Stray Bullets, Denigrating Parodies, & People Who Trust Criminals

I try to keep my posts on this blog aligned towards positive aspects of my professional and persona life topics like, how to build community, what I do to help my clients, how I keep my small business afloat, how I stay focused, and on occasions I have to share a few thoughts on things that bother me because they affect the Island that I was born in, love, and have decided to live my adult life in.

My previous post I shared a video created by a very brave individual who won my respect for documenting what many families experience here in Puerto Rico during New Year’s Eve. I had the opportunity to exchange a few messages via Facebook with the brave young woman who created the video and published it online. I have to say that something she was missing was real support from many of us.

During the day I was fairly disappointed at many individuals who took the very serious video as a joke. I saw individuals taken the images of those who suffered that terrible experience and making parodies out of it.

Parodies

Everybody loves a bit of humor and sometimes black humor. The only problem is that locally in Puerto Rico those who call themselves bloggers with many blogs dedicated to making parody of everything that happens get to the point that instead of supporting and using an opportunity like yesterday’s video to create awareness and fix a problem we have every year on the Island they decide to weaken the efforts of those who are courageous enough to look for a solution. So if you decided to make fun of the situation I guess you are part of the problem.

I will not name any blogs out there but clearly they know who they are. It makes me sick to my stomach that after reporting at least 4 people injured by stray bullets we decide to make fun of those who are trying to create a bigger awareness of the problem.

Thin Line Between Social Criticism and Denigrating Someone

I really think that some of these parodies where denigrating. You can use humor to criticize social problems like the Puerto Rican Elf video that I posted previously. If you use humor and parodies with the purpose of helping,  make sure to send a message  that has value and builds  awareness and not just being silly and plain stupid by posting crap online.

Once you denigrate someone efforts to fix a major problem on the island I believe you should feel guilty every new year’s eve when someone gets hurt by a stray bullet.

People listening & Trusting Criminals

After my huge disappointment by many who decided to make fun at those that had the courage to create the video and publish it publicly I saw a very disturbing message on my Facebook wall. Apparently a group of hooded criminals claiming that no shots where fired in the public project that was near where the video was shot.

I am not accusing anyone but if you watched the original video they mentioned that it might be from various locations including that public housing. What makes it more of a hypocrisy is that these individuals are hooded and using free speech when one of the individuals involved in creating the video is an Iraq Veteran who fought for the criminal’s freedom of speech.

Can’t see the video titled “Residencial Covadonga Se Defiende A Supuestas Acusaciones Tiros Al Aire Despedida” click here.

The criminals have a right to send a message it was not they where they don’t have a right is when it appears that they are bullying the person that published the original video. If they went to this extreme to create a video and publish it than in my opinion it makes it more suspicious. The line of thought of these criminals was that because they had a banner behind them saying not to shot up in the air in New Years they did not do it.

Those Who support the Hooded Criminals

Later in the evening I also caught someone sharing a report by el Nuevo Dia on Facebook mentioning how she agreed with the criminals and thought the video was a hoax. I am not sure why you would want to align yourself with a bunch of hooded men that claim to be “Capos”. But these are the ironies of my island. Someone does something good and many others come to offset the good in them questioning the integrity of those who did something out of the goodness of their heart.

If you think the video was a Hoax I am not sure how they created the sound effects in the video and how they made it very real. I think the reality is that some irresponsible people don’t want to confront these issues so it is easier to talk (or write out of their ass) and just make a comment for the sake of saying something even if it serves no positive purpose.

Who’s supporting these individuals for this courageous act?

Once again I would like to see the local politicians or even artists that where pro the movement of no Stray Bullets on New Year’s congratulating the courageous individuals who shot and published the video.

I personally thank them but here publicly I have to say we need more individuals like these young men and women to create awareness of issues that need to be fixed to make our Island a better place. Please share with others who can leave their message of support either in the comments area or by sharing on Google +, Facebook, or Twitter.

What is your take on this topic?