Bloody Little Rock
When terror really isn’t terror
“They just started shooting simultaneously and then return shots was fired. Then some more people went and got more guns and came back and there was more shooting outside. It was just a war zone.”
—A witness
WE THINK we know what the authorities mean. This wasn’t “terrorism,” per se. That is, it wasn’t terrorism with a political or religious goal—to kill infidels or frighten the population or weaken the government or bring about the end of the world. But don’t tell us there wasn’t a lot of terror involved as people stampeded out of a downtown nightclub to the sounds of shootings and shrieks and cries for help. It doesn’t get much more terrible than that.
The mayor and the police chief did an admirable job, up there before the cameras, telling people in Little Rock not to panic, that there was no danger to the community. That the whole episode was a shooting, and by the time the nation’s cameras fixed on the two of them, the situation was no longer “active.” Still, 28 people hurt.
Who says the days of miracles are over? As of this writing, nobody’s died and nobody’s expected to. When that many gunshots ring out, and that many people drop, to have everybody survive must be considered a miracle. Thank God.
Details are just coming out. So it may take a while before there can be in-depth commentary. But the details that have been in the papers are telling.
The call to police came in about 2:30 a.m. And the injured ranged in age from 16 to 35. Here’s a question: What is a 16-year-old doing out at 2:30 a.m.? Here’s another: What is anybody doing out at 2:30 a.m.? To paraphrase a football coach named Herm Edwards, nothing good happens at that time of night … er, morning . . . in nightclubs.
Police estimate that between 20 and 40 shots were fired. With 25 people hit. (The other three were hurt in the stampede.) Those who know about these things will say that’s a pretty good efficiency rate. The shooters must’ve been aiming into the thickest part of the crowd to get 25 hits with 20-40 shots.
On Sunday morning, police still said they had no suspects. Which is part of a piece. For months, Little Rock has seen an increase in violent crimes, and police are said to have trouble getting witnesses to talk. Community leaders and elected officials from around the nation have condemned the shooting. That’s fine, but community leaders and elected officials from around the nation weren’t at the nightclub, and don’t have a clue about any of it.
This might be the biggest mass shooting in Little Rock—so far—and it might have made the national and international news. But it’s also of a piece. Here’s what the TV networks won’t interrupt programming to tell you: There have been nearly 1,400 violent crimes in Little Rock this year . . . this half-year. That includes homicides, rapes and assaults. That’s up 24 percent from the same period last year.
On Thursday, a teen was shot several times as he drove down Colonel Glenn Road. Earlier in the week, a 7-year-old was injured in a drive-by shooting on Washington Street. Three days before that, two people were shot on Montclair Avenue.
The question is, as always, who’s to blame?
If the community doesn’t start co-operating with the police, and getting these shooters off the streets, then the answer to that question is simple enough:
We are.