Monday, May 4, 2009
Hargrove / Law and Order Scumbags of the Week: Father Kills Own Son, Mother Coked Up During Birth
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Mon, May 4, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Exhibit One: Lateshia Coleman, a 34-year-old woman whose son died 16 days after his birth in
So here they are, Pith readers, your scumbags of the week--scary, mean-looking, wholly scummy and generally bad felons.
Comments (18)
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Wait. Is there a step missing in the Coleman part? Did the baby die of a drug overdose? Or did Coleman neglect him? Or did she leave him with Marcellous Lindsley or what? Because otherwise I'm not seeing the line from "she did drugs" to "and now her baby's dead."
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There are children every day born addicted to drugs and sadly, parents are only prosecuted if the child dies. Meanwhile someone else is left to pick up the pieces of these children's lives which starts with weaning them from the drugs ingested in utero by their mothers and usually ends ends with a life time of learning disabilities and developmental delays. Where are all the pro-lifers when someone carries a child to term offering support to these kinfolks and foster families who can never get enough resources to right this wrong?
I have custody of a child that was born to a drug addict. It may not be the right thing to say, but I feel some children are better off dead. Instead, they have to suffer the psychological after mass of whatever their parents smoked, injected or snorted.I realize that it's not the child's fault, so I pray and hold on. I think that both of these parent and any other that bring harm to a child (especially death) will burn in HELL.
Aunt B, the woman was full of drugs when she gave birth to the baby and was likely using over the course of her pregnancy. So yeah, I think it's safe to say the baby wasn't long for this world because of that.
yes Temporary Guardian, certainly this wouldn't have happened if abortion were free and available to anyone and everyone, anytime before crowning begins. idiot pro-lifers, they just want to keep crack babies alive to spite the families.
I'm honestly not trying to be difficult, but, while using drugs over the course of your pregnancy is a bad idea, it doesn't usually directly result in the death of your kid. Using drugs can cause premature birth, which might lead to the baby's death. Or it might cause infection, which might lead to the baby's death. Or there's even some evidence that there's a correlation between a woman's drug use while pregnant and SIDS. But it's not just self-evident that, if a mother does drugs, and the baby's born with drugs in its system, the mother therefore assaulted and killed the baby.
And, I hate to even bring this up, but you have completely missed the most important aspect of this story. They're charging a woman who took drugs with an assault on another person. But she didn't give the baby drugs after it was born. So, Tennessee is now claiming fetal personhood to the extent that a woman can now be charge with assault on another person for something that happened at a time when it's not clear there's even a legal person there.
That's a pretty big deal--a change in the definition of who a legal person under Tennessee law is.
To further my point--they didn't charge her with any form of child abuse. Is that because a fetus isn't legally a child? They didn't charge her with delivering drugs to another person. Is that because they aren't sure if drugs were the cause of death? Are they not sure they can technically prove she delivered drugs to another legal person?
There's a lot interesting here, that has some pretty huge ramifications. What if a woman has a car accident that is her fault and she miscarries her late-term pregnancy. So her actions caused the death of her fetus, as clear as day. Is the state going to charge her with reckless homicide? What if a woman just loses a pregnancy at 8 months? Will the police investigate to see if there are signs that her actions caused it? And, if so, what will the cut-off be? Will women who are five months along and miscarry be subjected to criminal investigation? What about three months?
Aunt B. raises some excellent questions. Questions overlooked in favor of the "here's a couple of scumbags" angle.
I fail to see the value of the "Scumbags of the Week" post anyway. Besides causing a reaction of "That's horrible!", it's rather pointless. Unless maybe a person commenting brings up legitimately interesting and possibly significant legal questions totally ignored in the post.
At the very least, balance the SOTW post with a GG/GOTW post - Good Guy/Gal of the Week. Ideally, have that post and totally drop the scumbag one.
Aunt B, you bring up an incredibly interesting question, but I think its relevancy hinges on "fetal." Had the baby died in the womb and she been subsequently charged, that would represent a change in enforcement we could only begin to grapple with. But the child was born and then died as a result of her drug use, so I don't see the charges as a terrible stretch. It's certainly a question up for argument, though.
Sorry Marvin, but SOTW is here to stay, if only to showcase the limitless depths to which humanity can sink. You won't find any contrived "pat ourselves on the back" bloggage here.
I just wonder where the Pope was and that all loving God of the little innocent fetuses. No way this fetus was guilty of anything except nature nurturing and the parents too. Too bad drugs don't kill the sex drive completely.
Did I miss the repeal of the principle of innocent until proven guilty during my afternoon nap?
I have to agree with what bb and Aunt B said, but mostly i agree with Marvin. Maybe I'll incorporate a "scumbag" article of the week over at my place.
This type of "story" is the worst kind of pandering, and The Scene should be embarrassed by it.
Did I miss the repeal of the principle of innocent until proven guilty during my afternoon nap?
Did the Metro court system start picking jury members from commenters on blogs, or are you confusing folks' right to form beliefs and state opinions with right to due process in the court system?
Good to know I can come to Pith for a weekly showcasing of "the limitless depths to which humanity can sink."
And they say journalism is dying.
Maybe it's the uppity Marxist Negro in me, but I'm guessing we're not likely to find any well-to-do white folks down in those "limitless depths" anytime soon.
Everyone who had something bad to say about my cosin lateshia coleman should shut the fuck up.You don't know the whole fucking story and don't know what she was going through to make do drugs in the first place.You all are stupid and dumb and mean ass hell.You shouldn't judge her cus ya don't know the what happened in her life.So Shut the fuck up stupid bitches.
I'm putting forward 2 more candidates for scum who kill their children: My active alcoholic ex-husband, M. Braunstein and his equally sick and equally dedicated to her addiction alcoholic wife K. McKenna.
My beautiful 32 year old son,Ben, who also suffered addiction disorder, but was in recovery for years, had a relapse this June 28th, while on a business trip to London for his father's company. What contributed to his relapse? A number of things, but most significantly, his father's constant invitations to join him in his drinking, which, in order to bond with this piece of scum, he did - which had the direct effect of leading him back to his primary drug of choice, which killed him.
My son's death leaves his wife and his brother and myself devastated. It leaves his infant daughter fatherless. It leaves his father and his step-mother drinking and crowing about 'turning over a new page'. I can only wish they were jailed like these other parents. But that will never happen, they are not only white, but wealthy. Now I hope that a just God will consign them both to Hell for eternity. I'm afraid that mine is not such an uncommon story. How many parents of children killed as a result of driving drunk (or killing others) supplied the liquor/drugs - and drank w/their children and walk around w/no accountability? These 2 have an 11 year old daughter, who they will most likely also kill - or cause to kill. Like I said, I can only hope for an eternity in Hell for them. And I do this in between praying for a miracle that will interrupt their addictions and end the cycle of their killing destruction.
Advancements in fertilty are at all time highs, as evidenced by the nadya suleman, and he ivf procedure is currently being hampered by the negative news of one irresponsible doctor. The practice of fertility treatment has been around for quite some time and it works favorably to bring new life.
