Jul 9, 2009 1:51 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: Mass Shooting, Dead Cats, and MJ - Oh My
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
At some point the police are going to have to solve one of these mass shootings. If nothing else, the law of averages will have to start working in their favor. After all, how many times can someone spray a crowd with bullets and not be held accountable?
We are still waiting for arrests in the January 23 shooting in which two people were killed and seven others were wounded in Liberty City.
Then there was an April incident a few blocks away in which four people were shot standing on a street corner.
And a few days after that five people were shot in front of the house of the mother of one of the teens that died in January.
Now twelve more people shot, one fatally, in Overtown.
Like I said, the law of averages must mean the cops are eventually going to catch someone. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.
By now we know the response to these gun crimes form a familiar pattern.
Mass shooting. Crying relatives on TV. Police call on the community for help. Community demands police action. More crying relatives. Police chief and mayor hold press conference about assault weapons. Community frustration grows. Town hall meeting. Politicians and activists vow an end to the violence. Police announce they are investigating several promising leads. No one is arrested. Media loses interest.
We've gotten so good at this that we can go through the entire cycle in less than a week.
But for those of you keeping score at home, in the four mass shootings this year, there are now three dead and 27 wounded along a four-mile corridor in the heart of the city.
I'm not sure what the record is in Miami for mass shootings in a single year, but we have to be on track to break it.
And don't misunderstand me. I know the police are rightly frustrated. I have no doubt the detectives working these cases want them to be solved. They are spending days and night, risking their lives, to bring these mad men to justice. And they can only go by the information the community is willing to provide them. But at some point you just have to ask: When is an arrest going to be made? And what will it take for folks in the community to turn in these killers?
Before this latest mass shooting, I'd been joking that if police and prosecutors really wanted to get the community interested in these sorts of cases, they should find a way to work a few dead cats into the story.
Imagine how quickly these cases might have been solved if the story had been:
A crazed gunman with an AK47 burst into a house party and killed three cats early Tuesday morning. Police identified the victims as Mr. Bo Jangles, a 3-year-old Tabby; Senor Winces, a 5-year-old Siamese; and Puddinface, an 11-year-old Cornish Rex.
"We're not sure why he came in and started shooting," said a police spokesman.
"It was horrible in there," said one witness who asked not to be identified. "They tried to run but Mr. Bo Jangles never saw what hit him. And Senor Winces just froze, and poor, poor Puddinface. He just had hip surgery so he can't move too fast."
Police also announced twelve people were shot in the melee.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers.
I suspect a few strategically placed dead cats would get things moving by hitting a nerve with folks.
Within hours a concerned citizen would create a Facebook page: "STOP THE SENSELESS CAT KILLINGS (and the mass people killings, too)"
Do you know how many hits a site like that would get? Thousands. Maybe even tens of thousands.
And just so I am clear, I'm not suggesting we actually kill more cats. I'm saying we quietly collect cats that have died from natural causes, embalm them, keep them in an ice chest in the detectives' cars, and then sprinkle them around crime scenes where the public might not be inclined to help – like a mass shooting in a poor black neighborhood.
Well, that's the best idea I have. Unless of course we can find a way to work Michael Jackson into the mass shootings. Any chance they were playing Thriller at the house party last weekend? Now that could really help.
In the meantime, we'll just have to sit back and wait for the next mass shooting. And there will be another one. And when it does, like muscle-memory, we'll all snap into action and begin playing our well-rehearsed roles. Again. And again. And again.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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