{"id":42662,"date":"2014-03-26T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=42662"},"modified":"2014-07-15T09:37:54","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:37:54","slug":"carrying-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=42662","title":{"rendered":"Carrying On"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ramco juidge sentenced CIndarion Butler to 16 years yesterday <\/a>for the joy-pummeling of Ray Widstrand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mob beating – carried out by self-styled gang members in what happens to be my old neighborhood, out on the lower East Side of Saint Paul near Payne and Minnehaha, which was a “neighborhood with challenges” 25 years ago and not much better now\u00a0– got national attention last summer for its callous brutality; while five punks were charged with the beating, witnesses say more than a dozen attacked Widstrand, who lived in the neighborhood, beating him nearly to death just, apparently, for kicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway – Butler is going away until he’s in thirties.\u00a0\u00a0The only thing more depressing than\u00a0\u00a0seeing a life gone so badly and stupidly astray this early is taking a drive down Payne Avenue and seeing how many are on the same path.<\/p>\n

But to me, the real story is Widstrand.\u00a0 It’s not a Hollywood ending – but he’s alive, and plugging\u00a0away…:<\/p>\n

Although he has recovered beyond initial expectations, Widstrand told Smith he\u2019ll likely require medical care for the rest of his life. It\u2019s unclear if he\u2019ll ever recover enough to drive regularly, work full time or live on his own.<\/p>\n

Widstrand lives with his parents, and continues to receive outpatient care at the Courage Center. He\u2019s scheduled to have a plastic plate screwed, sewn and stapled into his skull on April 3, his fifth brain surgery.<\/p>\n

Doctors had removed part of his skull to alleviate pressure and later replaced it. But it was removed due to infection, necessitating the plastic plate, which will be permanent, barring unforeseen problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no end in sight,\u201d Widstrand told Smith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…but he’s alive, and moving under his own power after some of the most gruesome injuries a person can sustain, which defies most expectations.\u00a0 And in among all that is depressing about this story, that’s something to celebrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ramco juidge sentenced CIndarion Butler to 16 years yesterday for the joy-pummeling of Ray Widstrand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The mob beating – carried out by self-styled gang members in what happens to be my old neighborhood, out on the lower East Side of Saint Paul near Payne and Minnehaha, which was a “neighborhood with challenges” 25 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45773,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42662\/revisions\/45773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}