The Normalization of Murder: Newtown Demonstrates How Some Life is Worth More
Undoubtedly, you’ve heard of the recent murders at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The news has been full of the story.
Today, I heard a speaker talk in memoriam of the Newtown elementary school shooting. He spoke of how we often darkly immortalize the killers, remembering their names long after we forget the names of the victims. The Dahmers, the McVeys, etc… He, instead, read off the names of each of those killed in Newtown, challenging everyone to remember one and honor their death. It stirred up emotion in me, though not perhaps what the speaker expected.
I was enraged. I still am. Since the shooting I have been struggling with my emotions. Normally, I try not to write publicly when rage hits – it so often leads to words I regret. But, days later, I am still raging and need an outlet. Writing is so often that for me. And, as Audra Lorde reminds us, anger often needs to be voiced and has a particular power and transformational energy. As Tuck and Yang remind me, sometimes we need to be more impatient with each other to ensure decolonization happens.
What enrages me is the deaths that are silenced, the violence and murder that becomes normalized in our society. Where are the eulogies for the children bombed by Israel in Gaza (more than 50 in the last ‘war but weeks ago’)? Where are the TV specials for the Black sons murdered by police in Chicago? How about the hundreds of Indigenous daughters in Canada, many who are still missing? What makes these 26 lives so special?
Some argue it was the suddenness and viciousness of it. Having your child’s school bombed by a US drone is no less sudden or vicious, especially when the US utilizes tactics that are widely seen as war crimes, such as ‘double tapping‘ first responders. Hundreds of children have died from sudden, vicious drone strikes in the past year.
Some argue that it was so unexpected. When thousands die from gun violence in the US every year – is it really unexpected? When the government breeds a culture of violence, honours murder, and justifies violence for the continuance of ‘peace’, is it really all that unexpected?
Some argue that is was because it was innocent children. As I said, children have been the targets of US drone and Israeli bombs – where is the sobbing? More than that, every life is precious and no life deserves to be so brutally taken. The missing and murdered Indigenous women had families, they were someone’s daughter. Trayvon Martin was someone’s son. The list goes on and on. Children brutally murdered without a sound.
The speaker was undoubtedly applauded for being so liberal, so caring about social justice. For speaking the names of the victims rather than the killer. And that’s the other tragedy, the other act of violence. That in speaking our privileged sense of social justice, we actually silence, erase and speak over justice for most. We normalize and accept their deaths in silence, in the speaking of particular deaths we erase the value of others. These school shootings are unacceptable and raise cries for gun control and mental health treatment, while other deaths don’t even merit a mention. Where is the justice in this?
The issue is complex, I don’t deny that – there are many aspects. This is but one – but it’s the one that has been on my mind and in need of release. This is what creates the rage that swirls and complicates my sadness.
As a parent, I can’t even fathom losing a child. The only word I can think of when I hear news like this is ‘devastating’. It would bring my world crumbling down. Just like it did to thousands of parents who have had their children brutally taken from them, not just the parents in Newtown.
Dear Sir, These are the exact thoughts going through my head too,since this tragedy happened. Its uncomprehendable,but so are all the other lives taken suddenly. Coming from country,where violence has found a way through terrorism,that to planted, the Newtown murders are still very shocking to me. But,i completely agree with you,violence breeds violence. We have seen countless unexplained drone attacks in Waziristan,Pakistan & Afghanistan.Were’nt those innocent children human enough,so they were allowed to watch their parents blown off the face of the earth in seconds & added to U.S. State deptt. statistics. (300 or more ‘successful drone strikes’) .Well,those poor people too had dreams,hopes & occasions to celebrate.Another deadly strike that was in the news (at least in our part of the world) was unbelievable,where the U.S. Drone just went in & killed in cold blood a whole group of Afghani women,in broad daylight,witnessed by their kids…explanation given,says everything, the super sophisticated U.S. Army, mistook the ‘bundle of firewood sticks’ the women were carrying as guns/rifles. Today,i wish there was someone to read the names of all ‘murdered’ in Pakistan & Afghanistan drone attacks,because their lives were eqally important. Today,i wish there was someone to offer Counselling services to all those kids,who can’t sleep at night in Waziristan,because of Drones circling on their heads.Who decided their lives are less important then the kids in Newtown.
Thanks for this Eric. I appreciate your honest anger and your willingness to confront the brutal truth that we do value some life more than others. I thought of all the kids in Gaza when I heard about the shooting, and saw the response…then worried I was being too cynical. But we pick and choose, we watch and consume the grief of some, and vow to do better, and we rationalize the equally sudden, senseless slaughter of others.
I love this blog. Thank you for writing it. Though you may have written in anger, I don’t see anything in here you should/will regret!
To me this seriously reflects the social constructionist sociology/criminology approach to, essentially, moral crusades. In social constructionist approaches to things like this, we talk about the “perfect victim”. People who want to elicit the most sympathetic feelings in their audience need to construct the perfect victim, and in this case, it has already been done – the perfect victim has innocence and zero percevied culpability from any corner. This is also why the media has a field day any time a white child goes missing or is sexually abused, while, as you said, missing and murdered Indigenous women are barely a blip on the radar. It makes me sad, because these conversations inherently sound as if you (the general you – not you as in Eric) are saying that these children’s deaths DON’T mean anything. I do not think you’re arguing that – just that they aren’t inherently more meaningful or tragic than any other murders and violence that happen every day.
I’m curious, what would you like to see done differently?
I actually do like this victim-centred rather than villain-centred approach to mass murder (although I would often include the ‘villain’ in the ‘victim’ category, depending on the situation) – but I wish we were given an opportunity to bear witness in this way to the deaths that are so often not brought to wide attention. I would like to hear a list of the missing and murdered Indigenous women repeated frequently – regardless of how long it is. A young woman my age named Vanessa went missing several blocks from my house this past spring, in circumstances that sound like she may have been involved in street sex work, and I think of her whenever I pass that corner – but it was pure chance that I came across that story, as it was not prominently featured, like this shooting is. That should have been plastered across the papers, her name and description spread on the radio, a community-wide search organized – but because of the circumstances and her potential lack of ‘innocence’ (I’m guessing), these weren’t done.
But at what point would names become meaningless? How can we appropriately deal with murdered, assaulted, abused, abducted people the world over?
Some good thoughts and questions! I do believe this is a particular power to ‘witnessing’ – especially when those in power have a vested interest & intentionally work to silence particular lives & deaths.
But the speaking and witnessing of individuals is not enough, and you’re right in saying that in today’s society the immensity of murder could very well lead to names becoming meaningless. I think, briefly, there are two things I would like to see more of. Witnessing, and then looking beyond individuals to relationships of power, policies, places that allowed the murder to happen and, in many cases, to be acceptable.
Each of those who have died are individuals and we are right to recognize them as that. But they are also embedded in a wide web of relationally, and positioned in particular ways. When something like Newtown happens, what is it that led to it being possible? The surface answers have been availability of guns and lack of support for mental health. These are key areas, but we can go even deeper. What about the culture of violence that allowed this to happen? When we can pinpoint these relations that make mass murder possible, we can then collectively work on how to change that. So, it’s not just about memory but also movement.