What an unpredictable, dangerous world in which we live. You hear a knock on your home door. It’s a police officer. You open the door and the so-called “police officer” shoots you.
That is exactly what happened in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, June 14 in Minnesota, and it should worry every one of us. A man disguised as a police officer and with his SUV gussied up to look exactly like a squad car, including flashing lights, knocked on doors and then shot four people (and a dog).
It is one of the most vicious, vile, despicable crimes in Minnesota history.
Two of the people died. Too remain in serious but stable condition. Those who died are Minnesota House Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and her husband, Mark. The two others are Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) and his wife Yvette. Thankfully, they are in stable condition and are recovering.
The suspect is Vance Luther Boelter, who was finally captured the next day near his home near Green Isle, thanks to extraordinary law-enforcement coordinations and the biggest manhunt in Minnesota history.
What’s even more frightful and despicable is Boelter, after shooting the Hoffmans, drove to two other cities with the apparent intention of causing more havoc then killing two other Minnesota legislators. In one case, the family was on vacation, thank goodness. In the other case, a very strange coincidence might have saved the legislator’s life. While in the area of that home, a woman police officer in her squad car rolled down her window to say hello to a fellow officer (imposter Boelter), and he drove off. That woman may well have inadvertently saved the life of the legislator Boelter aimed to kill.
Spooked by the chance meeting of the woman officer, Boelter then drove off to Brooklyn Park where he shot to death the Hortmans.
We should all be deeply concerned because this country is becoming, day by day, more violent. So many people have ingested the disgusting idea that violence is the “answer,” a “solution” to anything that bugs them.
According to many of his friends and acquaintances, Boelter is a devout Christian evangelical, conservative adherent who attended rallies for Donald Trump. Some Christian! Those acquaintances should have said he was a devout Christian before he morphed into a cold-blooded killer.
There is no doubt this great nation has become more divisive in the past 10 years or so. And those divisions, sparked by hatreds and disagreements, are fueling much of the crazy incidents of violence.
How do we solve that deadly-serious problem? Well, who really knows. But we can all start by agreeing to vigorously disagree on this, that and the other thing. But nobody (none of us!), should think or propose violence is the way to solve problems, disagreements, dissatisfactions.
Stop it! Enough is enough!
