In a 1993 essay, Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted the shock that passed through the nation when four gangsters killed seven other gangsters in a Chicago garage on Feb. 14, 1929 – an event that contributed to ending Prohibition and became part of our folklore. He contrasted the public reaction to that event with modern times in which many American cities experience the equivalent of that St. Valentine’s Day Massacre every weekend, with comparatively no notice taken by the public. This numbing to violence over time Moynihan attributed to society “Defining Deviancy Down,” the title of his essay.
On July 18, 1984, 21 men, women, and children were shot to death at a San Diego McDonalds. Again the nation was shocked. The McDonalds corporation responded appropriately and chose to never reopen that restaurant. After the investigation was finished, McDonalds, without fanfare, dismantled the building and donated the land to the city, where a memorial now stands.
On June 2, a man was murdered in cold blood during a robbery at the Lakewood Wal-Mart. The next day, this Wal-Mart was open for business as usual. Why couldn’t Wal-Mart close its Lakewood doors for just one day out of respect for the man who died there the day before? Was it another example of deviancy being defined down?
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