Sorry folks, way off topic today, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. 10 years ago today a terrible tragedy happened in a small suburban town. Lives of many people both inocent and not were changed forever. And for what? A parking space! And 10 years later, the man who ended another's life, says that he'd do it again if he had to and his supporters act as if he is a victim. I have no personal bone to pick with these people, no vendeta. I don't have a grudge against Police Officers or Italian Americans, nor with the town of Dobbs Ferry New York. But I've read quite a lot of unbalanced opinion in the forums of my local paper concerning this story. I've seen webpages devoted to the "railroading" of this unintentional killer and feel a need to speak out.
Richard D. DiGuglielmo was 31 years old and had aproximately 10 years on the New York Police Department, but was off duty on the 3rd of October 1996 at 5pm when the events that shatterd lives occurred.
Charles Campbell was 37 years old and a father of one son. I have to admit I didn't know him, and unfortunately couldn't find much information on him online. But how much can you find online about an average citizen. I'm sure he was no angel, how many of us are? Maybe he had a few encounters with the law, but many people do, especially young black men. But Charles Campbell's only "crime" that day, was that he stopped on Ashford Avenue for a slice of Pizza and parked in the nearest parking lot to the little shop. Unfortunately he couldn't have known how fatal that mistake would be. You see, the Pizza shop doesn't have any parking and the street that it's on is a busy road with no on-street parking in front of it. So Mr Campbell like many before him, parked in the lot for the Venice Deli, owned by Richard B DiGuglielmo who was 54 on this date.
The Venice Deli was the busiest business in a tiny commercial property that included a nail salon upstairs and a florist on the next lot. The owner was fiercly protective of the few spots in the small lot, and his frustration must have been very great that day. I'm sure that Mr DiGuglielmo the senior's blood would boil everytime he saw another car park in "his" lot and run across the street to the Pizza Parlor on the corner. So when Charles Campbell pulled up in his 1993 Corvette, jumped out and started across the street, the elder DiGuglielmo yelled after him. Campbell is reported to have called back to the shop owner, that he would come back and purchase a soda from his deli after he got his slice of Pizza.
Frustration and anger forced the Deli owner to go inside and grab a "No Parking" sticker, then return to the Corvette plastering it to the driver's window. Now it was Mr Campbell's turn for anger.
There are rarely inocent parties in this type of confrontations, and only the people who were there can know exactly what happened, but the reports say that Campbell and the elder DiGuglielmo started with heated words, then pushing and shoving. At some point The son and son in-law both men in their 30's emerged from the Deli and Campbell probably fearing being out numbered went to his trunk to get an aluminum baseball bat. Like I said there are rarely inocents involved in this type of tragedy. So one man against three armed with a baseball bat. At that point, you would have thought someone would have called the Police.
Dobbs Ferry, a town I lived in for a few years, is not a big town, from the Deli to the Police station is maybe a mile and a half, and the hospital and fire station are only half a mile from where this happened. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Police cars parked in the Deli's lot. It couldn't have taken more than a few minutes if someone had called for officers to arrive. But no, instead Richard the younger went back into the Deli and retrieved a 32 caliber pistol from behind the counter. His father's gun from what I've read in the paper. A curious detail that probably means nothing, but why would an off duty Police officer need to go for a gun? I have friends and family on different Police forces and they ussually have an off duty gun on their person.
You can see where this is going I'm sure, the son came out and shot the "bat weilding fellon" as his family and supporters have portrayed him, three times in the torso. He was defending his father, a noble thing. Something I can appreciate, if I could have saved my father's life the same way, I'm sure I would have. But that's purely an emotional response on my part, and probably of many suporters.
Many of the people who left comments on the local paper's forums sound like Police supporters, and I don't take issue with that. But how many know the ground where this happened? How many can take a step back and see how many ways this could have been avoided. Why is Charles Campbell's past examined in any way? The man stopped for a slice of Pizza! He wasn't holding up the Deli! He parked where an angry shopkeeper didnt' want him to!!!!
I knew Richard D DiGulielmo in High School, not as a friend, but in passing. He seemd like a very nice guy, just your average high school kid. Not a jerk or a bully at all. I did not know him on October 3 1996, nor can I put myself in his place. I'm sure he felt justified in killing a man that was swinging a baseball bat at his father.
But all this over a parking spot!
Many lives were changed that day a decade ago, one was ended. A son, a boy of 12 never saw his father again, Charles Campbell's son. A father watched his son taken away to prison, Rich DiGuglielmo's father. The pain for these families won't go away, the events of that fatefull day will haunt them all for the rest of their lives. And well it should.
DiGuglielmo's family and supporters claim an overzealous District Attorney played the race card and his punishment was too severe. I'm not a lawyer, I don't know, but 20 years to life sounds about right for killing a man. Despite emotions, this was not self defense, and nobody involved was a total inocent. Charles Campbell feared for his safety when he got the bat from the trunk.
The sad truth may be this, one man is dead and another's future is ruined, because on petty man wanted to lay claim to a piece of asphalt.
I feel sorry for Charle's Campbell's family and even for Richard DiGuglielmo's family. It's hard not to feel that all this could have, should have been avoided.
Today there was a comment on one of my archived posts that brought back one of my favorite gripes. The Ranger, how Ford has let it lapse and what I hope they will do. Ok, let's get some history here, the Ranger name started as a trim level on the full size Ford F-Series trucks, just like the Eplorer badge. Starting in the late 60's and early 70's Japanese makes started to bring compact pickups to the US, Nissan and Toyota leading the way, but Isuszu and Mazda also. So, when the Domestic makes saw an emerging market segment, they initially imported partner trucks rebadged as their own, in the case of Ford that was the Courier. But eventually they recognized that a true Domestic compact pickup would make more sense and the Ranger was born . And from 1987 to 2004 it was segment leader. In many ways it was far superior to the Courier it replaced and Ford improved it with each generation. But the evolution stopped in 2000 or so and it was just mild refresh after that, until this day. I believe it was a combination of relatively cheap fuel here in the states and our tendancy to super size everything. While competitors grew in size, the Ranger remained compact. It remains a profitable unit for the company, especially since they've done no real development over the last decade. What a shame really. But with new safety and emissions standards coming into effect soon, the current Ranger is coming to a point where Ford can't sell it, even if customers were lined up out the door, which really they aren't. One major fault is that the current Ranger can't be fitted with airbags in the A pillar. Another minor fault is that it's not available in a true 4 door cab here, while it has been all over the world, including Mexico.
But as with Ford's need for small fuel efficient car, they have the answer in their global garage.
Now, this is a photoshop done quite a while ago by "FUD" (?) that I had seen on several message boards suggesting that the new Ranger be based on an Explorer chassis. But at this point is that prudent? Haven't we had that already? Isn't that the crap known as the Sport Trac? 
I'm blowing the dust off my keyboard here to spread the word about KMRL MojoRadioLive and their efforts to raise money for wounded vets. KMRL is taking part in Blogothon 2007.
Sorry folks, way off topic today, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. 10 years ago today a terrible tragedy happened in a small suburban town. Lives of many people both inocent and not were changed forever. And for what? A parking space! And 10 years later, the man who ended another's life, says that he'd do it again if he had to and his supporters act as if he is a victim. I have no personal bone to pick with these people, no vendeta. I don't have a grudge against Police Officers or Italian Americans, nor with the town of Dobbs Ferry New York. But I've read quite a lot of unbalanced opinion in the forums of my local paper concerning this story. I've seen webpages devoted to the "railroading" of this unintentional killer and feel a need to speak out. 
Richard D. DiGuglielmo was 31 years old and had aproximately 10 years on the New York Police Department, but was off duty on the 3rd of October 1996 at 5pm when the events that shatterd lives occurred.
Now I've seen this one on several websites, but Edmunds Inside Line claims the exclusive, and I'll give the hat top to AutoBlog, because that's where I saw it first. It looks like Ford is going to introduce a 2006 Mustang GT350H at the New York Auto Show in April. I'm planning on going, so I'll try and get a decent digital photo. The original GT350H was a specially prepared Shelby GT350 Mustang in special black and gold livery sold to Hertz and rented through a special program. So in this year the 40th aniversary of that special model it sort of makes sense to pay tribute.
I had intended to post about the Mustang GT350H that was discussed at AutoBlog and the Panoz Esperante before I started to experience problems here. 
Now it looks like it may have only been a temporary situation, so I'll see how things look on Friday. Brian of Racedriven.com and Ben of Ben'sOzCarBlog have given me some advice over at AutoBloggers, but I still don't know what the fate of this blog will be. My contingency plan is to continue MyFordDreams on a new blog linked above, and also hosted on Blogger. I may just have reached some limits on photo storage or post limits. I have over 1100 posts and at least as many photos on here, and so many links that it maybe what's causing publishing problems.
Recently there's been a lot of talk of the upcoming Honda Fit, the new B-Segment model positioned below the Civic. I've read about it recently on Jalopnik, AutoBlog and Edmunds including pricing and driving impressions. Honda sees the Civic as moving slightly up in size and price, and saw the need to have a new entry level model positioned to compete with new Korean and Chinese models. Nissan has the new Versa coming, and much has been made of GM's imported Chevy Aveo. I don't know how big this new market segment is going to be, but I do know that Ford needs to be there too.
It's been reported that Ford intends to bring a new B-Segment model based on the Fiesta/Mazda2. Now look closely at this Fiesta and the Fit above, they're very close in size and style. Ford has it's B-Segment model in their overseas lineup. The Fiesta comes in 3 and 5 door models, with 2 petrol and 2 diesel engines.
There's even an ST version with 150 hp! Now just to remind you, ST is Ford of Europe's version of SVT. 150 hp may not sound like a lot, but consider this models lower weight and price. This is comparable to a Fit Sport, which Honda is rumored to be bringing in later this year or next. There is even a mini MPV or SUV version called the EcoSport/Fusion and a pickup version the Bantam/Courier.
So what ever it takes, Ford needs to answer Honda's challenge and have product for the US market as quickly as possible. Wouldn't you want a sporty hatch that gets 40 mpg for under $20K ? Fiesta mechanicals can underpin niche models like the Bronco and Reflex also. Rumors had been that Ford is going to build a new plant in Mexico to produce Fiesta based vehicles. Smart money would make it a flexible production facility, with the ability to build 3 and 5 door Fiestas, EcoSports, Broncos and the new Reflex. Even if Ford only sells 30-40,000 of each model, the shared platform and production facility will share costs. Make all versions E85 ready from the start, and bring at least one of the Diesel powerplants. A Hybrid in the future couldn't hurt, but may not be necessary considering the economy of both petrol and diesel models.
