A Thought on Mob Mentality (addendum to Elephant's Graveyard)

Just a quick thought on Mob Mentality:

Earlier this week, I saw the clip on CNN.com about the 81 and 101 year old women in NYC getting mugged. The video of this man beating the 101 year old woman in the face was unbelievable. I thought it was attrocious, but didn't really get too worked up. I thought something like "I hope he's caught and locked up." Click. On to next story or whatever.

Tonight I clicked on CNN.com and they had the face of the man, taken in a grainy photo from the surveilance tape, as their top headline. The look of a madman captured on film with the headline "NYC wants muggers head." And my adrenaline soared WAY up. I immediately got up from my chair (because I couldn't sit any more. I HAD to get up.) and said that man needs to go to the chair (and I don't support the death penalty anymore).

I went to the bathroom and got ready for bed and thought about what had just happened. I was fired up about getting this man and seeing him locked away and never come out. A man who could do that twice to old women is not salvagable, I thought.

Then I realized I was caught up in a sort of cyber mob mentality. And on one hand I thought, mob mentality is a good thing. The other night I was relatively complacent about the whole thing and tonight I care. I thought that it shows we (NYC) still care(s), we have humanity within us--not to sit back and let someone else take care of it, let it just happen. We're not that jaded. We band together to survive and stop evil--as this man surely is very close to evil. Then it made me sad that it took that mob mentality for me to feel that. (and note...I'm not in NYC, I'm at home in Austin.)

Then it made me wonder if there is deeply ingrained racism staring at the face of that black man and wanting "justice". Or just angry that anyone could beat such defenseless women--some of the weakest members of the NYC "foodchain."

I do hope they find him. I do hope he's found guilty. I do believe someone who does something that vile is probably beyond saving. I hope he's in jail for a long, long time. I hope they don't kill him.

All that in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes. Whew! We can say what we want about 1916, but when provoked, it still gets something deep inside of us. (or at least me.) I mean for a few minutes, I was ready to hunt him. It is real. It is both very scary and a sign that we're alive.