Fatal shootings in or near workplaces by disaffected former employees seem to have become part of the accepted backdrop of American life.
Only a month ago, in New York City, a disturbed former clothing designer lay in wait outside the Empire State Building for the co-worker whom he blamed for the loss of his job. The 58-year-old former employee shot and killed his intended victim — then was killed by police himself after taking out his gun again when they confronted him.
Nine bystanders were injured, presumably by the barrage of bullets (16 rounds) fired by police. This all went down immediately outside of one of America’s signature tourist attractions.
Two days ago, another horrific workplace shooting unfolded in a different American city. This time the scene was a sign manufacturing business in Minneapolis. A 36-year-old engraver who was being let go fatally shot five people and injured three others. He then descended to the building’s basement and killed himself.
Today’s account in the Star Tribune contained numerous storylines that could be explored in greater depth.
One is the ubiquity of guns in the U.S. today. The Minneapolis gunman used a 9 mm Gluck revolver. Police also found a second gun in his house, as well as packaging for 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
Another theme in these shootings is the pressure our hard-driving work culture exerts on all concerned. When the drive for success is so palpable in the workplace, it stands to reason that the chances of someone snapping increase.
Most people don’t snap. But why is it that some do? In some cases, mental illness is surely a precipitating factor.
The parents of the shooter in the Minneapolis case had apparently tried to get their son into counseling. He had resisted their efforts, however, and distanced himself from them.
In their statement to the media, the parents noted that their son’s battle with mental illness was “not an excuse for his actions, but sadly, may be a partial explanation.”
Indeed it may.
Showing posts with label homicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homicide. Show all posts
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Jesus Wore a Hoodie, Indeed
A friend of mine, Michael Reinhart, is a Lutheran bishop in the deep South. The Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, to be exact.
I know Mike through my wife, Diane, who served on a music ministry team with him after college. Though we don’t see him often, Facebook is a remarkable platform for bridging time and tide.
Tonight, I saw a picture in my FB feed of Mike wearing a hoodie — as thousands of people across the country have done to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, of course, was the unarmed African American teenager who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when he was fatally shot by 28-year-old man named George Zimmerman in Sarasota, Florida, six weeks ago.
Zimmerman’s race has been the subject of quite a bit of dispute in the media. He has a white father and a Latina mother.
Today Zimmerman surrendered to the police, after being charged with second-degree murder for killing Trayvon. HIs claim of self-defense will test the legal parameters of Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” laws.
How ironic it is how many of America's unresolved racial issues have come to be symbolized by a "hoodie," which covers so much of the skin.
And how curious it is that the furor comes twenty years after the Rodney King riots of 1992. Los Angeles then, Florida now. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same in a country still in need of racial reconcilation.
I know Mike through my wife, Diane, who served on a music ministry team with him after college. Though we don’t see him often, Facebook is a remarkable platform for bridging time and tide.
Tonight, I saw a picture in my FB feed of Mike wearing a hoodie — as thousands of people across the country have done to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, of course, was the unarmed African American teenager who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when he was fatally shot by 28-year-old man named George Zimmerman in Sarasota, Florida, six weeks ago.
Zimmerman’s race has been the subject of quite a bit of dispute in the media. He has a white father and a Latina mother.
Today Zimmerman surrendered to the police, after being charged with second-degree murder for killing Trayvon. HIs claim of self-defense will test the legal parameters of Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” laws.
How ironic it is how many of America's unresolved racial issues have come to be symbolized by a "hoodie," which covers so much of the skin.
And how curious it is that the furor comes twenty years after the Rodney King riots of 1992. Los Angeles then, Florida now. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same in a country still in need of racial reconcilation.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Equal Justice - Even For Owners of 56,000 Disputed Acres?
It’s hard for me to get my mind around someone who owns a 56,000-acre estate. Here in the American Midwest, even after considerable consolidation, farms tend to be pretty small In Jane Smiley’s early-90s bestseller, for example, it was a great prize for a farmer to own a thousand acres.
Thomas Cholmondeley’s farm in Kenya’s Rift Valley is 56 times that size. Its very existence reflects the deeply problematic legacy of white colonialism in Africa in general and Kenya in particular. Over a thousand people were killed in the Rift Valley in 2007 in clashes arising out of tension due in part to disputed land. Many people there feel the land was stolen by the British and not properly transferred back to the black tribes when Kenya became independent in 1963.
So one day in March 2006, Cholmondeley, then 37, came upon a black poacher on his land and confronted him. The poacher, Robert Njoya, also 37, was checking illegal traps, accompanied by two machete-wielding friends and six dogs. Cholmondeley fired shots − to frighten off the dogs, he claimed. But one of the shots struck Njoya in the buttocks. He bled to death, despite Cholmondeley’s effort to render first aid.
What sort of justice would you expect an heir of white privilege to receive in Kenya, after a fatal shooting under these circumstances? Cholmondeley was held in jail for three years, with numerous procedural postponements. The defense argued he lacked intent to kill and pointed to the first aid attempt as a mitigating factor. But the fact also came out that, only a year earlier, Cholmondeley had shot and killed an off-duty black game warden under unexplained circumstances.
Finally, in the spring of 2009, the presiding judge reduced the murder charge to manslaughter and found Cholmondeley guilty. In May, the judge sentenced him to eight months in prison, in addition to the time already served. Cholmondeley was released in October, free to return to his vast acreage.
What type of regime is in place on the Cholmondeley estate now, one wonders, to keep poachers at bay?
Thomas Cholmondeley’s farm in Kenya’s Rift Valley is 56 times that size. Its very existence reflects the deeply problematic legacy of white colonialism in Africa in general and Kenya in particular. Over a thousand people were killed in the Rift Valley in 2007 in clashes arising out of tension due in part to disputed land. Many people there feel the land was stolen by the British and not properly transferred back to the black tribes when Kenya became independent in 1963.
So one day in March 2006, Cholmondeley, then 37, came upon a black poacher on his land and confronted him. The poacher, Robert Njoya, also 37, was checking illegal traps, accompanied by two machete-wielding friends and six dogs. Cholmondeley fired shots − to frighten off the dogs, he claimed. But one of the shots struck Njoya in the buttocks. He bled to death, despite Cholmondeley’s effort to render first aid.
What sort of justice would you expect an heir of white privilege to receive in Kenya, after a fatal shooting under these circumstances? Cholmondeley was held in jail for three years, with numerous procedural postponements. The defense argued he lacked intent to kill and pointed to the first aid attempt as a mitigating factor. But the fact also came out that, only a year earlier, Cholmondeley had shot and killed an off-duty black game warden under unexplained circumstances.
Finally, in the spring of 2009, the presiding judge reduced the murder charge to manslaughter and found Cholmondeley guilty. In May, the judge sentenced him to eight months in prison, in addition to the time already served. Cholmondeley was released in October, free to return to his vast acreage.
What type of regime is in place on the Cholmondeley estate now, one wonders, to keep poachers at bay?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Intimate Partner Violence
Leslie Metzen, a former district court judge, spoke about domestic violence to a men's group at my church, Shepherd of the Valley in Apple Valley, Minn. To provide context for the scope of the problem, she cited figures from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). One of these was that, according to the CDC, 1200 women a year are murdered by their domestic partners.
Seeking to verify this, I went to the CDC website myself. If anything, the scale of the problem may be even worse than Judge Metzen described. A violence prevention factsheet posted on the site states that intimate partner violence (IPV) resulted in 1510 deaths in 2005, which presumably was the most recent year with solid data available. The CDC reported that 78 percent of those deaths were females and 22 percent males.
Some of those male deaths are probably police officers, such as Richard Crittenden of Noth St. Paul, who was killed last September when responding to a domestic call. The gunman in that case had been stalking his ex-wife and entered her apartment despite a no-contact order.
Another recent victim in Minnesota was Pam Taschuk, a 48-year-old juvenile probation officer and social worker who was fatally shot by her estranged husband. This occured only a month after he had posted $5000 bail to gain release from jail after assaulting her - and despite an order for protection from the court.
Following Pam Taschuk's murder, several Minnesota law enforcement agencies have been working to revise their policies for responding to domestic violence calls. The goal is to ask questions that will better identify people who are likely to commit lethal violence.
Seeking to verify this, I went to the CDC website myself. If anything, the scale of the problem may be even worse than Judge Metzen described. A violence prevention factsheet posted on the site states that intimate partner violence (IPV) resulted in 1510 deaths in 2005, which presumably was the most recent year with solid data available. The CDC reported that 78 percent of those deaths were females and 22 percent males.
Some of those male deaths are probably police officers, such as Richard Crittenden of Noth St. Paul, who was killed last September when responding to a domestic call. The gunman in that case had been stalking his ex-wife and entered her apartment despite a no-contact order.
Another recent victim in Minnesota was Pam Taschuk, a 48-year-old juvenile probation officer and social worker who was fatally shot by her estranged husband. This occured only a month after he had posted $5000 bail to gain release from jail after assaulting her - and despite an order for protection from the court.
Following Pam Taschuk's murder, several Minnesota law enforcement agencies have been working to revise their policies for responding to domestic violence calls. The goal is to ask questions that will better identify people who are likely to commit lethal violence.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Dangerous Mix: Meds, Alcohol, and Childcare
There are no perfect caregivers for children. No perfect parents, no perfect grandparents, no perfect babysitters, nannies or others.
Taking care of a child is an awesome and often challenging responsibility. Some of us don’t experience it until we pull the car out of the hospital parking ramp with our first baby on board. Others take it on far earlier, perhaps as teenagers, working for a few dollars an hour. No matter what the circumstances, it’s a truly humbling experience, knowing a vulnerable person’s life is in your hands.
Infants who are only a few weeks old are among the most vulnerable — and sometimes things go horribly wrong, as happened in Lakeville, Minnesota, last May.
Tina Louise Miller-Steiner, a 46-year-old grandmother who was on medication for depression, anxiety, and hypertension, was taking care of her six-week-old grandson, Evan, in her home. Despite a doctor’s orders not to consume alcohol while on medication, she drank two martinis and some wine when Evan was in her care. Becoming drowsy, she lay down on a bed, placing Evan next to her. Tragically, when Evan’s aunt awakened Miller-Steiner, Evan was not breathing. Miller-Steiner had fallen asleep on top of him and he suffocated.
Lakeville police, who investigated the death, pushed for a manslaughter charge. They pointed out that Miller-Steiner’s blood alcohol content almost four hours after the police were called was still 0.08 percent, the threshold for driving while intoxicated.
Longtime county attorney James Backstrom, who tends toward a hard-nosed approach, was unsure about the appropriate charge. He took the rather unusual step of convening a grand jury to seek citizen input, and the grand jury indicted Miller-Steiner in August on two counts of manslaughter.
On November 2, Miller-Steiner pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree manslaughter. In return, prosecutors dropped the second count. Judge Timothy Wermager sentenced Miller-Steiner to 10 years of probation and 45 days in jail. She must also pay restitution for the cost of Evan's funeral. Her probation conditions will include remaining sober and not being allowed to take care of children under 10 without supervision.
The sentence followed an emotional courtroom scene between mother and daughter. Davina Louise Miller, Evan’s mother, asked the judge for leniency for her mother.
After the sentencing, the county attorney remarked that in a case like this, the criminal justice system can inflict no punishment harder on the offender than what has already happened. That is probably true, but I wouldn’t describe the way this case was resolved as “mercy,” as the Star Tribune reporter did. Defense attorney Joe Friedberg was closer to the mark, I think, in calling it “equitable.”
Taking care of a child is an awesome and often challenging responsibility. Some of us don’t experience it until we pull the car out of the hospital parking ramp with our first baby on board. Others take it on far earlier, perhaps as teenagers, working for a few dollars an hour. No matter what the circumstances, it’s a truly humbling experience, knowing a vulnerable person’s life is in your hands.
Infants who are only a few weeks old are among the most vulnerable — and sometimes things go horribly wrong, as happened in Lakeville, Minnesota, last May.
Tina Louise Miller-Steiner, a 46-year-old grandmother who was on medication for depression, anxiety, and hypertension, was taking care of her six-week-old grandson, Evan, in her home. Despite a doctor’s orders not to consume alcohol while on medication, she drank two martinis and some wine when Evan was in her care. Becoming drowsy, she lay down on a bed, placing Evan next to her. Tragically, when Evan’s aunt awakened Miller-Steiner, Evan was not breathing. Miller-Steiner had fallen asleep on top of him and he suffocated.
Lakeville police, who investigated the death, pushed for a manslaughter charge. They pointed out that Miller-Steiner’s blood alcohol content almost four hours after the police were called was still 0.08 percent, the threshold for driving while intoxicated.
Longtime county attorney James Backstrom, who tends toward a hard-nosed approach, was unsure about the appropriate charge. He took the rather unusual step of convening a grand jury to seek citizen input, and the grand jury indicted Miller-Steiner in August on two counts of manslaughter.
On November 2, Miller-Steiner pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree manslaughter. In return, prosecutors dropped the second count. Judge Timothy Wermager sentenced Miller-Steiner to 10 years of probation and 45 days in jail. She must also pay restitution for the cost of Evan's funeral. Her probation conditions will include remaining sober and not being allowed to take care of children under 10 without supervision.
The sentence followed an emotional courtroom scene between mother and daughter. Davina Louise Miller, Evan’s mother, asked the judge for leniency for her mother.
After the sentencing, the county attorney remarked that in a case like this, the criminal justice system can inflict no punishment harder on the offender than what has already happened. That is probably true, but I wouldn’t describe the way this case was resolved as “mercy,” as the Star Tribune reporter did. Defense attorney Joe Friedberg was closer to the mark, I think, in calling it “equitable.”
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