Gregory Freeman: Finding A Solution To Stopping Murder Is Still Elusive/ 5/30/2000

Headline: FINDING A SOLUTION TO STOPPING MURDER IS STILL ELUSIVE
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tue., May 30, 2000
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

No conscience
How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel? Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
-- "Easy to Be Hard, " from the musical "Hair"

When I learned of the fatal shooting last week at a Wendy's restaurant in Queens, N.Y., my heart was broken.
   And I couldn't help but think of a similar incident that took place here some years ago.
   In St. Louis, one of the area's most heinous crimes took place Sept. 4, 1987, at the National supermarket at 4331 Natural Bridge Avenue. In that attack, the killers entered the store, took more than $7,000 and shot seven employees as the victims lay face-down on the floor. Five of the seven victims died of their wounds. The killers got life terms.
   The case was eerily similar to the one in New York. In that case, the killers entered the restaurant and shot seven employees. All but two of them died. Robbery was the motive, police said.

Regardless of whether the crime is 1,000 miles away or right here in our own city, such tragedies make me shake my head in sorrow. How can a person know the love of a mother, a brother, an uncle, a friend and still inflict all of the pain that comes from a murder? Murders create more victims than those who are killed. The other victims are the families and friends of those who are murdered. For some of those families and friends, a part of them dies as well when a murder takes place.
Anyone who has ever attended one of Jeanette Culpepper's year-end candlelight vigil services to honor those killed in a given year realizes all of the pain caused by murders and the many lives that are touched.

I wonder what goes through a killer's mind when he thinks it's OK to snuff out the life of another human being.
When I see a young person killed, for instance, I see someone whose life is snatched away at a time when most people are starting to blossom. How can you justify such a human tragedy?
Or when you read a story about an elderly person who has been murdered. Can material things really be that important that they're worth taking the life of a person who has lived for so long, who has seen and learned so much? How do you live with yourself after committing such a horrible crime?

The conscience can be a powerful equalizer in our lives, often preventing us from making bad -- and stupid -- decisions.
But it seems as if some people have no conscience at all, as if their conscience has been turned off. How else can you explain a person who sees nothing wrong with taking an innocent life?

Yes, homicides have gone down in this country in the last few years, and for that we can be grateful.
But a lower homicide rate does nothing to comfort the wife of a man gunned down in a robbery, to ease the pain of a woman whose friend was killed in a domestic dispute, to reduce the suffering of a child whose father was murdered in a carjacking.

So what do we do?
   If only there were a single, definitive solution, life would be so much simpler. Sadly, though, life doesn't work that way.
   So while it certainly would help matters if parents would work more closely with their children, instill in them right from wrong when they're young, and set good examples for them, the jails are still filled.
   Many of those in jail had parents who seemingly did all the right things.
   The "right things" help, but obviously don't work for everyone.

Over the years, I've interviewed the mothers of murder victims. I've often wondered how many of the killers would have committed their crimes if they had been able to look into the eyes of a sorrowful mother whose child's life has been taken away. If they could have seen the tears rolling down the face of a mother who spent years raising a child only to see that child gunned down.

I wish I had the answer, but I don't. No one does. And that's what makes murder so frustrating.
For some people, it's easy to be cold.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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