Re: Media Propaganda

"GeorgeL" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

| http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=22981
|
| No info on "Device" so obviously anything big enough to take off your
| fingers is a normal firework, and what the heck is she doing putting
| dynamite in the candle drawer?
|


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3 Hurt, 2 Arrested In Fireworks Incidents
By Antoinette Coulton
STAFF WRITER
New York Newsday 6vii99

Firework incidents over the weekend sent three people to hospitals in
Queens and Brooklyn and netted two arrests.

In the most serious incident, Sunday night, Vernal Bennett, 24, of 13-99
Eggert Place in Rockaway had four fingers of his right hand blown off by an
M80 firework at his home. Police said Bennett was playing with the firework
at around 10:30 p.m. when it accidentally discharged. Bennett was taken to
Jamaica Hospital and is listed in stable condition.

Police also reported two subway related fireworks incidents Sunday. In one a
woman was attacked in front of the token booth with an M80 firework at the
Liberty Avenue subway station

in Brooklyn at 10:30 p.m. She is in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital
where she was treated for burns to her arm. Police said they arrested two
youths, ages 12 and 13, and charged them with reckless endangerment and
assault. They are being charged as juvenile offenders, police said.

----------------
Girl's Hand Damaged By Firecracker
By Thomas Less
STAFF WRITER
New York Newsday 23x9

A 12-year-old girl lost most of three fingers when a powerful firecracker she
found exploded at her family's new Maspeth home, Thursday night, police
said.

Linda and her family were cleaning out their new home around 8:30 p.m.
when the girl discovered two M-80 firecrackers in the kitchen, police said.

Police are trying to determine how the M-80s, which are banned in the United
States, ended up in the kitchen. The family, which could not be reached for
comment, had just recently moved to the house from Astoria.

Her parents, Manuel and Maria, were clearing out the basement when they
heard an explosion on the first floor. When they rushed upstairs, they
discovered Linda clutching her bleeding hand, police said.

The girl had picked up one of the firecrackers when they heard an explosion
on the first floor. When they rushed upstairs , they discovered Linda clutching
her bleeding hand.

It is extremely unlikely that the firecracker could have gone off by itself, said
Brian Dixon, a spokesman with the Fire Department. He said the firecracker's
fuse might been lit before the girl picked it up.

Linda was taken to Bellevue Hospital but doctors were unable to reattach her
fingers. Although doctors were reconstructing the wound to give some
viability to her hand, It was not clear how well the girl would be able to use it.

--------------
Girl injured by Fireworks
By Eric L. Smith
STAFF WRITER
New York Newsday 14vi92

The father of a 3-year-old girl injured yesterday after a firecracker blew up in
her hand in Brooklyn was charged with reckless endangerment and
endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Anthony V, 20, was arrested after the little girl accidentally lit an M-80
firecracker that he brought over during a visit earlier yesterday, police said.
The child, whose name was withheld, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a
severed thumb and was in satisfactory condition after surgery last night.

Police said the little girl found the bag of fireworks and a cigarette lighter on
her mother's dresser.

The girl's mother was in another room at the time of the accident. The force
of the explosion severed the girl's thumb and sent fragments into her face
and stomach, police said. Three fingers on her right hand were also torn off.
An M-80 is the equivalent of a quarter stick of dynamite.

-----------------
Boy Loses 3 Fingers Lighting Firecracker
New York Times 9iii98

A 5-year-old boy who was visiting his uncle's apartment in the Bronx on
Friday night lost three fingers when an M-80 firecracker exploded in his hand,
the police said.

A police spokeswoman, said the boy, who was not identified, found the
firecracker in the bedroom of his uncle, took it to the stove and lighted it. The
boy was taken to Montefiore Medical Center, the police said.

--------------------
Two Sever Man's Fingers In LI Firecracker Attack
By Andrew Smith
STAFF WRITER
New York Newsday 27xi95

A pair of teenagers blew three fingers off the hand of a Freeport gas station
attendant early yesterday when they slipped a lit firecracker into a cash draw-
er, Freeport village police said.

Safdar Hussain of Freeport lost the index, middle and ring fingers of his left
hand when a lit firecracker known as a "blockbuster" - as powerful as a quar-
ter-stick of dynamite - exploded, police said.

The incident happened about 1 a.m. at the Sunoco at 301 W. Merrick Road,
where Hussain was working inside the cashier's booth. He had just sold two
men a bottle of iced tea and had his hand in the cash drawer to accept
payment, but instead of money, the men put the firecracker in the drawer,
police said.

Hussain was in satisfactory condition yesterday at Nassau County Medical
Center in East Meadow.

Shortly after the incident, Freeport police arrested Michael Lamb, 19, of 143
Pearsall Ave., Freeport. He was driving the car that witnesses said took the
two to the gas station and helped them escape. Later yesterday, Charles
Hodge, 19, of 21 Martha St., Freeport, turned himself in to Nassau police.

They were both charged with first degree arson, second-degree assault and
second-degree reckless endangerment, and are being held at police
headquarters in Mineola. Police are seeking a third suspect. The two are to
be arraigned this morning at First District Court, Hempstead.

-------------
M-80 Blows Off Man's Fingertips
New York Newsday 31v88

A Staten Island man lost the tips of two fingers and suffered tendon damage
in others after a string of illegal M-80 firecrackers exploded in his hand.

Police said he was playing with the string of firecrackers near his home late
Sunday night when they blew up. The heavy, cylindrical M80 firecrackers
which one police spokesman termed "like a stick of dynamite, are illegal."

Taken initially was taken to Staten Island Hospital, but later transferred to
Bellevue where surgeons have the capability to perform microsurgery on
hands. Surgeons, however, were not able to reattach the tips of two of his
fingers.


-----------------
Fireworks Harms Boy
Accident leads to a drug bust
By Jungwon Kim
STAFF WRITER
New York Newsday 2ix97


A fireworks accident that severed most of a young boy's hand turned into a
disaster for his Brooklyn relatives after a routine police investigation turned up
a cache of heroin and two illegal guns belonging to the boy's step uncle,
police said.

Jose Reyes, 10, of Rhode Island, was visiting his stepfather's parents and
brother in East New York when an M80 he was holding exploded at 9:30 p.m.
Sunday, severing four fingers on his right hand.

The freak accident turned into a legal nightmare for the family when in-
vestigators found 40 "decks" of heroin and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun in
the bedroom, as well as a .25-caliber revolver in the backyard.

----------------
Illegal Fireworks Injure Seven; One Man, Loses Three Fingers
By MICHAEL COOPER
NY Times 6vii99

Although the city's continuing crackdown on contraband fireworks succeeded
in quieting a number of neighborhoods known for earsplitting barrages on
past July Fourths, the police and fire officials said yesterday that the holiday
was marred this year by more than a half-dozen injuries caused by illegal
fireworks and firecrackers.

In one Of the most serious cases, Vernal Bennett, 24, lost three fingers on
his right hand when an M-80 firecracker he had been handling exploded at
10:30 on Sunday night in the basement of his home in Far, Rockawy,
Queens, the Police said.

Mr. Bennett, who remained in Jamaica Hospital Medical Center yesterday,
said the accident had made him forswear firecrackers. "I'd tell kids, 'Don't
mess with it,, " he said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed. "That's
about it.-


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Firework Harms Boy
Accident leads to a drug bust
New York Newsday Tuesday 2 September 1997

By Jungwon Kim
STAFF WRITER

A fireworks accident that severed most of a young boy's hand
turned into a disaster for his Brooklyn relatives , after a routine
police investigation turned up a cache of heroin and two illegal
guns belonging to the boy's step uncle, police said.

Jose Reyes, 10, of Rhode Island, was visiting his stepfather's
parents and a brother in East New York when an M880 he was
holding exploded at 9:30 p.m Sunday, severing four fingers on his
right hand.

The freak accident turned into a legal nightmare for the family
when investigators found 40 "decks" of heroin and a 9mm
semi-automatic handgun in the bedroom, as well as a .25-caliber
revolver in the backyard, said Officer John Giammarino, a police
spokesman.

A "deck" contains 10 bags of unspecified size, Giammarino said.
Officials were unable to give a dollar figure for the street value of
the stash.

Investigators arrested the boy's step uncle, Jose Pacheco, 25,
who resides at an apartment at 2569 Pitkin Ave. in East New York
with the boy's step grandparents.

As Jose Reyes underwent surgery on his hand yesterday at
Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, Pacheco awaited
arraignment in night court on several criminal charges, a
spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney said.

Jose Reyes remained in stable condition yesterday, a hospital
spokesman said, as family members tried to make sense of the
night's unfortunate turn of events.

"I'm worried first about the kid," said Yvette Rivera, 23, the boy's
stepaunt and one of Pacheco's 12 siblings. "My brother is a man,
and he can handle himself, but the kid lost four fingers, and that's a
tragedy."

The boy's mother traveled to New York early yesterday morning,
and his stepfather ? Rivera and Pacheco's brother?set off by car
from I Rhode Island yesterday afternoon, she said.

Rivera recalled she had just returned to her home in Park Slope
after playing with the boy at a park near her parents' apartment
building when she heard about the accident.

By the time police let her up to the apartment, she said, the boy
had been whisked away to the hospital and her brother to the
police station.

Pacheco was charged with criminal possession of a controlled
substance with intent to sell, a felony charge that carries a
sentence of 12 1/2 to 26 years according to Brooklyn DA
spokesman Patrick Clark. Pacheco also was charged with a
misdemeanor count of drug possession, possession of an illegal
weapon and reckless endangerment of the welfare of a child.

Rivera said she did not think her brother was involved in selling
drugs. She said she thought he was framed by an unidentified man
who visited the house earlier in the day.

The District Attorney's office plans to ask for "a substantial
amount of bail to reflect the seriousness of the charges," Clark
said.


---------

Deaf Boy, 4, Loses Hand in Blast Of Firecracker in Queens Home
New York Newsday 3ix94
By DENNIS HEVESI

The left hand of a 4-year-old deaf boy, who relies on sign language to communicate, had to be amputated
yesterday after it was mangled when a large firecracker that the boy was playing with exploded, the police said.

Experts who work with the deaf said the boy, Rayangelo A of Far Rockaway, Queens,
should be able to learn sign language using only one hand. He was
in stable condition last night at Bellevue Hospital Center in
Manhattan.

The hospital's chief resident in hand surgery, Dr. Geoffrey Fenner, said most of Rayangelo's hand had been
destroyed. "There was no semblance of normal hand anatomy," he said.

At Grandmother's Home

Rayangelo was at the home of his grandmother, Doris, Gateway Boulevard, Far Rockaway, when the accident
occurred about 9:30 A.M., said a police spokeswoman, Officer Bernadette Rainy.

"The grandmother had just fed him and went to another room when she heard the explosion," Officer Rainy said.
The boy's uncle, whom the police could not identify, ran downstairs and drove Rayangelo to St. John's Episcopal
Hospital nearby. Officers responding to the grandmother's call placed remnants of the boy's fingers in ice and took
them to the hospital.

An Emergency Services officer, who has done volunteer work with the deaf for 12 years, flew with the boy aboard
a police helicopter to Bellevue. Because of his injury, and with an intravenous line in his other arm, Rayangelo, who
has been deaf since birth, could not communicate. Using sign language, "I told him to relax, the doctors are going
to fix him," Officer Fischer said.

The news that Rayangelo hand could not be saved hit hard, he said, "because of my work with the deaf and also
because he's the same size as my 4-year-old son."

Signing With One Hand

The director of program services at the Lexington Center for the Deaf in Jackson Heights, Queens, said it was
very likely the boy would be able to learn to sign with only one hand. "it takes a little rearranging, compensating, but
he'll certainly be able to communicate," told The Associated Press.

Dr,. Fenner said Rayangelo would soon enter physical therapy and be fitted with a prosthetic device that should
allow him to "carry on daily functions."

The police were investigating to determine what type of firecracker caused the injuries, and how it got into the
grandmother's house,


---------
JERRY NACHMAN
Bizarre is the norm if you're a coroner

MEDICAL examiners, like many other like many members of a profession, meet at
conventions each year.

While the day's business is usually the presentation of scientific papers, there is usually
a nightly gabfest in someone?s hotel suite. Coroners and medical examiners from
around the country screen slides of their most unusual cases.

In a darkened hotel room, the slide projector's fan and the clink of ice in cocktail
glasses provide odd background noise as the presenting doctor describes 0a case
and the sometimes subtle signs nature chooses to reveal how a life ends. .

It was at one of these conventions in Chicago that I saw a slide of a naked man on a
stainless steel table. The pathologist described the visible wounds. Someone setting on
the floor asked if a magnet had been applied to the coins found in the deceased's
clothing.

When the answer came back "yea" and the results described as positive, the smiling
doctors hem up their glasses in salute: it seems that in serious lightning strikes, the
electrical charge can be so strong as to magnetize all the metallic objects on the victim's
body, including nonmagnetic items like coins.

This interchange of grisly trivia has contributed to much of what we know about sex
crimes, child abuse, environmental hazards and heretofore unknown forms of suicide.

And soon, thanks to the curiosity of three detectives in the New York Police Dept., the
medical literature will have a horrible new entry.

This case began late last month in Queens, at 54th St. and 31st Ave. informed police
found the body of a 37 year old man in the courtyard of a residential complex.

The victim's face had literally been blasted away: Queens Homicide Detective Jim
Curran tentative! assessed the death as a shotgun homicide.

But there were loose ends. No visible exit wound And some strange findings by Dr.
Josette Montez the Queens deputy medical examiner. A penny was found in the
victim's head, along with another foreign object The longer you're a cop, the less willing
you are to accept the obvious. The veteran Curran had too many questions He called
the department?s Bomb Squad and asked then to visit the scene.

Detectives Peter Dalton and Kevin Barry, not usually partners, worked together on this
case. They reexamined the place where the body was found. More pennies were on the
ground. They widened the search. Forty-five feet away they made a gruesome
discovery?a piece of a human lip. And yet more pennies. Half a football field away?in
the opposite direction?a piece of an ear.

The bomb experts also found aluminum foil, a bit of which had the impression of a
penny etched on it. They drew a map of the places they'd found tissue, pennies, tape
and foil. The lines intersected precisely where the body was found.

It was time to meet with the medical examiner. They looked at X-rays and measured
holes in the mouth and tongue. Calipers and metric rulers sized them at the exact
diameter of a penny.

Detective Barry exhaled and voiced his theory. The victim had taken a Super M
80 firecracker, surrounded it with loose pennies, wrapped it all in aluminum foil and
taped the package together.

He left the apartment in which he lived with his father, went to the courtyard and placed
the homemade bomb?roughly the size of a small apple?into his mouth and lit the
fuse.

The detectives phoned the victim's brother. They learned the victim had argued with his
father shortly before his body was found. The police received permission to enter the
apartment and found aluminum foil and masking tape on the kitchen counter, a
collection of pennies in the deceased's bedroom.

So in some Journal of forensic pathology to be published soon, medical detectives will
learn about a new form of death?suicide by fireworks?and shake their heads in horror
and wonder.


---------
No Luck!!


>From the UPI News Wire
ROSCOE, N.Y. (UPI) 4 July 1989_

Garret B, 25, was camping with a friend Monday evening at Hunter Lake in
the Catskill Mountains about 125 miles northwest of New York City, when he
lit an M-80 with a short fuse and it blew up in his hand. He was first taken to
Community General Hospital where he was stabilized and then transferred by
ambulance at midnight to the Westchester County Medical Center, where he
is in serious but stable condition. Operated on early Tuesday morning by a
plastic surgeon and an eye surgeon. He lost his thumb, index and little fingers
on his right hand. A finger torn off by the explosion lodged in his eye, causing
him to lose the eye. He also suffered powder burns on his face.

---------
9 Killed as Illegal Fireworks Shed Explodes in Ohio
New York Times 21v85

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, May 20 (UPI)

A shed full of what local authorities said were illegal fireworks exploded today killing
nine people and leaving two big craters.

The bodies were scattered across a wide area of Beaver Township outside of
Youngstown.

A search of the area determined that nine people were killed in the explosion, which left
one crater 10 feet across and up to 5 feet deep, and another 8 feet across and 3 feet
deep.

?They haven?t identified anybody yet? officially, Sheriff Nemaeth said. ?ITS NOT A
MATTER OF BEING BURNED, IT?S A MATTER OF BEING IN VERY SMALL PIECES.?

-------------
Fireworks bootlegging is under federal probe.
Chicago Tribune 24iv83

THE SHED behind Theodore Boruch?s bungalow in the west end of Hobart, Ind.
Disappeared in two rapid explosions.

ONE SEVERED HIS LEGS AT THE KNEES; THE OTHER CATAPULTED HIS
FLAMING BODY 150 FEET THROUGH A STAND OF TREES AND INTO A FIELD.

------------
Fireworks factory blast kills 11
?Bodies lying everywhere?
New York Post, 28v83

BENTON, Tenn. (UPI) ---
An unlicensed fireworks factory exploded on a farm yesterday, killing at least 11 people
in a series of blasts that formed a mushroom cloud and hurled bodies into trees and
through the roof of a nearby house.

?WE HAVE COUNTED 10 TORSOS, BUT IT IS A PRETTY GORY SCENE AND
THERE ARE PARTS OF BODIES. THERE MAY POSSIBLE BE MORE BODIES,
THERE WAS NOT A SINGE BODY THE WAS INTACT,? [County Sheriff Frank] Payne
said.


-----------

Firecracker Injures Teacher

This story was reported by William Douglas, Emily Sachar and Clem Richardson and
was written by Richardson.

A potentially Lethal firecracker, lighted and thrown into a Brooklyn classroom as a
prank yesterday, exploded in the hand of a 71-year-old teacher who tried to extinguish
it.

Mary Strasser, a well-liked reading teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School who
planned to retire next month after 29 years in the city system, was hurt when the M-80
firecracker, which explosive experts said detonates with the force of a quarter stick of
dynamite, blew up in her hand.

"I guess that's what they mean by going out with a bang," Strasser said while awaiting
surgery last night at Brookdale Hospital in Queens. "I guess I'll retire with a bang."

In the Brooklyn incident, two students, one of whom held the M-80 while the other
lighted it in the hall, were arrested and being held on assault and reckless
endangerment charges. Police and school officials said the two did not intend to hurt
the teacher.

"The tragedy is that this was just irresponsibility on the part of the students," said
Principal Carol Beek. "There was no anger, no maliciousness directed at her. It was just
some silliness, and look what happened."

Strasser was rushed to Brookdale, where surgery was required to repair three fingers
on her right hand, a hospital spokesman said. She was alert and in stable condition last
night.

LeShawn Perry, 16, of 301 Sutter Ave., and Charles Thomas, 18, of 335 Sutter Ave.,
both juniors, were arrested at the school after fellow students, upset at the incident,
pointed them out to police, Beck said.

Strasser and police spokesman Sgt. John Clifford gave this account:

Strasser was acting as substitute teacher, monitoring about 50 students at a lecture
by a New York University counselor about college admission procedures in Room
408 about 10:12 a.m.

Thomas and Perry, standing in the hall, threw the firecracker into 'the room. It rolled
under a student's desk.

Beck said there have been previous incidents of students setting off the powerful
type of firecracker in the halls and stairways, but never in a classroom.

Strasser stepped on the stem of the inch-long firecracker, and, believing she had put
it out, picked it up and I tried to pull the fuse.

"It was fizzing," she said. "The kids didn't move. I went over and tried to put it out by
stomping it. I was throwing it in a trash basket when it went off. It was a deafening
explosion.

"I had to pick it up," Strasser said. "I had to get it out of the classroom. I never
realized how powerful it was, but what other alternative was there?"

"She picked it up and it was still smoking," Beck said. "The children yelled at her to
put it down, but she was, too concerned about their safety."

The big blast that makes the M-80 one of the most popular illicit fireworks also
makes it one of the more dangerous. The M-80 name was first lent to a firework used
by the military to simulate hand grenade explosions, said Sgt. Jospeh Ahern of the
Police Bomb Squad.

"During the fireworks -season [around July Fourth] many kids lose their hands and
fingers to this fireworks," Ahern said. "They can take your fingers and flesh right off."

After the blast, an assistant principal tried to stem the flow of blood from Strasser's
hand. Strasser is also a diabetic, so another staff member gave her orange juice.

"I got a little faint after I lost some blood," Strasser said.

Strasser suffered a slight break in her middle finger, cuts to the two adjoining fingers,
and torn flesh on her hand. "I'm lucky," she said at the hospital. "I could have lost my
hand, or my eyesight."

Strasser's students were "very upset" by the incident, Beck said. Guidance
counselors were sent to the classroom to calm some students down.

Strasser joined the school system as a substitute teacher in 1959, Robert Terte, a
schools spokesman, said. She became a full-time, tenured faculty member in 1965, the
same year she joined Thomas Jefferson as a English and reading teacher.

She plans to be married, for the second time, this summer, Strasser said.

"She's well liked," Beck said. "Because of her age, she's like a mother figure at the
school."

Thomas. and Perry were "average" students at the school, Beck said. "They knew the
way to the dean's office," said Beck. "But they were sorry about what happened, as
sorry as everybody else in the building."

Both teens were immediately, suspended from school, Beck said. Both were being
held at central booking in Brooklyn pending arraignment last night, a police spokesman
said.

---------
Next, maybe a Molotov, cocktail party

>From the NY Daily News [undated]

Sally Marmer and Estelle Silverhardt had a blast ? a REAL blast
? on their birthday.

Since both of their birthdays fell on March 16 ? Silverhardt
turned 54 and Mariner turned 68 ? they had a joint celebration,
with four friends invited to Silverhardt's home in Greenburgh,
Westchester County.

And, of course they had a cake.

The six lit the wick and were singing "Happy Birthday" when the
party went bust - or, actually, BOOM!

Candles were the only thing missing, so Silverhardt searched
through a few kitchen drawers until she came across a short, fat,
red-and-white wax cylinder with a wick.

The "candle" turned out to be an M-80 firecracker with the
explosive equivalent of about a quarter of dynamite.

The six cake covered women drove themselves to White Plains
Medical Center for treatment of minor burns.

You should have seen their faces (at the hospital) when we told
them what happened," Mariner said yesterday. "Fortunately,
nobody was really seriously hurt."
"
Marmer and Silverhardt plan to recelebrate their birthdays tonight.
But nothing Marmer said, will match Thursday.

?It was a blast.? She said.



--
donald j haarmann
----------------------------
"Tramp" explosives or detonators are like
poisonous snakes -- usually strike when least
expected. More often than not, they badly maim
or destroy the eyesight or other parts of the
body of their victims.


US Bureau of Mines
IC7038


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