Simply because it would be too easy, I try and avoid reporting on any New York City news, as the Big Apple is too close to my north New Jersey ‘burb, and I think there is plenty to blog about happening from my home state. But this one was just too delicious (and tragic) to avoid. Plus, I can’t help but feel some sympathy, being the kind of semi-geek I am.
It seems a Brooklyn man is being held without bail for supposedly murdering his ex-girlfriend by tying her to a chair and setting her on fire. There is a video of Lashaw n Duffie apparently buying twine, lighter fluid, and lighter at a bodega just before he returned to his ex-girlfriend, Sugerys Ramirez’s apartment to allegedly do the deed. Yes, that’s the horrible part; I won’t deny that with any flippant remark here.
But…the reason for the murder was that Duffie accused Ramirez of stealing and selling his comic books.
“The brutal and completely senseless murder of an innocent woman, allegedly perpetrated by this defendant, shocks the conscience,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Yeah, but Gonzalez, don’t you get it? The murdered lady stole her guy’s comics and sold them?
As I say, I am a semi-geek…at least when it comes to comics. I am a supreme geek when it comes to science fiction books, films, and television of the 60s and 70s, all that gooey good stuff that could have easily curtailed any chance I’d have of finding a girlfriend in my teens if I hadn’t also been equally as interested in being the lead singer in neighborhood bands. I know plenty of people who read and collect comics, had very good friends who owned a comic bookstore back in the 90s, and I write a children’s series of books highly influenced by the famous Batman 66 series.
I get how one might be slightly perturbed if someone out and stole and sold one’s comic books.
Does the punishment fit the crime? Surely not.
But…
