NY Daily News columnist Michael Daly has a job to do: play on his reader’s emotions. And that’s about it. Objectivity or Foxnewsian “balance” is besides the point. Anger, outrage, pathos, bathos, Stavros Niarchos–those are the tools of his trade. So when a mother of twins is gunned down on Coney Island, Daly’s good to go. “Since the shooting, the 2-year-old Rogucki twins have awakened each morning crying out for their murdered mother. ‘They wake up … saying, ‘Mommy!’ their 19-year-old brother, Lorenzo Rogucki, reported. ‘I hear them screaming my mother’s name.'” Well that sucks. But this isn’t one of those stray bullets kills entirely innocent bystander deals . . .
His mother had come out to see what was causing all the commotion as one of the opponent’s friends, identified by police as 29-year-old Isa Johnson, pulled a gun and started firing.
In an added twist, police say the others who had guns included the murdered woman’s 17-year-old son, Ishmel Rogucki. He has been in custody since the night of the shooting and missed his mother’s funeral. The grand jury’s finding is pending.
An added twist? More like the main plot line, methinks. Despite the fact that Daly withholds this salient detail until the 13th paragraph. Oh, and the embedded photo caption reveals that THREE other family members were shot in the incident. In fact, here’s a description of the shooting from an earlier report:
Investigators believe bullets went flying soon after Rogucki’s 16-year-old daughter, Felicia, was spotted hanging out with two boys who are brothers in the courtyard of the O’Dwyer Gardens Houses.
When Felicia’s 19-year-old brother, Lorenzo, tried to pull his sister from the siblings, the confrontation turned violent and Victoria Rogucki attempted to intervene.
“My wife was trying to break it up,” whispered Adie Maldonado.
Detectives were not immediately certain who fired the first shot, but bullets rang out from both sides of the struggle, sending residents scattering for cover – and Victoria Rogucki toppling to the ground.
Now you might think that Daly would shift gears a little here. While the suffering twins make for good copy, the [unspecified] criminal activity that led to the killing is well worth exploration.
How did Mrs. Rogucki’s son get involved with guns and (presumably) crime? Where did he get the gun? Where did he keep the gun? Had she tried to steer him straight before the shoot-out, or turned a blind eye? Had Ishmel been in trouble before? Etc.
Nope. Daly has another ox to gore.
The seashore these days brings thoughts of the big oil spill down South, whose root cause is corporate greed, a reckless disregard for the welfare of others for the sake of making a few more dollars.
Corporate greed is also a major factor in the continuing blood spill at shootings across the country, too many here in New York. The leading voice against effective gun control is the NRA, which is a tool of the gun industry.
The primary goal of the gun industry is the same as that of the oil industry: to make money. The NRA’s primary goal is to protect the gun industry’s profits, however much blood is spilled.
And what profits they are!
One high-end manufacturer, Glock, revealed in a 1994 patent lawsuit that it rakes in 68% profit on each weapon.
BP had a net profit margin before the oil spill of 8.32%.
Google reports only 25%.
Meanwhile, the Rogucki twins cry out each morning.
“Mommy!”
Oy vey. I don’t mind Daly’s gun control agenda per se, but he could at least TRY to connect the dots between Mrs. Rogucki’s death, the NRA and the gun industry? Does Daly really think his readers are that stupid?
Not to put too fine a point on it, the Big Apple columnist should stop cherry-picking facts, stop looking at the mirror and start taking a good look around.
