From today’s news:
A woman who said she heard voices in her head tossed her three young children off a pier into the San Francisco Bay, authorities said. Rescuers had found one body, and the other two children were feared dead.
The mother, Lashaun Harris, 23, of Oakland, was booked on three counts of murder, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in Thursday’s editions. Her children were identified as Trayshaun Harris, 6, Travante Greely, 3, and Joshua Harris, 1.
All the violent, bloody video games I’ve played and the hundreds of hours of brutal, sickening movies I’ve watched, and I sit here at 35 years old and am shaken to my gut by this story. Is it because the story involves children? Is it because their mother has done this to them? Where’s all the indifference I’m supposed to be feeling by now? Where is that blessed unemotional reaction I wish I could have?
The lesser tragedy in all this is that civilized law has no satisfactory way to deal with the actions of a broken human being. A lifetime in jail or a death sentence are meaningless in this situation; the mother is unable to comprehend either punishment.
Of course I assume she’s insane. It’s easier. I don’t want to think about a woman who would knowingly and willfully strip the clothes from and then drown her three young children in broad daylight. That’s just too monstrous. I know people do worse things to children every day, but that knowledge doesn’t make dealing with news like this any easier.