54 years of injustice: A skeptic considers critical mass over status quo
By Charlotte B. Cerminaro
web posted September 15, 2025
As I contemplate some of the national events that occurred within the last few days, a very dark sense of foreboding has settled itself uneasily in my mind. Many people across this country and around the world have been similarly shaken; most of them know, without a doubt, that a remorseless and hateful malignancy is growing in our midst - unopposed. No longer cloaked in stealth or ambiguity, its malice is matched only by its hunger for destruction. Human destruction.
On 10 September, social activist Charlie Kirk (31) was speaking at a university campus in Orem, Utah. He was fielding questions from his enthusiastic audience when a single sniper's bullet entered his neck and ended his life. In Charlotte North Carolina, a young woman was brutally and fatally stabbed multiple times as she sat quietly on a commuter train. A recent emigre from war-torn Ukraine, she was making a new, safer life on U.S. soil. In Alabama, a highly respected Auburn University veterinary professor was walking her dog in a popular local dog park when she was attacked and stabbed viciously by a man wielding a dull knife.
Local and federal authorities just arrested Charlie Kirk's assassin. There was prior evidence that their manhunt would ultimately reveal a radicalized disgruntled individual - devoid of compassion, an attitude of entitlement. Any criminal records and social media posts are being investigated for the telltale behavior patterns often seen leading up to such targeted violence.
The Auburn and Charlotte-Mecklinberg police have also apprehended suspects in connection with the deadly unprovoked attacks on both women - two separate incidents that are linked by chilling similarities and oddly predictable behavior.
Both suspects have lengthy criminal records, including previous assault, aggravated assault and weapons charges. They had prior experience with the "catch and release" procedures typical of our criminal justice system - prosecutors often looking the other way and dismissing the most serious charges against repeat offenders. Law enforcement personnel find their hands tied in these cases, unable to do their job of protecting the population.
Only months earlier the Auburn suspect was arrested on weapons charges, trespassing and threatening police. Sitting in a parked car for hours on a private business parking lot, he was waiting to ambush an employee and steal their car keys. Police were called; on arrival, the suspect was combative and non-compliant. His car was searched upon arrest and police found two loaded firearms under the driver's seat: A sawed-off shotgun, and a handgun with filed off serial numbers, the barrel also having been altered. Such weapons are purchased and altered illegally - they are not intended for any legitimate use such as sport (hunting), skill or self-defense. A sawed-off shotgun causes maximum damage at point-blank range; the pistol was altered to evade forensic or ballistics identification after its use. Months later, in his deadly assault on the professor, he stole her keys and took her truck. A similar pattern of behavior was found in the criminal record of the NC suspect as well. Violent crime is pervasive, but much more preventable than most realize.
Among the world's nations America is second only to Cuba and Rwanda in the rate of imprisonment per capita, yet suffering higher violent crime rates than any developed nation, from the EU to our northern and southern neighbors. Ours is one of the few draconian systems of justice that imprisons non-violent "offenders", individuals possessing small amounts of substances (drugs) intended for personal consumption. At least 65% of federal prison inmates have been charged and convicted solely for drug possession; they committed no violence and pose no threat to society.
Clearly these statistics and characteristics are not mere coincidence. Underfunded criminal rehabilitation and overpopulated prisons are two major contributing factors in the "catch and release" justice system. Violent repeat offenders are turned back out on the street 48 hours after arrest, and nonviolent, functioning people spend years, sometimes decades, languishing in prison.
Despite significant improvements in technology and information, the latter half of the 20th century saw an explosion of radical political policies implemented. With Nixon's (1971) War on Drugs followed by the Rockefeller Laws, our federal government declared war on its own citizens and ushered in the era of mass incarceration, unchallenged. Quickly overwhelmed by increased indictments, exponential prison sentences, a deadly 'black market' and worsening racial disparities, the criminal justice system failed.
With a long, dismal history of stolen freedom, lives destroyed, and numerous alternative paths, significant numbers of Americans still behave in a reflexive and unreasoning manner toward any new concept. It is easier, apparently, to label individuals and charge them in accordance with radical (1970's) policies - while simultaneously clinging to ignorance on the catastrophic failure that is criminal justice: In preventing crime, protecting society and rehabilitating criminals. Our national tragedy was catalyzed by so many uninformed beliefs - same reason it's persisted over 5 decades. There is no future for a society that is willfully blind: seething, even violent in the face of differing viewpoints or opposing ideas. Humankind's evolution would seem to be on a parabolic trajectory, heading away from enlightenment and moving toward the dark ages once more. Where is the will to survive? Where is our critical mass? 
Charlotte B. Cerminaro is a Juilliard-trained classical musician and recording artist. In her free time she enjoys writing and regularly contributes to Enter Stage Right and she attained a Bachelor's Degree in Molecular Biology.
