The nature of Evil

Not the post you were expecting but the post I created quite early on the morning of August 8th.

Because the question just appeared and lingered, refusing to go away. Past dreams reappeared oh so lovingly.

What is the nature of Evil and, if you are a Leftist, is there actual Evil in any event?

Many Leftists would insist no such thing exists. There is simply the misunderstood person who needs nothing more than your good will and acceptance.

They would insist that the act can somehow be separated from the individual.

I say that is naivete, ignorance and wrongheadedness on a stellar level. I say that some people exist in the world as nothing but examples of what not to do and whom to outright kill. There are persons in this world who are broken beyond any form of what most of us would consider a modicum of redemption.

I myself wholly believe in the existence and prosperity of Evil. I have viewed it, seen its wastes, smelled its stench in the night, known people who canonized its name, seen its carrion-strewn carcasses, looked it directly in the eye and understood when it wished to kill me.

A very brief smattering of the innumerable cases I handled:

– A mother smothered her child by putting her head in a Ziploc bag; she left the child in her crib, called to schedule a nail appointment. The child, sick, kept her from a bowling appointment and a prior nail appointment. We found her stirring soup on a stove with a dead baby in the other room.

– A high schooler, angry at having been fired from a pizza job, returned with a gun and robbed the store, shooting his once-best friend because “he should have quit after I was fired, if he was my friend.” In the interview, he was not to blame because “the doctors should have done a better job saving him.”

– A couple had decided to split up; in the process of determining who received what, an argument ensued over who owned the batteries in the TV remote. One spouse shot the other in the neck and then removed the batteries from her dead hand. The pulsing arterial spray hit the white apartment wall from a distance of 5 feet away.

– As he had lost face and was losing control of the relationship because his wife was suddenly making more money than he, a former star collegiate football player from an incredibly successful and heavily-monied family (and an obsessive-compulsive neat/control freak) peaked one night when his son would not be quiet. He struck his 5-year-old on the head, caving in his skull and killing him. His pregnant wife walked in seconds later and observed the scene. She too was killed as was the fetus. To obviate his guilt he doused all the bodies with gasoline and lighted them all on fire, blaming an unknown and unseen assailant.

— A young man who had killed six people in two days, Eric Royce Leonard, three at a pizza restaurant and three later at a convenience store, asked me if people would try to hurt him as he was being booked into the jail because, after all, it was all about him.

— Another man, Richard Trenton Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento, killed six people in two months. I was tasked with using video for the first time in my department’s history. At a victim’s home I captured video of a half-eaten baby in a crib.

These little gems keep me up at night when the Brain Theater decides to pull aside its dark curtains as I sleep.

Like tonight.

BZ

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5 thoughts on “The nature of Evil

  1. Wow! And I thought I was having troubles trying to sleep. I don’t know if it would help or hinder, but you could write your stories and thoughts down, and maybe publish them as “The Dark Side”, ala Joeseph Wambaugh.

    • I am in negotiations right now, attempting to acquire Joe Wambaugh for an interview on my radio show.

      Get out of my head, Dave. There’s only room enough for me in here.

      BZ

  2. I do believe in the existence of evil. It arose at the beginning of the world,
    when Cain killed Abel. From there, a lineage can be tracked from the two brothers. Through history, evil people seem more apt to come from the side of Cain. Interestingly, on that note, it seems evil was planted and intended to grow.
    I’m not making excuses for what people do, everyone is accountable for their self. I’m just making a point not many others think of on how evil began.

    On a note to you, you are a strong person to live with what you have seen.
    To quote, “I believe in the eyes of an honest man more than what people ‘know’.”
    May God be with you always, we are.

  3. People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. George Orwell

    People usually think of the military when using this quote. Men (and women) like yourself who confront evil in all it’s forms surely must be included.

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