Cincinnati As a Microcosm of the End of Civilized Behavior

This is a story of one man's life and death, and, in a way, the story of the death of a civilization. Youth violence: Donnell Steele's family reels from loss one year later.

Before I dive into this story, and the links it provides, it is important to note that Cincinnati is the 3rd largest city in Ohio, behind Columbus and Cleveland. It is only the 65th largest city in the country, while the Cincinnati metropolitan area is the largest in the state (suburbia rules in this part of the world) and the 29th largest metropolitan area in the country.

Despite the fact that you know the name Cincinnati, it is NOT a big city.

Back to the story of Donnell Steele.

Donnell Steele, 30, was shot and killed at the 2100 block of Millvale Court on Feb. 18, 2021, just down the street from where he was born, said his mother, Juanita Steele. He was one of more than a dozen victims killed last year in an unprecedented wave of homicides involving juvenile offenders.

That quote actually contains a link to the following story: Naming the victims: Grief follows homicides involving teenage offenders.

There were "only" 15 murders committed by juveniles in Cincinnati in 2021. At least that is the info provided by The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Then there is the story of the individual who killed Donnell Steele. Kids who kill: More teens are facing murder charges. How it came to this.

Even in a year as violent as this one, the accused killer Cincinnati police arrested this spring was exceptional.

In less than four months, police say, he’d been involved in a robbery and shooting in South Fairmount, an attack that left a car riddled with bullets in Westwood, a fatal shooting in Millvale and a deadly ambush that prosecutors say he arranged on Facebook.

Four dead. Three wounded. One suspect connected to every crime.

That suspect, police say, was 14 years old.

What were you doing at 14? I'm guessing it did not include murder. What has happened to society? The Left will blame guns, but I grew up around guns, and by 16 I had both a .22 caliber rifle, and a 16 Gauge Shotgun. Not to mention the other guns in the house. Those guns never forced me to shoot anyone. Then they will blame poverty. They will blame everything but the kids who pulled the triggers and their parents.

Lately, when a story like this comes to my attention I am reminded of Hobbes' Leviathan, but this time it brought up a poem by William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming." Part of it anyway.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

That is part of the first stanza. The poem was written in 1919, which was both post World War One, and the carnage that caused in Europe, as well as being in the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic.