1000 words

Have You Ever Seen The Movie Empire of the Sun?

It is one of my all time favorites. You know, it’s the one about World War II in Shanghai with John Malkovich and a young Christian Bale. Anyway there is one scene when they are in an internment camp and Christian Bale’s character visits the infirmary. At the infirmary he realizes that they put a mosquito netting around a patient, not to keep out mosquitos, but to signify when a patient is about to die. The mosquito netting has no practical function other than a psychological one.

That is what these police flood lights remind me of. A reader wrote in today to tell me about a murder in an alley near Princeton St. as reported by NBC news. And lo and behold tonight there was a big spot light up. Now what is the purpose here, the guy has already been killed. I know with some gang violence the spotlights aim to deter revenge attacks. Maybe that is why they used it here. But still does this light make anyone feel better and/or safer? All I could see was a giant mosquito netting.