Teen killed with Pickaxe in Queensland

[urban1]

This is a great comment.

Theres a lot of concern growing about the issue of school systems in North America which are raising kids who cant cope with life as adults. Ive read a lot of articles lately about kids how you described them who believe they are superstars because thats they way theyve been treated from kindegarden all the way thru grade 12. Then these kids who have never been criticized and have never had to deal with failure are out in the real world which isnt so kind to them and they have no mechanism to deal with failure, criticism, and the reality of everyday life in general.

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

I can hazard a guess as to why there so many rotten teens in Calgary, particularly from nice, middleclass neighbourhoods. ...

[SeeGeeWhy]

An Arrest was made today.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...7931d8&k=94328

[Thunderball]

I agree with you, Ford Prefect.

I went to school just as the mentality started to change from meritocracy to "everyone is special." I remember one time in junior high I asked my teacher why they passed this one student who failed every course, and their answer was "it wouldn't be fair to hold them back." I was disgusted (I should add in defense of the teacher, who I do respect, they seemed disgusted that they had to as well). I was grateful that I went to Bishop Carroll, since it seemed like the last bastion of meritocracy and self-responsibility. If you couldn't cut it, they booted you out, no asskissing, thats just the way it was.

However, I believe schools are just a symptom of a greater disease.

I remember when I played U-6 and U-8 soccer back in the day.... if you weren't first, second or third place in the tournaments, you got sweet beggar all for medals/trophies. A few years later, "participation medals" showed up, and it was pathetic. Yay, ninth place!

Why is it like this? Accountability. Parents don't want to take accountability for their lousy child. They expect that their child is perfect and don't take the time to read with their child, or go outside and practice catching/passing/shooting/puck control/juggling etc. with their child, or teach them morals and discipline. Instead, many are far too self-centred and lazy. They think its society's job. When their children fail, or resort to savage acts of violence, they assume its someone else's fault, rather than looking in a mirror.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Slava

Ford, I usually agree with a lot of what you say...but this time I don't entirely. The teachers are simply not the major difference over the past 15 years...its the parents. My wife used to teach, and the problem was the adults! Neither the administrators nor the parents of the children would allow you to discipline the kids.

It was either some misguided system as you describe I guess, or more commonly the parents who thought that their children were little angels and couldn't have possibly done what they were being punished for.

I don't think that it should come as a surprise that with more two income families and less parenting in general that kids lose their bearings!

You're right ... nothing is ever black and white, but rather many shades of grey. Meddling parents are a big part of the problem with schools nowadays as you point out. Not all of the problems I saw were the fault of meddling parents though. A lot of the problems were the fault of the prinicpal, administrators, and even the school board. It's not fair to single out the teachers for the brunt of the blame just because they're the visible end of the problem. However, I would hope that the teachers, through the ATA, would lobby for corrections to the problems they see in the classroom everyday. They're more intimate with these problems than anyone else, so they should be striving to be part of the solution. Many of the teachers I saw were young, uninterested and seemed to only be there for the pay cheque. The older, more experienced teachers were different, but they weren't that many veteran teachers in that school. I don't know if that is representative of the situation city-wide or not, but the school our kids went to was short on good, veteran teachers.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Eddie Bronze

When I saw the title I thought it was about something that happened in New York's Queensland, not Calgary's!

FYI, there is no Queensland in New York. You're either thinking of the borough of Queens, or Queensland, Australia.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Queensland is one of those areas that 'looks nice enough' on the surface and is surrounded by nice areas, but has a pretty bad drug problem crawling under its skin.

How do you know this? I don't know if it's true or not, but where do you get this information? Do you live there?

I can't remember the last time this community was in the news but suddenly it's the 'hood, and "drugs" are partly to blame for this murder.

[AC]

Originally Posted by fotze

Horrid quote from an article:

Lisa Poole was drawn out of her home by the loud screams of people on the street.

"A a girl ran over and asked if I knew CPR," said Poole.
Poole ran to the garage, where she saw a young girl bent over McKay, feeling for a pulse.

He was lying on his side with a pickaxe lodged in the top of his head, said Poole. "I couldn't get the image out of my mind all night.

That would be my friend's mom too.

In fact, my friend's younger brother came out to break up a fight afterwards as well. Thankfully nothing happened to him.

[LIP MAN]

I remember the Moore store getting burned and my friends who lived by there were constantly being harassed about the whole thing, just cause they had moved in as it was happening, and were young etc. Queensland isn't that bad of a neighbourhood, but there are some stupid little punks living there. I live in Ramsay and have never had my car broken into, in Queensland twice it happened. But honestly, something like this could have happened anywhere, Calgary is having a problem with crime due to growth and disparity between classes widening. It's a really classic case to be quite honest. I just hope they catch the who did this.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

How do you know this? I don't know if it's true or not, but where do you get this information? Do you live there?

I can't remember the last time this community was in the news but suddenly it's the 'hood, and "drugs" are partly to blame for this murder.

I lived there from 1991 - 2000 and that is just the culture I saw around. For instance, bars like Capers/Cloud 9 (now Denim's I think?), The Lighthouse Pub, Filos, etc were always known as places that you could buy cocaine, or meet the people you need to know to do so.

Rumours/bragging about grow ops and meth labs were always around.

There were a lot of families that had a kid, father, or mother that had a 'history' with drugs.

I'm not saying that every community doesn't have these issues, but when I think back to it, it seemed to be very common and largely ignored.

When I lived there, there were all kinds of petty thefts, arson, B&E, sexual assaults, and robberies in the Deer Valley Mall area over the years and it definitely accelerated during the last part of the 90's, and even moreso recently. This incident is by far the worst thing to happen in that community that I can recall.

As a matter of fact, I lived on Queen Tamara Rd, very close to the street that this happened on (and the More store). The worst thing that we had to deal with was Hoser, but everything else was happening around us.. it seems to have spread to all corners in the area now.

[PowerPlayoffs06]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

How do you know this? I don't know if it's true or not, but where do you get this information? Do you live there?

I can't remember the last time this community was in the news but suddenly it's the 'hood, and "drugs" are partly to blame for this murder.

It's not unfounded. SeeGeeWhy says it all in his above post. Things really started getting bad around the late 90s and not much has changed since.

We had a grow-op on our block that was shut down a few years ago, and the house across the alley from mine was another grow-op that had been shut down a few years before that. I remember a flyer going around the community urging residents to contact police about some known dealer houses that were operating in Queensland, but nothing was being done about them.

[Thor]

Originally Posted by fotze

or my stabbing party I mentioned some time back in about '93

A few of my friends were at that party, crazy stuff.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by ken0042

So, I'm guessing you aren't a rye drinker then?

Or gin.

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

but I have never seen someone on acid act that way. If anything, people on acid act like peace loving hippies.

you've never seen anyone freakin out on acid?..the guy could have thought he was a demon that he had to slay with his magic pick axe

[Flames_Gimp]

i lived a few blocks from there 03-04..that area wasn't that bad back then ..and I was out all the time alone.

[Bunk]

Incredibly sad.

The suburbs are so dangerous.

[KevanGuy]

-----------------------------------------------------------------
CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

At approximately 11:50 p.m. on Saturday, September 29, 2007,
the Calgary Police Service responded to a report of a
disturbance in the 200 block of Queen Alexandra Road S.E.
Upon arrival, the responding officers located a deceased
male.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified the
deceased as Matthew MCKAY, 17, of Calgary. The cause of death
was determined to be a chop wound to the head.

Police have charged one man in connection with this homicide.

Marko MILJEVIC, 19, of Calgary, has been charged with one
count of second degree murder.

MILJEVIC’s next appearance in Alberta Provincial Court is
Friday, October 5, 2007, at 9 a.m.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by josh white

Incredibly sad.

The suburbs are so dangerous.

That isn't a fair statement by any means. Some suburbs are dangerous. Some are very safe. Most communities see a spike in their crime rate during the transformation from being a "young neighborhood" to a "mature neighborhood" due to the prevalence of teenagers and apathetic me-first parents. I feel much safer walking around at night in Braeside, Oakridge, Citadel, Edgemont or Woodbine than I do in the Beltline, Sunnyside or Erlton... not to mention the usual suspects like Bowness, Montgomery, Forest Lawn, Dover, The "Properties"... all of which pre-exist the modern suburb.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

-----------------------------------------------------------------
CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

At approximately 11:50 p.m. on Saturday, September 29, 2007,
the Calgary Police Service responded to a report of a
disturbance in the 200 block of Queen Alexandra Road S.E.
Upon arrival, the responding officers located a deceased
male.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified the
deceased as Matthew MCKAY, 17, of Calgary. The cause of death
was determined to be a chop wound to the head.

Police have charged one man in connection with this homicide.

Marko MILJEVIC, 19, of Calgary, has been charged with one
count of second degree murder.

MILJEVIC’s next appearance in Alberta Provincial Court is
Friday, October 5, 2007, at 9 a.m.

Canada's definition of first degree murder is pretty pathetic. Something as heinous as cracking a pickaxe into someone's skull would be first degree murder (or maximum sentence in countries without "degrees") in the United States, Italy, Finland, Norway and the UK.... and that's just the ones I know of offhand. (First Degree primarily due to the gruesomeness of the murder)

[Mayer]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

As a matter of fact, I lived on Queen Tamara Rd, very close to the street that this happened on (and the More store). The worst thing that we had to deal with was Hoser, but everything else was happening around us.. it seems to have spread to all corners in the area now.

Holy crap! HOSER! I haven't thought about that guy in years! I live about 4 houses down from where he used to live. Wow, was that a scarey guy when you were a small child. Were you one of his "victims"?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Canada's definition of first degree murder is pretty pathetic. Something as heinous as cracking a pickaxe into someone's skull would be first degree murder (or maximum sentence in countries without "degrees") in the United States, Italy, Finland, Norway and the UK.... and that's just the ones I know of offhand. (First Degree primarily due to the gruesomeness of the murder)

Now I'm no lawyer, but I don't think "gruesomeness" is a decider in what charges get laid. I think it's about pre-meditation and planning, but I ain't sure.