America’s Culture of Constant Fear is Getting People Killed.

Something has to change.

Photo by Marvin Zi on Unsplash

In Kansas City, Missouri, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl went out to pick up his younger twin brothers from their friend’s house. He had mistaken the address, and rang the doorbell of 84-year-old Andrew Lester.

Lester — whose grandson has said was immersed in constant FOX News coverage — shot the black teenage boy in the head and arm, nearly killing him.

In Central New York, Kaylin Gillis was sitting in her friend’s car when they pulled into the wrong driveway that they mistakenly thought was the driveway of their other friend. The 20-year-old young woman who had dreams of becoming a marine biologist was fatally shot by the home owner, 65 year old Kevin Monahan.

There’s more.

In Texas, it was just after midnight when Heather Roth mistakenly got into the wrong car in the H-E-B parking lot after cheerleading practice. There was a man sitting in the passenger side. Thinking that someone was in her car, Roth panicked and went back to her friend’s car. The man began to approach their vehicle. Realizing she had been mistaken Roth rolled down the window to apologize and tell him she had thought it was her car.

The man threw up his hands, pulled out a gun, and began shooting.