Despite Internet claims, cannibalism, mutilation due only to drugs, insanity
Last Saturday in Miami, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene was shot and killed by police while cannibalizing a 65-year-old homeless man's face. Officers were forced to shoot Eugene when they demanded that he stop attacking the man and he refused. Miraculously the homeless man, who was later identified to be Ronald Poppo, survived the assault and is fighting for his life at a local Florida hospital.
This incident shocked and appalled people across America and incited the idea that a "zombie apocalypse" was upon us. This movement was stirred up even more when rumors spread that Eugene had consumed a synthetic drug called "bath salts" before his crime. His girlfriend suggested instead that someone had placed a "voodoo curse" upon him. Perhaps even scarier than the bath salts rumors or voodoo theory is the idea that he would have been acting on his own sober thoughts. Even though the gruesome nature of this event has major shock-value, it is not as random of an event as some people are trying to make it seem.
Many new stories about "zombie-like" crimes have been surfacing in the wake of this developing horror story. For instance in Maryland, 21-year-old Alexander Kinyua was charged with dismembering his roommate and ingesting his heart and brains before ditching the body in a dumpster. Also, 29-year-old Canadian, Rocco Magnotta, was arrested for dismembering his boyfriend and sending the severed human parts to many Canadian politicians including a foot to the Prime Minister. Even though it seems as though cannibalism and mutilation are taking hold in the theme of disturbed crime in this world, flesh-eating and dismemberment have been happening for a long time.
In 2002, hip-hop star Big Lurch was arrested for ingesting his roommate's insides after taking the drug PCP. Just like in the rest of these cases, friends of the assailant claimed he was a friendly, hard-working man who would never be involved in a case like this. Even Rudy Eugene's girlfriend claimed he was "well-mannered." We have a hard time accepting the fact that sometimes demented people do not need drugs or do not need to be in a voodoo trance to do maniacal things.
These recent incidents seem incredulous only because they have been dramatized by the media to make the public worrisome of other potential crimes. Sometimes people let their personal demons get the best of them and they simply cannot handle their own burdens. Simply put, if we can control our own actions, ensure our own sanity and sobriety, we have done our part in preventing a zombie apocalypse.
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