I think this is a few months old...but still eye opening.
19.6.08
Chalk one up for the good guys
Bad guys beware. You just never know who's standing next to you. And for the good guys, it's sorta like an American Express Card, you shouldn't leave home with out it. LOL.
Hot off the presses:
Robber gets a surprise
Customer draws handgun to stop theft at Canton bank
It took a day of congratulatory calls from friends, customers and complete strangers before Nabil Fawzi realized the risk he took by pulling a gun on the would-be bank robber standing just feet away, claiming to have a bomb.
But the Ypsilanti Township gas station owner and father of three said he wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
"In my situation, I felt like I could do it, and I just did it because it felt like it was the right thing to do,'' said Fawzi, 39.
Fawzi was the first customer at the Comerica Bank branch on Michigan Avenue in Canton Township at 9 a.m. Monday when police say would-be bank robber Joseph Webster, 53, of Ypsilanti walked in.
Webster allegedly handed a teller a note demanding money and claiming to have bomb strapped to his chest.
Fawzi, who frequently visits the branch on his daily commute from his home in Dearborn to his Sunoco station on Ecorse Road, noticed his own teller was acting strangely. When he asked what was wrong and she indicated a robbery was under way, Fawzi took action.
He said the robber at the adjacent teller station kept one hand behind his back at all times until the teller began doling out dollar bills. The robber demanded a stack of larger bills instead and moved both hands to the window to collect the cash.
Within seconds, Fawzi drew his handgun, racked a round in the chamber and told the man that he wasn't robbing the bank.
"But I have a bomb,'' the robber told Fawzi.
"I don't care,'' Fawzi replied. "You are not robbing this bank today.''
Fawzi said he searched Webster and found no bomb or any other weapons. Webster sat in a chair at gunpoint until police arrived.
Webster, 53, was arraigned on single counts of bank robbery, armed robbery and third offense habitual offender due to prior convictions for a sex offense and robbery. He was jailed on $100,000 bond, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 27.
After the incident, Fawzi showed police his concealed weapons permit and was released.
Canton Police Detective Sgt. Rick Pomorski credited the customer for his quick actions - but noted that police prefer citizens to serve as witnesses instead of taking matters into their own hands in dangerous situations.
"We never condone that civilians take action when there's a propensity for violence and what could happen,'' Pomorski said. "We prefer they maintain their distance. That said, we're thankful for the way it turned out. He did a wonderful job securing the scene until we got there.''
Fawzi, who is expecting his fourth child this fall, said he would probably would have acted differently if Webster had a gun, but he just did not believe the bomb threat. The Lebanese native said he was reacting on instincts he learned during five years of service in that country's army.
"When I saw his hands were empty I thought this was the right time to act, that if I could stop him, I would stop him.''
If convicted, Webster faces up to 25 years in prison.
Fawzi said he and his business partner will celebrate by discounting gas by 5 cents and giving away hot dogs at the station located at 1024 Ecorse Road from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
Hot off the presses:
Robber gets a surprise
Customer draws handgun to stop theft at Canton bank
It took a day of congratulatory calls from friends, customers and complete strangers before Nabil Fawzi realized the risk he took by pulling a gun on the would-be bank robber standing just feet away, claiming to have a bomb.
But the Ypsilanti Township gas station owner and father of three said he wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
"In my situation, I felt like I could do it, and I just did it because it felt like it was the right thing to do,'' said Fawzi, 39.
Fawzi was the first customer at the Comerica Bank branch on Michigan Avenue in Canton Township at 9 a.m. Monday when police say would-be bank robber Joseph Webster, 53, of Ypsilanti walked in.
Webster allegedly handed a teller a note demanding money and claiming to have bomb strapped to his chest.
Fawzi, who frequently visits the branch on his daily commute from his home in Dearborn to his Sunoco station on Ecorse Road, noticed his own teller was acting strangely. When he asked what was wrong and she indicated a robbery was under way, Fawzi took action.
He said the robber at the adjacent teller station kept one hand behind his back at all times until the teller began doling out dollar bills. The robber demanded a stack of larger bills instead and moved both hands to the window to collect the cash.
Within seconds, Fawzi drew his handgun, racked a round in the chamber and told the man that he wasn't robbing the bank.
"But I have a bomb,'' the robber told Fawzi.
"I don't care,'' Fawzi replied. "You are not robbing this bank today.''
Fawzi said he searched Webster and found no bomb or any other weapons. Webster sat in a chair at gunpoint until police arrived.
Webster, 53, was arraigned on single counts of bank robbery, armed robbery and third offense habitual offender due to prior convictions for a sex offense and robbery. He was jailed on $100,000 bond, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 27.
After the incident, Fawzi showed police his concealed weapons permit and was released.
Canton Police Detective Sgt. Rick Pomorski credited the customer for his quick actions - but noted that police prefer citizens to serve as witnesses instead of taking matters into their own hands in dangerous situations.
"We never condone that civilians take action when there's a propensity for violence and what could happen,'' Pomorski said. "We prefer they maintain their distance. That said, we're thankful for the way it turned out. He did a wonderful job securing the scene until we got there.''
Fawzi, who is expecting his fourth child this fall, said he would probably would have acted differently if Webster had a gun, but he just did not believe the bomb threat. The Lebanese native said he was reacting on instincts he learned during five years of service in that country's army.
"When I saw his hands were empty I thought this was the right time to act, that if I could stop him, I would stop him.''
If convicted, Webster faces up to 25 years in prison.
Fawzi said he and his business partner will celebrate by discounting gas by 5 cents and giving away hot dogs at the station located at 1024 Ecorse Road from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
18.6.08
R.I.P Dawn
God has called to heaven one of the most wonderful people I had to pleasure of knowing. OMG, this is a total shock to me and I am breaking down at work. I just heard the news this morning as I opened my email that she passed away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-i55-fatal-web-jun18,0,3125101.story
Rest among the angels Dawn, you will be sorely missed and the world is a little darker today as you radiant smile no longer is among us. You've been there for many others as you have for me and I will never forget you. You and Hatem had a few wonderful years together and I cannot imagine what he is going through right now. But I know you two will see one another one day. R.I.P my friend.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-i55-fatal-web-jun18,0,3125101.story
Rest among the angels Dawn, you will be sorely missed and the world is a little darker today as you radiant smile no longer is among us. You've been there for many others as you have for me and I will never forget you. You and Hatem had a few wonderful years together and I cannot imagine what he is going through right now. But I know you two will see one another one day. R.I.P my friend.
10.6.08
7.6.08
10 years later....
This event comes back to haunt me from time to time and I was surprised that it was 10 years ago. It seems like just yesterday that it happened. OMG. What senselessness and craziness. I am still speachless and am disgusted that humans can do things like this to one another. So on the day that a black man becomes the democratic party nominee for president of the United States, we are reminded that we still have a long way to go...not just in America but around the globe. I hope Obama can set in motion a wave that sweeps the world in which we can see the dream of MLK Jr. become reality.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25008925
JASPER, Texas - Ten years after James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death down a three-mile stretch of country road simply because he was black, some things have changed in Jasper.
Black and white teenagers can be seen playing basketball together at James Byrd Jr. Memorial Park. Blacks now make up a majority on the City Council. And an iron fence no longer separates the graves of whites and blacks in the 171-year-old cemetery where Byrd is buried.
But Byrd's murder, which jolted the nation with its utter brutality and unvarnished racism, still casts a shadow over this timber town in deep East Texas. And many folks here think it always will.
"It is something we have to live with the rest of our lives," said Walter Diggles, a black civic leader and executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments. "It is similar to Dallas, when people think of the JFK assassination, or Memphis, when people think of Martin Luther King's murder."
Ever since three white men beat the 49-year-old Byrd, chained him by the ankles to the bumper of a Ford pickup, then pulled him down Huff Creek Road in the early hours of June 7, 1998, Jasper has been almost synonymous with the horrors of racism.
Byrd's remains were found scattered in 75 places along the twisting path that cuts through a pine forest. His head and right arm were discovered about a mile from his mangled torso.
'Tragedy can have a deep impact'A decade later, according to Diggles, some people are still afraid to visit Jasper, a town of 8,000 where the main intersection is a cluster of fast-food places and restaurants offering chicken fried steak specials. Some businesses have been reluctant to come to town, which is badly in need of industry.
However, Diggles and many others say there is a hopeful part of the story too often overlooked: The murder forced the people of Jasper, a town whose population is almost evenly divided between black and white, to confront their prejudices.
"Afterward, people came together, worked together and healed together," said R.C. Horn, who was mayor at the time and is black. "Some people were not even aware of what was going on inside themselves. But after it happened, everyone took a look at themselves to see what was inside."
Byrd's murderers were quickly arrested and convicted, offering some comfort that justice was served. John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer are now on death row. Shawn Allen Berry is serving a life sentence.
Clergy — both black and white — called on the people of Jasper to stay calm and stay home when the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan came to march. And the residents did. Many also saw the response of the Byrd family ("We are not hating; we are hurting," James Byrd Sr. said after his son's murder) as inspiring, ennobling.
"This was a mother who lost her son in the most cruel way, yet she showed and taught her family by her example that she is able to forgive," said the Rev. Ronald Foshage, a white priest at St. Michael's Parish. "If people can forgive, and if I can learn to forgive in that fashion, then this tragedy can have a deep impact on our lives."
Changed attitudesAfter Byrd's death, the family created the James Byrd Jr. Foundation for Racial Healing, which conducts diversity workshops, awards scholarships to minorities and helped win passage of a hate crime bill in Texas. The foundation also runs an oral history project on racism; more than 2,600 people have described their experiences.
Foshage and other townspeople said that before the killing, blacks and whites sat separately at football games and in other public settings. But now, they say, they see less of that, with blacks and whites mingling more, and they attribute that to the Byrd family's efforts to fight bigotry.
Similarly, townspeople are attributing the black majority on the City Council to changed attitudes.
Betty Byrd Boatner, Byrd's younger sister, said that before the killing, she didn't see whites and blacks playing basketball together. As for the segregated graveyard, the iron fence came down a few years ago.
On Saturday, as they have every year on the anniversary of Byrd's death, the Byrds will hold a service — not just as a memorial, but also as a challenge to those still shackled by prejudice.
"When you do things that hurt someone else, you need to remember that that person is someone's child," Boatner said. "My brother was someone's child. If it was your family, your brother, your sister, how would you handle it?"
There is still work to do. A few years back, Byrd's gravesite was vandalized and defaced with slurs.
"We're getting there," Boatner said, "but it just takes time."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25008925
JASPER, Texas - Ten years after James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death down a three-mile stretch of country road simply because he was black, some things have changed in Jasper.
Black and white teenagers can be seen playing basketball together at James Byrd Jr. Memorial Park. Blacks now make up a majority on the City Council. And an iron fence no longer separates the graves of whites and blacks in the 171-year-old cemetery where Byrd is buried.
But Byrd's murder, which jolted the nation with its utter brutality and unvarnished racism, still casts a shadow over this timber town in deep East Texas. And many folks here think it always will.
"It is something we have to live with the rest of our lives," said Walter Diggles, a black civic leader and executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments. "It is similar to Dallas, when people think of the JFK assassination, or Memphis, when people think of Martin Luther King's murder."
Ever since three white men beat the 49-year-old Byrd, chained him by the ankles to the bumper of a Ford pickup, then pulled him down Huff Creek Road in the early hours of June 7, 1998, Jasper has been almost synonymous with the horrors of racism.
Byrd's remains were found scattered in 75 places along the twisting path that cuts through a pine forest. His head and right arm were discovered about a mile from his mangled torso.
'Tragedy can have a deep impact'A decade later, according to Diggles, some people are still afraid to visit Jasper, a town of 8,000 where the main intersection is a cluster of fast-food places and restaurants offering chicken fried steak specials. Some businesses have been reluctant to come to town, which is badly in need of industry.
However, Diggles and many others say there is a hopeful part of the story too often overlooked: The murder forced the people of Jasper, a town whose population is almost evenly divided between black and white, to confront their prejudices.
"Afterward, people came together, worked together and healed together," said R.C. Horn, who was mayor at the time and is black. "Some people were not even aware of what was going on inside themselves. But after it happened, everyone took a look at themselves to see what was inside."
Byrd's murderers were quickly arrested and convicted, offering some comfort that justice was served. John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer are now on death row. Shawn Allen Berry is serving a life sentence.
Clergy — both black and white — called on the people of Jasper to stay calm and stay home when the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan came to march. And the residents did. Many also saw the response of the Byrd family ("We are not hating; we are hurting," James Byrd Sr. said after his son's murder) as inspiring, ennobling.
"This was a mother who lost her son in the most cruel way, yet she showed and taught her family by her example that she is able to forgive," said the Rev. Ronald Foshage, a white priest at St. Michael's Parish. "If people can forgive, and if I can learn to forgive in that fashion, then this tragedy can have a deep impact on our lives."
Changed attitudesAfter Byrd's death, the family created the James Byrd Jr. Foundation for Racial Healing, which conducts diversity workshops, awards scholarships to minorities and helped win passage of a hate crime bill in Texas. The foundation also runs an oral history project on racism; more than 2,600 people have described their experiences.
Foshage and other townspeople said that before the killing, blacks and whites sat separately at football games and in other public settings. But now, they say, they see less of that, with blacks and whites mingling more, and they attribute that to the Byrd family's efforts to fight bigotry.
Similarly, townspeople are attributing the black majority on the City Council to changed attitudes.
Betty Byrd Boatner, Byrd's younger sister, said that before the killing, she didn't see whites and blacks playing basketball together. As for the segregated graveyard, the iron fence came down a few years ago.
On Saturday, as they have every year on the anniversary of Byrd's death, the Byrds will hold a service — not just as a memorial, but also as a challenge to those still shackled by prejudice.
"When you do things that hurt someone else, you need to remember that that person is someone's child," Boatner said. "My brother was someone's child. If it was your family, your brother, your sister, how would you handle it?"
There is still work to do. A few years back, Byrd's gravesite was vandalized and defaced with slurs.
"We're getting there," Boatner said, "but it just takes time."
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