Face it, everybody loves a good murder-suicide story…
That much is obvious on the heels of little known Chiefs player J0van Belcher‘s dramatic departure from this earth this past Saturday.
I already bagged on the Star, which couldn’t wait long enough for significant details of the incident to come out, littering instead Monday’s front page with huge headlines followed by meaningless details about Belcher and his girlfriend. Not to mention grossly exaggerating the affect of the incident on Kansas Citians with bogus headlines like “Community Mourns” and “A City United In Sorrow.”
Actually, it was more a case of a city united in morbid curiosity.
But it was CNN – the vaunted cable news channel that hypes its reporting with slogans like “keeping them honest” – that went out on the biggest limb.
On news program after news program Monday CNN implied that Belcher’s rage may have been the result of head trauma suffered from years of hard hits playing football.
On show after show, CNN trotted out TV news shrink Dr. Sanjay Gupta who talked as if head trauma – not drugs, alcohol, ‘roid rage, infidelity or any of a myriad other possibilities – was the likely cause of the incident.
“On the heels of the murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chief’s linebacker Jovan Belcher, Gupta offered his insight into the relationships between football, brain injuries, and mental illness,” one story on CNN‘s website reads.
“We don’t really know enough yet to make a considered view I guess of his mental state or anything, but certainly this ongoing issue now of collisions to the head causing some kind of mental breakdown in these players, some form of depression in cases, drinking and so on,” CNN host Piers Morgan asked. “What do you make of this case, as we see again – I mean you’ve done so much on this – do you see again a potential parallel with him?”
“Well you know, I think a lot of people are certainly looking that way,” Gupta shot back. “I’ve already done some research into (Belcher’s) particular story. It’s hard, Piers, as we’ve talked about before on your program, to draw that cause and effect with this. With Jovan in particular, he had a head injury back in 2009 that was documented. Sometimes it can be what we call sub-concussive – these blows where you just get back up. Take a look at that image…”
Whereupon for the umpteenth time Gupta rolled out cartoon brain graphics illustrating that there was a good chance Belcher’s heinous act was caused by brain trauma.
Further early reporting – and not just by CNN– focused on another likely cause. That being that the couple had gotten into an argument after Belcher’s girlfriend, Kassandra Perkins came home late after a Trey Songz concert.
Now of course we know from Kansas City Police that it was Belcher who was the one out on the prowl Friday night.
The Chiefs player spent the evening and early morning hours partying in the Power & Light District, driving drunk to another woman’s apartment (that he told police was his girlfriend), passing out wasted in his car for two hours and then crashing at the apartment instead of going home to the house he shared with Perkins, his mother and his three month old daughter.
How about I go out on a limb a little now, given those details?
Perkins staying out until 1 a.m. and brain trauma weren’t the likely causes of the dispute that resulted in Belcher’s cowardly act of shooting his girlfriend “three or four times,” according to police.
Getting called out by Perkins for ongoing, blatant infidelity was more likely the culprit.
That and Belcher’s mightier than thou attitude. Who knows what kind of drugs that may or may not have been in his system (what are the odds of police checking for steroids?). That combined with Belcher’s ghetto/gangsta attitude and penchant for firearms more likely fueled his ridiculous rage.
“You can’t talk to me like that!” Belcher shouted at Perkins before shooting her.
Think about the arrogance and lack of basic human values in that single sentence.
After coming home from an all-night bender from his girlfriend’s apartment Belcher was pissed enough to kill the 22 year-old mother of his child for daring to confront him about his infidelity.
Man, that must have really aggravated Belcher’s brain trauma.
You’re right! Shame on the Star for such blatant speculation, rumor mongering, and bleeding a story beyond any natural news-worthiness. So…..what’s the latest on Jardine’s?
hahaha….nice come back kal
The ongoing quest of media to find the “reason” this happened is so ridiculous. Regardless of whether there was alcohol, drugs, head trauma, depression or a hundred other “factors” related to this case, noboby will EVER know the reason or the cause. There’s no answer here. Not now. Not 5 years from now. Anybody that claims to know the conclusion of the statement, “He killed her because…….” is delusional. Shit happens ALL the time.
The game of life is hard to play
I’m gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I’ll someday lay
so this is all I have to say.
I demand 3 more stories on this subject and Jardines by the end of the day.
Make it so Hearne.
The NFL fined Javon Belcher $250,000.00 today for an illegal blow to the head.
“A city united in morbid curiosity” Pretty well sums it up. Others have said it…I’ll repeat it. If Belcher was not a professional athlete, this is just another day at the office for KCPD.
Bingo!
“Getting called out by Perkins for ongoing, blatant infidelity was more likely the culprit.”
hearne….you mentioned belchars “gangsta/ghetto” attitude.
From one respected journalist to another…explain where you got that information.
Explain how you got that he had a gansta attitude. There’s been nothing
to say or determine that he had a “gangsta/ghetto attitude.
Sowhere do you get that.
He was not loyal to the baby’s mother (but he was not married to her)…
so you assume because of that he had a “gangsta/gehtto” attitude.
If you base your hypothesis on that then glaze whould also have
a gangsta/ghetto attitude…which i seriously doubt.
how do you go from one point to try to hypothesize (one of chuck’s words)
that he had a attitude.
And how does his “penchant for firearms” add to this try at facts.
I know many people with more firearms…one has 160 firearms…
and they don’t have a problem.
And we have no idea what the woman said to belchar…she may have
made some serious life threatening statements.
Again…just like in the harman case you jump to conclusions without
facts. And how do you know she confronted him about his infidelity…
you don’t know.
You don’t know…and thats a fact!
The unknowing, telling the unknowable to the unknowing.
The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I’m beat
and to another give my seat
for that’s the only painless feat.
“From one respected journalist to another…”
Good Lord Harley, you are beyond delusional.
dude….i was laughing my a$$ off when i wrote that.
would you not take everything so seriously…
i was justv wating for one of you to catch that phrase!
gotcha!
haha
You’ll have to stop this! I’m agreeing with you again on much of this. If the exact same thing happened with a white athlete, nobody would assume it was because of a ghetto attitude. It may have been, but none of us knew him well enough to conclude that yet. Then you are defending people owning firearms and pointing out that they don’t have a problem. You almost sound like a conservative on that. There is hope for you yet!
A tangential comment that is related to the Belcher story and the coverage of same.
Today at 2:24 PM I was rolling down the road in my work beater on the way to another job and I heard Kevin Kietzman go into detail concerning the exact amount of money Mr. Belcher’s baby was going to recieve in lieu of her parent’s deaths. It was around 50K per year to the age of 23 if she goes to college or to thje age of 18 if she doesn’t. There were also other sources of income, but Kietzman’s point, was that she is better off now, than when her mother and father were alive.
He said and this is close, “I think we all know that the baby might find out she is better off now with her parents dead than if they had lived.” Now that is a paraphrase, but it is close and categorically states Kietzman’s opinion on the matter.
I am working with a friend, and we both say, “Well maybe…” Then about 5 seconds later, I look over at him and say, “Did he just say that?”
Conjecture at some point, based on her life and the result of same might be appropriate for family members, but the local sports guy on 810 probablyu oughtta keep that sh*t to himself.
Risky radio is entertaining radio, but I would be surprised if there isn’t some blowback on that.
This is basically like what happens when the police interview 10 people following an accident to ask them what they saw and get 11 different stories (if not more). People will continue to speculate on what led Belcher to kill his girlfriend and then turn the gun on himself, but we may never get a definitive answer. Suffice it to say that it was probably a combination of factors, known and unknown, that contributed in one way or another to the tragedy that unfolded before our collective eyes this past Saturday morning. The event itself is disturbing, but this “morbid curiosity” on the part of many is even more disturbing.
Puts a whole new angle out there for golddiggers. Get knocked up with a player’s kid and then have him knocked off.
This just astonishes me.
“Now the team has to move forward. It’s tough on them. A lot of the guys … when you see somebody and played with them, your buddy, your friend … he was just too young, man.”
As the players exited the church that Belcher and Perkins attended, many were misty-eyed and declined comment.
Before boarding one of the buses that took the Chiefs to the church, running back Peyton Hillis said going to the memorial service “is going to hit the guys hard. Some guys will take it really hard.
“With every ending comes a new beginning, so I think (the memorial service will provide some closure). Jovan will live through us, and we just have to do the best for him. That’s all we can do.”
What the FU*K is wrong with these people?
Not one word from these ghouls about the DEAD 22 YEAR OLD girl, just the hope that “Javon will live though us…?”
This is sick.
Look, I understand that there has to be a service, and if it was my brother (My brother actually WAS a hard core criminal, did most of his life in the pen for fire bombing, assaault etc.), than I would (And did cry when he did die.) cry and move on.
Belcher EMPTIED A FU*KIN GUN, 9 SHOTS INTO A DEFENSELESS WOMAN!!
Is anyone on the Chiefs gonna comment in defense of the millions of women who suffer domestic violence?
What a joke.
This lady, Mrs Perkins is dead, dead, dead.
The NFL is chocked full of shi*heels like Jovan Belcher who regularly beat the stuffings outta their wives, girlfriends, or, if your Larry Johnson (ANOTHER GREAT AMERICAN HERO.), just spits on them and slugs them in bars.
The only thing that is living on here for me, is DISGUST at another thug piece of sh*t that is deified in the pantheon of celebrated thug pieces of sh*t called the NFL.
By the way, FU*K Ben Rapelesberrger, he raped those girls and you guys and every journalist in the country knows it.
The NFL disgusts me.
Sorry, I get a little worked up over this crap.
That quote was from this mornings article in the KC Star.
“Now the team has to move forward. It’s tough on them. A lot of the guys … when you see somebody and played with them, your buddy, your friend … he was just too young, man.”
As the players exited the church that Belcher and Perkins attended, many were misty-eyed and declined comment.
Before boarding one of the buses that took the Chiefs to the church, running back Peyton Hillis said going to the memorial service “is going to hit the guys hard. Some guys will take it really hard.
“With every ending comes a new beginning, so I think (the memorial service will provide some closure). Jovan will live through us, and we just have to do the best for him. That’s all we can do.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/05/3950238/chiefs-gather-to-remember-belcher.html#storylink=cpy
By the way, lets just say Belcher had a Glock (9 Rounds).
I was a gunner and can still shoot pretty steady even in my dotage.
Squeezing off 9 rounds, out of a handgun, if you are gong to put all 9 rounds into the target (The target, in this case, was a 22 year old girl, with a newborn.), then even it you don’t shoot the gun sideways like you’re in a rap video and brace your shooting hand with your other hand, it will take around 15 to 20 seconds for the average dude on the street to empty the gun.
Count to 20.
It did, however, take a great deal longer for the little girl to bleed out.
I am surprised Mr. Belcher, considering his enthusiasm for the effort, didn’t reload.
The Chiefs, GHOULS that they are, are probably hoping some 3rd stringer blows his girlfriend away this week so they can win another game.
No banger worth his weight in rimz is gonna have a nine round clip. That’s old school. 21 rounds is where the game is played today. FYI, if you are a skilled shooter you can get 9 rounds out in 4-5 seconds.
I ain’t that good.
For a good grouping, I gotta go slower.
chuckles…relax…kk has a job to entertain the sheep in the city.
It’s going to be okay.
The most important question we have to ask ourselves is what have learned from this ordeal? KCMonarch has learned that there is an artist who I assume hopes to have a long lucrative career in the music business yet chose the moniker ‘Trey Songz “
Every hear of a murderer who was vegetarian?