Posts by Diane Dimond
Advances in DNA – A Detective’s Best Friend
Raymond “DJ Freez” Rowe got away with murder for more than two decades. As a popular fixture on the party scene in and around Lancaster, Pennsylvania he was “the” man to call for music at high school dances, restaurants, clubs and weddings. He was the last person his fans would have suspected in the brutal…
Read MoreThe U.S. Immigration System Helps Child Abusers
We talk a lot about sexual abuse and harassment here in the United States. We are a country with a heightened sense of what’s right and wrong when it comes to sex crimes. We are also a nation that preaches to others around the globe about the evils of forced marriage and marriages involving children.…
Read MoreA Border Wall for $55 (Each)
All this recent talk about walls got me thinking. History books are full of examples of the need for and the laborious building of walls around cities, countries and various structures. The Wall of Jericho was built thousands of years before Christ and kept the city’s population safe. For a while anyway. The City of…
Read MorePlacing the Blame for Suicide
If 2019 stays on trend more than 47-thousand Americans will kill themselves this year. Their loved ones will, understandably, be consumed with grief over the suicide. But some of them will then go on to try to affix outside blame for the death. Many of them will hire a lawyer and file a wrongful death…
Read MoreIn 2019, This Pope Needs a Reality Check
During this holiest of Christian seasons who could ignore the latest statements of Pope Francis speaking about the festering child sex abuse scandal within his church? In a Christmas address he spoke of priests who “prey like wolves on their flock,” and a clergy “ready to devour innocent souls.” “To those who abuse minors, I…
Read MoreHere’s to New Year Filled With Civility and Less Crime
Professor P. M. Forni, 67, died earlier this month in Towson, Maryland. He was born in Bologna, Italy and became a proud U.S. citizen and educator. I didn’t know the man personally, but I am sad to hear that he is gone. Forni was one of the last clarion voices to advocate for civility among…
Read MoreFamilies, Kids and a Flawed Law
This column is dedicated to issues of crime and justice. But this time of year, it seems out of place to talk about murders, wrongful convictions, child abuse, the scourge of drugs and all the other topics I usually opine about in this space. Because this is the pre-Christmas season, I’d like this column to…
Read MoreMass Murder Compensation Compliments of Uncle Sam
The Department of Justice has announced it’s sending the last installment – nearly $17 million of a total $20 million – to aid survivors of last October’s deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The toll from that sniper attack was 58 dead and some 600 physically injured* after a lone gunman took up a…
Read MoreDo Migrants Really Commit More Crimes?
We hear so much these days about the migrant caravan straining to cross into the U.S. Media reports focus on the immigrants’ desire for a better life, the desperation that led hundreds of them to throw rocks and storm the border at Tijuana and the tear gas that forced them back into Mexico. And we…
Read MoreMore Presidential Pardons for People, Please
Hey, if Peas and Carrots can get a presidential pardon how about the thousands of Americans waiting in line for similar consideration? We recently saw the traditional – some might call it corny and meaningless – spectacle of the President pretending to pardon rotund turkeys to insure they don’t wind up on someone’s Thanksgiving table.…
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