In today’s edition of my local paper (Lakeland, FL “The Ledger”) there is a column written by Rheta Grimsley Johnson who writes for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The column is entitled “Cruise Sinks My Enthusiasm”. She freely admits in the article “That said, I’ve at least had enough sense in this life to never take a cruise.” OK, that sets her credentials as she has no idea of what she is talking about. She refers to “The most recent cruise ship debacle –Carnival Splendor, was it?” and goes on to more or less discredit cruising. Towards the end of the article however she says “And I’ve been amazed at some of the recently rescued, optimistic passengers as they tramped down the Splendor gangplank behing a women with a broken shoulder and two felons taken prisoner immediately upon landing.”
OK, she is a typical media jerk who knows nothing about the subject but thinks she does. My question here is: has anybody else heard of the broken shoulder and the two felons? That was news to me. I wish she had posted her e-mail address in the article so I could ask her some pointed questions. So if you have heard of the shoulder and the felons please share it with us.
In today’s edition of my local paper (Lakeland, FL “The Ledger”) there is a column written by Rheta Grimsley Johnson who writes for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The column is entitled “Cruise Sinks My Enthusiasm”. She freely admits in the article “That said, I’ve at least had enough sense in this life to never take a cruise.” OK, that sets her credentials as she has no idea of what she is talking about. She refers to “The most recent cruise ship debacle –Carnival Splendor, was it?” and goes on to more or less discredit cruising. Towards the end of the article however she says “And I’ve been amazed at some of the recently rescued, optimistic passengers as they tramped down the Splendor gangplank behing a women with a broken shoulder and two felons taken prisoner immediately upon landing.”
OK, she is a typical media jerk who knows nothing about the subject but thinks she does. My question here is: has anybody else heard of the broken shoulder and the two felons? That was news to me. I wish she had posted her e-mail address in the article so I could ask her some pointed questions. So if you have heard of the shoulder and the felons please share it with us.
I believe I head somewhere (possibly on CD John H's blog) that a passenger dislocated their shoulder somehow while on Splendor. I can't really add anything else to that particular story other then my observation that if it was in fact a dislocation, that that is hardly the same as a broken clavicle, and that it's not normally referred to by most people as broken shoulder.
As for the felons, my information from a couple of different sources is that one passenger (a female) was arrested for outstanding warrants issued against her in Las Vegas, NV for grand theft. Apparently her name popped up on a wanted list when customs was checking the passengers back in. Some might ask how she got on the ship in the first place, but the answer to that question is quite simple. Cruise lines verify that you have accurate legal identification and documentation when you board their vessel. They do not run your name through a criminal database (and quite frankly I don't think they have enough time to get that information back for verification when boarding passengers anyway). US Customs is a good deal more thorough when you try to come back in to the country. The short version is that this woman would have been arrested when she got off the ship when coming back to the US no matter what happened during the cruise. The second case was said to be an issue of mistaken identity(ie a passenger who had the same name as a wanted felon) who was later released. The important thing to note here is that this was not a case of a violent offender being allowed on a cruise ship (which is obviously what the writer wanted you to believe). It's a lot different to have some woman who probably robbed a casino through some kind of scam, then it is to be on a ship with a person wanted for rape, child molestation, assault, murder or even armed robbery in my opinion.
As usual the hack mainstream news bashers get little bits and pieces of the truth in their article but manage to get the details wrong and or blow them out of all proportion to what the truth is. It really does make you wonder just how many lies you read in the news on a daily basis when you see these kind of half truths and distortions showing up in articles.
I heard reporters at the pier refering to someone taken off in handcuffs. The Carnival spokesperson they were asking about it (Tim Gallagher) knew nothing about it. I am sure someone on the staff knew, but not him.
This arrest was likely planned all along and was unrelated to the fire, etc.
This idiot reporter who cites criminals onthe ship being caught as if it is a bad thing has no deductive logic.
If people (or criminals) think that a cruise ship is a good place for wanted felons to hide out they are wrong. They are far more likely to get caught if they get on a cruise ship than if they lay low in a trailer park someplace. Every passenger manifest is scrutinized by federal authorities. It is submitted about 24 hours before sail time, and to date they have already caught about five people wanted for crimes that had nothing to do with the cruise they were just sailing upon. It does take some time for them to go through the manifest, verify identities and prepare for the arrest, so they always arrest them as they are reentering the U.S., not before the cruise.
And none of those people who were arrested commited crimes while they were on the cruise.
The great unwashed (cruise virgin) media knows absolutely nothing about the topic they are reporting upon and hence have no business reporting upon it. I could cite a dozen reasons why I should never visit the city of Atlanta as well, and no doubt she would disagree with all of them.
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I am the editor, but I also speculate, ask questions and play devil's advocate. I reserve the right to change my mind.
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