It happened in Chicago but it happens in other places as well. And when it does, people grieve and they get angry.
It is the news this week about what happened to 11-year-old Jayden Perkins.
The boy was stabbed to death as he tried to protect his mother from a former boyfriend in one of the most tragic cases of domestic violence that happen every day somewhere across America.
On March 13th, he became a hero as he saved his mother from losing her life in the stabbing attack but lost his own.
A man who Jayden’s mother had sought a protective order against, and who vowed to kill her and her kids when he got out of prison, was allowed to do just that.
You see this guy was out on parole while still serving a 16-year prison sentence for a home invasion and had three violations of past protective orders. Yet he was released. And then he killed.
Chicago’s police superintendent said, "We have to protect these victims," adding, "We cannot wait until the tragedy happens to decide we're going to do something about it."
So how do we do something about it?
How do we toughen our criminal justice system? How do we cure mental illness? How do we strengthen the family? And how will we overcome the evil in the world?
For the sake of Jayden and others like him, answers to these questions need to be found.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Corbis via Getty Images