They don’t do Uber for prison transport, do they?
That’s a pretty weak response from Uber. They seem to offering nothing but “thoughts” to the victim, while his family depends on GoFundMe to pay for expenses.
I was never a huge believer in the Zeitgeist or Collective unconscious, but all of these horrible, unreasonable murders by people claiming “self-defense”, claiming the castle doctrine, or “standing your ground” makes me wonder if the hatred and fear that is do prevelant today (the fires of which are constantly stoked by the right wing) is contributing to more and more violence and murder.
I’m not wondering. I’m pretty sure. You tell everyone they are in mortal danger every waking moment, and they will be in an exhacerbated state of recourse to violence.
I just read about this murder. This fucking idiot saw a road sign that referred to Juarez and assumed she was being kidnapped to Mexico. It’s El Paso. Juarez is five miles away, of course there are road signs. He was taking the standard route to her destination, which she could have verified on the app. She didn’t demand he pull over or attempt call police. She just pulled out her gun and shot him repeatedly in the back of the head while he was still driving. She took pictures of her victim and texted them to her boyfriend, and only then did she call 911. Unbelievable.
She’s a dumbass in so many ways. Obviously, for murdering someone but also for murdering the driver of the car in which she was a passenger. (Too bad it didn’t crash and kill her.) And also for not thinking that a trip from El Paso to a US casino closer to the border would necessary involve heading south.
Her boyfriend is the lucky one here. This could have been him in a few months/years.
That man dodged a bullet…
Am I the only one who sees a certain irony in offering “thoughts” to a victim of a head shot?
He still has more brains than the “thoughts and prayers” crowd.
Not to mention that crowd actually doesn’t have a prayer of having a decent thought in the first place.
Sigh. Reading yet another mass shooting story on CNN online this morning, and this paragraph jumped out at me:
The deadly gunfire in Fort Worth is one of at least six mass shootings in the first three days of July and one at least 341 mass shootings in the nation this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.
So the year is only half over and we’re on track to see an average of two mass shootings a day. TWO. A DAY.
Horrifying. Even more horrifying: I’m becoming blase about it. “What, another one? How many this time? Did they catch the culprit(s) yet? Oh, well, lemme see what’s happening with Twitter now.”
I see no way forward out of this madness. I despair of our future.
I despair of our present.
Yeh, that too. And it’s only going to get worse.
The way things are going, that might go away.
#silverlinings
Here is what I am seeing
| month | shootings | retired |
|---|---|---|
| January | 53 | 89 |
| February | 40 | 46 |
| March | 40 | 56 |
| April | 56 | 63 |
| May | 80 | 81 |
| June | 64 | 57 |
The longest we have gone without a shoot-em-up is 4 consecutive days in late April. The total death count is currently a couple shy of 400 out of more than 1800 lead poisonings (the actual numbers are slightly higher because my figures do not count dead or lead-poisoned shooters).
Some local stupid gun news…
My local bar/restaurant that I’m at a good four of five times a week had an incident of Totally Responsible Gun Ownership the other day. It happened before I got there so I’m just relating what the bartender and manager told me.
Apparently one Totally Responsible Gun Owner just left their handgun in a booth and walked off after dinner. Fully loaded with safety off. Not even in a holster. I got there hours later and they still never got anyone coming in or calling to claim it. They did turn it over to the police at least, so it’s out of their hands now.
Could be:
- Totally forgot he left it there and is wondering where it is.
- Too embarrassed to come back for it.
- Used it in a crime and this is how he gets rid of it.
- Still doesn’t realize it’s gone.
- Has so many guns he doesn’t know he’s lost one.
- He slipped out and stuck the gun with the bill.
My mistake: I failed to notice that several incidents were added for yesterday. It is currently a little over 400.