Tuscaloosa Shooting: The Same, But Different
By Tony Breland
I have no problem with individuals being supportive… I just think its silly to suggest the university be supportive every time there is a crime in Tuscaloosa. That city is a dumpster fire… crime occurs there almost daily.
I was working on today’s edition of Your Weekly Auburn Zen when I ran across this item from a Tiger fan in response to the shootings in Tuscaloosa last night. And I have to say I agree with the sentiment. But more on that in a minute.
As the Tuscaloosa News reports this morning, a gunman fired into the Copper Top bar late last night in the Temerson Square nightclub district, about a mile off campus. No deaths have been reported, but at least 16 are injured.
The Tuscaloosa Police department alerted the public to the violence at about 1:30 a.m. via its official Twitter feed and asked the public for help on locating the suspect. As of this morning, no official identification of the shooter is available, nor is any news of his motive. Some message boards are discussing whether the shootings were motivated by a fight originating in Northport, a rural town across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa.
When I lived in Tuscaloosa, Copper Top was one of my hangouts. It was, at the time, a mix of bikers, students and young professionals, all enjoying adult beverages and good music. There was the occasional dustup – many of which I had no part in – but never any serious incidents. This shooting is, unfortunately, a sign of the times.
Which brings us to the comment from our commenter from the Auburn side. This site took a lot of flak for our stance on the shootings in Auburn, and the method the Auburn police department used to preemptively deflect criticism from the football program. So there will doubtless be those Tiger fans that figure the incident in Tuscaloosa is a bit of karmic justice.
We have no problem with fans spouting off; it’s what fans do. In fact, we join the commenter above in noting that this is not a Hands Across Alabama moment, where the lion and the lamb should lie together in harmony. It was a moron with more bullets than balls shooting up a bar. The police are on the case, and hopefully will soon apprehend the idiot and put him in jail, where he’ll be among like-minded social rejects.
As of this moment, no Crimson Tide players are reported to have been in attendance, much less are they victims or instigators. The Tuscaloosa Police rushed to make the community aware and protect the innocent; not rush to the TV cameras to cover for the football team. And as of yet, there have been no reports of any tear-gassed raccoons being hauled into custody. As you can see, the two situations are very different.
Still, we offer our thoughts and prayers to the victims, and hope that people will use this not as an excuse to make phony ecumenical overtures, but to remember that we get the society we deserve, and work toward its betterment.