Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My Hero, Antoine Dodson! Bed Intruder Defender!

by Pat Brown

Now, if you don't know who Antoine Dodson is by now, you are living under a rock or your Internet provider is on the blink.

Last time I posted here on Women in Crime Ink, I wrote about how I was a bit peeved (I love that word. I wasn't bitter or bent all of shape; I was just a bit peeved!) that Colton Harris-Moore, the criminal called The Barefoot Bandit, had more Facebook friends than I have! After all, I do a lot of television and radio work, and since my new book, The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths, went on sale, I've worked hard to make my publisher happy. Part of that is keeping up with social networking, blogging, and doing all the television and radio I can. Then some lowlife piece of crap who has cost the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars, squandered police resources, and stolen citizens' possessions and their sense of security, gets a Facebook fan page written for him, huge publicity, and his poor-excuse-for-a-mother gets a huge book and movie deal.

Sometimes life just didn't seem fair, does it? The uncomfortable truth is that crime does pay at times, and it seems a lot of people support antiheroes more than heroes.

But hol' up now! Here comes Antoine! Heralding from the projects of Huntsville, Alabama, this young man ended up on local television for one of those short interviews, the type where a relative speaks on camera about a neighborhood crime, illustrating how horrible it was and insisting they hope the police will quickly catch the guy. The usual scenario is that the interviewee gets his 15 seconds (never 15 minutes) of fame, and his family and a few of his friends chortle over his appearance. By morning, the fellow and his run-of-the-mill statement are forgotten.

Not Antoine Dodson. He did his brief appearance in front of the camera and began a phenomenon. As I write this blog post (just after midnight on Tuesday morning), his new facebook fan page (put up by someone not connected to Antoine or his family) already has more than 18,000 fans! No, wait, that was 15 minutes ago. Now, he has 18,050! By the time you read this post, I can't even imagine the number.

Please understand that I'm not bitter about all his Facebook friends or that he'll probably have his own television show by the end of the week; envious as hell, but not bitter! In fact, I'm a huge Antoine Dodson fan. I want one of those mugs with his face on it and a t-shirt with his words. I even want the ringtone of The Bed Intruder song (which I tried to download twice and got scammed by two ringtone companies who only wrote in small print that THAT ringtone was not available). I admit it, I am caught up in the Antoine Dodson fever.

Don't know who I'm talking about? This is Antoine who rescued his sister, Kelly, from a rapist before he did her any damage, chased him out of the apartment. As one blogger noted, "Rape is never funny, except when Antoine Dodson is involved."

Well, even attempted rape isn't funny, but Antoine's warning to the community and to the rapist will just put you ROFL unless you ain't got no sense of humor!

Antoine let the people know: "Obviously, we have a rapist in Lincoln Park. He's climbing in your windows. He's snatching up yo people, trying to rape them. So you need to hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and and hide yo husband because they be raping errybody out here."

And he mocked the rapist (something I am always fond of) and threatened him, too (and I am really fond of that).

"We got your t-shirt. You left fingerprints and all. You are so dumb. You are really dumb. For real. You don't have to come and confess that you did this. We're looking for you. We, we 'gon find you. So you can run and tell that, homeboy!”

Reading the words just doesn't quite do it; you have to watch the video.

Now, at this point I was somewhere between laughing myself to death and being totally impressed that this man stood up and just told it straight. Then, someone had to come out with the music video called Bed Intruder Song. God help me, I cannot stop watching the video over and over. I sing along with it. Now I know what crack does to you. I gotta have the damn ringtone! "Hide yo kids, hide your wife, and hide yo husband because they be raping errybody out here!" Oh, Lord, stop me from hitting the replay button so I can get some work done.

I thank you, Antoine, for being a good man and just being you. We all love you for giving us one of the best cheerer-uppers of the year and reminding us that even when bad things happen and evil people cause misery, there are rays of hope and humor and happiness that shine through the dark clouds.

You go, Antoine! The millions who have seen the videos on YouTube thank you and so do all your facebook fans (I clicked the like button too), and all the crime fighters out there. And as soon as the Bed Intruder ringtone actually becomes available, I am sure your voice will be coming out of my telephone every time someone calls.

Sometimes someone just makes you feel good!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

They don't have much on the attempted rapist unless he's already in the system. (and can you just imagine how many sets of prints they have to SIFT through on that trash can lid? christ...half the people in that projects could have touched the thing.)

From what I've read, he probably lives close by and knew them at least casually. I doubt he's very old either, probably around the same age as the girl or even younger.. obviously an inexperienced offender who targeted a victim of opportunity, he would do it again in a heartbeat to someone else most likely.I hope they catch the guy. Though I must say I'm not all too caught up in the Antoine fever...I do admire the man for saving his Sister.

Leah said...

I loved Antoine and I am glad he got his 15 seconds or minutes.

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Anonymous said...

Most get their 15 minutes of fame several times in One Life, but remain ego blind to it, because they're trying to please the wrong audience. (and an equal amount of famous celebrity types, carry voids within no Clapping Fills.)

Fame is likely one of those bittersweet things, where you're liberated on a financial level, but often enslaved by an ever curious Crowd who won't leave you alone, because your life is considerably (at least on social levels) more interesting than their own.

Yeah...sucks to be the one who can't see what makes them famous.

Anonymous said...

Some Serial killers and mass murderers seem to be attention deprived, and seeking infamy, because its not in them to perform the feats that make others more acceptably Famous.

Often those types seem organized and careless at the same time,...thinking everything out, but failing in the actual execution because of the stress(or excitation) that accumulates when performing The Act.

Back to the Post at hand though,..do you think the rapist is likely to act again, if undetected?...Was it a first attempt, or an act committed before, but this time interrupted?
That being the case, the offender apparently wasn't in a state of mind to care about other occupants in the house, who may have saw him, or he didn't know the variables and acted more out of sexual (or sadistic) passion, than concern for potential consequences.

Anonymous said...

Already made my own ringtone. Not that hard.

TigressPen said...

Antoine appeared to be a natural satiric. Quite comically too. I do hope he can keep that special personality and not allow himself to develop an air-filled balloon waiting to burst. His 15 minutes of fame is fabulous. I really loved how he put a bit of throwback to the subject that attempted to rape his sister and gave us all a smile.

Anonymous said...

Check out this version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzEt_m1V4Ho&playnext=1&videos=v75xbqQw9XM&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_stronger_r2-2r-10-HM

Unknown said...

I love women. My mom's one:) My libido is high but not nearly as high as my principles and morals. For someone to take from somebody is cruel and unusual punishment and is deplorable. Love your sisters as you love yourself and enjoy their fruits as they would have you to and not destroy them or their souls.

Anonymous said...

Here in the land of Oz, we missed out on Anton-maybe not if hooked to up cable TV.Didn't notice him stand out on my You Tube either Reading your blog- love your writings-I had a chance to discover him. My response is exactly like yours in what I like about his responses, statements, attitude and song. So glad you wrote about him.