Skip to main content

The Greatest Crime

 


WMAR-2 News Baltimore: Photos released of suspect connected to Friday’s Columbia gas station shooting.

Until I read the comments on Facebook I was under the impression that the crime was shooting someone.

Here’s the article itself:

Police release photos of suspect connected to Friday's Columbia gas station shooting, Dominick Philippe-Auguste, WMAR-2 News Baltimore 

You can be forgiven for making the same mistake. The journalist covering the story did, too.

Officers responded to the gas station in the 7200 block of Cradlerock Way, where they found an employee suffering from a gunshot wound.

But the photos changed everything.


Police photo used in conjunction with WMAR2News article 


If you read the comments the true crime emerges:

  • Suspect is fat.
  • Suspect is a fat woman
  • Suspect is a fat Black woman.

Folks just went to town with every fat joke in the book. Clearly they felt they had been given a free pass because our culture allows fat shaming and often even condones and encourages it. Women are most often the target because women’s bodies are considered to be open for general judgement and harassment. Add in the people who delight in injecting their racism into the mix and, well, it’s as vile as you can imagine.

When it comes to committing a violent crime, is body size a contributing factor? Does being fat make you more likely to shoot someone? How about being a fat woman? Or a fat Black woman?

In my opinion, that’s not what’s at work here. We’re not seeing analysis based on facts/statistical analysis. We’re seeing jeering and harassment from the crowd - - just the basest kind of behavior from people who know they can get away with it.

We read in novels set in the past about the crowd mentality that imparts a kind of permission to the nastiest kind of behaviors. Reading the comments on this article put me in mind of scenes where we see one person subjected to taunting, spitting, throwing of garbage, laughing derision.

Why? Is it because they are indignant that a crime has been committed in their community? 

No. They simply can’t resist mocking a fat person. And they know that no one is going to stop them. Why does our culture allow this? I think that maybe that’s a kind of crime we ought to address and work to eradicate.


Village Green/Town² Comments 

Comments

  1. Julia A. McCreadyApril 19, 2026 at 4:02 AM

    Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more