Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and PhotosHappened in America?
The grisly story that has shocked Americans the past few days is still something ranging from for completely unbelievable to a tale out of the worst nightmare of horror flicks. Occurring on or about September 15, in the predominantly African American community of East St. Louis Illinois, across the Mississippi River from its larger namesake, St Louis Missouri. Jimella Hall, a 23 year old mother of three, and seven months pregnant to boot, was knocked unconscious and her unborn fetus literally cut from her body by her 24 year old babysitter, Tiffany Hall (pictured above). Jimella’s children, Demond, aged 7, Ivan, aged 2, and baby Jinella , aged 1, were later found stuffed into the mother’s washer and dryer in their E. St. Louis ‘project’ apartment.
Though the subject of an intense search, the children were only found inside these appliances after several days when the smell of their decomposing bodies led police to look inside to find their grisly remains. Later, forensic tests revealed the children had been drowned before being ‘laid to rest’ inside the Whirlpool appliances.
Ms. Hall, who had notified the police that the now dead fetus was her own still-born child, later divulged most of the details of these extremely horrific events. She has two children of her own, now safe in Police custody.
The events noted here may come to a shock to many, especially those living outside the United States. Others, especially those involved in social work and related professions, are acutely aware that such occurrences happen all to often; especially to members of this country’s poorer minority elements of society. What has made this series of events so shocking, however, was the manner in which they occurred – especially in regards to a live fetus being cut out of it’s mother’s womb. This only indicates that America is far from being a perfect society, and that in reality, more than a third of all Americans, especially from minority groups, live under the poverty line. Many live in these ‘project condominiums’; often inhabited by single mothers who are living on welfare or near-welfare subsistence levels. These people, often several generations, have little or no hope to improve their circumstances; resulting in their lives being filled with drugs and violence, coupled with living in truly wretched living conditions.
Israel is not immune to problems involving the country’s poor and disadvantaged citizens, and numerous incidents of domestic and family violence are often noted, including the most recent in which a young immigrant father (from the CIS countries) threw his two children from the balcony of their second story apartment. More than 1,200 cases of domestic violence have been reported in Israel so far this year, and from all indications, with the state of the country’s economy following the 34 day Lebanon conflict, the situation is bound to get worse before it gets better, with the weaker elements of society being the ones involved most in these incidents of family-related violence.
As for acts of violence in America, it appears that the so-called “American Dream” is really a nightmare for more than 35 million Americans, making it no wonder that many are being attracted to various cults, and to religious groups which may preach violence as a means to solve problems. The reality of this tragedy means that government officials, both local and national, had better concentrate more on solving their country’s social problems before trying to be the ‘policemen of the world’.
Ed Gordon said,
September 26, 2006 @ 8:13 pm
Horrible, but revealing! America is far from being a
perfect society, and many of these poorer classes wind
up in the US Armed Forces, and are serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan. This was revealed, negatively, when the Abu
Ghairab prison incident made so much news.
The event in E. St. Louis is no less shocking than
what happened in African countries like Rewanda,
Liberia of in Sudan (in Darfur, for example). That it
happened in America is especially disturbing.
virginia said,
September 27, 2006 @ 2:59 am
Who has ever viewed America as a “perfect socity”? No such thing. We are all dealing with the “good vs. evil” thing. As the “good” gets better and better, the “evil” seems to be getting more and more horrific everywhere. To think these two women grew up together and were “friends”. Aweful.
LA Guy said,
September 27, 2006 @ 10:38 am
All it proves is that America has mentally ill people. No one who lives here would suggest that America is perfect, far from it, but I wouldn’t draw any conclusions from the poverty rate relating to the act of a clearly mentally ill woman. Sadly this happened last year(?) too. That time it was two white women involved. Mental illness is apparently color blind.
Also the US is closing in on 300 Million citizens, so if 35 million are living below the ‘poverty line’ it is not as if it’s a huge percentage of the population. No question as a society we should do whatever is practical to help the less fortunate. But I’ll bet most of the world doesn’t know that the top 50% of earners pay nearly 97% of the federal taxes (the top 1% of earners pay 37%). Contrary to popular belief America spends a fortune on medical care and education for all of it’s citizens. Our problems have more to do with the way the money is spent than lack of commitment.
Sadly religion infiltrates all socio-economic levels, although it’s no doubt more appealing to those living in poverty than educated, upper class professionals. But again, as much as I dislike religion I wouldn’t link it to this sort of act of violence. Even if she had thought Jesus Christ had commanded her to do it, it wouldn’t be an indictment of the religion, just a crazy person committing a horrible act of violence.
But I’m with you on the U.S. not policing the world. You can bet when the dust settles on Iraq it will be a long time before the U.S. participates in an ‘elective’ war. I think it will be like Vietnam in that regard. Of course what happens the next time the world needs a policeman? I’d hate to have the fate of my country resting on intervention of the UN or even Europe.
virginia said,
September 27, 2006 @ 6:59 pm
Lots of good points LAGuy, glad you popped in. This is a tuff one for any sane person to comprehend.
MPicow said,
September 28, 2006 @ 6:27 am
Years ago, I spent some time in St. Louis and occasionally read a
tabloid called The Evening Whirl, put out in E. St Louis. All kinds
of ‘interesting’ events involving the population living there were graphically portrayed in this paper, including photos.
Taking this tragic story into account, together with many other incidents which occur too frequently in America, nothing surprises me except this particular event, which denotes barbarity in its
most graphic form. Of course, back in WWII, the Nazis did a bit of this too, especially one Dr. Josef Menegle in the Auschwitz death camp. But in this case, it was done for the sake of ’science’.