Like a lot of you, I’m sure, I get this visceral feeling reading about certain crimes. Utterly cold-blooded, unconscionably senseless murder qualifies. Especially when you factor in back stories about the alleged assailant and the victim.
The recent arrest of 16-year-old Larry Donnell Brown in the murder of private security officer Michael Valentin, 38, was the most recent Exhibit A. Police had charged Brown 36 times in six years. He was even arrested for an ATM stick-up after the deadly shooting.
Valentin was a husband and father of two.
Both Brown and Valentin came from hard-scrabble backgrounds. Brown was raised by a teen mother in Tampa; Valentin grew up in a gang-infested project in Brooklyn. Brown produced a rap sheet that already included 12 felony convictions. Valentin pursued a career protecting society from criminals such as Brown. Life, as we’re too often reminded, can be unfathomably unfair.
But then there was this. The (Local) front-page headline of last Saturday’s Tampa Bay Times read: “For Two Families, A Day Of Reflection.” I had to re-read that.
In a shamefully lame attempt to featurize this variation on an all-too-familiar, crime-story theme, the Times was, in effect, equating the families–that of the accused murderer and that of the confirmed victim. Both dealing with issues, as it were. Both asking questions, so to speak, about the tragic slaying of a father of two who wanted to help people and the arrest of a suspect who is a proven predator.
But then, perhaps, the Times was influenced by the Tampa Tribune’s story from the previous day. The (Metro) page-one piece carried the headline: “Guard Slaying Suspect’s Mom Defends Son.”
It doesn’t get any worse than the senseless murder of a loved one raising a family and trying to help society. And then it just did. Outrageous to add insult to iniquity.