I'm going to bed and I see this headline:
Toddler suffers life-threatening injuries in drive-by shooting
Here's the full story, as it's posted this minute:
"Someone in a car fired shots into a group of 40 people gathered in the front yard of a Kansas City residence Friday night, seriously wounding a toddler and injuring the man holding her."
"The shooting occurred about 8:20 p.m. in the 5400 block of Highland Avenue, police said. Witnesses said the shots came from a dark-colored vehicle that drove by."
"The older victim, a man in his 30s, did not want to prosecute, police said. He was holding the girl, who appeared to be 2 or 3 years old. The victims were near the sidewalk in the front yard."
"Both victims were taken to hospitals."
So the questions are, at what point is enough, enough?
What does it have to take to put an end to this nonsense? This stupidity?
And how, exactly, do we end this culture of violence Kansas City? America?
Link:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1371335.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
Well, I'll take a stab at it. Just thinking outside the box here, how about cooperating with the police, pressing charges, testifying in court and putting the people who did the shooting in jail?
Because I guarantee you, the victim of the shooting knows who shot him and he knows why they shot him.
There was nothing random about this.
But if the victim doesn't care that he and a child he was holding got shot, I don't see why anyone else should care.
I certainly don't.
I agree with XO on this one. If one of the victims won't press charges there's not much any of us can do. That certainly doesn't lessen the horrible nature of all this but does go a ways toward explaining it.
When will you guys get off the law and order prescription? Not the solution when you have a community that perceives it is brutalized by the police/justice system and responds to disputes in a manner that makes sense to that world. Asking again won't increase in people prosecuting. Access to guns and assumption that gun violence settles disputes is the core problem. Either increase police presence on the street to protect civilians or ramp up a cultural shift in dispute resolution. I know you won't like either of those options.
Sadly, I'm afraid I have to agree as well. The disconnect here seems to be that one culture (where the shootings are) have very different values than those who are wringing their hands about it. They accept it. Their kids are in neighborhood gangs who need to be initiated in the violence and machismo associated by this culture.
An initation of disrespect for life and fellow citizens.
It is as foreign to mainstream Americans ans some of the bizaare cultural differences we see on TV and read about in the arab world, in Asia.
What this is about, isn't really about our outrage...for they are practicing their values and their culture. What it really is for us is the realization that America is no longer a melting pot where its members become more alike other member. They remain separate. I don't ever use the word Balkanization, but it seems to fit. Despite the same media we all watch in our homes that should unify us, there are forces at work that resist that.
Differing values about crime and politics, even LIFE ITSELF, are examples of how we no longer enjoy one identity and culture.
This little treatise is my attempt to put what we've seen in a larger perspective. It's why I dont wring hands over these differences. I only note them and put them in perspective of the trends I try to explain.
And the bottom conclusion I have, is that the movement to REDUCE racism has lost its effectiveness. Why? Because humans are TRIBAL. We identify with SAMENESS to ourselves, not DIFFERENCES. We shun differences. Even fear them. IF we had hoped to reduce differences to improve relationships, we have failed.
Xavier,
that's the conclusion I came to--see today's entry. I agree. You either file charges or not and to not press charges is insanity. You're only asking for more of the same.
To Radioman--but dude, what other option is there but to begin with a report to those same cops on this shooting? As I said above, if you don't do at least that, what's to keep it from happening again, the next day, today?
Okay, we're tribal, etc. But I do believe that more and better education--which has been lacking--and pressure to reduce really ugly, blatant racism is key to us both working and living together.
Call me naive or ridiculously hopeful but I do believe it's with more and better education (not what is being doled out now in KCMO) is truly part of the solution.
It can be done but it won't be easy or quick. And we've gotta want it. Badly.
Thanks, guys.
Great discussion.
Mo Rage
oops. correction.
that 2nd mention there should have gone to "Do you see me".
I think we have to work with the cops--they have to work with the cops--and we need to keep the cops doing their jobs properly, fairly, intelligently.
all we can do is try and we have to.
have a great weekend, y'all.
A final problem with this is that it won't stay "on that side of town", too. That's a big outgrowth of this problem. The woman from Kansas who was leaving Starlight and got shot and killed in her own car in front of her 13 year old daughter and Mother-in-Law is just the latest example. It's not like this will stay contained. It needs a solution for the entire metropolitan area. It's not "us vs. them". It's not just in their neighborhoods forever. With enough guns and ignorance, this spills out all over. Witness Detroit, LA, etc.
Post a Comment