Much to Detroit’s collective relief, last weekend’s horrific stabbing death of a synagogue president near downtown appears to be “only” a narrowly focused murder case involving one killer and one victim. There is no sign of a religious or political hate crime, police said.
That’s better, we rationalize, than something motivated by antisemitism, toxic sexism, or political terrorism against a woman who was both Jewish (while Israel is at war) and a politically active Democrat (in a state run by female Democrats).
Discussing patterns in such killings, Detroit Police Chief James White said at a news conference: “We’re confident ... that this is not” a hate crime. He also said in a public statement, “No evidence has surfaced suggesting that this crime was motivated by antisemitism.”
Still, you couldn’t help but wonder, at least at first. Just days before, a six-year-old boy in suburban Chicago was stabbed to death by his landlord because he was of Palestinian descent. In the same attack, the landlord badly wounded the boy’s mother.
Friends said the killer loved listening to right-wing talk radio, which frequently incites anger over Israel’s war with Hamas, the political party ruling Palestinian Gaza. Hamas launched the Oct. 7 pogrom against Israel that ignited the current fighting.
But the knife murder of Samantha Woll in Lafayette Park on the near East Side was not even the area’s most heart-wrenching homicide in recent days. Consider these newspaper headlines from Clinton Township printed in the Macomb Daily.
“MOTHER FATALLY SHOT IN FRONT OF SONS,” it said. “Eyewitness heard husband yell ‘I shot my wife.’”
Beneath those words were photos of police, under a dark sky, fixing yellow, crime-scene tape in the front yard of a house.
“Neighbors said they heard approximately five gunshots and saw the couple’s two sons, ages 6 and 8, running from the residence,” the Daily story reported.
“...Residents said the couple are in their late 20s or early 30s, and were in the process of getting a divorce ... Neighbors said the husband is a military veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD).”
I assumed I’d heard the worst of it for a day or so until I read the Detroit News account of the death of seven-year-old Deshawn Williams, on Detroit’s East Side, near to where I grew up.
“His body was covered in scratches, scrapes, cuts, and burns over his face, back, front, side, legs, and feet,” the story said. The News quoted assistant prosecutor Tina Ripley as saying the boy was “absolutely brutalized” and that he “lived a nightmare.”
His mother and her boyfriend were charged with felony murder, first degree child abuse, and torture. Beneath these three, local horror stories there ran in my mind a vague undercurrent of dread I’d felt in recent weeks. To wit: Aren’t we due for another gun massacre?
As if on cue, my fear materialized Wednesday when a former mental patient in Maine slaughtered at least 18 people with an easily-obtained assault rifle. He’d said he’d heard voices in his head.
So far this year in the United States, it is the largest mass murder, although — with two months to go — someone might try for more. Police said the now-dead shooter, Robert Card, was a certified firearms instructor with a military background.
He fired away at two sites in Lewiston. They found him dead in the woods Friday night, which is better than if he came soon to a school near you — or to your house of worship, or your grocery store, or bowling alley, or bar, or movie theater, or outdoor country-western music concert.
No place is safe from a man with a hand-held murder machine.
This massacre, for me, also felt close to home. Although Lewiston, Me., is not near Detroit, my father was born and raised in Livermore Falls, Me., which is 25 miles north of Lewiston. I’ve been to both towns; I’ve dined in Lewiston. That region is my family’s ancestral home.
Even before the blood got mopped up there — right after the ritualistic “thoughts-and-prayers” incantations from politicians and news media — America’s right wing propaganda machine began calling for more guns to protect Second Amendment extremists from, well, more guns.
Apologists for deadly assault rifles like the one used in Maine once again insisted with crocodile tears, “We must enforce the laws already on the books!” and “We must do something about mental illness!” Cold-blooded translation: “Let’s not change a single thing.”
But maybe something could change. Remember in early October how supporters of Israel urged news media to spread graphic images of the atrocities of Hamas — the torture, the mutilation, the dismemberment?
That stuff is powerful. Those images make the case beyond mere words and bring visceral response. We might be approaching such a tipping point with gun massacres.
In a TikTok culture riveted by short bursts of images conveying powerful messages, someone could soon post and widely distribute images from the carnage of a gun massacre. It might be more powerful than pornography or go more viral than cat memes.
Until recently, human culture has never been so visually driven as we are now with smartphones. Sights once beyond our imagination now land in the palm of our hand. When this spit hits the fan — real visuals of gun carnage — sensibilities may be shocked and minds might be changed.
Absent a civil war between now and next November, the United States will hold another major election, for president on down. Along with restoration of abortion rights and continuation of union gains, Democrats and progressives in 2024 should push a powerful platform that includes gun safety.
It must be part of a widespread fight against a MAGAt-driven Republican Party run by gun nuts, religious fundamentalists, and cynical propagandists who push for profit in the mass media. That means Donald Trump, Fox News, and all who fit in those shoes.
Time to take them all on. Better late than never.
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