WTF is wrong with some people?

[-..__...]

I mean really!

"Violent Crime Rising Sharply in Some Cities

MILWAUKEE — One woman here killed a friend after they argued over a brown silk dress. A man killed a neighbor whose 10-year-old son had mistakenly used his dish soap. Two men argued over a cellphone, and pulling out their guns, the police say, killed a 13-year-old girl in the crossfire.

Law enforcement officers trying to serve a warrant in South Philadelphia. With 380 homicides, 2005 was the deadliest year in that city since 1997.

While violent crime has been at historic lows nationwide and in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, it is rising sharply here and in many other places across the country.

And while such crime in the 1990's was characterized by battles over gangs and drug turf, the police say the current rise in homicides has been set off by something more bewildering: petty disputes that hardly seem the stuff of fistfights, much less gunfire or stabbings.

Suspects tell the police they killed someone who "disrespected" them or a family member, or someone who was "mean mugging" them, which the police loosely translate as giving a dirty look. And more weapons are on the streets, giving people a way to act on their anger."

More...

[Warpy]

1. People are under massive stress from the war against the

American workers that has been going on for over 30 years. I'm surprised there isn't more of this stuff, as free floating anxiety and rage look for places to land. Often it's a family member or neighbor; increasingly, it road rage and like incidents in the workplace or just out on the town.

It's also going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets any better, another reason our lives may depend on getting the assholes out of government.

[bliss_eternal]

2. I agree--

people are just unhappy, stressed out, overworked, underpaid and in many cases under-employed with corporate down sizing and off shoring of jobs. :(

[mitchum]

3. You are correct

[catmother]

4. blame it on bushco. lol

:sarcasm:

[applegrove]

5. Have gun & tribalism, will shoot. Are you not proud of your WH? &

the whole GOP?

[f-bush]

6. Hell, with Cheney as a role model...

shooting his best friend, why not get in on some of the action. After all, they're just being patriotic Americans following the lead of their administration. First the First Lady goes and kills her boyfriend and now the Vice President trys to shoot off the head of his friend. Actions speak louder than words afterall!

[donheld]

7. Cuz everybody's packin' heat now?

That's probably at least part of it.

[benEzra]

11. I'll bet the number of shootings by people licensed to carry was ZERO...

if someone is so law-abiding and squeaky-clean that they will undertake to go through the CCW license approval process, get fingerprinted, have the FBI check them out, have their mental health records checked, etc. etc. just to get a piece of paper that says they are not breaking the law when they carry a gun, then they are not the people that are going to be shooting anybody.

Someone who would draw down on a neighbor or someone they are arguing with is someone who wouldn't bother with the legal licensing process to carry a gun...and probably someone who wouldn't qualify.

(FWIW, my wife and I have both been licensed to carry firearms, and I can currently carry in ~35 states. Neither one of us has ever had so much as a speeding ticket...)

[aikoaiko]

8. I started carrying a gun almost everywhere I go about 3 years ago

Comes from my Boy Scout days -- be prepared.

I've never fired it in self-defense and I hope I never have to.

[Cleita]

9. It's going to get worse yet, unless we take our country back

and fix all the bad policies the neo-cons have brought us. A lot of these problems can be fixed with some decent social programs that provide safety nets, but dismantling all these programs and cutting off funding to the ones that are still here isn't going to do it.

[benEzra]

12. I can testify that a lot of the current safety nets are pretty illusory...

if you make enough to pay taxes, it's almost impossible for a family of 4 with a kid with drastic medical needs to qualify for Medicaid or SSI. Trust me, I've tried. Our 6-year-old son is SSI disabled (major heart defect, speech difficulty due to VPI, can't eat, subsists totally on a special liquid formula), and we meet the asset limits for SSI/Medicaid, but he doesn't qualify for benefits because I make enough to pay taxes. No Medicaid for the same reason. Tried CAP-C--he's sick, but not sick enough to qualify. Tried CAP-MR/DD--he's developmentally delayed (physically), but not mentally delayed, so he doesn't qualify. Round and round we go.

Probably $50,000 out of pocket so far, but we qualified for Medicaid for all of two months (out of the past several years), when our medical expenses exceed 60% or 80% of our gross income or whatever.

Charity from family and friends was all that kept us out of bankruptcy last year. Things are better now, but it's not easy (and we have insurance--pity those who don't).

I actually know a guy with a college degree who took a job as a janitor so that his son with hemophilia would qualify for Medicaid and SSI. I didn't understand when he first did that. I do now.

[Cleita]

13. I'm so sorry for your problems.

Your situation is what is wrong with our hit and miss system. In most developed countries of this world you would get the help you need. This is why means testing doesn't work, it leaves out a large segment of the population, who have real needs, but earn too much money to get what they need.

Thom Hartman said something interesting yesterday about the Marshall Plan. For those who don't know what it is. It was the plan Harry Truman used to build Europe and Japan after WWII. It turns out that Truman was trying to get national health care in the USA and was shot down by Congress.

So instead he said that he was going to put in the Marshall Plan all those liberal, social programs that he couldn't in the USA. So today, you have all the social programs in other countries that Truman was trying to get for us. They are thriving for it and families like yours would only need to present a health card to get all the help they need.

I hope you do get the help you need in time. :hug:

[sleipnir]

10. Our own version of "Honor Killings." How sad...

n/t