Anarchy99
Footballguy
I started a thread yesterday in the FFA relaying that our son's best friend was shot and killed over the weekend at a party at a frat house near Ohio State in Columbus, OH. I have some more information, which will make the subject matter much more suited for this forum than the FFA.
My son (who graduated earlier this year) and his friend were at the frat house having fun when thankfully our son decided to call it a night a little before 2 AM (before anything happened). Just after that, a group of 4 kids (now thought to be gang members) showed up to crash the party. They started making trouble and picking fights and were asked to leave. My son's friend and some other kids escorted the party crashers to the parking lot when things escalated further. One of the gang kids pulled out a gun, and my son's friend tried to tackle him to prevent the kid from shooting someone. Unfortunately, he could not dislodge the gun from the kid, who got up and immediate shot my son's friend in the head from point blank range. This was as tragic an outcome as there could be. That really should be the story, but there is more to it than that.
Since then, we have been trying to get more information about what happened. We have seen some articles, tv coverage, and commentary on the incident and I am left scratching my head more about the media coverage and fallout than the unfortunate incident itself. Columbus was one of many cities over the summer that had "protests" and/or "riots" and had some disruptive people that caused a fair amount of damage. Apparently, there were numerous accusations of police brutality, and law enforcement has had to spend the proceeding months defending themselves and dealing with lawsuits.
After this recent shooting incident (right before an election), lots of things are being brought up. Is the Columbus PD no longer responding to calls and are letting things go on? The shooter in this incident has a rap sheet a mile long and was awaiting trial on other charges . . . so what is the judicial system doing letting him walk the streets? There have now been X amount of murders this year in Columbus . . . what's going on with gun control? In general, it sounds like some troublemakers have been bragging that they can do whatever they want without fear of police intervention because the cops are not around and haven't been doing anything to prevent it. Some places have pointed out that there have now been several episodes related to Ohio State . . . are they somehow to blame and what are they doing about it? And of course, the racial / social side of things has popped up (in this case, predominantly affluent white college kids sparring with wrong side of the tracks, disadvantaged black kids).
So as a fall out, it seems like a lot of the coverage of the shooting has questioned what changes need to be made in political offices, law enforcement, the court system, etc. I don't really have much of an opinion on all those things . . . I am much more into grieving the outcome of the shooting. In hindsight, I shouldn't be all that surprised that this incident is being used to support positions and people may be trying to use it for political gain. Even the coverage of the incident is being brought up as being politically biased (ie the media is part of the story). My position is . . . what about the kid that got shot and his grieving family?
That's about it . . . I don't really care about the spin doctoring beyond that. Sadly, I think this is a representative snapshot of how things are going in America and it's both sad and disheartening that this is where we are. I have never been this close to a national newsworthy shooting / incident. Maybe I am naïve to expect the 24-48 hours after a tragedy like this should be used to support the victim and his family. It almost feels like the articles and political positioning were already prepared and they just substituted the name of the victim to further their agenda.
Anyway, thanks to all those that gave a shout out of support.
My son (who graduated earlier this year) and his friend were at the frat house having fun when thankfully our son decided to call it a night a little before 2 AM (before anything happened). Just after that, a group of 4 kids (now thought to be gang members) showed up to crash the party. They started making trouble and picking fights and were asked to leave. My son's friend and some other kids escorted the party crashers to the parking lot when things escalated further. One of the gang kids pulled out a gun, and my son's friend tried to tackle him to prevent the kid from shooting someone. Unfortunately, he could not dislodge the gun from the kid, who got up and immediate shot my son's friend in the head from point blank range. This was as tragic an outcome as there could be. That really should be the story, but there is more to it than that.
Since then, we have been trying to get more information about what happened. We have seen some articles, tv coverage, and commentary on the incident and I am left scratching my head more about the media coverage and fallout than the unfortunate incident itself. Columbus was one of many cities over the summer that had "protests" and/or "riots" and had some disruptive people that caused a fair amount of damage. Apparently, there were numerous accusations of police brutality, and law enforcement has had to spend the proceeding months defending themselves and dealing with lawsuits.
After this recent shooting incident (right before an election), lots of things are being brought up. Is the Columbus PD no longer responding to calls and are letting things go on? The shooter in this incident has a rap sheet a mile long and was awaiting trial on other charges . . . so what is the judicial system doing letting him walk the streets? There have now been X amount of murders this year in Columbus . . . what's going on with gun control? In general, it sounds like some troublemakers have been bragging that they can do whatever they want without fear of police intervention because the cops are not around and haven't been doing anything to prevent it. Some places have pointed out that there have now been several episodes related to Ohio State . . . are they somehow to blame and what are they doing about it? And of course, the racial / social side of things has popped up (in this case, predominantly affluent white college kids sparring with wrong side of the tracks, disadvantaged black kids).
So as a fall out, it seems like a lot of the coverage of the shooting has questioned what changes need to be made in political offices, law enforcement, the court system, etc. I don't really have much of an opinion on all those things . . . I am much more into grieving the outcome of the shooting. In hindsight, I shouldn't be all that surprised that this incident is being used to support positions and people may be trying to use it for political gain. Even the coverage of the incident is being brought up as being politically biased (ie the media is part of the story). My position is . . . what about the kid that got shot and his grieving family?
That's about it . . . I don't really care about the spin doctoring beyond that. Sadly, I think this is a representative snapshot of how things are going in America and it's both sad and disheartening that this is where we are. I have never been this close to a national newsworthy shooting / incident. Maybe I am naïve to expect the 24-48 hours after a tragedy like this should be used to support the victim and his family. It almost feels like the articles and political positioning were already prepared and they just substituted the name of the victim to further their agenda.
Anyway, thanks to all those that gave a shout out of support.
