Murder of Friend's Nephew Brings Up New Thoughts

At 11:51 p.m., late Monday night, I was up, staring at the red numbers glaring back at me from my alarm clock. I couldn't sleep, and was lying in bed thinking that in 10 minutes, Tookie Williams, the founder of the Crips Gang, was going to be killed by the State of California.

I was deeply troubled as I thought about a man being led to his death, strapped into a pale tan chair, and then having a medical professional find a vein in his arm to hook up to a lethal IV. I prayed a lot for Tookie in this 9 minutes and I'm not a very good prayer-warrior.

I don't like the idea of the Death Penalty. I like even less people who enthusiastically support it. It's like people who are really avid gun owners. They creep me out. If the State is going to take a human life, then at the very least it should be done with a somberness and awareness that this is a sacred thing we're taking. This is a life. There should be no jubilation. There should be no cheering, for God's sake. This is a tragedy all the way around.

But then on Monday, I found out that the nephew of our close friend Cindy White- who is Justus' primary babysitter - had been out at a restaurant/club in Milpitas late Saturday evening. A group of Samoan Gang members thought he and his friend were some rival gang members. They beat them unconscious and the shot them in the back of the head. Cindy's nephew died a few hours later. His friend died on the scene.

You can read the article about the double murder here.

It's one thing to read an article, but it's another to sit in the home of someone whose nephew has just been senselessly killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and grieving with her, and talking with her.

I'm trying to be level-headed about this, but just imagining the scenario infuriates me. What the hell were they thinking? Where is your mind - how far into the pit of hell and how corrupted does your thinking have to get where you think it's a good idea to shoot a 20-year old guy you've just beat unconscious in the back of the head? I hate those Samoan gang members. I hate them. I keep thinking about the words of Samuel L. Jackson in the movie "A Time to Kill" who kills the men who mercilessly raped and beat his 13-year old daughter:

"Yes, they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell."

I remember thinking, "That's cheesy."

No, no it isn't. It's a terribly natural instinct. And a dangerous one. Yale theologian Miroslav Volf is a man from Croatia who saw ethnic killings during the war in former Yugoslavia. He has a quote that about this emotion I think is fitting.

"Rage belongs before God."

It's the only safe place for it.