Yesterday's events
Don't come here for a laugh or a happy holiday story. Today the world makes me sad
Yesterday I saw a boy of about 3 years old with a pair of jeans emblazened with the word "Hustla" and dollar signs on the leg. It made me so sick, just to think how popular culture has glamorized the ghetto life to the point of imposing it on toddlers. That was at 1 pm.
An hour later, my husband's college roommate, a Sacramento Sherriff's Deputy, was shot. By a 16-year old "hustla". According to my husband, Vu was the kind of person who'd give you the shirt off his back, just an all-around good guy. He was part of a profession that doesn't take personal safety for granted. He'd been in the gang unit for a while and had no doubt had those moments in his career where he was surprised to still be breathing. And yesterday, he didn't make it home.
In recent years, there's been a lot made of police brutality and the havoc that is created when police go bad. Think Ramparts in LA, Abner Louima's case in NYC, Rodney King, the list goes on. But what is ignored are the good guys, the ones who are trying to make a difference. Although he was a gun-toting police officer, Vu was trying to make a gang-ridden area safer and just his presence in the community was part of that goal. What is wrong with that? While I don't disagree that there are certainly bad apples just as there are in every profession, it's discouraging that so many people are willing to lump all police officers together. No one seems to report on the good cops, while all the bad cops get press.
In this case, it's hard to comprehend how many lives were shattered by this senseless event. I'm sure Vu's partner is devastated, and I can't imagine what his wife of 8 months is going through. Although I'm having a hard time sympathizing with his murderer right now, it is also sad that a 16 year old has now ruined his own life as well. Apparently he took off running when he spotted the officers, although they didn't know why. After Vu pursued him on foot, he used his 16 year old hands and fired a fatal shot.
And that is what my 3-year old friend's jeans were advertising. A lifestyle that destroys those trying to do good as well as those who for whatever reasons, social, psychological or economic, are driven into crime. So senseless.
Yesterday I saw a boy of about 3 years old with a pair of jeans emblazened with the word "Hustla" and dollar signs on the leg. It made me so sick, just to think how popular culture has glamorized the ghetto life to the point of imposing it on toddlers. That was at 1 pm.
An hour later, my husband's college roommate, a Sacramento Sherriff's Deputy, was shot. By a 16-year old "hustla". According to my husband, Vu was the kind of person who'd give you the shirt off his back, just an all-around good guy. He was part of a profession that doesn't take personal safety for granted. He'd been in the gang unit for a while and had no doubt had those moments in his career where he was surprised to still be breathing. And yesterday, he didn't make it home.
In recent years, there's been a lot made of police brutality and the havoc that is created when police go bad. Think Ramparts in LA, Abner Louima's case in NYC, Rodney King, the list goes on. But what is ignored are the good guys, the ones who are trying to make a difference. Although he was a gun-toting police officer, Vu was trying to make a gang-ridden area safer and just his presence in the community was part of that goal. What is wrong with that? While I don't disagree that there are certainly bad apples just as there are in every profession, it's discouraging that so many people are willing to lump all police officers together. No one seems to report on the good cops, while all the bad cops get press.
In this case, it's hard to comprehend how many lives were shattered by this senseless event. I'm sure Vu's partner is devastated, and I can't imagine what his wife of 8 months is going through. Although I'm having a hard time sympathizing with his murderer right now, it is also sad that a 16 year old has now ruined his own life as well. Apparently he took off running when he spotted the officers, although they didn't know why. After Vu pursued him on foot, he used his 16 year old hands and fired a fatal shot.
And that is what my 3-year old friend's jeans were advertising. A lifestyle that destroys those trying to do good as well as those who for whatever reasons, social, psychological or economic, are driven into crime. So senseless.
posted by Left Coast Sister at 1:56 PM
4 Comments:
All of it, so sad. I heard about that on the news. I can't believe that was your hubby's roommate. Unreal. The world really gets small sometimes, doesn't it? It's sickening when bad and ugly and illegal and immoral---you name it-- becomes cool and "in" and hip. It's always been that way to some degree, I know, but it seems like it just gets worse and worse. I don't think there's any other way for it to get---human nature doesn't seem to improve upon itself too much....sorry for the loss of a good good man and friend.
I am so sorry.
Thanks for your condolences... It's been weird, one of those people you mean to reconnect with, you don't take the opportunity, and now it's gone. I think that's what leaves us both feeling so hollow about it.
Sad.
That is it, so sad.
Sending you a blog hug.
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