Category: Florida

 

Before we get into this latest “Florida man” story, let me ask you a trivia question: Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance?

If you knew it was Francis Bellamy, congratulations! You’re a winner, and I’ll permit you to contribute $17.76 to the tip jar. You’re welcome.

What? Never mind.

Very few people would recognize the name Francis Bellamy and although I didn’t know much about his biography, I did know he was the author of the Pledge. But here’s a trivia fact that I learned today: Bellamy, a native of New York, spent the last years of his life in Tampa, Florida.

Now, here’s the latest news from Tampa:

Parents of children who attend a Hillsborough County elementary school are breathing a sigh of relief after authorities stopped a man they said was planning a campus stabbing.
According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Andrew Ivan Aman, 22, was planning to enter Francis Bellamy Elementary School and stab students and staffers. He allegedly told his roommate about his plans around 9 a.m. Tuesday. . . . .
Aman targeted Francis Bellamy because the school’s red, white, and blue colors reminded him of the American flag, and he was against patriotism, authorities said. . . .
Aman, who has been diagnosed with mental health issues in the past, is being held under the Baker Act at a hospital. Investigators found no weapons at his home.
Aman was arrested in May 2018 on an aggravated assault charge.

It should be obvious why a school named after the author of the Pledge of Allegiance would have a red-white-and-blue theme, but what are the chances that this kook knew who Francis Bellamy was?

Aman is a native of Russia who attended a performing arts school in Tampa. He reportedly has a history of severe mental illness and two years ago wrote on Facebook: “Patriotism is not defined by the love you have for your ‘country’. Tis the respect and natural humility you have for the earth and society around us whether that be in our neighborhood or statewide, so yes I can say I am a patriot of god.” Despite his self-declared devotion to “respect and natural humility,” Aman wanted to kill children, according to a police bulletin:

The bulletin says Aman concealed a kitchen knife in a handbag and was headed for the school with the intent to “stab as many children as possible.” . . .
The document said Aman targeted the school because he hates the United States and “the school’s ‘obnoxious pride in America’ as illustrated by the large American flag mural on the front of the building.”

Just another typical Democrat voter in Florida . . .

Anyway, I hate to be rattling the tip jar again so soon — I just got back from Georgia on Monday — but we leave early Saturday morning to take our youngest son off to college. It’s a 566-mile drive, and Mrs. McCain is expecting me to help foot that bill. Selah.

 

 

Just another random coincidence:

A Florida man who had sex with two women while knowingly withholding his HIV positive status was sentenced to a decade behind bars.
Rasheem Ikey Bodiford, 27, was sentenced Friday after being found guilty on three felony counts of having sex with another person without notifying that person of his condition. He was sentenced last week to 10 years in state prison and five years probation.
According to an arrest report obtained by the Pensacola News Journal, Bodiford encountered the two women in the period from September 2016 to October 2017 and, during that time, failed to inform them he carried the virus which can lead to AIDS.
One of the victims told police that, in June 2017, she tested positive for HIV and that her last sexual partner was Bodiford. She also told law enforcement that she saw him in possession of medication used to treat the condition and he told her he was simply selling the drug for his uncle.
Police say Bodiford was aware of his HIV status since September 2016.

Of course, risk of sexually transmitted disease is not random. In 2017, black people, who are 13% of the U.S. population, “accounted for 43% (16,694) of HIV diagnoses” in the nation, according to the CDC. New HIV infections among heterosexual women (6,341 in 2017) were more than twice as common as among heterosexual men (2,829), and the number among black heterosexual women (4,008) was more than four times the number among white heterosexual women (999).

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

 

 

Everyone knows that when you see “Florida Man” in a headline, the story’s going to be crazy, but “Florida Woman” is not to be ignored:

Escambia County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) has arrested 25-year-old Keriah Renea Giomi for aggravated battery after a report says she attempted to stab a man in the stomach with a hunting style knife.
According to the report, ECSO was called out to 300 block of Wenger Avenue on Sunday regarding an armed disturbance.
When deputies arrived on the scene the report says, they found blood droplets on the concrete driveway and observed the front porch to be wet.
A deputy stated in the report, Giomi met him at the door and made a spontaneous statement that was redacted from the report. ECSO says Giomi continued to repeat the phrase and later placed in handcuffs.
The sheriff’s office says in the report, they were notified that a stabbing victim had checked into Sacred Heart Hospital and told them while he was in the bathroom on Wenger Avenue, he heard a woman screaming and went to see what the problem was.
The victim told ECSO when he left the bathroom, Giomi standing there naked holding a hunting style knife with a hook on the end and yelled, “Jehovah” and attempted to stab him in the stomach, says the report.
The victim stated in the report, he tried to grab the knife to stop her and received cuts on his hands.
ECSO says the man told him in the report, he pushed Giomi away in an attempt to run out of the door but she ran to the front door locked it and trapped him inside the house.
The arrest report says, the victim as he ran around the house to try to escape Giomi she cut him across the back multiple times.
The victim told deputies he managed to push Giomi into a room lock her in and was able to get out of the house, says the report.
The report revealed, witnesses stated in the report they saw a woman running around naked outside chasing a black male with no shirt on.

Escambia County is the Pensacola area, incidentally, and it’s perhaps unfair to blame Florida for this woman’s bizarre behavior, because the only Keriah Renae Giomi I can find online is from Lake Havasu City, Arizona. How she ended up in Florida, running around naked with a knife chasing a black man and yelling, “Jehovah,” I don’t know.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.)

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Clockwise from top left: Henderson, Jackson, Jones, Reddish.

The perpetrators reportedly confessed:

Four teenagers are in custody after deputies say they used an online sale meetup to beat a man and rob him of $400 in the Starbucks parking lot in Sarasota.
Around 12:30pm on Sunday, deputies were called to the Starbucks on Cattlemen Road. The 39-year-old victim told deputies he had intended to use the “LetGo” mobile app to buy an iPhone, but when he met up with the seller, he was repeatedly hit in the head, pepper sprayed and robbed of $400. He did not get the phone.
The suspect fled in a four-door beige/gold vehicle and witnesses told deputies they saw three other people inside, including a woman who was counting the money.
Deputies tracked down the seller on the LetGo app and found the post was created at a home on the 2200 block of 25th Street in Sarasota. Jordan Jackson, 18, lives there and was brought in for questioning on Tuesday. Deputies say he confessed to planning the crime with his girlfriend, 18-year-old Taylor Henderson, as well as 18-year-old Marvin Jones. Deputies say Jackson told them that he and the others brought in 19-year-old Brandon Reddish to commit the actual robbery.
Jones was allegedly driving the vehicle involved in the robbery. Deputies say they tracked down the vehicle and found a can of pepper spray and blood stains on the front passenger seat. They questioned Jones, who they say also confessed to his role in the crime.
Deputies say Henderson posted the iPhone for sale on the LetGo app and the photos have her head and hands in them. Deputies say she also matches the description given by witnesses of the woman seen in the vehicle counting money. Deputies say Henderson admitted her role in the crime and told them that they split the $400 evenly.

Look, I don’t want to promote negative stereotypes about Florida teenagers. There must be lots of Florida teenagers who aren’t criminals. It’s just that the law-abiding teenagers in Florida never make news.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.)

 

 

Florida? Yes, of course, it’s Florida:

The young American cannibal Austin Harrouff, 22, will go on trial for murder on November 4, reports WPTV in Palm Beach, Florida.
Harrouff, as you will recall, was arrested in August 2016 when he was discovered biting off the face of 59-year-old John Stevens III, after having killed him.
Harrouff was removing the victim’s flesh with his teeth, according to police. It took several officers, a police dog and a stun gun to pry the determined cannibal from the body. Stevens’ wife, 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon, was found dead in the couple’s garage.
Harrouff also allegedly attacked a neighbor who managed to call 911 before being airlifted to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for his injuries.
This wasn’t the first time that Florida police have been called to a face-eating scene. In 2012, Miami resident Rudy Eugene became known as the “Causeway Cannibal” after he was arrested for orally removing most of the flesh from the face of a homeless man who survived the attack.
Authorities initially said the Causeway Cannibal was tripping on bath salts at the tie, but drug tests revealed him to be clean and sober.
Similarly, when Harrouff was arrested, Marin County Sheriff William Snyder blamed it on drugs: “When we see a case like this, when someone is biting off pieces of somebody’s face, could it be flakka, the answer is it absolutely could be a flakka case.”
Flakka, technically known as Alpha PVP, is described by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as “chemically similar to other synthetic cathinone drugs popularly called ‘bath salts’” which can cause “hyperstimulation, paranoia, and hallucinations that can lead to violent aggression and self-injury.”
But it turns out that Harrouff wasn’t on flakka after all, according to toxicology reports obtained by People magazine.
Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychologist . . . concluded that Harrouff believed he was “half-dog, half-man” at the time of the brutal attack.

In case I haven’t reminded you lately, crazy people are dangerous.

 

 

Internet porn addiction turns deadly:

A Florida man is accused of fatally shooting his parents and brother after stealing $200,000 from them to pay a Bulgarian webcam model he met as a result of his addiction to online porn, police say. Grant Amato, a 29-year-old nurse, killed his family members at their home in Chuluota on January 25, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
Amato was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, Margaret Amato, 61; father, Chad Amato, 59; and brother, Cody Amato, 31, the sheriff’s office said. Amato’s surviving brother and Cody’s girlfriend told detectives Grant Amato had stolen the money so he could keep talking to the Bulgarian woman online and that resulted in a deteriorating relationship with his family. Cody’s girlfriend told police Cody told her he feared “Grant Amato would kill everyone,” according to court documents. . . .
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the triple homicide in rural Chuluota, Florida, on January 25, after a co-worker called police to express concern that Cody Amato hadn’t come to work. When deputies entered the Amatos home on Sultan Circle about 9 a.m., they found three people dead inside. They were later identified as Margaret Amato, Chad Amato and Cody Amato, according to the sheriff’s office. . . .
Cody Amato’s girlfriend told investigators that over the past few months there had been “problems” with Grant Amato. She said Grant stole $60,000 from Cody and also stole his guns and sold them without his permission. She told police that Grant Amato had been placed in a facility because he was unstable and her boyfriend told her he was afraid that “Grant Amato would kill everyone,” according to court documents. Police said the admission to the facility in South Florida was voluntary.
Cody’s girlfriend also told police that Grant [Amato] was unemployed and had been “going downhill” after he was “kicked out of nurse anesthetist school.” She also told police that Amato was “having a relationship” with a woman from Bulgaria “and that he was stealing money from the family so he could contact the female.”
Investigators said, “It was later learned that Grant Amato had stolen approximately $200,000 from the family to purchase time to interact with the female on a pornographic website.” . . .
Grant Amato had been talking to an “online call girl” in Bulgaria and had been wiring “an excessive amount of money to her and wasn’t sure if he owed money to her,” according to court documents. Jason Amato said the woman had sent mail to Grant and given her his parents’ address.
Jason Amato told police that his brother had sent the Bulgarian woman more than $200,000 in a three-month period. But he said he had spoken to his mother on January 16 and she said everything was OK and Grant was applying for work. Jason Amato also told detectives he was aware that his brother had stolen $150,000 from his parents, including a $65,000 loan on the house, and had taken $50,000 from Chad Amato. . . .
Jason Amato told police that his brother spent about two weeks at a facility for depression. Police said Grant Amato was actually enrolled in a 60-day program to treat internet- and sex-addiction. But he only completed about two weeks before returning home, according to court documents. He returned home on January 5.
Grant Amato told investigators that on January 24 he was in a heated argument with his father and was kicked out of his home because he was continuing to communicate with the Bulgarian webcam model over the internet. Amato told police he met the girl on Cam Girls, an adult web camera website, and had been communicating with her since June 2018, while sending her $200,000. . . .
According to court documents, Amato told police his father gave him an “ultimatum” because of his addiction. His father told him if he wanted to stay at his family’s house he would have to complete the sex addiction program at Cornerstone in Fort Lauderdale. He went into the program on December 22, but left early on January 4. He returned to the Orlando area and his family held a meeting where he was given a two-page list of rules he had to follow to stay in the house, according to court documents.
“During the meeting, Chad told Grant that if he broke any of the rules he would have to leave the house immediately. One of the rules was that he wasn’t allowed to have communications with the female in Bulgaria,” police wrote in the affidavit. “Grant Amato initially agreed to the rules his father had set, but he didn’t think they were fair because he felt that the Bulgarian female was his girlfriend and they had a relationship.”

Wow. Where to begin? Let’s start with this: If you were going to steal $200,000 for a whore, why wouldn’t you find a local whore, instead of some whore in Bulgaria you met via the Internet? Like, I don’t know the going rate for whores in Seminole County, Florida, but I’m pretty sure $200,000 would buy a lot of time with whores. Just sayin’ . . .

This shows how easily people can get lost in Internet-generated illusions. Grant Amato “felt that the Bulgarian female was his girlfriend and they had a relationship” — and, in a similar way, teenagers afflicted with “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” become convinced they’re transgender after binge-watching YouTube “transition” videos. There have always been people with weird fantasies, but the Internet makes it possible for such people to spend endless hours playing make-believe until the fantasy takes on a life of its own. So this guy in Florida thinks he’s in a “relationship” with a Bulgarian camwhore and kills his parents and his brother to facilitate that fantasy. Crazy People Are Dangerous.

 

 

News from The Crazy State:

An exotic dancer in Florida was arrested Wednesday after writing about her “urges” to undertake a mass shooting in a crowded area, police said.
Brein Basarich, 31, who worked at the Showgirls Men’s Club in Plant City, admitted to posting the threats on her Tumblr account under the username “taking-lives,” Lakeland police said.

(Oh, of course she had a Tumblr blog. Of course.)

She wrote about her “vision” of using an assault rifle to fire into a crowded bar or club that only had one entrance, thus preventing people from escaping, Bay News 9 reported.
“I had a vision… of a very public place, only one way in and one way out,” Basarich wrote, according to the Bradenton Herald. “Preferably a bar/club on a busy night. 2019 has a lot in store if my plans go according!”
Basarich described herself to police officers as a true-crime lover and a “great admirer of serial killers and mass murderers,” according to the station.
“… A lot of us have urges, whether they will admit or not is the question. So yes, I have,” she wrote to another Tumblr user who asked whether she had homicidal urges, according to Action Jax 30.
Basarich was charged with making a written threat to kill or injure. She was taken to Polk County Jail but bonded out Thursday.

See, it’s not illegal in Florida to fantasize about killing people. It’s only illegal if you put it in writing on your Tumblr blog.

By the way, why call a stripper an “exotic dancer”? There’s nothing exotic about taking off your clothes for money. But I suppose it’s like how the word “gay” replaced homosexual — the more descriptive term is considered offensive, because the people to whom it is applied don’t want you to think about what it actually means. And if you were to use certain descriptive Anglo-Saxon slang terms (e.g., synonymous with performer of fellatio) this would be considered “hate speech.” In the Victorian era, the use of euphemisms was intended to uphold public decency, because it was felt that certain unsavory topics should not be discussed in the presence of women and children, lest they be degraded or corrupted by their knowledge of immoral and illegal behaviors. Since the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, however, every form of sexual behavior is not only legal, but also protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, so that strippers might conceivably claim they have a constitutional right to take their clothes off for money. If you call them what they are, by describing what they actually do, this might indicate prejudice against strippers — how dare you disapprove? — and you might as well be Hitler.

You see that the use of euphemisms — prostitutes are now “sex workers” and pornography is “adult entertainment” — has a different purpose in the 21st century than it did in the Victoria era. Instead of suppressing knowledge of sordid behaviors for the sake of moral decency, we now use euphemisms to abet and encourage immoral behaviors. The corruption of language creates a sort of unreality, wherein we are all required to pretend we don’t know what we actually know. What does “gay” actually mean? What do homosexuals actually do? We know, but we are compelled by political correctness to pretend that we don’t know, and it’s the same thing with “sex workers,” including “exotic dancers.”

Being forced to live in a world of make-believe has consequences; this is not conducive to good mental health. It should be obvious that women who work as “exotic dancers” are not recruited from the more sober and responsible elements of the community, and Brein Basaric’s employment at Showgirls Men’s Club was psychological stressful. While I’m not qualified to speak as an expert on current working conditions in the “adult entertainment industry,” back in the day, strippers were known to consume copious amounts of drugs and alcohol to enable themselves to get through a shift. Quaaludes and cocaine were the drugs of choice.

Social workers might speak of strippers as an “at-risk” group for mental health problems, and less politically correct people would simply say that a lot of these women are just plain crazy. So if Brein Basaric was secretly fantasizing about going on a mass-murder rampage with an assault rifle, well . . . crazy people are dangerous.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.)