Every human life is priceless, and every human death is a source of great suffering. Unfortunately, not every loss is equal, since we have to distinguish between the manners of death, which can be divided into those caused by natural and unnatural factors.
With this in mind, it is apparent that murder belongs to the latter category and causes the most anger among those close to the victim, since they know very well that if it were not for the arbitrary decision of a killer, their beloved person would have been still with them.
This certainly is the case regarding the tragic event that occurred last month in Monterey Park, California, during the first in-person celebrations of the Lunar New Year since the Covid-19 outbreak. To be more specific, the city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles, where Asian people constitute around two-thirds of its residents, became a place of a bloody massacre.
After the 72-year-old suspect known as Huu Can Tran allegedly entered the Star Ballroom Dance Studio and opened fire without any particular reason, 10 people were killed, and another 10 were wounded.
Before the killer tried to commit another crime in another club in the neighboring city of Alhambra, he was stopped by two bystanders but managed to run away. When he was finally approached by police the next day, January 22, he committed suicide.
What is the most striking in this tragic story is the fact that the city of about 60,000 inhabitants is known to be an oasis of peace, “where everybody knows each other and helps each other,” as Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, put it.
Sadly, this was not the only shooting in California last month where the victims were ethnic Asians. In Half Moon Bay, a small, idyllic coastal town, seven people were killed, and five of the victims were Chinese citizens.
What is important to ask is whether mass killings should be the only measure of a threat posed to a…
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