We Have Become A Violent Society

[lizbud]

Has anyone else notice the level of violence that seems to be a daily
occurance in cities all around the country? I heard of daily shootings in
many midwest cities & a brief reading of internet news shows this stuff
happens in even the smallest towns too. What is wrong with people today?

The latest shooting here was a pregnant bank teller who was basically
executed by one of the robbers. She did nothing wrong, didn't resist or
anything. The robbers came in to the bank & one jumped the counter
and shot this woman in the stomach. She was five months pregnant and
today she lost her baby twin girls. :(


Updated: April 25, 2008 02:53 PM EDT


Indianapolis - Eyewitness News has learned that Katherin Shuffield lost her twins at Clarian's Methodist Hopsital.

The pregnant bank teller lost the twin baby girls five months into her pregnancy.

The 30-year-old was shot during a robbery at Huntington Bank at 21st and Post Road on Tuesday.

Shuffield's family released the following statement Friday:

"On behalf of our family, I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and concerns regarding Katherin's condition. While Katherin remains in critical but stable condition, we are sad to announce that our twin babies died late Thursday night. Katherin's recovery is our top priority and she continues to receive the best possible care. Her comfort has been aided by her mother, a native of Peru, South America, who was granted a tourist visa from the U.S. Embassy to help us during this very difficult time. We will update the media at a later date and ask for privacy as we recover. We appreciate the community's collaboration with law enforcement as they continue to investigate this case, and encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward."

Surgeons had to remove part of Shuffield's small intestine, as well as her appendix.

New details of Tuesday's bank robbery indicate the gunman intentionally aimed for the pregnant teller's abdomen.

The development comes as police released some of the men arrested this week in connection with the robbery after the prosecutor said their informant gave them false information. Police are still searching for the gunman in the robbery.

Donations may be made at any Huntington Bank to help the family with medical expenses.

i

[Laura's Babies]

You don't even want to get me started on what I think has happened to society, it would be a long, long rant!

[cassiesmom]

From WMAQ (NBC TV in Chicago) Web page:

CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley is holding an emergency summit at City Hall on Friday.

He has invited community leaders to help find a solution to the rash of gun violence.

NBC5's Kim Vatis reported that the closed-door meeting will include ministers, law enforcement officials, school officials and private citizens.

As another weekend approaches, officials are committed to stopping the violence that last weekend left 40 people shot, eight of them fatally, and five more slain on Wednesday. The summit is aimed at figuring out how to curb the violence and what is causing it, Vatis said.
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I heard an interesting point on the news this morning. Mayor Daley wants to make it harder to obtain a gun in Chicago, but the people doing the shooting already have guns and may or may not go through proper legal channels to get more. One organization (Cease Fire) wants to offer programs to teach teens non-violent ways of resolving conflict. Daley was encouraging parents to know where their children are, but in some cases the parents are either not in the home or not effective. I also think, at least in Chicago, that the problem of drugs has to be addressed right alongside the issue of guns. We'll see what they come up with but I think it's going to "take a village" in terms of education, jobs, after school programs, life skills and more. There are no easy answers. It makes me sad and angry that kids are getting shot both in and outside of schools.

[Catty1]

Not to disagree - because horrible things are happening daily, many time a day.

But consider - how often is good news reported to balance the picture, except as a "kicker" at the end of a regular newscast? :(

[RICHARD]

I was surfing my favorite channels to see if my program was on.

The show I stumbled on was reviewing the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
The hosts were playing it as they commented on the way it was set up.

The object of the game was to steal cars, shoot the owners as they ran away, get into gunfights with the cops as they chased you, run over pedestrians and be able to drive away from accidents you caused while being chased.


I play vid games about once every three months and maybe for an hour or two. I can see where some vidiot could spend a few weeks trying to get to level 14-and picking up some bad habits on the way.

[Fett]

Way more crime happens on a daily basis than ever makes the news. Only certain crimes seem to catch media airplay. In big metro areas, crime run rampant constantly, and the police just don't have enough manpower to do much about it.

I used to work a few miles north of Detroit, and having co-workers that grew up their whole lives in Detroit said stuff like people stealing cars happens so much on a daily basis that the police no longer even go out for those calls. One of them even knew someone in their family that it happened to so they had first hand account. When you call the police station, they say all they can do is have the person come down to the station and fill out a report.

Same person told me the people next door to her parent's house (in Detroit) got new sod installed in their yard, and overnight someone stole it. Yes, you heard right, someone ripped off their YARD.

I've heard tons of stories like that from her. Some guy bouncing a girls head off a curb right outside a restaurant and people just walking by because they didn't want to get involved "in case the guy had a gun or something"......and this is just one urban city. ALL urban cities have the same thing going on currently and it's just so sad. Even the "good areas" have crime like this. A week ago someone tried to carjack a lady in the member's parking lot of a country club in suburbia near where we live. It seems you always just gotta be aware of your surroundings in these times of the world. Crazy.

[Catlady711]

I may be in the minority with my opinon.

I think the violence has more to do with parents ALLOWING their children (read 2-8 year olds) to kick, hit, slap people, including the parents! What does that teach them? It teaches them that violence is expected, gets you what you want, or has no consequences.

You can bet if I did any of that to my mom as a kid there would have been an immediate reprocussion of the painful rear end type. It simply was not tolerated when I grew up by either my mom, or anyone else I encountered.

Just my $.02 worth.