"I have always had a love for the web and the different technologies involved, so I knew I had to pursue it.
I was 27, working in law enforcement in Alabama on the midnight shift and I just knew something had to change.
I didn't hate my job by any means, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do. So my wife and I were sitting at the dinner table one night, crunched the numbersconsidering our income would be cut in half, and decided that I would quit work and go back to school.
I already knew that I wanted to major in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama because it is a very highly ranked and well respected program.
So in the summer of 2009, I quit the police dept to focus on school full time.
For three years I went to school full time fall, spring, and ever summer.
Worked a small student job with lots of freedom so I was allowed to focus on honing in on my HTML, CSS, and JS through freelance and student work projects.
I took an internship the summer of 2011 with a very large fortune 50 company in Atlanta with their Front End Web Dev team.
In August of 2011, they made me an offer of employment to return in June 2012 upon graduation.
So in January of 2012, I sold my house and we moved in with my mother in law.
In May of 2012, I finally achieved my lifelong dream of graduating college with a B.S. in Commerce and Business Administration with
a concentration in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama.
Being the first person in my family to graduate college was nothing short of amazing, it felt great walking across that stage.
So literally the next day after commencement, I moved everything I had including a 7 month pregnant wife to Marietta, GA where we currently reside.
I am now in my dream job, have a beautiful 6 month old son, and love going to work everyday.
I couldn't be happier. And that is how I got in to professional web development :)
TL;DR: Quite law enforcement, Went back to school, Took an job in Atlanta"
He calls his "wife" "a".
ReplyDeleteLaw enforcement? He worked at the police station as a dispatcher. Some dispatchers are officers, I haven't seen anything stating that he was an officer. I would not call a civilian dispatcher "law enforcement".
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't know his actual job, I would be wondering, why did he leave his career of law enforcement. Knowing what his job was, instead, I'm just left thinking, liar.
Also note that HE sold HIS house, even though he was married, and "we" moved in with his wifes mother.
He seems like he treats his wife as an object, while pregnant. Then after, he only mentions his son and doesn't even mention her.
He seems to definitely be an embellisher (is that a word? Lol). He embellished his job at the police station. He also made it seem that quitting his job while his pregnant wife supported him (income cut in 1/2), moving in with his wifes mother, etc., was a lovely walk in the park. Good for anyone who decided to better themselves, their lives, their families lives, but it's not a smooth sailing and stress free as he wanted it to seem.
He WAS a police officer you stupid bastard.
DeleteReally? Where did you find that information? I don't think he was an officer.
DeleteIf he wasn't a despatcher what roleiops&
ReplyDelete"I sold my house and we moved....".
ReplyDeleteNo mention of getting pregnant difficulties, no real mention of wife, pregnant or otherwise, except that her income was necessary, her mother's house living arrangement was necessary.
Glaring lack of written interest in new son.
Wife is a possession who gets moved to Atlanta with him.
He's like the Peggy Lee song "Is That All There Is"...
And his web design job was so fulfilling to him that he took up/continued, more likely, spending his work day on sites sending and receiving nude body part pictures and looking to hook up.
This is a frustrated, unrealistic, unhappy, self-centered man who apparently has no anchor, is willing to do just about anything to "help" himself feel some satisfaction.
Am I right?
Worked a small student job with lots of freedom so I was allowed to focus on honing in on my HTML, CSS, and JS through freelance and student work projects.
ReplyDeleteDropped pronoun.
so I was allowed
The shortest sentence is always the best. Take away these words and the message remains the same, and much stronger.
Worked a small student job with lots of freedom to focus on honing in on my HTML, CSS, and JS through freelance and student work projects.
We see also he has a need to explain by using the word "So". This is the highest level of sensitivity, along with the word "left"
Is the sensitivity in the words "i was allowed"
The word "allowed" suggests that there was a discussion and he was given permission to go ahead. Yet, he tells us that he had lots of freedom. So, why does he feel the need to add this to his statement.? Who was it that "allowed" him to persue his goal?. Does his wife have more to say than meets the eye?
Wife the enabler?
ReplyDeleteMaybe she wanted out also.
So my wife and I were sitting at the dinner table one night, crunched the numbers
ReplyDeleteconsidering our income would be cut in half, and decided that I would quit work and go back to school.
So = why
Sitting = tension and argument, money follows sitting so they were fighting about money
Dropped pronouns before crunched and decided. So which of them pointed out that there would much much less money to live on and who finally decided that he would quit work and go back to school?
So in the summer of 2009, I quit the police dept to focus on school full time.
Police force? He quit the department but what about the force?
Worked a small student job with lots of freedom
Dropped pronoun, non-committed to the verb "worked". Indicates he had a lot of freedom (because he wasn't really working).
I moved everything I had including a 7 month pregnant wife to Marietta, GA where we currently reside.
"A" as opposed to "my"
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletejohn said:
ReplyDeleteso I was allowed
The shortest sentence is always the best. Take away these words and the message remains the same, and much stronger.
Yes, and "so" answers why he was on the computer "honing his skills". His wife couldn't say that he wasn't doing anything. He was "working" and any time spent on the computer was "honing" his skills he was learning.
So in the summer of 2009, I quit the police dept to focus on school full time.
ReplyDeletePolice force? He quit the department but what about the force?
Further to what I posted above: Does he still consider himself a police officer? Investigative? Intelligent? Covert, etc? IMO, department implies desk specific. Force is career specific.
I moved everything I had including A 7 month pregnant wife to Marietta
ReplyDeleteWow!
He is refering to his unborn baby and his wife as inanimate objects.
He was a 911 dispatcher.
ReplyDeletelove for the web
ReplyDeleteWhat is his subjective internal diction definition of "love for the web"
I didn't
Anything said in the negative we note as sensitive.
sitting
Increase in tension.
Worked
Dropped pronoun.
law enforcement
the police dept
Passive.
Change in language.
Not just "a Fortune 50 company" or even a "large Fortune 50 company" but a "VERY large Fortune 50 company."
ReplyDeleteHe has the need to inflate the importance of his jobs. He is insecure and has feelings of inadequacy that he needs to cover up by making his work history sound more impressive than it actually is.
Also, "I sold my house". His house? He is married. You would expect, "We sold our house and moved..." He speaks of moving: "I moved everything I had including a 7 months pregnant wife" like she is an object. Se is not his partner. She is property that he owns.
"I couldn't be happier" is working too hard. Everyone could be happier. He is trying to convince himself and others that life is great.
He is an insecure narcissist. He does not see his immediate family (wife and son) as people, but as his property.
"For three years I went to school full time fall, spring, and ever [? Even? Every?]summer."
ReplyDeleteWhy stress this? Why not say, "I went to school full time for three years"? He needed to stress that he went during the summer, which might be expected from recent high school graduate used to summers of leisure but is odd for someone who was used to working a year round job. Why the need to make himself sound like such a dedicated student that he would take summer classes?
Does he drive?/?????? What color are his car doors/???????? Are they"black"/????
ReplyDelete2 incomplete social introductions. 3 if you count the mother-in-law? Interesting that he refers to leeanna as 'my wife' when talking about finances and his quitting his job to go to school but when she's pregnant she's only 'a 7 month pregnant wife'. Maybe he never wanted her to get pregnant?
ReplyDeleteHe takes ownership of everything (my wife, my job, my HTML, my house, my mother-in-law, my family) and Cooper is only a 6 month old son :(
I agree wilf.
DeleteHe was a police DISPATCHER, not a patrol officer:
ReplyDeleteHarris worked at the University of Alabama as a parking monitor and later as a mail delivery clerk between 2001 and 2006, the university said.
Afterward, he was a police dispatcher in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, until 2009, according to Tuscaloosa police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley. The department only confirmed his tenure, not details on his work history.
Three years later, Harris graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor's degree in commerce and business administration. From there, he went to Home Depot.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/04/justice/who-is-justin-ross-harris/
Thanks Lucy. That's what I thought.
DeleteI feel like he was trying to portray that he was an officer "in law enforcement". When someone says "I'm in law enforcement", I don't think of the civilians working in the police station, but someone who enforces the law.
I agree. He is making himself better than he is. That is what I also see with the affairs and texting other women. He is trying to make himself feel better.
DeleteThat's a great catch Elf. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks john :)
DeleteAlso I just noticed the order at the end- dream job, son, love going to work. I remember Peter saying order is important but what does it mean that he put his son in between his job and love of job?
"University of Alabama because it is a very highly ranked and well respected program"
ReplyDeleteHe repeats the name of the university, making it sensitive. In the above quote, he tells us why he chose that university.
"quit the police dept to focus on school full time" the "to" is again a "why". Leads me to believe he cannot focus on more than one thing at a time.
That post @ 1:14 was NOT me.
ReplyDeletePolice department/force
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, Lucy. I didn't know he was a 911 dispatcher. I'm just jumping in on this case and I don't have a lot of back history about Ross Harris and his wife.
Peter highlighted 'department' and I picked up on this more so because my habitual reading made me "see", therefore think force. I had to re-read it and yet I didn't think of him being in a career outside 'the force'/non-officer.
>>>>><<<<<<
DeleteSo my wife and I were sitting at the dinner table one night, crunched the numbers
ReplyDeleteconsidering our income would be cut in half, and decided
"So my wife and I were sitting at the dinner table one night, crunched the numbers
ReplyDeleteconsidering our income would be cut in half, and decided"
************** snipped/
I wonder if they came up with a plan to have a baby and collect the insurance from the baby's death at this point.
I think the fact Ross worked before as a 911 dispatcher is the reason he had someone else at the scene call 911 for him.
ReplyDeleteI think it was easier for him to have someone else call instead of trying to get his lie straight to the 911 dispatcher whom he was aware would know which crucial information to ask for and which questions to ask him.
I agree. He knows as a dispatcher that not only are those calls analyzed but recorded.
DeleteWhat I don't get however is the internet searches. UNLESS...he was trying to use it to support his story. That he was scared he would forget. I just think it looks more guilty.
I keep thinking Ross didn't think LE would investigate him, that LE would simply take it as an accidental death, a death with no 'malicious intent' as Ross put it.
ReplyDeleteI think this is why he and Leanna chose the method they employed; maybe their researches led them to believe they wouldn't be suspected of doing this on purpose.
He is all about Me, me, me, and me.
ReplyDelete@Anon 4:20
ReplyDeleteI think you're right with that. This is the Achilles heel of the narcissist. They can't comprehend that others don't see them as the brilliant people that they pretend to the world that they are. They don't foresee that others won't buy their lies. He thought ahead enough to make sure his voice wasn't on a 911 tape, because he knew it was SOP for them to be analyzed and scrutinized even in the event of an accidental death. But he didn't think that police would investigate enough to seize his computers and phone, because it never occurred to him that his brilliant "accidental death in hot car" story wouldn't be believed: "But there was no malicious intent!"
"Quit the police department" seems like odd wording -- seems like you'd quit your job, not *where* you worked.
ReplyDeleteThe odd wording immediately brought to mind the Beatles song, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window."
"And so I quit the police department / And got myself a steady job / And though she tried her best to help me / She could steal but she could not rob..."