Feature assignment, Final

Jillian Clemenza

Feature Assignment

  On August 2^nd, 2016 at around 7:30pm it was still light out, a warm summer evening. I was just returning home from the gym, when my phone rang and an unknown number displayed on the screen, which I never answer. For some reason I felt inclined to pick up, not knowing in that moment that it would be a phone call that would forever change my life. “Hello?”… The events that took place over the next four hours can never be fully described, they are events that I’ve only seen in horror films before this night. It feels like I’m still waiting for “the end” to come across the screen and to fade out, for the actors to take their bow, being that one of my best friends is the main character.

    Karina Vetrano, 30, went missing on August 2^nd, 2016 around 6pm in Howard Beach, Queens. “Jill, Karina’s missing, is she with you!?” said Natasha, Karina’s friend. Fast-forward about one hour, 8:30pm and I find myself in the weeds, flashlight in hand, as the last minutes of sunlight fade into darkness. I didn’t fully comprehend what I was doing in that moment, how I had gotten there, where I had gotten a flashlight, but reality began to set in and I realized that something was terribly wrong, I realized that I was looking for my friend’s potentially dead body. Fast-forward to 11pm sitting on Karina’s stoop with her mother and other family members on 84^th street. Dozens of fire trucks, ambulances, police cars lining the street and the surrounding streets, caution-tape blocking off the entrance to the weeds, and confusion everywhere. Moments later the news broke, they had found Karina’s body, she was dead, she was murdered. Chaos ensued.

   Karina left her house for the last time around 5pm that Tuesday evening, never to return home again. She jogged her usual trail, down 161^st avenue and into Spring Creek Park, which Howard Beach natives refer to as “the weeds”. Howard Beach locals also know that “the weeds” are taboo, you don’t go in there. Karina usually ran the trail in the weeds with her father, who was nursing an injured back on August 2^nd. He urged her not to go alone and to stay on the street, she didn’t listen, not knowing she would meet her killer along the way.

    It was her father and a search party made up of police who discovered her lifeless body, beaten, bruised, and sexually assaulted. Her killer dragged her body off the trail and about ten feet into the weeds, covering her completely. Although she ultimately lost the battle, Karina put up a fight, leaving her killers DNA all over her and his skin cells underneath her fingernails. While police have the DNA, it did not match anyone in the New York database, nor did it match anyone in the national database, or the surrounding islands’ databases. It has been a little over four months, and after countless dead-end leads, still there are no suspects in the rape and murder of Karina Vetrano. Although the months are quickly passing and we have little to hold on to, Karina’s friends and family have not given up hope. “We’re going to get him, its just a matter of time” said Phil, Karina’s father.

   A new investigative tool has been used in several states to solve cases similar to Karina’s case, it is called Familial DNA testing. With Familial DNA testing detectives would be able to single out the male “Y” chromosome. They can then see if there is a biological match to a family member in the direct bloodline of the killer, who has been arrested and has DNA in the database. There is currently a petition with about ten thousand signatures so far in order to get this recognized. As well as the Queens DA is pushing for this, with the hopes that it will help bring Karina’s killer to justice. Not only is the petition going around, but Nancy Grace and Doctor Oz had Karina’s father on the Doctor Oz show, in order to help promote the Familial DNA testing, the episode will air December 13^th. Along with Queens DA Richard Brown, police commissioner James O’Niell has joined Karina’s father in the demands that the state commission on Forensic Sciences allow this DNA test to be approved in New York State. (2)

  Familial DNA is not legal in New York because civil liberties advocates view this as an invasion of privacy. These advocates say that familial DNA testing “encroaches” on the privacy of the relatives of those who’s DNA would be tested. This would technically be a violation of the fourth amendment, which protects people against unreasonable searches. (3)

  Four months later, Karina’s case remains cold, without a single eye-witness, without a single surveillance video of anyone else entering or exiting Spring Creek Park on that ill-fated afternoon. It seems almost impossible that no one saw anything or heard anything, in broad daylight on an August afternoon. Although there are those who are against familial DNA testing, there is a force more powerful that they are up against, and that force is the family and friends of the “raven haired beauty”, and my friend, Karina Vetrano.

Works Cited

1.     Schram, Jamie. "New DNA Testing Could Crack Slain Jogger Case." New York Post. N.p., 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

2.     Crane-newman, Molly, and Thomas Tracy. "NYPD, Queens DA Pushes for Familial DNA Testing." NY Daily News. N.p., 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

3.     "Familial DNA Searches - FindLaw." Findlaw. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2016.

Interview

At a café in Astoria, Queens on an early December evening, I sat down with a new friend, who seems much more like an old friend, considering a series of tragic events that have brought us together during the past few months. Sitting across from me is 33 year-old Peter Philipakos, retired professional soccer player. Peter is a Greek-American, who was born and raised on Long Island, New York, and rose to fame and found success playing professional soccer in Europe. He began playing soccer at the early age of 8, and fell in love with the game. “I’m passionate about it, I love the game, I love the sport” Philipakos said when I asked him how he first got into soccer.

              He said that it had all started when he was 12 years old. There was a scout who came to watch a game of 16 year olds, and although Peter was only 12 at the time, one of the teams needed an extra player, and they called Peter to play because he was just that good, despite being four years younger. The scout coming to that game that day “changed everything” said Peter. This same scout would stay with Peter for years to come. Philipakos attended college at American University, and after only a short stay he soon realized that college wasn’t for him, that he would not finish, and that his true passion in life was to play professional soccer, so he didn’t feel the need to waste any more time in school. He called his scout who had him on a plane to Europe the very next day. Peter went to Greece for a trail, where they threw him into the fire. He was put in a scrimmage game with professional players, and he scored more than once. “They put me up against the biggest players in the league” said Peter when talking about that first trial game. The next day Peter was offered a 3 year contract with AEK in Greece, he moved to Greece that day.

      While playing so well for AEK, 19 year-old Peter finished out the season six months later with the team. Once the season ended, the “number 1” team in the league at that time was called Olympikos, and the President of the team called Peter, explaining that they had to have time and were going to buy him out of his existing contract with AEK. Peter was reluctant because he was comfortable with them, he loved his teammates and had a good thing going, but in the end Olympikos offered him more money and a better deal, so he had no other choice but to take it.

After a successful two years with Olympikos, the team changed coaches. Peter and his new coach quickly butted heads, and tensions began to run high. Peter decided to break his own contract with Olympikos, and when I asked why he quickly replied with “no one was going to tell me what to do at that point in my life”. Peter felt that his coach was too involved in the personal lives of the players and that didn’t sit right with him. He felt that life had more to offer. This was a big scandal in the soccer world in Europe, Peter was looked down on for leaving the biggest team in Greece, and he was also gaining a reputation for partying too much. His career seemed to be suffering because of his personal life, but Peter wasn’t going to let the politics of the league get in the way of him “living his life” as he said. After taking some time to himself, returning home to New York to get his life in order, Peters agent, Ted, found him a spot on a team in the Czech Republic, where he stayed for two years. When I asked Peter about his experience there he responded by saying that “ it was one of
the toughest times in my life” for more reasons than one. Aside from being constantly injured and in and out of surgery, Peter was in a foreign country, where he didn’t speak the language, and didn’t have any friends or family around him, he was lonely. He went on to explain that it was an overall good experience being there and being alone. “ I grew up, I saw a lot of different stuff” said Peter, when asked about Czech Republic

          Peter Philipakos had a controversial professional career, being that he was so young, became reckless at a point, and had little to no guidance when it came down to choose teams and sticking with them. He jumped around from team to team, country to country, and when I asked him how he felt about it all Peter replied “ if I could go back I wouldn’t change anything, I did everything my way and I really enjoyed my time in Europe. Now retired and working in Manhattan as a Jeweler, Peter is engaged to long-time girlfriend Natasha, and he is living a simpler life in Astoria.

opinion assignment

   On Friday November 18th, Vice President Elect Mike Pence attended the broadway show "Hamilton". After the performance had ended and Pence was on his way out of the theatre, he was address by cast member Brandon Victor Dixon. Dixon was giving a speech following the show, and called out to Pence with the following "Vice-president elect Mike Pence, we welcome you and truly thank you for joining us at Hamilton American Musical. We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.” Some viewed this statement as an attack on Pence, and an attempt at humiliating the Vice President Elect. 

   Although the statement was delivered in a respectful manner, the timing was completely inappropriate. Pence came to the theater in order to support the show and enjoy the performance, and instead he was singled out of the audience, where he was a guest. President Elect Trump made a statement stating" Our future Vice President was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton. This should not happen! The theater must always be a safe and special place". I agree with Trumps statement, Pence should not have been targeted in the theater in that way.

   Brandon Victor Nixon is entitled to his opinon, his freedom of speech, and his freedom to protest, there is not doubt about that. His statement was harassment in the most respectful form. It is clear that Dixon wanted to get his point across to Pence, which he did. He did not leave an opportunity for Pence to respond to the statement, being that he gave the speech form the stage in front of the whole audience that evening. 

   The statement could have been made to Pence through a different platform, perhaps a private meeting after the show. Although Vice President Elect Pence responded to the controversy by saying he was not offended by this, he very well could be, and it may even be offensive to Pence supporters. Dixon should not have targeted Pence at the theater because it was not the appropriate time or place. 

Feature article assignment

Article 1

People with “super memories” : they cant forget

This article was about a handful of people who have come forward claiming to have “super memories”. What this means is that they can recall any specific date in their lives vividly, dating back numerous years. The one thing that these people all have in common is that they can only vividly remember things that are personal to them and that are directly related to their lives, as opposed to general information from those specific dates in time. I found this article an easy rea because I was intrigued by it.

Article 2

Sharks saved this town

Malapascua, located in the Philippines, was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, in November, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan left over 6 thousand dead, devastated over 1 million homes and ripped buildings apart, the island was left unrecognizable. While the island was in ruins, the marine life was unharmed by the Typhoon, and luckily for Malapascua, Thresher sharks often frequented the waters surrounding Malapascua, which also draw in a large amount of tourism to dive with these sharks. The interesting thing about these Thresher sharks is that they surround the island in order to “clean” themselves from parasites, making diving with the sharks safe for tourists. Because the sharks were unaffected by the Typhoon, the tourism played a major part in resorting the island and keeping the economy alive.   

Fact Check Assignment

 I am choosing the first topic, the second presidential debate that took place on Sunday, October 9th. I am choosing this topic because it interests me as the election quickly approaches and I have yet to make a decision on which candidate I will be voting for. The issues that I will be investigating from the debate are as follows: Trumps claim that Hilary failed to bring back jobs that she promised to upstate New York, Trumps alleged "Sex Tape" tweet, Clinton laughing at a rape victim during a trial that she was working on, Trump claiming that Hilary deleted 33,000 emails after getting a subpoena, and Clinton saying that intelligence experts are saying Russia is behind the hacking. 

1. Trumps claim that Hilary failed to bring back jobs to upstate New York as she had promised. Politifact had fact checked this claim made by Trump during the debate and found that Clinton had promised to bring 200,000 jobs to upstate New York during her campaign for State Senate in 2000. Politifact found that by the end of Clinton’s time in office those jobs that she had promised had not been added to the region. This determines that Trumps claim was true. Hillary had not brought jobs to upstate New York and Trump went on to say that this is an example of how she would lead the country, meaning making empty promises that will fall through. 

2. Trump was asked during the debate if he has the right temperament because of his tweet about former Miss Universe. Trump then denied tweeting about Alicia Machado and her involvement with a sex tape during the debate. Politifact has determined that trump did in fact tweet 'Did crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate" on September 30th at 5:30 a.m. Trumps claim that he had not tweeted about Alicia Machado has also been fact checked by Factcheck.org and they too have confirmed that Trump has in fact tweeted this. Donald Trump lied during the debate. Trump went on to defend himself saying that tweeting is the modern day form of communication and that he is not "un-proud" of his tweets. 

3. The third issue that I have investigated and checked the facts about was Trumps claim that Hilary had "laughed" at a rape victim during a trial she had been working on in 1975. Trump had said at the debate: "Clinton was laughing at the girl who was raped on two separate occasions”. The Washington Post fact checker determined that Trump had mixed up the story and that Hilary did not in fact laugh at the victim. Clinton was representing the man who was accused of rape, and the charges had been lowered. Clinton can be heard laughing on tape while discussing that her client had passed a lie detector test, which she went on the say that she would no longer trust lie detector tests because he had passed, which is when Clinton can be heard laughing after making a joke about the polygraph machine.

4. Trump claimed that Hilary deleted 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena for any Benghazi related emails to be turned over. According to Politifact, Clinton’s team deleted 33,000 emails three weeks after the subpoena was received. Although though the emails had been deleted, the team argued that any emails that were relevant to the Benghazi scandal had been turned over, and anything that had been deleted was not relevant to the case. Also, Clinton’s team had put in a request months prior to the subpoena to have the emails deleted. Trumps claim is determined to be half true.

5. At the debate Clinton says that intelligence officials are saying that Russians are responsible for the political hacking attacks in the U.S.  Trump argued that she doesn’t know this for sure. Factcheck.org has determined that Hilary’s claims are correct and that intelligence officials id in fact determine that Russia is responsible. Hilary was correct and Trump was wrong in saying that Clinton was unsure.