I think we can all agree that the death of 8-year-old Paris Whitehead-Hamilton of St. Petersburg was a tragedy. One that warranted as much grief as outrage, because it was so senseless and so eminently preventable.
What I won’t concur with, however, is the sense of societal guilt that some have been parceling out. In effect, “we are all at fault.” In an utterly imperfect world, we lack, among other things, idealized nuclear families and a perfect criminal justice system. As a result, we should hardly be surprised when all kinds of anti-social behavior, including anarchy and iniquity, result. It’s a societal failing.
This sort of rush-to-collective-culpability is, itself, an outrage. When you mis-assign indictment, you mis-apportion responsibility and accountability.
You want fault? Try this: Despite what President Obama and prominent African-Americans such as Bill Cosby have stood for, have said and have done, there can not be a “post-racial” America until a still-too-prevalent, dysfunctional black culture has been dismantled. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker alluded to as much with a benignly nuanced statement about music and other cultural elements that promote violence. Others have noted the “no snitch” ethic all too prominent in many minority neighborhoods.
As a result of rival gangs “warring,” an innocent 8-year-old, known affectionately as “Princess Paris,” was killed because she was in the wrong place – her home – doing the wrong thing – seeing what caused the noise that woke her up — at the wrong time – 2:20 a.m. Three of the 50 bullets from semi-automatic rifles hit and killed her. They were actually meant for another member of her household.
You want further fault? Try those who continue to pervert the Second Amendment with specious reasoning that manages to equate assault weapons with Founding Fathers’ intent in the era of musketry and well-regulated militias. Yes, we’re talking the National Rifle Association, its Mephistophelean lobbyists, all the craven legislators they intimidate — and all the malefic, gun show subplots and loopholes that necessarily result.
You want to assign blame? Those who pull the triggers. Those who accommodate the trigger happy. And those who want to blame everybody.