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Freeway
shootings, apathy cause fearful drivers
Matt
Logan
Another
two people have been harmed in a wave of
gun violence that has already claimed four
lives on Southern California highways
.
Police in the Los Angeles area are investigating
a number of freeway shootings, the latest
of which left two young drivers wounded
on the side of the road.
According to CNN.com, the Los Angeles Police
Department says a bullet hit a car last
Monday, the day after a 19-year-old man
was shot three times as he drove on one
of the city’s many freeways.
Though wounded, the driver managed to pull
his vehicle to the side of the road where
luckily he found a firefighter to give him
medical attention.
What is happening out there on our roads?
It’s shocking to think there are people
who are really so cowardly and pathetic
they would shoot at random drivers on the
freeways.
Early Saturday morning, a 16-year-old driver
was shot three times by someone who pulled
alongside his car as he and a 17-year-old
passenger sped along Interstate 5.
The victim was able to drive himself to
the hospital.
The whole idea of using guns instead of
fists is a sign of how the so-called tough
guys and the gangsters of today are really
just callow weaklings afraid there might
be a chance of taking a beating. They won’t
just duke it out like they did in the ’50s.
The sad part about all of this is that the
use of guns to seek vengeance is nothing
new, but hey, fire a gun on the freeway
and kill a few innocent people on the roads
and bam, it’s big news.
Michelle Parker, a child development major,
commutes from Rancho Santa Margarita to
Cal State University, Long Beach twice a
week.
“I’m definitely checking out
cars [on the freeways] a lot more than I
have before,” Parker said. “Yesterday
I watched the news about the shootings and
it’s freaking me out.”
After the eighth Southern California freeway
shooting in two months, according to allheadlinenews.com,
the California Highway Patrol announced
it has created an investigative team to
more quickly track down leads in the cases.
The new unit will work with local law enforcement
agencies, as troopers also increase their
patrols on the region’s freeways,
officials said.
But will this new team of CHP officers really
be able to make a difference? They can’t
be everywhere at once and a freeway shooting
gives the perpetrator the perfect escape,
they just keep driving.
In the past five weeks, two men were killed
in separate shootings on Interstate 110.
Another two people were shot and killed
on freeways in neighboring counties.
So are some freeways safer than others?
Unfortunately there is no way of knowing.
“There is no real pattern to the shootings
and that is what really scares me,”
Parker said. Not all students are fearful
or even paying much attention to the shootings.
“It hasn’t really phased me,
these crazy people [shooting at drivers],
it’s not going to stop me from driving
those freeways,” said Karim Nalbandy,
an international business major.
But what can you really do to protect yourself
against these ridiculous gunmen? Is it possible
that all these shootings are causing drivers
to be nicer to each other as a sort of kindness
though fear scenario?
Regardless if you are driving more cautiously
or nicer, it’s hard not to take notice
of the situation.
Othman Ramadan, a broadcast journalism major,
said, “I’ve always thought about
stuff like that, but you never know what
or whom you’ll be dealing with. There
is really no protection from it, so why
worry about what you can’t control?”
So far this year, Los Angeles police have
recorded 11 shootings on the highways. In
2004, a total of 36 freeway shootings left
one person dead. That was three fewer fatalities
than the year before.
The phenomenon of freeway shootings is nothing
new to Southern California. The only difference
is that the gunmen have better aim now.
Matt Logan is a senior print journalism
major at CSULB.
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