A Stabbing in Berlin

In Berlin, well-known crime families are killing each other in public over who-knows-what. The latest attack targeted a 24-year-old who himself had been arrested for murder a few years before. Hint: he was found innocent. As a result of that verdict he was around to be stabbed in a gym at 2 a.m. the other day.

The article casually mentions police protection at the hospital - at first. Odd way to phrase it. No follow-up about criminal gangs taking their place or anything, but it does make you wonder.

The nexis between this story and the general purpose of this newsletter might not be clear. Let me break it down.

This 24-year-old kid, the tried-for-murder-but-found-not-guilty one, was born into a family system where members were indoctrinated into a life of crime and violence. Noted criminologist Lonnie Athens posited a theory of “the process of violentization” which would be basically the op…