At what point are boundaries crossed?

I've had two different "crisis of conscience" moments in the past few weeks when it comes to this blog. In both cases, I had originally planned to poke fun at local criminals. And, in both cases, I refrained.

The first incident came last Friday, after the story of Deahanna Nobleza broke. For those from out of state, Ms. Nobleza is accused of abducting her own child while making a supervised visit nearly two weeks ago. The child was in the care of child welfare at the time. To make a long story short, the infant was safely returned the following morning and Ms. Nobleza was arrested without incident. She was charged with custodial interference and risk of injury to a minor.

This story dominated the news for a couple days. And, the entire time it played out, I just kept thinking to myself, "Man, does she look like Macaulay Culkin or what?"

Here, take a look for yourself:

  

  

They could easily pass for siblings, no?

Oh, what a funny blog post this was going to be!

But, then I began to think about the situation. What right did I have to further drag this woman, who obviously has quite a few personal demons haunting her, through the mud? And, how snarky would it have been on my part to go on about such silly pap when the safety of a child had been at stake? 

So, outside of this post mentioning my original intentions, I swept away the idea.

The second crisis occurred just a few days later, when the horrific story of Richard Kraemer hit the area. Kraemer, a resident of West Hartford, is accused (and has admitted to, incidentally) of beating a man with a baseball bat and hatchet after said man apparently made a sexual advance toward him while at his apartment.

When I first heard the story, before the full extent of the assault, or its cause, was released, there seemed to be some sort of grimly humorous undertone to the entire ordeal. As it was first reported, some guy named Kraemer hit some other guy with a baseball bat in West Hartford. Nothing more. And, it seemed ripe for a blog post. Something along the lines of a "Kraemer vs. Kramer (of Seinfeld fame, of course)" parody.

However, the more the story unfolded, especially as it happened on the eve of the legalization of gay marriage in the state of Connecticut, the more it disturbed me. Kraemer didn't just hit a man, he nearly killed him. His original reason? Self defense.

Sorry, but the idea that this man "defended" himself from an unwanted sexual advance is preposterous. One hit from a baseball bat is defense. Enough hits to break ribs and puncture a lung, as has been reported, is pure hate. Add to that the allegations that Kraemer followed up his baseball bat attack with several blows to the victim's head with a hatchet, and you don't have something ripe for a joke. No, this is not funny. This is just a pathetic excuse for a man. Nothing more than a hate-monger. Here's his face:

Remember it well. Because, I sure hope it won't be seeing the light of day anytime soon.

So, again, I swept away the idea.

But, both moments kept luring in the back of my mind. And, I began to wonder why I decided to censor myself? Was it because I didn't want to offend anyone? Was it because I didn't want to offend myself?

Then, I realized the real reason: I felt horrible in both cases. Horrible for the infant and for its troubled mother. Horrible for the barely alive man nearly beaten to death.

What good would have come from making fun of these people? None. And, why would I want to make fun of these people in the first place? Kraemer, well, he's just scum. He'll probably have plenty to gripe about as he rots away in a cell for a very long time. But Nobleza is just a really unfortunate person who has most likely been beaten down by this world enough.

Boundaries are sometimes made to be crossed. Other times, crossing them only ends up making the envelope pusher feel a little less human.

I was going to try to end this post on a somewhat funny note. But, it just doesn't seem quite right. The funny, ridiculous posts will be back tomorrow.