Thank you for your thoughtful piece on the lens of experience. My own is rather foggy, both from an upbringing that included a long stint in foster care and associated institutions and an independent early adulthood spread between military service, work with the Del Norte CCC and later my on time as a student and SCL graduate at Humboldt State University. In between, the streets of Barrio Logan in San Diego (greatly changed now, but still filled with faces and people I remember and who greet me like a lost relative), the nation's highway system as a canvasser for magazine subscriptions and a nice, if arduous, Peace Corps contract have further chipped and polished in turn the edges and contours of my world-view.
I have avidly followed this case in what I consider my only home of choice (Humboldt and Del Norte counties) and I, too, hop for a better outcome than no answer, and, further, an answer that satisfies the family of my fellow Jack Josiah. But I am hopeful also that the preliminary finding in which the evidence was not sufficient to hold Kyle is also validated by a thoroughly and fully supportable arrest of whomever is culpable. I am, however, deeply troubled by this death and its unknown circumstances.
There are no cell phone videos, pictures or records at all? How many people called the police as the fight(s) began? Was the knife that was found under the car the murder weapon? How can it not be said, "it is possible it was" if it is not ruled out? There were fibers, blood and a print on the blade. Someone has that print, and it seems they were not experienced criminals if they left it at the scene.
If Zoellner is not culpable, surely he is useless as a witness. He was described by many people as 'knocked out', 'choked out' and sent to the ground repeatedly as well as kicked in the head. It also occurs to me (and likely to police as well) that the women present, for whom Zoellner had arrived to drive home, that they would have fled the scene if they had any involvement in the stabbing itself.
I am, despite these misgivings, bittersweetly heartened that this horror happened somewhere in Arcata. Despite the flaws in the community, I remember it as being beyond simply disapproving of racial malice and rough justice. If a citizen hears something relevant, i remain confident that a better conscience, regardless, will compel the locals or students ho catch wind of anything worth sharing to report it, regardless the redwood/emerald/cannabis curtain of prison-culture anti-snitch paranoia.
I feel for my community up there in that beautiful place, and am glad that you and your family have found your home in it. I hope that it lives up to both our expectations and that an answer that is just, true and healing can be found in what my longest-time foster brother, who came to stay with me for a few weeks in the early 2000s, called, "the kindest place with the [sic] most friendly people I ever met".
I think it will work out, and we'll have justice for Josiah, his family, and if he is indeed innocent of the crime, Kyle too.
Thanks again, and warm regards from Tbilisi, Georgia
Re: “The Lens of Experience”
Hi Thadeus,
Thank you for your thoughtful piece on the lens of experience. My own is rather foggy, both from an upbringing that included a long stint in foster care and associated institutions and an independent early adulthood spread between military service, work with the Del Norte CCC and later my on time as a student and SCL graduate at Humboldt State University. In between, the streets of Barrio Logan in San Diego (greatly changed now, but still filled with faces and people I remember and who greet me like a lost relative), the nation's highway system as a canvasser for magazine subscriptions and a nice, if arduous, Peace Corps contract have further chipped and polished in turn the edges and contours of my world-view.
I have avidly followed this case in what I consider my only home of choice (Humboldt and Del Norte counties) and I, too, hop for a better outcome than no answer, and, further, an answer that satisfies the family of my fellow Jack Josiah. But I am hopeful also that the preliminary finding in which the evidence was not sufficient to hold Kyle is also validated by a thoroughly and fully supportable arrest of whomever is culpable. I am, however, deeply troubled by this death and its unknown circumstances.
There are no cell phone videos, pictures or records at all? How many people called the police as the fight(s) began? Was the knife that was found under the car the murder weapon? How can it not be said, "it is possible it was" if it is not ruled out? There were fibers, blood and a print on the blade. Someone has that print, and it seems they were not experienced criminals if they left it at the scene.
If Zoellner is not culpable, surely he is useless as a witness. He was described by many people as 'knocked out', 'choked out' and sent to the ground repeatedly as well as kicked in the head. It also occurs to me (and likely to police as well) that the women present, for whom Zoellner had arrived to drive home, that they would have fled the scene if they had any involvement in the stabbing itself.
I am, despite these misgivings, bittersweetly heartened that this horror happened somewhere in Arcata. Despite the flaws in the community, I remember it as being beyond simply disapproving of racial malice and rough justice. If a citizen hears something relevant, i remain confident that a better conscience, regardless, will compel the locals or students ho catch wind of anything worth sharing to report it, regardless the redwood/emerald/cannabis curtain of prison-culture anti-snitch paranoia.
I feel for my community up there in that beautiful place, and am glad that you and your family have found your home in it. I hope that it lives up to both our expectations and that an answer that is just, true and healing can be found in what my longest-time foster brother, who came to stay with me for a few weeks in the early 2000s, called, "the kindest place with the [sic] most friendly people I ever met".
I think it will work out, and we'll have justice for Josiah, his family, and if he is indeed innocent of the crime, Kyle too.
Thanks again, and warm regards from Tbilisi, Georgia
Francis Stanley Pruett
HSU Class of 1999