What follows will, assuming you are a rational, reasonable human being, infuriate you.
I don't care.
What follows that may offend you.
I don't care.
HARVEY, La. - The body of a six-year-old, who has been missing since Saturday, was found in a dumpster near the end of the apartment complex where she lived, according to the mother of the child.
Ahlittia North was last seen by her parents when they put her to bed on Friday night. Her stepfather awoke the next morning to find that North had vanished overnight, along with a queen-sized blanket, a toothbrush and toothpaste.
North's body was discovered around 1 a.m. Tuesday, her mother said. Deputies returned to the apartments on Destrehan Avenue to question neighbors about whether they had heard or seen anything related to the dumpster.
"I woke up to the detectives knocking on the door around 1:30, 1:40-something in the morning. So, I'm figuring something was really going on, because they wouldn't be knocking on nobody's door this time in the morning. So I came out and I answered the questions for them. They asked me did I see anybody move garbage cans. I threw up when I found out, I ain't going to even lie. I threw up when I found out the little girl was missing, because, I'm going to be real, it could be my niece, nephew, anybody," said neighbor Janeisheia Biagas.
On Monday afternoon, JPSO released the identity of a person of interest in relation to North's disappearance. Matthew Flugence, 20, is the nephew of North's stepfather, according to the sheriff's office. His exact connection to the case was unclear.
Flugence has an outstanding warrant against him for an alleged sexual battery of an 11-year-old. He lived on the same block of Destrehan Avenue as North, JPSO said.
"Flugence remains a person of interest, and we have yet to locate him," according to JPSO Col. John Fortunato.
The search for the girl was massive and involved several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
During the search, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office set up a mobile command center near the apartment complex.
The dumpster was removed from the scene around 5 a.m., according to neighbors. Around 6:30 a.m., neighbors and community members set up a vigil near North's home.
At 7 a.m., a dozen more deputies showed up on scene and blocked off a larger portion of the apartment complex with crime tape. FBI agents also showed up around the same time.
There is, I believe, a period in everyone's life where they struggle with the conflict that life inflicts upon us, the battle between having compassion and calling for justice, between trying to see all sides and seeing only the desire to retaliate, between turning the other cheek and, forgiveness be damned, turning a cold shoulder to anything but swift, certain extermination.
That period tends to be early in life, before years and years of sensory assault on our principles, morals, hearts and souls takes an inevitable toll.
I do remember a period in my own life like that. And I don't honestly remember any one moment when I turned a corner.
But, somewhere along the way, I did.
And I don't care.
I still believe in love. I believe in forgiveness and reaching down deep inside myself to find a reason to embrace when my every emotion and nerve ending is screaming out to push away. I believe in compassion and empathy and sympathy and as much regard for others as my humanity and capacity for common sense will allow.
I still abhor violence, be it physical, emotional, spiritual or any other form it might take.
And if I can't fully embrace the belief, I'm willing to concede the possibility that God forgives all who are truly repentant.
But I no longer believe in the tenet that we should "not judge, lest we be judged".
At times, I am less a follower of the Holy Scripture than I am the words of Marge Simpson.
"Kill then all. And let God sort it out."
I no longer feel remorse or guilt or concern that I believe, with a loving heart and no malice intended, that some human beings simply do not deserve my forgiveness or my compassion or my sympathy or my empathy and, moreover, do not deserve to be alive on this earth.
That opinion likely tweaks the sensibilities of those who might offer that it's not for me to say.
I don't care.
I have lived over sixty years on this planet, I have two children who fill me with pride and thanks and I have five grandchildren, all under the age of 14 who are shining lights in a world growing seemingly darker with each new day.
I have been blessed with their good health and their happiness. And I have been blessed with never having to face what Ahlitta North's family is facing.
So, I cant begin to imagine what I would feel were one of my family in that headline.
Even with that, I have no problem believing that, should the being that committed this horrific act be convicted beyond a reasonable doubt, he should be eliminated.
Not treated. Not incarcerated. Not rehabilitated. Not paroled.
Eliminated.
All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.
This kind of crime is not an offense open to interpretation.
It is, at its purest, evil.
And there is no cure for evil.
There is only extermination.
Perhaps my attitude makes me heartless.
Or cold.
Or unfeeling.
With all the love I can conjure in my own heart, I sincerely do not believe that.
But if it does...
...I don't care.
I have made a choice that, for the rest of the years that I am gifted to experience, I will care about that which is worthy of caring.
And, in this life, there is a very, very long list.
Evil is not on it.
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