Dead-Child Porn? Toddler Bodies in the News

If it bleeds, it leads. That's an old piece of newspaper insider advice, and it has been transmitted to those in radio, television, video, Internet, cable news, and reality programming, too. Basically, the theory goes, the use of violence or the threat of violence helps news organizations sell their shows, soap, and SUVs. Dan Rather said it once, quite clearly, at a speech he gave at the National Press Club in the mid-1980s: the news is all about “death.” ~ Chapter 2: "Death Sells," The Copycat Effect, 2004

The media has a way of copycatting "death" trends. Are we in the midst of a dead-child one? Is this a ripple that one critic has called "dead-child porn"?

For example, this Labor Day, news has many details about a toddler's body parts being found in a pond in Garfield Park, Chicago.

A Toddler's Foot

First a foot was found on Saturday, September 5, 2015, at about 4:40 p.m. in the lagoon off the 200 block of McCrea Drive in Garfield Park. Then another foot and two arms were discovered in the water. Chicago police late on Sunday, September 6, 2015, found a child's head near where the other body parts were discovered in Garfield Park Lagoon the previous afternoon.

The Wikipedia photo of Garfield Park (above) compared to the newspaper photograph of police looking for body parts over the weekend.

The child's second foot, and both hands were found toward the north end of the lagoon about 25 yards away from the first location. A 20-pound weight was found nearby, but then a lot of old machine parts, motors and junk was too. The limbs were in an advanced state of decomposition and not clothed, authorities said. The gender is as yet unknown.

The portion of the park near the northwest corner of the lagoon, along Hamlin Boulevard between Lake and Washington, was closed. The lagoon is all linked, so the initial probable dumping location of the body is unknown.

Perry Starks, a member of the Garfield Park Advisory Council, said bodies have been found in the park over the years, but this discovery is particularly sad, noted the Chicago Tribune. (Please note that. Other bodies have been found, but the fact this was a toddler's makes this "particularly sad.")

In 1869, the Illinois state legislature established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large parks and interlinking boulevards in Chicago. The centerpiece of the system, the 185-acre Central Park, was renamed to honor President James A. Garfield (1831- 1881) after his assassination in 1881.

The Wicked Woods

Of course, it goes without saying, this crime scene for this little toddler was in the woods, with more trees all around.

The map of Garfield Park shows that one street coming in from the East is named West Maypole Avenue.

As the movie The Wicker Man reveals - in its revelation of the method mode - that child sacrifice and the Maypole celebrations in the Spring are intermingled. Was this child's death more than what first comes to mind - which is an unfortunate child abuse killing - but instead is it evidence of a toddler's sacrifice?

Maypole  = a pole painted and decorated with flowers, around which people traditionally dance on May Day, holding long ribbons that are attached to the top of the pole.

The reports say the first body part was found in the lagoon in the 200 block of McCrea Drive in Garfield Park.

McCrea = The Gaelic form of the surname McCrea is Mac Rath, which literally means "son of grace" or "son of prosperity."

The Chicago toddler story came in the wake of the story and photograph of a three-year-old boy's drowning.

The Kurdi Story

That event unfolded this way. In the early hours of September 2, 2015, Alan (incorrectly given as "Aylan" at first) Kurdi and his refugee Syrian family were in a small plastic or rubber inflatable boat, which is said to have capsized about five minutes after leaving a beach resort at Bodrum in Turkey. A total of 16 people were in the boat, which is designed for a maximum of 8 people. They were trying to reach the Greek island of Kos, a roughly 30 minute (or 2.5 mile) ride by boat from Bodrum. It is believed that none of the people in the boat wore lifejackets.

The bodies of Kurdi, his five-year-old brother and others were discovered by two employees of the beach resort at around 6:30 am on the same morning. Describing his encounter with Kurdi and another young girl, one of the employees stated, "I ran towards it and saw them. I was so afraid. He helped me pull them out of the water. They looked still alive, like they were sleeping, smiling a little. Their faces and arms and legs looked so new still. They couldn’t have been in the water an hour."

The publishing of the photograph of Alan Kurdi's lifeless body on a Turkey beach went viral. I won't publish the photograph here, for a variety of reasons. But you've probably already seen it. Instead, I'll pass along some political cartoons that try to capture the emotions that people felt when seeing that photograph of Alan Kurdi.

These and other cartoons: Source.

Dead-Child Porn

Where does this fit in this modern world of "media"?

Brendan O'Neill wrote in The Spectator on September 3, 2015 that: "The global spreading of this snapshot — which appears on the front page of the Independent today and inside the Guardian, and is even callously being turned into a meme by sections of the weeping Twitterati — is justified as a way of raising awareness about the migrant crisis. Please. It’s more like a snuff photo for progressives, dead-child porn, designed not to start a serious debate about migration in the 21st century but to elicit a self-satisfied feeling of sadness among Western observers."

What we are being asked is to take these stories and images, syncing around the world, and put feelings upon them.

This Week

Considering the 2nd-week anniversary of the media-involved Bridgewater Plaza shootings and the 14th-year-anniversary of 9/11 are this week, what should we expect to occur in the next few days? 

I wrote in 2011, about the specific incident copycats of 9/11 here. But what are the trends telling us about now? More Batman syncs? Another live media death? Or, are the two stories above an indication that we will see and hear about more horrific child deaths? I'm sure that law enforcement agencies will be on high alert.

One thing is for certain, if it bleeds, it will lead.

+++++

Top of blog graphic: Source.

News Surfing Name Games and Lexi-Links During the Summer of 2013

Weird summer, if you ask me. Lots of little random killings, interwoven with sudden deaths and surprise happy happenings.

The snake story is the one getting everyone's attention, for a variety of sad reasons. 

It is a horrible story to hear that two boys were killed in New Brunswick by an African rock python (Python sebae) on August 5, 2013. Source.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the “sudden deaths of two young boys,” whom they believe were strangled by a python that escaped from a local pet store in the town of Campbellton, New Brunswick.

The snake escaped its enclosure at Reptile Ocean pet shop and slithered up a ventilation duct to the apartment above the pet store where the boys were sleeping, CBC News reported. The two victims had been spending the night at the home of a friend, after spending an afternoon petting llamas and goats.

The bodies of the two boys — identified as Connor Barthe, 7, and his brother, Noah, 5, according to The Toronto Star — were discovered early Monday, August 5, 2013, and police arrived at the scene at approximately 6:30 a.m.

Barthe is French in origins, a topographic name for "someone who lived on a piece of land overgrown with bushes or scrub," from the Old French barthe (a word probably of Gaulish origin). From German, it is a metonymic occupational name for "someone who made (battle) axes," from the Middle High German barte, Middle Low German barde "axe."

Connor means "lover of wolves, canines," or sometimes "wise." Noah means "full of peace."

In the realm of mass shootings, the most recent one happened also yesterday, August 5, 2013.

Fifty-nine-year-old Rockney ("Rockne") Warren Newell, of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, (above), a self-described junk collector, decided to shoot up a municipal meeting in Rush Township, Pennsylvania. He used a rifle with a scope and shoot through a wall. He was allegedly unhappy about their rulings on his yard. The meeting was winding down at 7:23 p.m. when the shooting broke out. Witnesses described a scene of carnage and chaos following the shooting at the Anchorage Road building. Three men were left dead. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4.)

David Fleetwood, Gerard Kozic and James LaGuardia died in the bloody ambush. Frank Piraino Jr. and Linda Kozic were wounded. (Source.)

Newell generally is related to being "of the manor" or from the "new hall."

Warren is a power name, linked to Freemasonry and founding members of the American Revolution. The name is derived from an English family name, which is itself from a Normandy place name La Varenne, of the element garenne (meaning "game park," "game reserve").

The name Rockney, not too surprisingly, is of English-American origin, and means "one who is brash." The shortened version, Rockne, often on its own means "of a rock."

The African rock python killing took place in Campbellton ("town of the Campbells").

Black Watch or Campbell Tartan

Ancient Campbell Tartan

In Scotland, the name Campbell has its origins from two Scottish Gaelic words, cam and béal, meaning "crooked mouth" or "wry-mouthed," originally being a nickname that evolved into a surname. (I have remarked on the significance of the "Bell name" before.)

A purposeful incident of violence over the weekend involved a Campbell.

The driver of a car that slammed into a group of pedestrians on the Venice Beach, California, boardwalk at 6 pm on Saturday, August 4, 2013, killing one woman on her honeymoon and injuring 11 others, "was looking for blood," witnesses said.

Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, was driving a Dodge Avenger down the boardwalk, as he swerved and rammed his vehicle into the tightly packed crowds. Among the 12 people who were plowed into, one was Alice Gruppioni, 32, of Italy, who died in the hospital following the collision.

She was the newlywed daughter of an Italian businessman from Bologna, Italy. She died with her injured husband, Christian Casadei, at her side at a Los Angeles hospital, the newspaper La Republicca reported.

Gruppioni reportedly ran a family business in her hometown, Rastignano, a village just south of Bologna. Gruppioni was the daughter of Valerio Gruppioni, a businessman and former president of the Bologna soccer team.

Other shocking death news came from Italy, earlier.

Actor James Gandolfini died from a heart attack, on June 19, 2013, during a brief vacation in Rome, Italy. He had expected to travel to Sicily on June 22 to receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest. Following a day of sightseeing in Rome in sweltering heat, Gandolfini's 13-year-old son Michael discovered him around 10 pm local time on the bathroom floor at the Boscolo Exedra Hotel in Rome's Piazza della Repubblica. Michael called hotel reception, who in turn called emergency paramedics. Gandolfini reportedly arrived at the hospital at 10:40 pm and was pronounced dead at 11 pm.

Gandolfini was set to star with Steve Carell as rival palaeontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh in the forthcoming BoneWars, from HBO Films.

More joyful news occurred on July 22, 2013, with the royal birth of George Louis Alexander, heir to the throne, eventually.

This "royal" news was then followed five days later with a mass shooting at a "royal" location.

The building across the street where Carlos Javier Gavilanes was shot by Pedro Vargas, is called Casa Royal, or Royal House in English.

Pedro Alberto Vargas

The gunman, Pedro Vargas, set his Hialeah, Florida, apartment ablaze and went on a shooting spree that killed six people before he was shot to death by a SWAT team after a nearly eight hour-long ordeal, on Saturday, July 27th. Source.

So, in summary: Pedro set his apartment on fire and then shot property managers Samira and Italo Pisciotti when they ran to see what was going on. His next victim was a man on the opposite side of the street, Carlos Gavilanes, who had just returned home from work.
He then broke down the door of another apartment and killed Merly Sophia Niebles, her husband Patricio and her teenage daughter Priscila Perez. After an eight hour standoff, a SWAT team shot Vargas and rescue two hostages that he was holding.

Pedro means "rock." Perez means "little rock."

Finally, an anonymous individual sent this along yesterday:

I noticed on Huff Post today [August 5, 2013] that Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem named their child today. That inspired me to know more about Javier Bardem (I wanted to know his real last name out of curiosity). I then read his wiki profile, and saw that he was one of the few Spaniards to win a BAFTA. That got me curious as to what exactly a BAFTA award was. Turns out it is a British equivalent of the Oscar.
I followed the link to BAFTA and noticed that the CEO of BAFTA is an AMANDA BERRY. Now I realized that "Amanda Berry" is also the name of the kidnapping victim of Ariel Castro. Also, it's interesting to note that the Royal Family are in control of the BAFTAS and have been since the 50's. Prince William (Diana's son) is the current President of BAFTA. I believe that it is conflicting that the Royal Family are who is in charge of awarding the honors when it was stated that "BAFTA is a rate predictor of the Oscar winners and lineup." Just interesting note, perhaps you can lexilink this information in the great way you know how.

Well, I little know what any of it means.

But as it happens, the birth of the Cruz-Bardem child, a daughter, named Luna Encinas Cruz, occurred on July 22, 2013, in Madrid, Spain - on the same day as the British Royal Family's new baby. 

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. He was born March 1, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, Spain. Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress and model. She was born April 28, 1974, in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.

Spanish naming customs call for the name of the father's name to be used as a middle name, and the mother's to be used as the last name, traditionally. Lexilinking of Spanish names has to take these rules into account.

Luna means "moon." The name Encinas is originally derived from the Spanish word encina, which in the region of Castile means "oak tree." Cruz means "cross."

One of Bardem's name is Ángel.

The most hopeful stories coming out of the tragedy of the Castro-Cleveland imprisonments was the efforts of "The Real Angel of Cleveland."

The summer is not over, yet. But Halloween is coming. And winter is coming.