The victim, Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man originally from Minnesota, was reported missing on Feb. 9. Police said he arrived in New York in September and had lost contact with loved ones.
Major Kevin Sucher, commander of the state police troop that includes the Finger Lakes region, said the facts and circumstances of the case were “beyond depraved” and “by far the worst” homicide investigation the office has ever been part of.
“No human being should have to endure what Sam endured,” he said, during televised news conference. Police did not share many details of the case, noting it remained under active investigation.
Entire news story aside, does the picture look a little AI generated? The background is pretty weird and the necklace kinda ends.
After doing a little search, I found this https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/slain-transgender-man-sam-nordquist-was-tortured-for-weeks-police-say-5-people-arrested/ar-AA1z8gCb
It’s the same image but pretty blurry. It looks like AP News used some AI upscaling or deblurring to filter it into something resembling a higher res picture.
Thanks! That explains it! Here’s the image you linked for people who don’t want to visit MSN
I really dislike it when people slather AI upscalers onto images for no reason. Very rarely does it improve the perceived quality of the image, most of the time it just changes your reaction from “wow, this is a low-res photo” to “wow, someone tried upscaling this low-res photo”. Here it somehow made the image even worse
Thanks for the inline image! I agree, AI upscalers are iffy at best and really should not be used for this kind of reporting.
Yeah, what’s up with that? At first I thought it was a weird camera/filter, but the more I look the worse it gets. What are those… powerlines? in the background on the right? Why are they next to a building/tree hybrid? What is the flamingo looking thing behind him? What logo is on his cap? Am I paranoid!?
This is why I support the death penalty. It should almost never be used, but for cases as extreme as this. The evidence also has to be rock-solid.
Unfortunately, it’s been used far too liberally and on a racial basis in the past, so a lot of people are against it.
I simply don’t think some criminals deserve to live out the rest of their lives, in a maximum security prison or otherwise.
The death penalty does not work. Not as a deterrent, not as closure for the families, not even to reduce costs. Even if you think there are acts so vile that someone forfeits their right to life, there are many reasons against the death penalty. For example, what does rock-solid evidence mean? There have been cases with good evidence, multiple witnessed and a full confession, that later turned out to be wrong convictions. What percentage of innocents among the convicted is acceptable?
Here’s a great video by Shaun that goes through the arguments better than I could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L30_hfuZoQ8
I don’t want it as a deterrent and I’m very aware there have been cases where convictions have turned out to be false. Obviously, the standards for evidence need to be very high. But some people do not deserve to live. And I’m not so certain about it not bringing some degree of closure to families; it certainly isn’t an antidote to grief and loss, but knowing the person who tortured and killed your loved one gets to keep living out their own life, even if behind bars can certainly haunt you as an injustice.
I’m aware of all the arguments against it, and I’ve changed my mind about this issue a couple times. It’s not something I take lightly at all. Still, I think in exceptionally vile and clear cases, it should be allowed.
You neglected to answer what would be an acceptable number of innocent people to be put to death on bad evidence.
For me I would rather have guilty people walking free than innocent people in jail or on death row.
No number of innocent people incarcerated on bad evidence is acceptable, much less executed. That’s why I’m saying the standard of evidence would need to be extremely high. Your argument is that there would inevitably be people executed who were innocent, but I don’t believe that needs to be the case. Standards could be such that having the crime on video is required or direct witnessing from multiple unimpeachable sources.
Is the standard of evidence and possibility of false convictions really your main concern here or do you just not think the State should ever execute people on moral grounds? Because I believe I’ve provided an acceptable answer to the former argument; if your issue is actually the latter then I believe we simply have a difference in ethical beliefs.
This is a local story for me. Only one media outlet mentioned that he was trans. This was a hate crime.
I’ve been following this story for a bit (am trans). Can confirm, every news outlet has been burying the lede to make it seem like it wasn’t targeted.
Just a heads up, the killer is literally a convicted pedophile who raped a 7-year old and a 9-year old
What do you mean by the killer? 5 people have been charged for his death including someone convicted of selling pornography to a minor (and 4th degree grand larceny) and Sam’s online girlfriend who he was visiting.
I’m really only bringing this up because the way I interpreted your comment is that it’s putting Goodwin is more responsible for Sam’s death. If the accusations I’ve seen are true, probably none of them deserve to be free ever again imo.
If all you’re doing is pointing out how big of a piece of shit Goodwin is, I agree entirely and would just like to add 2 more giant pieces of shit and I’d imagine if 3 or Out of the 5 are that shitty I’m skeptical at best of the other 2
If there is some reason to point more of the blame at 1 individual I’d be interested to hear it
Sorry I didn’t say “ringleader”
This is fucking horrific, and more of this is what is coming.
This is why they pushed this issue so hard. They want people to feel no remorse at torturing and killing someone who was doing nothing that materially affected their lives. Sam Nordquist existing as who he was did not hurt these people.
We’re in for dark times, friends.
Say his name: Sam Nordquist. Do not forget him.
While I don’t disagree let’s not forget that hate crimes are unfortunately not unheard of regardless as to who is running the country.
Regardless what happens we can put up a fight. Arm yourselves. Show them what happens when they pick a fight with us.
Get proper training along with the armament. Arming yourself only goes so far if your skills are so weak that you are disarmed and the weapon is turned against you. In that situation, having the arms makes you more vulnerable since you don’t know how to properly use them.
