A Mugging on Lake Street

Fantastic piece in the Chicago Magazine about John Conroy (also the author) who was riding his bike when he gets jumped by a gang of youths. After the attack he confronts the guy who threw the punch and leaves feeling this:

I left feeling somewhat whole. During the session, Larry [the attacker] had yawned, stretched, and cleaned his fingernails with a pen, but he’d also said he regretted being part of the incident. I thought he had learned something. When his mother had asked him how he’d feel in my shoes, he’d said, “I’d be filled with hate.” I’d asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. “I want to play in the NBA,” he said. I later learned that in his two years of high school he’d passed a total of one class. Clearly I was better off, even unemployed, than he was or might ever be.

They say a neocon is a “liberal who has been mugged by reality.” But what do you call a liberal who gets mugged by reality and still refuses to see the light? I mean, wow. I feel bad for Mr. Conroy and everything, but the absurd mentality he brings to this whole process isn’t going to help Larry or anyone else. “I thought he had learned something.” Aw. Isn’t that cute. If he saw little baby Larry screaming in a restaurant he’d probably think “I bet that baby is learning something but hollering at the top of his lungs and we’ll all be better off if he just tuckers himself out instead of having someone call out his negligent mother.” And really, if you read the whole thing you can get a sense for just how messed up the mother and the rest of that family is. What a disgraceful job by the justice system…