Random, unprovoked violence

[seamusTX]

A 22-year-old Dickinson man was riding his bicycle around 7:20 p.m. Tuesday when a vehicle pulled alongside and the driver fired numerous shots from a pistol. The man was hit twice and taken to UTMB hospital for treatment.

Witnesses helped identify the vehicle, and police arrested Dr. Wameeth Fadhli, age 33, a UTMB physician. The doctor had no criminal history.

There was no apparent reason for the assault.

http://news.galvestondailynews.com/stor ... 856b4b5377

I'm a big fan of "not being there," but something like this is unavoidable. Dickinson is a fairly affluent suburb southeast of Houston, and has little violent crime aside from domestic disputes.

- Jim

[longtooth]

Yes sir you are right. Yrs ago you could stay in the good part of town & be safe. Today there is no safe place.
Some events from our town of 35K by memory, & if I searched there would have to be more.
1. Our bank robbed at gun point in 2004. I was there the afternoon before. His statement was, "I have aids & nothing to loose."
2. A bank that I have a vending machine in & service on a regular basis was robbed at gunpoint. 2004
3. After H. Rita an elderly lady shot & killed in the same shopping center parking lot as our bank, Randall's, & a Christian book store. Good part of town too.
4. Golden Triangle pipe & Supply - good part of town, good people & good business. I buy there if I have a need & also have another vending machine there. Mad employee walks in w/ his AR-15 & announces that he is going to kill the owner in Galveston & return to "clean this place out." 2005.
5. Meth addict running from law is finally stopped by DPS officer crashing cruiser into his vehicle. He was attempting to run into a General Dollar store about one mile from our house. It is our "Convenience Store" because they have milk bread.... Heavily armed. Got him down about 40 feet from the front door. That was really close. I saw the take down. 2005.
6. Self service fuel stop I use on the main street of town & at gun point Man took back DL given for security on fill up. '05

These were what I can remember as fast as I type & they took place at places I go at times I would be there. No place is a "Safe Area" any more.

Read my signature.

[seamusTX]

I can understand criminals going to the good side of town because that's where the money is (not much point robbing poor people). And I can understand revenge, even though it's deplorable. But a physician assaulting someone at random is just incomprehensible and about the last thing you expect.

- Jim

[longtooth]

Yep.
That evidence prooves your 1st point & the reason Texas needs a "Castle Doctrine" "No Duty To Retreat" law. Duty to retreat is the reason gangs own their turff. Good peope have been required to leave the street when threatened & call the police who get there "when they can" & go look for the threatening individual "when they have time." Gangs & thugs know this & exploit it the same as they do the rest of the system.

[HighVelocity]

People pay good money to be assaulted by doctors every day. This guy got it for free.

If this Dr. is guilty he needs to do hard time in a maximum security facility. Not some panzy prison like Marth Stewart.

[seamusTX]

This is a state crime, and Texas does not have any "pansy" prisons.

All we know at this point is from a police report. I'll be watching for further news.

P.S.: I googled the name of the physician, Wameeth Fadhli. He was born and raised in the U.S., is married, and has children. He is a pediatrician. Not the profile of your typical loner who goes off the deep end.

- Jim

[longtooth]

This is a state crime, and Texas does not have any "pansy" prisons.

I respectfully disagree. TDC is a pansy prison. There are some very real hardened criminals there but it is a very real holiday hilton for them compared to Huntsville State Prison which I percieve from your posts that you may be too young to remember. I will offer only one personal experience. This is an example of the pattern & not an isolated insodent.
In 1987 (and I assure you things have gotten worse since then) I had a Mother come to me about her son that was in TDC for his 2nd major sexual assault. You know the story. Good boy just mixed up w/ the wrong crowd. Fact: at early 40s he had been in jail & trouble w/ the law for way over half his life.
He has changed & is never going back. Help him get a job & he will straighten up. Short story. I talked to a construction forman I knew & he had a job the day he came to town if he wanted to start that day. Started on a Monday & worked all week making a good hard working hand. On time & worked. They paid by the week, one week behind. He worked the 2nd week. On time every day & worked whil there. Friday got his check for the previous week & went to a local "Private Club". (dont tell the mother of a young girl I will introduce you to in a moment that availability offers tax $$$$ & not trouble, but that is another thread)
Offered a lady ride home that had gotten a cab there because of no vehicle. When she would not let him spend the night he offered to take the 13 yr old babysitter home so she did not have to pay cab fare for that.
Don't take Perry Mason from here does it. When he finished with her he took her home, went to his Moms house & waited on the porch for the sheriff.
While in the county jail after plee bargin for 40 yr. the Mother wants me to go visit one more time before he goes to TDC. OK but he will probably not like what I have to say. He was totally bored w/ my presence. Looked w/ contempt at me the whole time.
My last statement to him was B----- you are not listening to any thing I have said.
"Nope I can't wait to get to Sugar Land. There is nothing to do in the County, I am boared here & there is plenty to do down there. They have weight room, AC, & a library." I will never forget those words.
GUARD, IT IS TIME FOR ME TO GO.
TDC is a pansey prison.

[HighVelocity]

Sugar Land TDC (Jester Unit) was not always like that. When I was a boy in grade school I'd see chain gangs working on the roadside while being watched over by gaurds with shotguns or rifles on horseback.
They'd be there and 7 am and they'd still be there at 3pm when I came home from school. Back then the unit was self supporting and had cattle and farming. Now all that land has been sold to developers and the Jester Unit is being fed by the State.

[seamusTX]

Interesting story.

I've only been living in Texas 10 years, but the reputation of Huntsville is infamous. I was thinking of those privately operated prisons. I read about one where the inmates were making so much trouble with eating utensils that they were fed mush in a paper cup three times a day.

I've never been inside a prison except for a mini-"Scared Straight" thing in high school. One guy (probably a set-up) was reaching through the bars at us and taking about "fresh meat."

- Jim

[longtooth]

Yes sir. As a boy in Jr Hi one of the Assemblies we had was a former prison inmate that came to our school. He showed us 3 things from Huntsville State Prison system.
1. A replica of the electric chair. Showed how they belted the deserving occupant in, put a wet sponge on wrists, ankles, & shaved head.
2. What they called "the bat". It was a long & wide heavy leather strip. Probably 4"wide by 3' long. A good heavy handle. The whipping tool.
3. The rail. Triangular rail that could be adjusted to any hight. They had to straddle it barely able to touch the floor on tiptoes.
He talked a lot & I remember the things he showed us but can only remember his last 5 words. When he finished he said, Be good. Dont go there. And he walked off. I remember the silence of the return to class. No on talked for a good while.

[longtooth]

HV. Correct. All of HSP system was self supporting until William Wayne Injustice got a hold of it. The farms raised all the meat, foods, sheep for wool. What they could not raise they bought with proceeds from the excess that they harvested or made. No cost to the state. Now it is a bottomless money pit. I also remember Bayless Elimentary School Social Studies. Texas Penal system was the largest SINGLE producer of wool & Mohair in Texas. Remember Bayless Elementary & Rebel Park. Remember Bayless Elementary & Rebel Park.

[kw5kw]

17 July ‘06
Monday

Russ;

“Hip hop body rock, let me hear your aggie drop.�
“One, two, three and a four step.�
“This ain’t nothin’ but physical fitness.�
“Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, paso.�
“Body Rock and aggie drop, handle your business.�

If you saw the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou� remember the guys when they’re out in the cotton field workin’? That’s similar to us when we’re “hittin’ on it.� We’re all lined up facing the same way swinging our aggies in time, hitting the ground at the same time. Stepping at the same time. Three hits and on the fourth we take a step.

Yes, I’m back in the fields after changing units. I’m 40 miles from Houston. I left Stepenson on the 6th and got here on the 7th...�

This is the last letter from a friend of mine whom I correspond with. (I’ve got to write him back.) He’s in TDC for a sexual charge doin’ 20. Sure missed up his life.

I send him religious articles and books (from a book store) and we do get into some really good religious debates in letter form. Praise the LORD above that he’s found Christ.

CM goes on to say in this letter: “Stephenson was a laid back farm but this place is even more so. The Asst. Warden told me the day I got here that they try to run a very laid back farm. “You screw up, you get shipped.� I’ve seen things here that would send the admin at Stephenson into hysterics…� then he goes on to complain about the shower facilities in a unit that “was built five to ten year either side of 1933.�

The normal person on the street has no idea of what it’s really like in prison! I didn’t, not until I went down on a trip with our church once. That’s when I met some and heard some of their stories. I’ll keep writing to CM, because we’ve become friends and he says that everyone else deserted him except his mother. He even added my wife and myself to his visitors list.

I just had to share this.

Russ

[dws1117]

Dickinson is a fairly affluent suburb southeast of Houston, and has little violent crime aside from domestic disputes.

- Jim

Wow that's news to me. I grew up there and finally left for good in 1998. Things may have changed, but there were very few of what I consider affluent people there. Mostly middle class.

In all my time there something like this was very rare. Even though it was located between Houston and Galveston it was more like a small town. If something big, such as the event, happened it was BIG news.

[seamusTX]

Everything in that area is changing. Houses that sold for $50,000 ten years ago are double that today. A lot of expensive new housing is going up. You might not recognize it.

I guess I used the word affluent to imply that Dickinson doesn't have much in the way of crime pockets.

- Jim

[John]

Sugar Land has seen an increase in home invasions over the last couple of years. We no longer open our door for unknown persons, period. Many of these invasions happen when someone is followed into their garage when parking their car. Good thing we can't get a car in ours.

It seems to me that crime in our area (older section of Sugar Land) started increasing when the sugarmill shut down a couple of years ago, but then, crime is increasing everywhere.