when she was just not available. When I was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, I had a long private talk with my mother to ask some tough questions and to let her know all that the first sep-father had done. She was shocked
I have only covered a few things he had done. He was bipolar to the extreme. His mother was in the state hospital with severe schizophrenia. He was the perfect predator. He was charming to people he wanted to impress. To those that he viewed as weak, he was an absolute monster. He was trained as a psychiatric nurse but lost his credentials when it was discovered he lied about graduating high school and passing a couple of classes in Junior College that were prerequisites to enter nurses training. He forged transcripts. He attempted to pass the college level English class 4 or 5 times when we were in Santa Cruz. He always failed. The last time my mother wrote all of his essays and when the instructor saw that the essays did not match his test grades or in class writing skills. He was accused of plagiarism and permanently banned from all CA public colleges.
He hated me because I tested at a high IQ and was placed in what is today the Gifted and Talented program. In 5th grade, my writing skills were ahead of his. That was a whole other dimension to his abuse.
I don't totally disagree with the abolitionists that prison's don't really "work".
It's why I consider the death penalty underutilized. Since prisons don't work, why keep them alive at all? What is the point of keeping them in cages for 40 years? If there is no fixing them then just execute them.