On November 11, 2014, a young woman
in Houston Texas was shot while driving her car, another of those increasingly
common road rage incidents. The surprise is, the gunman was an off duty Harris
County Constable, Reserve Deputy Kenneth Caplan. The shooting took place when
the 20 year old woman was in rush hour traffic on the 610 Loop south of the
city. She told authorities that a car swerved over and cut her off, so she
honked her horn, accelerated, and cut in front of him in retaliation. According
to the report, the other driver then sped up, pulled alongside her, rolled down
his window and pointed a gun.
“He was aiming at me,” she said. ”I
thought he was just going to cuss me out. It didn’t register that I was going
to get shot.” In the car with Caplan was an unidentified woman who leaned back
so the Deputy could get a better bead on his target. Just as he pulled the
trigger, the victim had a moment of lucidity and tilted her head to the right.
Caplan’s bullet creased the left side of her head, leaving a deep groove. Stunned
and bleeding, she stopped her car on the freeway and called 911. Several other
drivers also called 911 with some reporting a description of Caplan’s vehicle
as it sped away. Paramedics arrived and rushed the woman to the emergency room.
Doctors at Memorial Hermann Hospital commented that she was lucky to be alive
and that “this case is one in a million.”
Information led to the identification
of Kenneth Caplan as the suspect. He is currently in jail with bond set at
$200,000. It remains to be seen if he will be given paid time off or charged
with attempted murder. No word on who was the female in the car with him, or if
she’ll face any charges.
And then strangeness enters the
picture. After being shot by a highway lunatic, after EMTs and doctors save her
life, after surgeons at the hospital place eight staples in her scalp to close
the wound and keep her for three days to make sure she would recover, she
claims that God has given her a second chance…not the quick-responding
emergency personnel, not the doctors, not a deputy with poor target acquisition
skills…she appeals to the imaginary for still being on this side of the dirt. To
me, adding God to this only makes things worse. This God pulls a couple of
strings and spares her life by letting the bullet glance off her head instead
of blowing it off, and she thinks this is okay? Why didn’t that entity just calm
her so she wouldn’t have retaliated, or better yet, intervene so Caplan’s car
doesn’t swerve and precipitate the whole incident? What kind of a God does she
believe in? No benevolent being operates this way.
With an assumed second chance now
granted, the young woman says she wants Caplan off the streets. “He tried to
kill me,“ she said. “I’m worried that since he’s a cop, they’re going to let
him off easy.”
Close call
The victim requested anonymity while talking with reporters
Why doesn’t she refer the matter to
God through prayer? If God is the reason for her second chance, maybe, once and
for all, he can address the whole human penchant for road rage.
However, God might be planning to give
Caplan a “second chance” too. The young woman is justified with her
concern because Caplan has only been charged with “aggravated assault with a
deadly weapon.” One cynical observer noted Caplan’s defense will probably be “…’The noise from her horn startled me to the
point where, when she cut me off, I feared for my life and was forced to engage’.
At worst, he’ll get a short term suspension with pay, just you watch.”
Conceivably, Caplan could walk, in which case, he may get a second chance to
finish the job he started on November 11th.
Notice any similarities to the Waffen SS?
I hope the cynical observer is
wrong but this is the kind of treatment more and more Americans are
experiencing when it comes to law enforcement. Police are now an extension of
the military and are often no longer subject to the laws they are sworn to
uphold. Possibly that’s all in God’s great plan. Law enforcement has His
blessing to use us as targets whenever, wherever. Since most of us don’t
wear a badge, we didn’t get the memo.
Why does the victim think God spared
her? Why, in his infinite wisdom, didn’t
God just prevent it? Did this incident catch God off guard and all he could do
was deflect the bullet at the last instant so she was only grazed by it? How
was that done? Did god interfere with: 1. Caplan’s aim, 2. the bullet, 3. the
young woman’s head movement, or 4. did He slow her car at the opportune time? God
truly does work in mysterious ways if this is how the episode unfolded.
I would also like to ask her which
God gave her that second chance. The Christian god isn't inclined to offer
second chances (Look at how he deals with Adam and Eve, the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and, supposedly, every living thing when He sends the great Flood.) so
maybe she was calling on something we’re not familiar with. Only the young victim
can clear this up.
Yes, she’s lucky to be alive, but
it is no thanks to some invisible, celestial puppeteer.
