Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
A Tragedy Movie in Real Life
It happened again! This time the shooting occurred at a movie theater.
A 24-year-old man identified by the police as James Holmes opened fire in a movie theater auditorium in Aurora, Colorado early this morning leaving a dozen dead and many more injured, as the crowd waited for the premiere of the PG-13-rated movie, "The Dark Knight Rises" opening in theaters today.
As cold as it seems to describe it, we learned that the events were the ones of a movie. It was like a live movie in a movie theater. Police described the events as a man entering the auditorium as if he was going to a "battle field"--wearing a "ballistics helmet, bullet-proof vest, bullet-proof leggings, gas mask and gloves."
Where was the security of this movie theater? Police said the man was carrying four weapons even a rifle and was all dressed up to do something bad. It's hard to imagine that nobody noticed anything weird with him, a person who had obviously all intentions to kill people. How can that be explained to the family members of the victims?
The most recent incident happened here in the Bay Area, when a gunman killed several students and left others wounded at Oikos University in Oakland early this year. And what about the rampage shooting in Tucson, Arizona in the beginning of 2011? Here a 22-year-old man opened fire to a small crowd outside a supermarket, shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head and killing others. And these massacres are just to mention a few.
Of course, it is hard to track down people facing mental issues all around who are trying to kill other people in unexpected places especially when they seem to be "normal," but the police need definitely to step up and do much more about it. We as society cannot continue waiting for the next attack to happen, especially when they are becoming more and more frequent. Many believe that the first step is to get rid of the handguns particularly because in most of these cases, the shooters seemed to have prepared themselves in advance gathering their weapons to commit their massacres.
All we can do from our part is to be aware of our surroundings and try to protect ourselves and loved ones at all times.
Unfortunately for some people the screening day of "The Dark Knight Rises" won't be remembered as a great premiere day, but as the day in which Holmes, the alleged shooting suspect, took the lives of many who just wanted to be the first ones to enjoy a good movie.
A 24-year-old man identified by the police as James Holmes opened fire in a movie theater auditorium in Aurora, Colorado early this morning leaving a dozen dead and many more injured, as the crowd waited for the premiere of the PG-13-rated movie, "The Dark Knight Rises" opening in theaters today.
As cold as it seems to describe it, we learned that the events were the ones of a movie. It was like a live movie in a movie theater. Police described the events as a man entering the auditorium as if he was going to a "battle field"--wearing a "ballistics helmet, bullet-proof vest, bullet-proof leggings, gas mask and gloves."
Where was the security of this movie theater? Police said the man was carrying four weapons even a rifle and was all dressed up to do something bad. It's hard to imagine that nobody noticed anything weird with him, a person who had obviously all intentions to kill people. How can that be explained to the family members of the victims?
When we hear about these types of news, we can't stop wondering, what leads people to do such things? I mean if we think about other related incidents involving shootings, it's all about young people who are in college or were in college and that are obviously mentally sick. I mean they gotta be, otherwise it is not possible to even imagine people can do this.
The most recent incident happened here in the Bay Area, when a gunman killed several students and left others wounded at Oikos University in Oakland early this year. And what about the rampage shooting in Tucson, Arizona in the beginning of 2011? Here a 22-year-old man opened fire to a small crowd outside a supermarket, shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head and killing others. And these massacres are just to mention a few.
Of course, it is hard to track down people facing mental issues all around who are trying to kill other people in unexpected places especially when they seem to be "normal," but the police need definitely to step up and do much more about it. We as society cannot continue waiting for the next attack to happen, especially when they are becoming more and more frequent. Many believe that the first step is to get rid of the handguns particularly because in most of these cases, the shooters seemed to have prepared themselves in advance gathering their weapons to commit their massacres.
All we can do from our part is to be aware of our surroundings and try to protect ourselves and loved ones at all times.
Unfortunately for some people the screening day of "The Dark Knight Rises" won't be remembered as a great premiere day, but as the day in which Holmes, the alleged shooting suspect, took the lives of many who just wanted to be the first ones to enjoy a good movie.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Una Tragedia sin Palabras
Las imágenes son escalofriantes, los hechos son aterradores. Y es que no hay palabras para describir el incendio ocurrido en la cárcel de Comayagua, Honduras el pasado martes por la noche, el cual ya es calificado como una de las peores tragedias ocurridas en una cárcel, por su cifra de muertos.
Lamentablemente Honduras vuelve a ser motivo de atención y no precisamente por razones sobresalientes. Según reportes, más de 350 muertos fue el saldo que dejo el incendio en este recinto cuyo monto de reos superaba los 800, más del doble de su capacidad.
Aunque aún no hay declaraciones oficiales que determinen las causas de dicho incendio, las hipótesis son muchas. Las que dan las autoridades es que fue un reo que inicio el incendio al encender un colchón; las que da un presunto sobreviviente de que fue algo planeado entre reos y policías para una presunta fuga y las que manejan los familiares de las víctimas de que fue negligencia de los guardias.
Aunque, la gente hondureña o no hondureña tiene reacciones encontradas sobre esta tragedia, la verdad es que todos somos seres humanos y nadie merece morir de forma tan horrenda. Al final los que sufren son los familiares desconsolados que lo único que quieren es saber si sus familiares están muertos o vivos. Desafortunademente, en estas instituciones penitenciarias están revueltos todo tipo de reos sin importar sus delitos; desde cumpliendo condenas por homicidios hasta por simplemente tener un tatuaje y vinculárseles con pandillas.
Las causas verdaderas de este horror vivido en mi país puede que nunca se esclarezcan, pero lo que sí es cierto es que nuestros países necesitan implementar un sistema de cárceles más seguro que incluya un proceso de evacuación organizado en caso de emergencia. Asimismo, proporcionar condiciones humanas dignas que pueden evitar tragedias como las ocurridas en este centro penal de Comayagua, localizada a unos 90 kilómetros de Tegucigalpa, la capital del país.
Es verdaderamente indignante leer, que cárceles como ésta, con una capacidad de más de 800 reos solamente contaba con un número determinado de guardias.
"En un día cualquiera había 800 encarcelados en unas instalaciones construidas para 500. Eran 51 guardias en el día y 12 en la noche, aunque uno de los que estaban esa noche de turno le dijo a AP que solo habían seis, cuatro de los cuales nunca abandonaron sus puestos en las torres de vigilancia apostadas en las cuatro esquinas de la granja."
Esto lo leí en un artículo y realmente causa pena porque así no se puede manejar un recinto de cárcel donde existen tantos presos conviviendo juntos.
Que tristeza que nuestros países sean tan pobres que es más fácil almacenar a cientos de reos en celdas con poca capacidad y poner a menos guardias; que mantener un control más detallado y construir más cárceles donde se puedan seleccionar a los reos según sus delitos cometidos y no meterlos a todos juntos en una celda.
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