A group of three or four men attacked the driver of the car, and Morales suffered fatal head trauma after coming to the driver’s aid.

Morales’ death attracted worldwide media attention after police initially reported that there were 2,000 to 3,000 people in the area for a Juneteenth celebration. City officials later reduced the number of people in the vicinity of the attack and clarified that the murder was not related to the celebration.

See also the article on the arrest of the suspect.

I appreciate what you’re drawing attention to with this post, along with “Empathetically Enhanced” a few days earlier. The stories you note are horrifying. I have to hope they represent exceptions to daily compassion? And that’s why they were newsworthy? Lordy I hope so. Though there is not a seam in your argument, nor is there any contradicting the abundant evidence for it in the wake of Katrina, say, or the increasing wealth/poverty gap.

I very much want to work together with folks such as you (and the many other kindred spirits) to figure out how we might be able to pierce that numbness. Or rouse those of us who aren’t numb into more spirited engagement. For your part, I think that your daily writing goes a long, long way toward that. It rouses me, I tell you that much. Let’s hope in this regard that Margaret Mead might have been right? (”A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”)