Oh yes kids, it's back and with a vengeance I tell you. Leave it to the 11 o'clock news this evening to bring forth tonight's topic du jour. As the news was flowing by on the TV screen, up popped a story of another shooting, two people dead in a van, one shot in the neck, the other in the head, one person in custody and the police are looking for at least one other person who remains at large.
The reason for this particular shooting remains to be determined, though of note the shots fired came from inside the van, which would lead one to believe that the victims probably new the shooter or shooters, given they were all in the same vehicle to begin with.
Of note is that the shooting took place in what can best be described as a less than friendly neighborhood. I think those of us that live in larger communities know what I am talking about, areas that are better left untrespassed through unless it is utterly needed. It is the very bare bones essence of street sense in that regard. What got me about the story was once again the community was "shocked and outraged' at the needless violence. Of course we had the requisite city councilman spouting the typical nonsense. It has become sort of the package story for what takes place in some neighborhoods, usually jammed somewhere in the news between weather and sports, unless it just happened, then we will have some breathless reporter live on the scene. In the end though it is all the same, sound and fury signifying nothing.
The community is shocked and outraged..........for about ten minutes, then life goes on as usual. The community doesn't do anything to change this pattern, community watches aren't set up, people that may have seen something clam up because they don't want to be labeled as a "snitch", and funerals become nothing more than dots on the social calendar ("Hey, didn't I see you last at Jimmy's funeral?" "Yeah, that was a pretty service, wasn't it?" "We should get together sometime."). It is the Seen column for the less fortunate set.
Spare me the self serving platitudes about how something needs to be done to make the neighborhood safer and actually do something about it. Even the best of police forces are working with at least one hand tied behind their back when the community turns into a cone of silence the minute the police arrive. So the choices are really simple, either aid those that would see the violence be removed from the street, or just shut the fuck up because your combination of moral outrage and lack of cooperation rings quite hollow here.
That really bothers me. An even more so is the fact that a huge breaking news story is live and going for maybe 2 days at the most, then you hear no more about it. No outcome whether good or ill. Nothing more is said, and if one wants to know what happened its a tough dig to find any current updated articles about it. How can we jus let a story go? At least any story with merit and importance, I mean its not out of the question to hear about what the hottest or not so hottest celebrity is doing morning, noon and night on any given day of the week.
ReplyDeleteLike the little boy who went missing here a couple years ago. He's still missing and nothing is ever said on the news about any leads, nothing is in the paper, its like he disappeared off the face of the earth and no one finds that odd. I guess its the nosy body in me that wants to know the start middle and ending of all stories that I'm interested in.
yet these neighborhoods are are the very same ones that complain of police brutality should a bystander get hurt during a chase. these are the same neighborhoods that want police to stop pursuing criminals if the bad guy hits a certain speed while making his getaway.
ReplyDeleteshoot a bad guy in these neighborhoods.....the police will be investigated for months.
the citizens are AGAINST the police.....lets face it ...if you give criminal a safe place to live ,they are gonna move in.