PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
First the story, then Victor Davis Hanson's analysis...
1. A woman found slain at a Hanford car wash this week was killed randomly when a 17-year-old gang member happened to see her while taking a walk, Hanford police said Thursday. Denise McVay was washing her car something she did several times a week early Tuesday morning before work. The teen was wandering the streets after leaving a party when he saw McVay at the Royal Car Wash on Garner Avenue at about 5 a.m. and decided to kill her, police said.
2. The teen simply wanted to kill somebody that night and McVay, 49, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Capt. Parker Sever said. It was a purely random act. The teen stabbed McVay several times and slit her throat....the teen was covered with blood ...went with him to Visalia Mall, where the teen used McVays money to buy clean clothes...The teen, whose name was not released because of his age,... Thursday, July 28, 2011
By Paula Lloyd / The Fresno Bee
Hanson:
3. ...confused American society. First, note the discrepancy between the employed Ms. McVay washing her car in the early morning hours on her way to work, apparently intent on having a clean automobile when she arrived and the unidentified youth who, we are told at first, was taking a walk, later expanded into wandering the streets after leaving a party. How did we go so nonchalantly in a mere two paragraphs from taking a walk to wandering the streets after leaving a party?
4. Note, furthermore, that our society has no compunction about letting the world know the identity of Ms. Denise McVay, who was horribly murdered and left dead on the pavement of a car wash. But it is worried that we might learn the name of the 17-year-old gang member, also known as an anonymous teen.
5. In the transition from a shame culture to a guilt culture, America has become a confused society that values the sensitivities of the felonious living far more than respect for the law-abiding dead.
6. Unfortunately, the story only becomes more depressing. We next read that the anonymous teen simply wanted to kill somebody that night, and, unfortunately, Ms. McVay, 49, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So a Capt. Parker Sever goes on to characterize the fact that the teen stabbed McVay several times and slit her throat as a purely random act.
7. The law-enforcement officer, who no doubt means well, nonetheless describes a productive worker, striving to clean her car, as in the wrong place at the wrong time. ... Ms. McVay, in fact, was in the right place at the right time, and she should have had every expectation that that she could go to the car wash before work without worry that a murderous gang-banger would slit her throat.
8. What sort of abjectly amoral society have we become...Snapshot of a Sick Society - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online
If only this story had had a happy ending, along the lines of:
"Denise McVay, age 49, was washing her car at 5am, when she had occassion to put to use the training she had with her legally licensed .380 ACP, putting to an end the murderous rampage of an unnamed teen."
Amen.
1. A woman found slain at a Hanford car wash this week was killed randomly when a 17-year-old gang member happened to see her while taking a walk, Hanford police said Thursday. Denise McVay was washing her car something she did several times a week early Tuesday morning before work. The teen was wandering the streets after leaving a party when he saw McVay at the Royal Car Wash on Garner Avenue at about 5 a.m. and decided to kill her, police said.
2. The teen simply wanted to kill somebody that night and McVay, 49, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Capt. Parker Sever said. It was a purely random act. The teen stabbed McVay several times and slit her throat....the teen was covered with blood ...went with him to Visalia Mall, where the teen used McVays money to buy clean clothes...The teen, whose name was not released because of his age,... Thursday, July 28, 2011
By Paula Lloyd / The Fresno Bee
Hanson:
3. ...confused American society. First, note the discrepancy between the employed Ms. McVay washing her car in the early morning hours on her way to work, apparently intent on having a clean automobile when she arrived and the unidentified youth who, we are told at first, was taking a walk, later expanded into wandering the streets after leaving a party. How did we go so nonchalantly in a mere two paragraphs from taking a walk to wandering the streets after leaving a party?
4. Note, furthermore, that our society has no compunction about letting the world know the identity of Ms. Denise McVay, who was horribly murdered and left dead on the pavement of a car wash. But it is worried that we might learn the name of the 17-year-old gang member, also known as an anonymous teen.
5. In the transition from a shame culture to a guilt culture, America has become a confused society that values the sensitivities of the felonious living far more than respect for the law-abiding dead.
6. Unfortunately, the story only becomes more depressing. We next read that the anonymous teen simply wanted to kill somebody that night, and, unfortunately, Ms. McVay, 49, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So a Capt. Parker Sever goes on to characterize the fact that the teen stabbed McVay several times and slit her throat as a purely random act.
7. The law-enforcement officer, who no doubt means well, nonetheless describes a productive worker, striving to clean her car, as in the wrong place at the wrong time. ... Ms. McVay, in fact, was in the right place at the right time, and she should have had every expectation that that she could go to the car wash before work without worry that a murderous gang-banger would slit her throat.
8. What sort of abjectly amoral society have we become...Snapshot of a Sick Society - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online
If only this story had had a happy ending, along the lines of:
"Denise McVay, age 49, was washing her car at 5am, when she had occassion to put to use the training she had with her legally licensed .380 ACP, putting to an end the murderous rampage of an unnamed teen."
Amen.