I don\u2019t make a habit writing columns about news stories I am covering. But this week I made an exception, in the case of the Denny\u2019s shooting lawsuit.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s our front-page story, and it\u2019s a statement about a lot of things: the utter randomness of a criminal act, a survivor\u2019s hopes, and Denny\u2019s statement that it was not responsible for the bullets that flew that night.<\/p>\n
These were things I expected to hear \u2013 by their nature, lawsuits have at least two sides, if not more.<\/p>\n
The thing that surprised me?<\/p>\n
The reaction by some of our readers. They weren\u2019t just disgruntled Denny\u2019s was being sued \u2013 they were close to outraged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI completely disagree with this lawsuit! Sue the shooter!\u201d one reader commented on our Web site. \u201cIt\u2019s not anyone\u2019s business responsibility to provide security. If you don\u2019t feel safe at a particular place, don\u2019t go there!\u201d<\/p>\n
Another reader had a similar bone to pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are surrounded by crazy people every day,\u201d the reader wrote on our site. \u201cIf you want to avoid this type of a crowd, stay out of the public after bar hours… plain and simple \u2013 keep clear of the trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorry, but when did we start living in the Old West, where gunslingers can shoot up the local watering hole on a whim?<\/p>\n
Denny\u2019s wasn\u2019t using security guards that night \u2013 or any nights, at least then (ownership of the restaurant has since changed hands, and I don\u2019t know what their current policy for security is.)<\/p>\n
But back in 2007, even Denny\u2019s own employees had expressed worries about their safety.<\/p>\n
Other local eateries in Kent were using security guards back then \u2013 and still do regularly. In fact, it was off-duty police officers who tossed the eventual shooter, Frank Evans, from the Kent restaurant where he started getting rowdy that night.<\/p>\n
After getting that earlier heave-ho, Evans went to the Kent Denny\u2019s and walked in not just once (the first time starting a fight with a random customer), but twice (the second time bearing the semiautomatic gun that rendered an innocent bystander a quadriplegic.)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all well and good to point at the shooter \u2013 he did it, and nobody\u2019s arguing otherwise.<\/p>\n
But to tell someone who\u2019s now paralyzed that he shouldn\u2019t have been eating in a restaurant late if he didn\u2019t want trouble?<\/p>\n
Ridiculous.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure none of these anonymous commenters would be using that logic if it was them parked in that wheelchair. They\u2019d want justice \u2013 and a deeper set of pockets than some guy sitting in the state pen.<\/p>\n
Fortunately the jury in this case didn\u2019t buy that logic, either. They found in favor of Steven Tolenoa, the man spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
Now, at least, he\u2019s got a chance for a more normal life.<\/p>\n
Even if some out there felt Denny\u2019s got the equivalent of a Grand Slam, as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t make a habit writing columns about news stories I am covering.
\nBut this week I made an exception, in the case of the Denny\u2019s shooting lawsuit.
\nIt\u2019s our front-page story, and it\u2019s a statement about a lot of things: the utter randomness of a criminal act, a survivor\u2019s hopes, and Denny\u2019s statement that it was not responsible for the bullets that flew that night.
\nThese were things I expected to hear \u2013 by their nature, lawsuits have at least two sides, if not more.
\nThe thing that surprised me?
\nThe reaction by some of our readers. They weren\u2019t just disgruntled Denny\u2019s was being sued \u2013 they were close to outraged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9339"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}