The Travesty and the Tragedy – a Tale of Three Cities – Ferguson, Cleveland and Kansas City

The Grand Jury has made its decision on the Ferguson Police officer who had shot and killed a young Michel Brown, after responding to a robbery call resulting in months of demonstrations and upon hearing the verdict of no indictment, the riots ensued. In this instance it appears that media frenzy may have driven the riots, or the activists, some with good intentions others your basic anarchists. It is what is known as a Travesty – when there is no information, as to innocence or guilt, and guilt is assumed by those who are on the outside, aggravating those on the inside of any given situation.

A real protest worthy tragedy happened in Cleveland just this week, where a 12 year old boy was shot and killed by a police officer on a playground, no less, for wielding a toy gun.

A few weeks ago, a woman was raped and then set on fire in a Kansas City Park, she has now died, after a horrifying 3 weeks and little notice was taken by national media, although the crime should have made national news.

Although the murder in Cleveland should be front page news, as well as the violent crime committed in Kansas, neither seem to be attracting too much attention, by those who should be outraged, from community activists, woman’s activist, and the national press. It is not so much that one is African American, a child, and the other a woman; it is the level of violence in our society that continues to drive more acts of malice – intentional or otherwise.

In Ferguson, the atmosphere of the riots appears almost political in nature, even the President has given a prime time speech, calling for calm, yet, a 12 year old lays dead in Cleveland and a woman lays dead in Kansas City and countless other victims join them across a nation that has, for whatever reason, lost it’s collative mind. It is a travesty that those victims and their families deserve barely a mention in the local press, or the UK press, rather than a good outpouring of outrage missed with horror by the national press.

It’s a macabre game of pick and choose, winners and losers in the context of national story – what is perhaps the most frightening of all hypotheses is perhaps, just perhaps, these types of stories happen so frequently that the media must choose one or two only. In that case, it’s time to revisit, penalties for rape and murder, penalties that are so stringent that one might be disinclined to take that shot, There will also be violence, it is man’s way, however, the thought that once caught and incarcerated for life, with no possible hope of release, and no appeals, then that might, just might make a difference.