My prayers went unanswered this week as I probed law enforcement and other sources to determine the identity of the two young punks who crushed a wonderful lady’s skull last Sunday evening. One is a Rosario, the other a Hernández. Both are 12-year old wannabe gangsters without dads at home.
It is something I inherited from my dad. Whenever there is a notorious crime, I say a silent prayer that the perpetrator is not Latino. With all the social and economic problems we face, the last thing our community needs is shame and humiliation at the hands of one of our own.
My prayers went unanswered this week as I probed law enforcement and other sources to determine the identity of the two young punks who crushed a wonderful lady’s skull last Sunday evening. One is a Rosario, the other a Hernández. Both are 12-year old wannabe gangsters without dads at home.
The preteens did this hideous crime by tossing a Target shopping cart off a fourth-floor shopping mall walkway. The heavy cart was traveling as fast as a speeding car when it crashed into the unsuspecting head of 47-year old philanthropist and real estate broker Marion Salmon Hedges, leaving the mother of two in critical condition. She is in a medically induced coma in the Intensive Care Unit of Harlem Hospital, where she is expected to survive although the severity of her neurological injuries will not be known for weeks. At best, she faces a long, hard road to rehabilitation.
Even before I found their names, I suspected the worst. Once the 12-year old alleged perpetrators were identified as coming from the big Spanish Harlem public housing projects, Clinton and Washington Houses, located near the mall I knew I could write the script.
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