As soon as I heard about the murder
of Andrea Kruger, I felt the same level of distress, heartache and loss that
many others were expressing. What a
senseless loss of life. I have achingly
thought about her children and her husband that now must try to cope with her
loss. I have understood the urge of the
community to want to wrap their arms around the family, around ourselves, as we
try to make sense of such a painful event.
However, undergirding this sympathy
has been a nagging concern about how this murder has been covered in the media. I didn’t want to name it, but knew what was
going on, long before Ernie Chambers wrote his letter to the editor. It became clear to me when the police chief announced
the capture and charging of the alleged killer.
He was explaining that this man was an “indiscriminate killer” who
“crossed racial, gender and city boundaries.”
I realized the moment I heard that phrase that he pinpointed exactly
what has been implied over the past few weeks through the media portrayal.
This
murder matters in our city because it crossed racial boundaries. Before the discovery of all 4 murders being
linked to this one person, the previous 3 murders weren’t even mentioned in the
media, or if they were, they were a blip on the radar. Why?
Because they fit the expected and accepted profile of murders in our
city.
Even after the link was established between
the accused killer and his 4 victims, when written about, Andrea was the one
given an identity in the coverage, as a wife and mother of 3. The other three men, Juan Uribe-Pena, 26,
Jorge C. Cajiga-Ruiz, 29, and 22-year-old Curtis Bradford have repeatedly been
placed in the background and only identified by their names and ages. Curtis is the only victim reported to have
known Jenkins, but the other two men didn’t, so their deaths are equally as
senseless and random, but their deaths are not being reported as horrific and
devastating as well.
This
murder matters in our city because it crossed city boundaries. The first two
murders of Juan and Jorge happened at 17th & F st., Curtis’
murder happened at 18th & Clark st. Only after the 4th murder happened
at 168th and Fort, did it receive considerable time and attention. Those city boundaries are the difference
between being on the front page or a byline in the Midlands section.
The
media coverage seems to imply a value to certain lives over others. Beyond that it brings attention to a large
chasm in our community. A chasm in
which, in one neighborhood a murder happens and it is unexpected, horrifying
and something should be done, while in another neighborhood, kids are not
allowed to play outside for fear of being an innocent bystander. And a neighborhood in which when fathers,
brothers, sons and daughters come to equally violent ends, it’s treated as
collateral damage, not as a devastating loss to our community.
The death of this woman is
heartbreaking, but so is the senseless killing of the young men and women who
came from those racial and city boundaries in which murders are accepted. These are the same young men and women who
have left empty desks in our classrooms. The family of this woman is aching,
her community mourns her, but that is no different than a community who mourns
far too many of its young people, week after week, month after month.
We as a
community should be mourning the shortened life of this woman and feeling the
pain of her family and friends as they cope with her violent death. But, I can’t help but wonder what would
happen if we used this tragedy to open our hearts to those in our community who
know the pain of such violent, senseless killing all too well? What if we use it to say Enough is Enough, no
matter where it happens?
