Ice Pick Dog Stabber: Deranged or Just Clueless?

When reports of the Prospect Park ice pick dog stabber’s arrest flooded the Internet, locals took to social media to express their vehement anger and glee. “Off with his head!” one woman tweeted. “Go directly to jail. Do not pass go,” another said. The general consensus seemed clear: Donnell Barden was a menace.

However, the responses to the 42-year-old Flatbush resident’s capture caused one medium.com blogger, Amanda McCormick, to question the use of such loaded language in describing the stabber.

“The fever was building and the chorus was the loudest voice,” McCormick said in her Aug. 6 post titled “Myth and Menace in Prospect Park.” “Maniac. Menace. Deranged. Psycho. All of them speaking of someone superhuman, larger than life.”

The blogger said she tried to unravel the myths, assumptions and rumors that came about before and after Barden’s arrest, suggesting that many locals were quick to describe him as a maniac, menace or psycho.

'But if there’s any chance the dog park menace isn’t the deranged attacker he’s been made out to be? If there’s any chance he’s just clueless, or out of his depth or just kind of an asshole? It’s terrible that we’d elect to turn him from man to maniac, just because it’s easy to. Just because no one questions it."

Barden was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon on Aug. 5. He pled guilty to attempted murder charges and second degree assault in 1992 and was released from jail in May 2010 after seven years behind bars, as Patch previously reported.

Do you think Barden has been fairly characterized by locals and the media? Let us know in the comments.