Criminal Minds

Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC asked a profound question on her show the other night. She was discussing the release of the Tyre Nichols video. She asked that age-old question: why. Why did these evil people DO this? Why, why, why.

I used to ask why about everything almost every hour. Perhaps you did as well. If one is born with an analytical brain, they are cursed by the need to know “why” about just about everything.

And I used the word cursed intentionally. Because seeking answers is a great thing, but sometimes it CAN indeed feel like a curse. Because sometimes there simply isn’t an answer.

I hate to boil it down to “some people are inherently bad,” but I do not see what other conclusions can be drawn. Take those “officers” in that horrific video. All of them lacked one thing, and that is a conscience — an ability to care about humanity.

But we can’t know why. Psychologists have been studying “why” for generations. Research has been done. Books have been written by millions trying to understand the criminal mind and the way it works.

We look for answers because we want a way out of the darkness — a way to understand these beasts wrapped in human clothing.

But we can’t understand them because we’re not like them. And we can’t get into their heads and their souls because they have not got any souls and their brains are dark places that we would never be able to identify with.

It would be a wonderful thing, would it not, if all of humanity were decent? Watching Ruhle talk last night, I could see that’s what she wants. So do I. And likely, so do you.

But human evil has been in existence since the beginning of time. And we can solve a lot of problems, but we cannot solve the criminal mind.

The movie ‘Clockwork orange” tried their hand at that. But in reality, we cannot unless some day, perhaps thousands of years from now, scientists will find a way — a solution to understand and stop the venom of barbarians. But that day, if it ever comes, is light years away.

A friend once told me not to ask ” why” so much, or I’d drive myself crazy. And yet I persist. We all want answers to what drives many to commit unspeakable acts of savagery. But those answers, for now, allude us, although we can speculate. In the end, though, it’s evident that some people are simply bad — they have no humanity. Let us be grateful that we do.