Crime is escalating. We've even had a killing here in Coeur d'Alene by a cop against a man who allegedly posed no threat except to himself. Nothing for which to die at the hands of another, especially a cop.
Neighboring Spokane has had a slew of killings over the past couple of weeks. The most egregious was an 88 year old man who was beaten to death by two teens in a robbery that netted them $50.
Pretty awful, right? Especially since the man, nick named "Shorty", was small in stature and the teens were pretty strapping at 15 and 16. It has been on the national news so you may have seen it.
The boys are black. And not the best of boys, having had run ins with the law before. More was made of the fact the man was a vet who survived a shot in the leg at the battle of Okinawa during World War II. He came back and lived a long productive life and was still active at 88 considering at the time of the attack he was sitting in his car waiting for a friend for a date to shoot pool.
The police chief has been on the air assuring us that the attack was not racially motivated but rather a crime of opportunity. Why? Is every crime committed by black on white or white on black racially motivated? Have we really sunk so low that that's a truth? I have no trouble believing the chief. What I do wonder is why so much was made that and the fact the victim was a vet.
To me it didn't add to the story nor change how I felt about the attackers. Two young trouble makers looking for an easy score beat to death an elderly man. It doesn't matter that they're black and it doesn't matter that the victim was a vet.
What matters is two young men felt motivated to do this and chose what they thought was an easy target. An old man. It's horrible and senseless and is happening far more often than acceptable. As for the Coeur d'Alene incident, no mention was made of race nor military service of either the officer or the victim. Only a news photo made his race clear. This too is horrible and senseless and is happening far more often than acceptable.
All the descriptive enhancement makes it no more so or less. It's egregious crime. It's madness.
2 comments:
guess i don't get it... why couldn't they shot the young man in the hand that held the knife? (the cda incident)
Oh yes, Mari. There also this:
Jesus knew that the desperation of peasant life flowed from systemic injustice, destitution and degradation. In his world and ours these are neither natural nor inevitable but are the product of domination systems created and maintained by the rich and powerful in this world to serve their own selfish interests.
Such structures are neither ordained by God nor mandated by scarcity.
Compassion thus includes social justice. Of course, compassion is a virtue for individuals, but compassion that does not see that much of the world’s misery flows from systemic injustice is a compassion that is still partially blind.
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