…a snapshot of contemporary California (and to — I hope — a lesser degree the nation itself).
12 thoughts on “A Sick Society”
Comments are closed.
…a snapshot of contemporary California (and to — I hope — a lesser degree the nation itself).
Comments are closed.
That is a really good take on how we tend to view events.
What’s sad is that VDH must break it down, using small words, for the Eloi who have no functioning epistemology, and thus, like Poundstone’s Cat, regard events like this with a certain mental flatness.
I don’t agree as much on whose name is in or out of the paper. I rather remember the poor victim than the punk kid, but I understand identifying the wrong doer allows for justice. But this part, I think, says it best about a rather stupid phrase:
The law-enforcement officer, who no doubt means well, nonetheless describes a productive worker, striving to clean her car, as “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” But in fact, it is the anonymous teen who is in the wrong place at the wrong time — as if civilization could possibly continue if the majority followed his wrong hours and wrong behavior. Ms. McVay, in fact, was in the right place at the right time, and she should have had every expectation that that she could go to the car wash before work without worry that a murderous gang-banger would slit her throat.
It’s a turn normally seen from Lileks, but VDH deserves credit for delivering it. Indeed, civilization should consider the teen as being at the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong behaviour. I want more Ms. McVay’s that feel comfortable, for they are indeed safe, with washing their car at 5am in the morning before they head into work. When you admonish her and protect the teen, you get a disfunctional society.
All stories like this do for me is make me want to go and put some rounds down range to keep my aim sharp.
I’m glad Hanson pointed out the error in claiming the victim was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” That statement angers me to no end. She was doing nothing wrong. Saying she was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” is in effect blaming the victim for being in the thug kid’s way, therefore she had it coming. It’s like saying a rape victim was to fault for what she was wearing instead of blaming the criminal for his acts.
Excellent point, Leland.
Welcome to the 1970s, folks. Only this time you get to face the streets ruled by criminals, law-abiding folk being afraid to leave their homes and walk the streets of their own neighborhoods, ugly pop culture, uncaring police, and venal public servants without the comforts of smoking and eating salty, fatty foods.
This is why murder should be legal. No hand wringing about age either. Thug kills a good woman… good woman’s friends mourn, then hunt down thug and every member of his gang and kin.
Name of all underage thugs parents published for every illegal act.
Let’s not forget the lawyer willing to defend these vermin.
“That’s why murder should be legal”
Uh– isn’t that what happened to this woman and we’re all upset about that? Making murder legal would make what the thug did to this woman, um, legal.
Whatever you’re drinking, I don’t want.
I was being facetious, however…
The way they handle this thug, even in the reporting, was not effective. We have a sick society and need the cure.
We all know murder is wrong. That’s not the issue. Are we dealing with it effectively is the issue. Are we being so civilized that it just adds to the suffering?
Pick a couple of dozen people at random out of the phonebook and one maniac killer. Put me in a room with all of them and hand out guns to everyone… including the crazy. I don’t need a gun. I’d feel perfectly safe. As soon as the crazy started shooting, some of the others would shoot back. Crazies in such a situation tend to be self eliminating.
Most cowboy towns did not have a bunch of idiots shooting guns randomly. Those idiots usually ended up dead leaving a very peaceful town behind.
We’ve lost something very important since those days.
Nope. Just one more moment of human behavior in a thousand such moments, neither representative nor unique: 29 December 1991, Colleen Reed was raped and murdered after being abducted in plain sight before witnesses from a car wash in Austin, Texas, a few blocks from where I lived at the time. If Hanson wants to use it as a metaphor for Mexifornia, let him, but it’s indistinguishable from other events he ignores.
The story happened in California. It wasn’t about California.
Kenneth Allen McDuffs criminal record began two years before his first murder conviction.
It’s about a sick society.
neither representative nor unique
Yet here you represent it and you should. It is another data point of a sick society. Not being unique emphasizes the point.