LINING UP TO BE FODDER FOR THE SLAUGHTER

Sean "Smurph" Murphy, 21

Ryan "Whitey" Richard, 19

Joseph Randay, 18

Dilsher Gill, 17

Jaswant "Billy" Rai, 36

Paul "Pockets" Denis, 36

Bobby Digeorgio, 24

Jessica Illes, 23

All of them had family. All of them had friends.

All of them had connections to crime and drugs.

And all of them are dead.

Murdered in the past four months. Fodder for the slaughter between
rival gangs, rip-off paybacks, and vengeance wrought for real or
perceived transgressions in a dark world with its own stunningly
brutal code of justice and retribution.

The bullets fly and the knives slash.

The cops investigate, and the media reports.

Law-abiding citizens mourn a further loss of community security and a
sense of peaceful living.

Family and friends grieve the loss of their loved one, such as that was.

And the debate ebbs and flows...

He was such a great guy.

She was awesome.

He'd give you the shirt off his back.

Sure, he made some mistakes, but who doesn't?

Unless you've been an addict, you can't understand.

She was trying to get out of that life.

He was a super dad.

She was so fun-loving.

He was a real person.

How dare you say anything bad about him.

She didn't deserve to die like this.

What did she expect?

Good riddance.

Do you have no respect for life?

If you follow our website, you've read posts like this on virtually
every story on the latest victim of drug and gang violence.

For the friends and family of the victim, the individual ascends into
virtual sainthood, where all is forgiven or forgotten, and saccharine
tributes flow with the tears.

For readers with no such sensitivities, the slain are just another
statistic, someone who got what was coming to them by virtue of their
choices in life.

Did they deserve to die?

If you subscribe to the notion that there is intrinsic value in every
life, the answer is clearly no.

If you believe we are all responsible for the choices we make in
life, then the Seans and Bobbies and Jessicas made conscious, ongoing
deadly decisions.

And they knew it, or ought to have known it.

If there is a message of any value in all of this worthless killing, it's this:

If you are a Sean or a Ryan, bit players in the drug world, your turn
to die may be next.

If you are a Bobby or a Jessica, involved in crime, making dangerous
enemies, you should expect to die.

If you run anywhere in these circles, your time is running out.

If you are thinking about getting out - of addiction or the trade -
do it now, and don't look back.

If you are none of the above, but are attracted by the bling and
bravado of the drug/crime underworld, you need to know that your new
career could, and likely will be, short-lived. Literally.

The heartbroken online commenters who eulogize their dead buddies in
badly spelled web-speak, are right in one respect. All of these young
people didn't "deserve" to die.

But they did. And so will others.

If the sweet tweets and makeshift memorials are worth it to you, step
right up, the line starts here.