Bad People in a Good World

I consider myself to be less naive than the average college student, if only because I have a few years on most of them, but I'm a little astonished and badly disheartened after the events of the week.

I stopped at the Twisted Taco on Monday night for a few beers and trivia to celebrate Katie's 21st, and my car got busted into. The window was smashed in using a sock full of stones, evident from a few of which were left on the car seat, and my bag with my laptop, camera, gps, mp3 player, about 275 bucks in gift cards, and some clothing. Most of it insurance will cover, but I'm still out $184 for the window, $100 deductible for the property, and I doubt the gift cards will be covered.

The real damage is in a number of irreplaceables, particularly the information on the computer. Although I occasionally backup my laptop, I hadn't done so for about two weeks. Scores of hours of work is lost, scores of hours of thought and preparation, so some animal could get a few dollars for drugs.

Its vague to me the mentality requisite to looking through people's cars, picking one out to loot, willfully smashing the window in, and then casually walking away with someone else's property. Its beyond my understanding how someone can do that, much less so much worse as people will do, but I do understand that it happens.

Putting my loss to shame, Shanky just got walloped for whatever he had on him in Nairobi last week and has lost potentially irreplaceable function of his hearing and who knows what else. From here, all we can do is hope he's okay, and when he returns, give him every last bit of support we can muster. He may need some real help. I'll recover from my loss in a few weeks, but he could be in it for the long run.

I have some small understanding of what can motivate willful intent of personal violence, but what I have almost no understanding of is why law enforcement permits it. It is not difficult to pick and choose who on the streets are robbing and looting and attacking people. People do not stand aimlessly in parking lots at 2 am because thats where they like to hang out. Identify the people causing the problems, and get them the hell out of the area. In the United States and throughout the world, theres no reason this type of behavior can't be extinguished if it decided that it will no longer be tolerated. Push these people out to the fringes and then snuff them out. You should be home in time for dinner.