the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 19, 2007
A woman from a Detroit suburb stabbed her two young daughters to death two weeks ago.
In addition to stabbing her daughters, ages 8 and 5, repeatedly, she also stabbed and killed the pet dogs and mouse, then stacked them neatly in their cages. She then sat with the bodies for up to 11 hours, until her sister came by to check on her.
Jennifer Kukla was known to be having difficulties. She and her two girls were living in a mobile home without electricity and water because she did not make enough money at her job at McDonald’s to pay her bills.
On top of that, her car had broken down two weeks before, forcing her to take a taxi to work. McDonald’s refuses to say, but she may have lost her job just prior to killing her children. Family members say she was afraid she would lose her children to Social Services.
Her neighbors knew Kukla was struggling, and tried to help her. One neighbor had given her clothing for her children to wear. Another saw her just the night before, when she borrowed four gallons of water to flush her toilet with.
Of course, other people face similar hardships in this society–or worse–without ever coming close to doing such a horrible thing. But none of us can know what event will cause another person to break. Even that person could not imagine doing such a thing, even days before.
Kukla very clearly did snap. By all accounts, she is NOT someone who planned or intended to harm her children. The court even admits this, by debating whether or not she was sane at the time that she killed her daughters.
But the fact that the court even debates her sanity, or that the prosecutor has charged her with first degree murder saying the act was premeditated, shows again how rotten this system is.
It provides no real safety net, so that more and more families fall through the holes. Then, when a tragedy like this occurs, it looks to blame the person whom the system has broken.
Like all criminals, this system blames its victims.