Two senseless killings made the headlines last week: one of a man who was likely the calmest voice of conservatism and Christianity in the world today, the other a young woman who was just trying to make a living who died several days prior. Both were videoed recorded and have been played time and again online and on the news.
There’s enough commentary and anger out there about Charlie Kirk right now; I can add nothing to it, really, outside of my somewhat surprised realization that there is so much visceral hatred on the part of the left. To be real honest, seeing the posts on X, Facebook, Instagram and the commentary on what passes for news made me check the chamber on my everyday pistol a little more often, and look over my shoulder more.
It reassures me to see folks on the right taking pages from Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” and using the left’s tactics against them – calling folks out, complaining to employers, and taking their business elsewhere. Cities burned in the wake of George Floyd’s death, where prayer vigils were held in Charlie Kirk’s honor. That those vigils were attacked in a couple cases tells us all we need to know.
But as earthshaking as the death of that good man was, it was a killing closer to home that still makes me fight intrusive thoughts.
Iryna Zarutska escaped the war in the Ukraine for a new life in America. Legally, I might add – she didn’t sneak across the border and declare herself a ward of the state. She escaped the horrors of the war in her homeland, went to college, volunteered with an animal rescue, and worked in a pizza restaurant. She had just purchased a car, and was looking forward to enjoying that freedom after getting her driver’s license next week. Until then, she rode the train back and forth to work every day.
She was stabbed to death on that train, allegedly murdered by a man who had previously been convicted 14 times, yet was out on unsecured bond on a pending robbery charge.
DeCarlos Brown Jr. may or may not have severe mental problems; he claims he does, and there is a legal history of mental impairment. Yet the courts turned him out again and again, since there was no way to get him the treatment he might need, and the judges and district attorney in Charlotte are far more concerned with skin color than crime. Brown served five years in prison for robbery, and for whatever reason when he got out and started committing crimes again, the courts weren’t concerned.
There’s a better than average chance that had a cash bail or no bail been in place for Brown, we never would have been trying to pronounce the name of that beautiful young woman whose terrified expression, tears and finally blood have been shown thousands of times on the news and social media.
If you have not seen the video, I do not recommend it. A still of her terrified face is enough.
What may actually have been just as bad as the suspect allegedly stabbing a stranger was the fact that there were at least four people within an arm’s length who did nothing.
Someone’s daughter, sister, future wife and maybe even someday a mother bled to death with only the comfort of a stranger who tried to use his shirt to staunch her wounds. The other folks were either recording or ignoring the whole thing, even as her blood flowed across the floor of the rail car toward them.
I was brought up differently, and I’m confident that I would have intervened. Most people I know would have done something more than video or ignore the attack. I do not consider myself special, nor do I have a hero complex. Preventing any individual from being hurt is just the right thing to do.
The entre city of Charlotte failed that young woman. Our state failed her, since there was no requirement that a violent offender be held under a higher bail, or any bail at all.
The mayor couldn’t be bothered to say her name. Gov. Josh Stein gave a sort-of response. Former Governor Roy Cooper (who wants to be senator) said we need more and better trained police.
Horsefeathers.
The cops are not the problem; one problem is a government that allows criminals to walk out the door with an ankle monitor on first degree murder charges (that happened there too, by the way). The problem is also in an administration praised and awarded for its ‘woke’ policies by a governor who marched in support of the George Floyd riots, back when when you weren’t allowed to see your grandmother in a nursing home because of COVID rules.
It was reassuring to see that the General Assembly is working to tighten rules on cashless bail for violent criminals, and bringing back capital punishment. There was even a nod toward the very real problem of finding ways to separate the truly mentally ill from the criminal and addict elements with whom they have been lumped.
But all those changes take time, time we may not have.
An even bigger problem is the unwillingness of people to help a stranger who is in danger. It’s sad that in this brave new world, a young woman was safer in a war zone than she was on the light rail in a major city.
The senseless violence is spreading, and I don’t just mean the school shootings or the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I don’t just mean terrorism or drug gangs. There are poor lost souls who for whatever reason love violence. And there are those who support and celebrate political violence because they disagree with someone’s opinions, which in turn encourages those lost souls looking for a reason to hurt someone else.
While everyone is begging for the rhetoric to stop, I am thinking in more practical terms.
Please take a stop the bleed course. Watch your surroundings, and teach your children and families to do the same. Find the means to protect yourself. The latter option isn’t for everybody. It’s a personal choice, and I respect that. If you decide to look into ways to legally arm yourself, then get trained.
I don’t care if we agree or disagree politically; those requests are for everybody. Take care of yourself and your family, then you can take care of those around you – regardless of their politics or skin color, if you’re a decent human being.
I was talking with a close friend the other day about growing up in the 70s and 80s. A younger friend was aghast at what we could do back then, with virtually no fear. I thought about it, and we were truly sheep, but we were surrounded by sheepdogs.
Today, some of the sheep have rabies, the wolves are all around us, and they are hungry.
Iryna could have been your daughter, sister, niece, cousin, granddaughter, wife, or mother.
Plan accordingly.
You never know, in this day and age, when your daughter might be the girl on the train.
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