My downtown Greenwich Village neighborhood is still trying to assimilate and make sense of Wednesday's tragedy - see yesterday's posting (the photo shows De Marco's Restaurant where the first shooting occurred on the morning after). Now that there's been time to learn about the people who were involved and caught in the event, there's more knowledge of the horror and sadness that resulted. The details of the shootings have come to be revealed as much more violent and terrible than were known at the time. Reporters (see the New York Times' extensive coverage) have uncovered a lot about the lives that tragically intersected that night, and the devastation of those who have been left behind. It is one of those incidents that is senseless and violent, caused by a slow deterioration of a person who fell through the cracks of life and took out his frustration and paranoia on innocent bystanders. This type of violence has frequently occurred in other parts of the country, to the extent that a term has been coined - "going postal" but we in NYC have not had many such events. Perhaps because of this, many have felt a false sense of immunity. With so many individuals with disparate backgrounds crowded together and typically involved in a tragedy like this, the impact ripples out across a wide spectrum of people and parts of the city. Passing by that corner will certainly never feel the same again ...
Friday, March 16, 2007
Aftermath
My downtown Greenwich Village neighborhood is still trying to assimilate and make sense of Wednesday's tragedy - see yesterday's posting (the photo shows De Marco's Restaurant where the first shooting occurred on the morning after). Now that there's been time to learn about the people who were involved and caught in the event, there's more knowledge of the horror and sadness that resulted. The details of the shootings have come to be revealed as much more violent and terrible than were known at the time. Reporters (see the New York Times' extensive coverage) have uncovered a lot about the lives that tragically intersected that night, and the devastation of those who have been left behind. It is one of those incidents that is senseless and violent, caused by a slow deterioration of a person who fell through the cracks of life and took out his frustration and paranoia on innocent bystanders. This type of violence has frequently occurred in other parts of the country, to the extent that a term has been coined - "going postal" but we in NYC have not had many such events. Perhaps because of this, many have felt a false sense of immunity. With so many individuals with disparate backgrounds crowded together and typically involved in a tragedy like this, the impact ripples out across a wide spectrum of people and parts of the city. Passing by that corner will certainly never feel the same again ...
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5 comments:
oh my!
I didn't know what happened until now. This kind of things makes me think hardly to try to understand how is that possible that a man can kill a person. I mean, you have a lot of ways to do it, but how can you be psychological able to do this kind of act? this is awful of human beings.
What a terrible thing to happen. My heart goes out to the loved ones of those killed, and to the wider community who have to try and make some sort of sense of such a senseless act.
I read the NYTimes article, and felt heartsick afterwards. It seems they were intervening against their training and judgement, trying to stop a madman from doing serious harm to more innocent bystanders. Such a horrible tragedy that they both had to pay with theirs lives, together with that other poor young man in the store. So very sad.
I was somewhat shocked to see the name, "DeMarco" because my best friend in Japan was Jim DeMarco. He and his family owned a photography business in "Chicago."
I am not sure but think there was something on CNN about this last evening.
What a tragedy, and your reflexions about the circumstances that lead to it are very worthwhile. What would it take to make this world a safer and nicer place to live ? How damaging are cities for the people who live there ? How can we make sure people dont fall through the cracks of life, as you say...
And then the rippling effect on a spectrum of people... very sad.
Thanks for this post which is also a reflection on life and life in big cities.
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