Thursday Thought: "They never intended to kill anyone."
🟦 Susan Rooks 📚 The Grammar Goddess
Editor / Proofreader: I help business / nonfiction authors and podcasters look and sound as smart as they are.🔸BIZCATALYST 360° Columnist🔸‼️The Oxford Comma‼️🔸Dog Rescuer🔸NOT A PODCASTER🔸Spunky Old Broad 😉
I am sitting at my computer, watching the news, and again, I'm struck with horror at the killing of an American student named Bakari Henderson in Greece by an angry mob a few days ago.
It appears that the student and his friends, who were on vacation, were sitting in a bar, talking, laughing, and drinking. "The fight may have started after Henderson and his friends wanted to take a photo with a waitress, which angered a bouncer, according to CBS News." Several others came over and got in the student's face. He ran outside, and eight or nine others followed him. The video is horrible to see.
(For more on this story, click here.)
He died at the scene. Beaten to death.
Six Serbian tourists and two workers at the bar have been arrested. An attorney for one or more of them said on tonight's ABC news, "They never intended to kill anyone."
THAT's a defense?
My question to those now accused of murder and others who use the "I didn't mean to" defense is simple:
If you didn't mean to do what you did -- WHAT DID YOU MEAN TO DO?
What were your intentions? What was your plan? What did you think would happen when you ran into the street with all those others, all of whom -- including you -- kicking this young man in the head, this young man lying on the ground defenseless.
And his crime seems to have been trying to take a selfie picture, or possibly it had something to do with drinks put on the wrong table. How do either of those actions translate into a mob murder?
And their defense is that they didn't mean to kill him?
What the hell did they mean to do, then?
That's no defense.
Those are a coward's words after the fact, as though they'll prove innocence.
Those are words from those who know damn well they DID do harm of some kind.
Those are the words of a weasel, someone who takes no responsibility for his or her actions.
Those are the words of those who have little if any moral sense.
No moral compass.
No regard for others.
So on top of losing their beloved son, who from all accounts was a terrific young man, his family has to wonder what kind of animals killed him.
How do we stop this senseless violence? How do we change the way we deal with others, even those we don't like? How do we help our children grow up to be responsibile adults who, when they goof, admit it and learn from it? How do we teach them that all actions have consequences?
Talk to me, friends. Talk to me.
I'm very sad tonight. And yes. I know it's Wednesday. But I just don't want to wait until tomorrow to post this.
Owner/ James D. Ingram Construction Co., Inc., dba Ingram Construction Company
7ySusan Rooks (The Grammar Goddess): I just saw this & have not seen the story, but I agree with your horror and sadness about this senseless murder. "We didn't mean to..." is - or should not be a legal defense. Okay, to all you lawyers out there, I DO understand accidental incidents - but a group of people beating someone, kicking him in the head, etc. . . does not qualify, in my opinion. These murderers lost their "humanity," if they had any to begin with. I wish there was something I could say, Susan, to ease your sadness, but I have no words to do that. I know of too many senseless murders & deaths of innocent people in the last few years - many of which touched me, personally, to offer any comfort. This may be nothing new, but I feel like so many more people today do not value "life," than when I was growing up. I hope that makes sense. Take care, Donna B.
Hospitality Leader - Author
7yI have mixed feelings about this. Don't get me wrong, none of those feelings are happy or positive. What gets me is why we get upset about this incident, but the 360+ murders in Chicago Year-to-date are just stats. Why we get appalled over 1 (Bakari Henderson) or 4 (Pennsylvania), but not 360. Why, because the media runs the story. The media sensationalizes it to get viewers. Stop it? Bring back quick trials and executions. Yes, I am a bit of an 'eye for an eye' kind of guy, but hearing about light sentences and excuses makes me roll my eyes. Prevent it? Stop covering and sensationalizing the killers. Allow people to protect themselves. 7 billion people and millions of legitimately crazy people. We have to be responsible for ourselves first.
I've seen reports of studies that find no correlation between violent program content or game content and actual violent behavior. And my sense is even if there is no measurable correlation or causal effect, we still accumulate a quantity of exposures to violent actions that eventually makes them seem more "normal" or expected.
Editor / Proofreader: I help business / nonfiction authors and podcasters look and sound as smart as they are.🔸BIZCATALYST 360° Columnist🔸‼️The Oxford Comma‼️🔸Dog Rescuer🔸NOT A PODCASTER🔸Spunky Old Broad 😉
7yMaggie Walcott, you make an interesting point. I don't think there's more violence, but I know we hear more about it in our interconnected world! For me, though, this piece is more than just about the senseless killing of one young man -- something that sadly is commonplace throughout the world -- it's about the sheer idiocy of an attorney saying they never meant to kill anyone. About making that statement. About belieiving that it helps anyone. About anyone allowing it to be said or thought. This, to me, is a poison that we can and must change. OK, rant over.
Experienced Client Relations Professional, Leader and Entrepreneur
7ySusan Rooks (The Grammar Goddess) I too was heartbroken and enraged with this story. I just can not understand how anyone could deliberately beat someone to death. They didn't mean it?! That's even more infuriating. How sad is it that no one stepped in to help this young man? Randy Bradley spoke about getting involved, stepping up rather than expecting someone else will in one of his lessons. Acts like this take me back to that powerful lesson. We see recordings by bystanders all over the internet. How do they watch and film something so awful? My heart is broken for the family of this young man and for those of the animals that took his life too. I can't imagine what it must be like to know that your child was capable of doing something so horrific.