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Who taught us it is wrong to express our outrage?

On Tuesday, December 2, 2008, a policeman in Aurora, Colorado, shot and killed an 18-year old young man who allegedly stole an Xbox and later refused to surrender to the authorities.

A few days later, on Saturday, December 6, 2008, a policeman in Athens, Greece, shot and killed a 16-years old young man, who allegedly was part of a gang that was throwing rocks to the police.

What’s the difference between the death of Brandon J. Winn (an African-American teenager with no previous criminal record) in Colorado and the death of Alexander Grigoropulos in Greece?

The big difference is that in Colorado nobody said anything and the death of the young man was just another “normal’ police episode, while in Greece there were public marches and protests (both peaceful and violent) ten days after the incident to express the outrage for such a violent death.

I am afraid to think that in our society we have been domesticated and “educated” so well that we accept as an undeniable truth that it is wrong to express any outrage for something so unacceptable and repugnant as the violent death of a minority teenagers killed by the authorities.

It should be obvious I am not defending any kind of criminal activity and it should also be obvious I am totally in favor of police officers doing their job.

But being against crime and for law enforcement doesn’t mean I will stop seeing problems or injustice or I will stop feeling the indignation for the violent end of a young life, even if that life was going in the wrong direction.

According to local authorities, Winn was responsible for armed robbery when he refused to pay $170 for an Xbox one of his friends was selling. And it was an unforgivable mistake not to surrender to police. But how can we accept that there was not even a tear shed for him and nobody questioned the police actions?

In Greece, Grigoropulos also made a mistake when he decided to join anarchists and social agitators. However, Greece Prime Minister, Costas Caramanlis, said that, “The officer responsible for the death of this teen will pay for what happened,” adding that, “We will make all efforts to avoid another tragedy like this one.”

In the country that sends troops to defend democracy all over the world, silence. In the country where democracy was born, outrage. Here, nothing is being said. There, people assume their responsibility. Here, the story is over.  There, the consequences of the story are still being seen.

Are we so oppressed we can’t even express in public our indignation and outrage for the failure of our society to properly educate one of our teenagers and for believing violence is the only option?

Are we so oppressed we can’t even imagine things shouldn’t be the way they are? Are we really happy with 45,000 children and teenager (10 to 17 years of age) in Colorado’s jails?

I am outraged at the lack of public outrage.

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