Years ago, I read The Poet, by Michael Connelly, a novel about Rocky Mountain News reporter Jack McEvoy, who investigates the alleged suicide of his twin brother, who was investigating the murder of a University of Denver coed in Denver's Washington Park. It was, of course, a work of fiction, and up until now I have never heard of any serious violence there. That was until this past Sunday afternoon, when a man with a bike asked if could share a park bench with a man already sitting there. Tempers flared, and as the bicyclist walked away, the man on the bench took out a gun and fired at him, hitting the bike's rear tire. Then, as the man with the gun ran away, he shot an innocent bystander in the neck. The shooter was caught soon afterwards by the police and arrested for attempted murder. Crazy stuff like that can happen anywhere these days, and it sounds to me like that shooter is indeed crazy. But thanks to what is called deinstitutionalisation, the replacement of long-term psychiatric hospitals with community mental health services, lots of crazy people (is that a politically correct term?) are running loose around the country, including 67% of the homeless. Or perhaps he is just one of the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers doing a little venting while he "stands by."
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