Where is Al Sharpton?

About two days ago there was a shooting on the FDR exit by 116th street. There was one victim who was hit under the arm and pronounced dead at the hospital. The victim of this senseless shooting was 24 year old father of one, Jayson Tirado.

In every context of a shooting at 1 am, it seemed to be a road rage incident. One that went far beyond the typical New York bird out of your drivers side window. There are incidents every single day with over aggressive drivers who are in strict need of anger management and countless hours of therapy.

This incident has all the markings of a bad shooting. Why am I writing about it??? There is no one standing up in the latino community. I do not see Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, B.E.T, Miss jones morning show, XXL Magazine asking for the head of the shooter. The facts are there, as skewered towards the truth or to a fabricated tale, one things remains fact; the victim in this case was unarmed. The shooter took aim at the back drivers side window and emptied his weapon, a 9mm glock. He then sped off and turned himself 24 hours later.

Was the shooter a common criminal?? Was he an upstanding citizen who felt he was threatened and did what he had to do in order to protect himself? We don't know these answers. We do know that he was being questioned for 21 hours straight in the 25th precinct. We do know the Manhattan Districts attorney has already declared "This might have been a justified shooting". Where was it justified?? How can someone pull out a gun on someone from their car and shoot into another car?? Especially if the shooter "felt" he was threatened or the victim made a sudden move as if he was going to pull out a gun?

This hurts me, this hurts me to the point in which I have to write about it. Who was the shooter in this case??? A NYPD Undercover narcotics officer. Yes folks, another fatal shooting involving and unarmed man. Another fatal shooting involving a minority in a city where police run unchecked. Another shooting where they hope 24 hours was just enough for the intoxicants to leave the shooters system.

I have questions but no one dares to answer them. Where are the latinos uniting against this atrocity towards one of our own? Where are the justifying factors of this person being able to pull a gun with no verifiable evidence of being threatened, other then his fabricated story? Who is going to raise the victims 1 year old daughter? Was this a cop or a common thug with a gun?

This city has been divided quite some time. No one comes to the aid of another unless the victims shares a common thread of skin pigmintation. In others words latinos have nothing here to suport them in times of need. If we do, someone write it down and e-mail it to me. I understand life is good when you live right. We still have to live in the reality of today.

I live in an impoverished neighborhood. The superintendent of my building said to me one day, "you are the only one's who work in your line in the building". That struck me hard. No matter how hard I try to fool myself to thinking I am a hard working man living in a middle class neighborhood, it's not the truth. We live one step from being mugged, raped, shot or killed. All this from criminals and cops alike.

Cops are falling victim themselves to crime opportunity. They make about 23,000 a year going into the academy. Who could live on that?? Could you honeslty think all police cadets are going into this as law abiding citizens who will uphold their oaths to protect and serve the public?? New York City is giving carte blanc to criminals, defrauders, rapists, and drug dealers.

This is not a safe city and I challenge anyone to make me think different.


Fish Vargas

Writer at large