Unfortunately, death did NOT take a holiday in Philadelphia this weekend...
1. Domestic Dispute Leaves Woman Dead and Child Stabbed:
An unidentified 30 year old man stabbed his 31 year old girlfriend, Yolanda Pickett, to death and when her 11 year old daughter tried to intervene, he stabbed her as well, according to police. The enraged man then lit himself on fire while lighting the entire house on fire too, officials said. Police found both adults dead in an upstairs bedroom.
The argument began around 10:00am in 2300 block of North 13th Street in Philadelphia. Three children, two of whom were Pickett's, were in the house at the time of the dispute. Two other children in the home ran to a neighbor's house to try and get help. The neighbor said he found Pickett's 11 year old daughter outside the house bleeding from her wounds. The injured child was taken to Christopher's Hospital for Children. Neighbors and friends gathered near the crime scene Saturday night for a candlelight vigil to remember the mother and pray for the recovery of her daughter.
2. Woman Shot More Than 10 Times (4 year old daughter also in car):
A 29 year old woman was shot and killed right in front of her 4 year old daughter Saturday night in the Nicetown section of Philadelphia, according to police.
The shooting occurred in a KFC parking lot at North Clarissa Street and W. Hunting Park Avenue, police said. Laurossa Gonzalez was shot more than 10 times in the head, neck, and torso inside of a car and left at the scene. The car, which was found abandoned a few blocks away, was towed away late Saturday night. Gonzalez's 30 year old boyfriend, Willie Scott, is behind bars and has been charged with murder and reckless endangerment. Gonzalez's 4 year old daughter was not hurt and is being taken care of by family members.
These two horrific crimes occurred over the weekend in my "fair" city. As disturbing and uber-violent as they are, what is more stunning is that nobody is shocked or outraged by these incidents. This type of thing seems to be par the course for city living.
There was a time, probably before I was born, when one of these two events, if not both, would have been front page news and people would have been talking and outraged. Nobody is too outraged and most people read these two stories while they were having their morning coffee and said, "Oh well, who won the Oscars last night?"
There was a time when I would have said that the mainstream white population doesn't care because these incidents involved African Americans and Latinos. The truth is, the African American and Latino community doesn't care either so, that takes race out of the equation. Regardless, these were human beings and when a human life is lost like this, it cheapens all of us. We all seem to be numb to these types of goings on.
Cain answered the Lord, when he asked him where his slain brother Abel was by saying, "Am I my brother's keeper? I don't know the answer to that but, it would be nice if the answer to that was yes. This numbness... this social novocaine... is killing me.
26 comments:
The sad thing is I cant remember the last time a woman being killed made any ripples in the water.
Things have gotten cold and hard out here.
That is horrible..no one values life. I watched Kurt Warner on the tv the other day, and I'm not really a football fan but I appreciate his inspiring relationship with God. But anyway he was telling the story about how when his family(Wife and 7 kids) will go out to a restaurant and he will have his kids pick out a another person or family in the restaurant and they pay for their tab, which is great he is teaching his kids to be gracious to others particularly when your cup runneth over, but also he said they are to look at the waiter/waitress in the eye, acknowledge them, say please and thank you and I think that is very important because he is teaching them to VALUE another human being.
This is where we are ,not only as
a society, but as a culture unfortunately Keith..Great work as
usual.
This was soo sad to read Keith.
I read about both cases in the paper this weekend...This was just horrible.
I fear the coming summer..It's going to get worse.
You're absolutely right...we as a society have become numb..It's a damn shame.
This is very important commentary
and a very bad view of contempary society.
I usually make joking comments, but this is so sad..so ...so unnecesaray that I can't even think of any comment for it..I'm just shaking my head in disgust.
This happens so much, we have just become desensitized to it.
Man, that's messed up.
I heard about both of these stories
on the news this weekend..These were particularly gruesome..Nobody
values the lives of others or their own lives anymore.
What grabs me is that both of these
were crimes against women...It seems that violence against women is growing.
I often wonder if this kind of violence comes out of the frustration of a bad economy and increasing joblessness and poverty.
I've often wondered about the co-relation...I'm sure there is a study somewhere.
Maybe if we stop treating these type of things so non-chalantly and make some noise about it...They
might stop happening on such a constant basis. Many of the perpetrators know that nobody is going to care much, which is why they do stuff like this. It also
could be part of their frustrtation
too...this feeling that nobody cares.
We are flooded with violence...On our Television, In our print media,
all over...it's no wonder that these type of events no longer shock anybody.
If John McCain had been elected President, this wouldn't have happened.
@Anonymous- You're a jackass!
Sort of piggy-backing on what you said about the minority communities not caring...
We get mad that MSM (mainstream media) doesn't pay us any attention, but that's it. We stand up and shout about that but do nothing to help the people in our community that are hurting. Ultimately, who cares if the MSM notices when your own neighbors don't care?
Sad stories. Violence against women and kids is getting out of hand.
Keith,
Those weren't the worst of the violent stories of the past weekend. I think the worst was the delivery of a baby by a drug addicted mother in an abandoned house in West Philly. Now I may be one of the few who heard this story because my son's the firefighter who helped deliver this child. To me that's violence in its worst form, perpetrated by one's own mother's actions. DHS was coming for this child Saturday evening. Who is coming for the mother?? Not the family. Not the father of the baby. Not the community. Are we our brother's keeper? If we all would say "yes" wouldn't we see a better world. Hmmm...
Our media and music has left our society desentized to it's fullest. Really.
It bothers me, but how can we change the behavior? You can barely and I do mean barely talk to some kids now without getting cussed out. If you can't talk any common sense to the kids, then the adults that are raising them are likely off the chain.
Maybe, if the laws were harsher and we punished sooner it would curb it. Let's say had the guy not burned himself up that he went from a pronouncement of guilt, straight to the electric chair. Then maybe some of these "characters" out here would think twice. But I know that won't work, because someone reading this right now already has a problem with that type of punishment. Thus, we grow numb.
BTW, Give me a shot of that novacaine, I care so much it's killing me.
You're right, Keith. I'm tired of all the negativity in general. Something's gotta give.
What in the world is going on out there?
Nicetown is not Nice.
And I don't mean that to be silly.
The world is not sweet. Period.
A lot of people have no respect for their own selves - let alone YOUR life...
If THIS story does not move you, then you don't have a pulse. Stories like this should cause an outcry in our communities. If it doesn't, then we need to look in the mirror...
Thanks Keith
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