I was just reading this article in Reuters about that shooting at City Hall yesterday and this one line really caught my attention:
"Othniel Askew pulled out a gun on the balcony of the second floor City Hall chamber, one of the most tightly guarded buildings in America's most populous city, shortly after 2 p.m. and killed councilman James Davis, 41, who was also on the balcony."
I was watching NY1 this morning and they told how on a daily basis employees of City Hall are allowed to enter the building without being inspected by security or passing through a metal detector. And this is "one of the most tightly guarded buildings [in New York City]..."? I DON'T THINK SO!
You know what amazes me the most about it? That history has already taught us that many a disgruntled employee make their way into the work place with firearms and intent to kill and proceed to blow the holy shit out of their co-workers. Has this history taught us nothing? We continue to believe that fellow employees/colleagues are not a threat? That political figures would never allow rivalry to ignite this kind of passion and that tragedy might result? It is unconscienable that this was allowed to happen. That a man was able to enter that building with a gun and succeed in a deadly plan - I don't care who he was or who he was with. This should not have happened.
Terribly, terribly sad. This man, Brooklyn Councilman Davis, dedicated so much time and energy to working towards a safer world and a safer city by speaking out against violence, it is so sad and ironic that his life would be taken by violence spawned by nothing more than jealousy and professional rivalry. It's also sad that there are so few black leaders out there and how unfair it is that he would be taken before being able to make his intended contributions. It's so unfair that he won't have that chance and that the community that he represented has lost him.
We will never be able to stop violence completely, as it is deeply ingrained in our world and our nature, but I hope that we will someday learn our lesson with respect to the proper measures of security in schools and in workplaces, so that these kinds of incidents are no longer so commonplace.
Posted by Maria at July 24, 2003 03:59 PM | TrackBack