Scoop’s Views

Spoiled little rich kid

There is a young lady, from how it sounds in local media reports, but maybe it’s a young man. It’s a young adult, probably between the ages of 17 and 20, and the person attends a university in Philadelphia.

This fine, upstanding citizen lives in one of Philly’s suburbs, a place where, as one TV reporter described, the lifestyle is one “longed for by many.”

Why is this young person in the news? It seems that earlier this week the person drove home, maybe five to 10 miles from college, parked their car out front, went inside, and told dear old mommy and daddy, “There’s a dead baby in the trunk of my car, hidden under clothes and garbage.”

When daddy called the police, he told the cops basically what his prize child said: “There’s a dead baby in the truck of a Volkswagen parked in front of my home. Come get it.”

When the cops arrived, they found the newborn baby. Dead.

The next step was to knock on front door of the house and ask, “Who’s baby is this, and why is it dead?

Well, daddy, being the well-to-do jackass he is, told the cops he had nothing to say and to leave his property. That’s my phrasing of his comments, as the cops didn’t offer a direct quote of his comments. It’s sad they only offered a glimpse of his comments, but what they did offer is rather telling about his morals and ethics.

When reporters showed up, the family attorney got in front of the cameras, being a ham, saying something along the line of: The family didn’t have to call the cops about the dead baby in the trunk of the car. They had no responsibility to report the baby in the trunk. They called the cops to be nice.

Families that kill together …

Okay, I’m lost. The family called the cops to be “nice” when there’s a dead baby? The father (or grandfather, perhaps?) knows what happened to cause the baby to die, but no one is talking? Where is “nice” in any of this?

Well, one TV reporter asked that question, or something very close to it. The bottom-sucking attorney said:

“When the full story comes out, people will see this for the tragedy it is and feel sorry for any rush-to-judgment calls they are making.”

Excuse me? I don’t give a damn what the “full story” is. If the pond scum living in that la-tee-da house, in the la-tee-da suburb cannot talk with the cops now, giving up details as to what happened to the baby, that entire family deserves to be tossed in jail for time to think. When the coroner determines foul play, I say the entire family gets charged. Instead of “The family that prays together stays together,” something appropriate for this family would be: “The family that kills and covers up dead babies together fries together.”

Nope, I have no compassion for these people. Not after that kind of stunt.

When the coroner determines who did what — and who actually killed the baby, that person gets charged as the murderer. The rest of the family that’s decidedly not talking with investigators then gets charged as accomplices. That’s exactly what they are: accomplices to murder. They are assisting in the cover-up, too. It’s time to start making the charge fit the crime.

Attitudes stick of NYC 20 years ago

If you went to New York City in the mid-to-late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s, you found a place that wasn’t somewhat friendly. You certainly didn’t find the New York City that’s found today. There was no Ground Zero. In fact, Ground Zero was a baby — freshly built and occupied.

The one thing about New York City back then was that it was a very cold, unwelcoming place. You could die on the street, lay there for a few days, and no one would bother you. Sure, if you were impeding traffic, someone may have grabbed you and pulled you off to the side so there were no pedestrian traffic jams. If people noticed you in the same spot for a few days, they might stop, lean over, check on you. Wait, let’s clarify that. They would check to see if you had cash, jewelry, or anything of value. Being sick or dead was immaterial.

The Big Apple was so nasty back then, there were jokes about it, such as the one in the paragraph directly above. But aside from being a joke, it reflected the attitude. If you dared ask for directions, you were often greeted with a nasty barrage of curses, telling you to buy a map or asking if “I look like your personal fortune teller.”

Thinking back 11 years

This case reminds me of what sounds to be a very similar case several years ago. The differences in that case is the girl, Amy Grossberg, and her boyfriend, Brian Peterson, of Wyckoff, NJ, accepted responsibility for their youthful, lusty actions in the bedroom — right up to the birth of the baby.

During Amy Grossberg’s pregnancy, the couple somehow managed to keep the pregnancy a secret. When the baby was born, it entered this world in a Delaware hotel room, not a hospital. In fact, the baby never had the opportunity to ever be checked by a doctor, including during Miss Grossberg’s pregnancy.

See, these two spoiled rich kids hatched a plan during Amy Grossberg’s pregnancy. She and Brian Peterson would be together when she gave birth. Then, instead of allowing the baby to latch onto its mother’s breast for nutrition, the baby’s head would be punched in hopes it would die. The newborn baby was then dropped in a plastic bag and tossed into a trash bin behind the hotel.

The murdering duo from well-to-do families figured they would be safe. No one know she was pregnant. But they screwed up.

When the two were caught, well, let’s just say instant remorse settled in the pair when the grave consequences hung over their heads: prosecutors initially considered pursuing first-degree murder charges. They suggested Peterson, who attended Gettysburg (Pa.) College, and Grossberg, who attended the University of Delaware, each face the death penalty. I would have carried out the sentence for the state — for free.

Scott Peterson, Brian Peterson … hhhmmmmm

I wonder if these two low-life degenerates are related.

Once Mr. Brian got out of prison, went home, had a beer or “read” Playboy, he went back outside to talk with the media — local and national — about his time in the “joint,” as well as how he ended up getting released by being a “model prisoner.” I guess that’s a new name for bending over and grabbing your ankles for the bigger, badder, more hardened criminals, such as you see on TV and hear about in reports following prison riots, right?

Either way, I doubt Mr. Brian could be a model anything.

I’m not sure what Mr. Brian Peterson may have learned in prison, or even what impact it had on his life. Maybe it taught him that he really doesn’t want to go back. I’m actually surprised he walked out of prison alive. Even but 20 years ago, he would have been killed by his fellow prisoners for his crime.

No matter what it may have taught him, there’s one thing I am certain about: serving time in prison for the cold-blooded murder of a baby does not teach you any lesson in parenting or fatherhood.

After his release from the big house, Peterson had to serve 300 hours of community service work. I wonder if he spent any of that time talking candidly with teens about sex, what happens when the girl gets pregnant, how not to kill a baby, but also some other interesting talking points, such as:

• Putting the baby up for adoption at birth
• Abortion (which to me is not an option, but it is, however, legal in the U.S.)
• Asking a family member to raise the baby until you are responsible enough to handle the challenge
• Use protection, such as condoms, spermicidal ointments, or various other forms of birth control

Scum following scum?

After Mr. Brian’s appearance in February 2000 on the local and national news, the public seemed to develop some support for Peterson, saying he “was a victim of circumstance.”

Sure he was. His own.

I guess he never learned about the birds and the bees. Oops, I bet he did! He knew what to do to get Amy pregnant.

So now that there’s a precedent in causing public sympathy for a baby killer, I wonder if these scumbags, living in a la-tee-da ‘hood just outside of Philadelphia, are going to play the “victim of circumstance” card, trying to drum up support.

The only support I’m willing to give is this:

I volunteer to shove the needle in the arms of all involved!

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