Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: People Are Getting Stupider and Stupider

I work in the news business and I think, in general, the news agencies try to bring the most important issues to the public. However, churning out news for our twenty-four hour-a-day news networks, daily newspapers, and the massive number of Internet results in lot of repetition, sensationalism, and less-than-worthy stories making it out there.

But FirstCoastNews.Com just hit a new low today, totally embarrassing the news media with such tripe that they ought to be the laughing stock of the industry.

You know about the sad case of the little missing girl, Haleigh Cummings(pictured left) who has been missing for three weeks now. The news stories about this case are already a garish circus. Geraldo Rivera is doing his usual "irreverent" style of aggressive and tacky interviewing (though I did appreciate that he got Haleigh's father, Ronald Cummings, to look straight into the camera and lie like a dog that didn't EVER do drugs (meaning that the police must have falsely arrested him some ten times for cocaine, meth, marijuana, heroin, GHB, etc.

The girl's father, Ronald Cummings, spouts off obscenities and acts out in weird ways (check out that frightening tattoo he's got of Haleigh on his leg which looks more like the child bride of Chucky than the pretty little tyke). Add to this to a whole cast of squirrelly characters who should be on Jerry Springer - the girlfriend, Misty Croslin, who can't keep her story straight, Haleigh's mother's overly emotional fiance, and the creepy criminal cousin Missy claims is a pedophile. What should be serious news topic becomes a bad reality television show with daily outrageous episodes.

But, THIS, this "news" story just made me wonder if media outlets hire reporters and producers who just left their jobs at Petsmart the week before. This "news" story, which just appeared on FirstCoastNews.Com , required a reporter to actually drive out to this woman's house to get the "story, do the interview on camera and then get the piece approved by his boss for public viewing. Wait until I tell you the title of this "news" story! WOMEN DREAMS ABOUT HALEIGH CUMMINGS BEING IN MISSOURI.

Yes, Melanie (pictured at the top of the this post) with-no-last-name (hell, I wouldn't want them to put MY last name out there if I did an interview that made me look like I had an IQ of a Doritos chip) had a dream! That's right, folks, Melanie had a dream! Woo Hoo! Now, she doesn't even claim to be a psychic (which makes me mad as hell when media gives these frauds the time of day) or to regularly have dreams come true (like that stupid show on television). No, she simply had A dream! OMG! Breaking news! Melanie had a dream!

Well, Melanie apparently thought this dream was SO meaningful she had to go to the police with it. Even though the location at which she "saw" a dead Haleigh, a town called Addison, Missouri, doesn't even exist ...oh, wait, Melanie says she found a place in Missouri called Madison, and, in her very own words, that's close enough), she called the tip line and the television station with this earth-shattering information.

Okay, maybe this flaky goofball (I can say this without getting sued; watch the video - truth is on my side) really believes her dream will help the family or, perhaps, she is seeking her fifteen seconds of fame (and she got painfully way more than that with this interview). I don't have too much of a problem with Melanie. The world is full of fame seekers, nutcases, and weirdos and the media will be sought out by droves of them. But, and this is what has me irked, the media is supposed to be a professional entity that can tell a news story from a pile of steaming shit (this story) or an an expert in profiling or homicide investigation (someone like me) from a publicity seeking felonious moron (like bounty hunter Leonard Padilla). Yet, Padilla is brought onto Nancy Grace daily, not as part of the news story, but as a consultant, a correspondent, a professional with specialized knowledge which this buffoon clearly has exhibits he is lacking, and now, FirstCoastNews spends its time interviewing a stupid woman who had a stupid dream. WTF?

Hey, I have some "news for FirstCoast. Everyone has dreams and lots of people in Florida have had dreams about Haleigh. Is this really something to report? Do you honestly think anyone in the United States cares that some fat woman from a trailer park (okay, maybe she lives in a regular house) had a dream? Did the production team (which must have had the combined IQ of an entire bag of Doritos chips) actually discuss this "lead" and say, "Gosh, we have to get this incredible story?"

Just when you think the world can't get any stupider....

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Do You Take This Murdering Felon ...?

...to be your lawfully wedded husband?

I just heard the breaking news about the man who is on the run in Ohio after gunning down his wife (whom he married on Monday...guess THAT honeymoon is already over), her sisters, and four little children and the words, "Oh, for God's sake..." escaped my lips. I then plugged in "Davon Crawford" (the scumbag) and "felon" into Google and, whaddya know, I came up with a hit.

33-year-old Crawford has a major record (and not with a recording company). He was convicted of manslaughter in 1995 and felony assault (for shooting at a child) in 2002. He got out in 2007 and was doing drugs again. So Rose Stevens, the dead wife of Crawford, thinks this will be a great man to have in her kids' lives.

Oh, and enough about this being a "domestic dispute." Arguments between husbands and wives happen all the time. A "domestic dispute" somehow puts the blame on the dead mate for pissing them off. I don't care how bad the argument is, killing everyone in the house is not part of having a disagreement; it is mass murder committed by a psychopath. Anyway, Crawford's own son said his father got nailed for parole violation over drug possession and didn't want to go to jail. Domestic dispute, my ass.

Having said that, I basically feel sorry for those kids (hers and her sister's). There is no excuse to marry a criminal creep like this when you are supposed to be providing a safe home for your children. No excuse. None.

Oh, and here is another idiot: Kathryn Wiley-Motes. She married Richard Wiley who had gunned down his first wife nine years earlier (I guess she believed he had a good reason). Now she and her seventeen-year-old son are dead as well. Thanks, Mom!

Look, I have no objection if you want to have hot sex with a criminal, want to "help" him, or want to have someone to keep you company even if he is a lowlife scumbag. You have the right to do that and, if you are willing to risk your life to have a man in it, be my guest. But you have no right to gamble your children's lives for your own personal needs.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown