the Danziger Bridge Incident

I was listening to NPR on the way to class from work yesterday. I'm not too horribly big on politics, so I don't want to talk about the political side of this upsetting occurance, but the story really struck a chord with me.

You can read CNN's article about this incident here to get some background. There's a good amount of response to it on the internet, but I haven't really seen the story anywhere else (this could easily be a product of me not ever watching t.v.). Maybe I missed it in the rush of Katrina stories - I'm really not good at keeping up with the news.

Regardless of the circumstances that caused this, it's really tragic. Maybe it was one big misunderstanding, maybe everyone was on edge and didn't know what to think or do, or maybe the cops were just out to shoot someone. It doesn't really matter. This story probably hit me pretty hard because I have a younger brother who has special needs. He suffers from a rare condition known as dismyelination - and underdevelopment of the white matter of the brain, which coats your brain and nerves. The thought of someone like him being gunned down for any reason, really, is saddening. The radio program interviewed a woman who had also been shot at, reportedly unprovoked, by police. She related being unarmed and terrified, hearing gunfire and feeling pain, trying to take cover behing a concrete retaining wall only to look down and see her arm lying severed on the ground.

In the case that this was some sort of misunderstanding (though it sure doesn't look that way from the opposing reports filed by the police and the citizens), it's a shame. If it's murderous aggression, it's just a sad reminder of how base and depraved people can become given the right situation.