Five people were killed in Annapolis, Maryland as a gunman opened fire on a newspaper office.
The shooter shot through the glass door to the office and aimed at multiple employees of the Capital Gazette, a witness said. The scene was described as like a war zone.
Police say the attack was targeted. The suspect, Jarrod Ramos, was said to have a dispute with the paper over a story it had published seven years ago. There were threats issued on social media prior to the shooting, even as the source of these threats is still being validated.
The employees of the paper are, as one Tweet went, devastated, heartbroken and numb. It did not stop them from going to press immediately the following day, however. “I don’t know what else to do except this,” a reporter said.
In the face of such tragedy, it becomes even more of an imperative for journalists to keep doing what they are doing. Stopping would only be akin to an admission of defeat against forces, individual or organized, that threaten to weaken media’s resolve.
Violence against specific groups is nothing new to us here. Reports of attacks on journalists, environmentalists, church leaders, drug suspects, and now loiterers, have become next to commonplace. It could be tempting to get conditioned at how ordinary such acts have become—but that would be wrong and would be the height of acquiescence.
Violence is never a recourse; there is no excuse for it however widespread it has become. Citizens must never be content with being onlookers despite the inconvenience, perceived futility, or even the dangers of speaking up. Whether it is the act of one tormented individual with access to weapons, or of a group that may or may not be state-sanctioned, silence and passive acceptance of violence is the most unfortunate, reprehensible response to it.