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Molly Tibbetts

As I’m sure most readers know, 20 year-old Mollie Tibbets of Iowa was murdered.  Her body was found in a cornfield, and her killer has been arrested, and has mostly confessed, likely sufficiently to obtain a conviction. Surely, there is supporting physical evidence.  The New York Post reports:

Cristhian Rivera
credit: iowadps

An ’llegal alien’ is in custody for the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, according to police officials.

Cristhian Rivera, 24, was charged Tuesday in Poweshiek County after being brought in without incident by local cops.

Investigators spoke to him at length about what happened on July 18 — when he allegedly abducted Tibbetts — and revealed what he said during an afternoon press conference.

According to officials, Rivera told cops that he saw the young woman running, circled around a few times in his car, and eventually approached her.

He got out and ran up behind Tibbetts and accidentally spooked her — causing the 20-year-old to panic, officials said.

Rivera told cops that he then blacked out, and didn’t come to again until after Tibbetts was already dead — at the intersection in rural Poweshiek County where investigators found her body.

Apparently, Rivera has also said he carried her some distance in his trunk, stopped, threw her body over his shoulder, walked into a cornfield, lay her face up, and covered her with corn stalks.  He led the police to her.

An initial medical examiner’s report indicates she was killed by ”sharp force trauma.”  In other words, it seems likely she was stabbed to death.  If we do not eventually learn she had been raped, I will be very surprised indeed.  I addressed at least a few of the issues this case raises in A Losing Bet For Any Woman.  

However, there are other vital issues we, gentle readers, should discuss.  They are: Immigration, tactical thinking, and situational awareness, issues of importance to normal Americans–I do not include the self-imagined elite in that category–of either gender.  For the sake of argument, and in deference to biology, we will assume there are yet only two, regardless of how some confused soul chooses to “identify” today. Regarding immigration, let us visit the indispensable Kurt Schlichter:

If you’re cool with Americans being butchered by illegal aliens, this November you should vote Democrat. They’re certainly cool with Americans being butchered by illegal aliens. Oh, in theory they would probably prefer that the foreigners sneaking into our country in defiance of the laws we American citizens made through our elected representatives would stop butchering Americans. They don’t particularly wantyour kids to be butchered. They just want uncontrolled illegal immigrationmore than your kids’ safety. So, they’ve made a choice to be the party of illegal immigration. And the resulting body count is a price Democrats are willing to pay to replace an electorate of Normal Americans who refuse to obey.

The Democrats are the party of No Borders, of Abolish ICE, and of murdered Americans. You cannot howl and shriek in support of X yet deny that you accept the foreseeable, demonstrated consequences of X.

Now we know Mollie Tibbetts was murdered by an illegal alien. Add her name to the butcher’s bill. And who was shocked? Who said, ‘Gosh, that’s surprising!’ Who said, ‘Whoa, I don’t believe it!’

No one. Because it happens all the time. Her life, like the lives of so many others, was snuffed out because our elite made a conscious choice to risk our lives to satisfy its own interests. She was just more collateral damage. We better decide in November where we stand, because a Democrat majority means this bloodbath continues.

In other words, if Rivera, who has lived illegally in American for from four to seven years, was never allowed to enter America, Mollie Tibbetts would still be alive; he would not have had the opportunity to kill her.

You’re a nativist, a racist, every kind of “ist!”  That’s a false argument; you’re just trying to distract from the real issue, which is (add your favorite “real” issue here).

The real issue is an illegal immigrant, someone who should never have been able to enter and remain in America, murdered (allegedly: we’ll assume that modifier for the rest of the article) Mollie Tibbetts.  This is fact, and no amount of name-calling will change it.  It argues for a wall, effective legislation we actually intend to enforce, and every other measure that will stop illegal immigration. There is no other rational conclusion, and Schlichter is right: Democrats care much more about unrestrained illegal immigration–their future voters–than about the lives of Americans like Mollie.

I am now about to be accused of blaming the victim, so if that’s a favorite narrative, go ahead and get it out of the way. Tibbitts apparently did not engage in tactical thinking.  She placed herself, alone and unarmed, in an isolated area where she had nowhere to escape, and no one to help her.

You’re blaming the victim!

Not at all.  Were I engaging in that, I’d say she was asking for it because she was alone in an isolated area, and wearing a scanty little running outfit.  There is only one person responsible for her death: Rivera.  If he is convicted, he should be executed and only then deported.  Let whatever country he claims dispose of the remains. Tibbetts should have been able to run anywhere, alone and unarmed, and remain unmolested, but that’s not tactical thinking either.  More on this shortly.

Mollie Tibbetts
credit: mollytibbettsfacebook

According to the killer’s confession, Mollie did not see him coming, and displaying her cell phone, threatened to call the police.  We will never know precisely what she was doing before he approached her, but if she is like most female runner’s I’ve seen, she was blissfully unaware of her surroundings, she had no situational awareness.  Whenever I see a female runner, gliding along, staring fixedly at the ground a few yards in front of her, I want to tell her to look around, to be aware of her surroundings.  This is particularly so if she’s wearing earbuds, and couldn’t hear an attacker approach if she wanted to.

But I will not live in fear!  I will run wherever I wish, and I will not carry a gun.  I will not become paranoid!

One need never be paranoid, but one does need to recognize reality.  A woman should be able to walk, stark naked, in the unlit alley behind the sleaziest bar in town at closing time and remain unmolested.  Should be.  But here we see the difference between theory and rhetoric, progressive narrative and hard, cold reality.  We see the difference between recognition of human nature, and willful ignorance of it.  Any woman doing that is likely to be raped and worse, and thankfully, few women are so unrealistic as to try that social justice experiment.

Here’s the point: tactically, Tibbetts–any woman–should understand that running alone in an isolated area, armed only with a cell phone, is inherently dangerous.  They should plan–tactical thinking–to eliminate as much of the potential risk as possible.  Run with friends, run in well-lit areas where one need run only a very short distance for help, or where screams for help are likely to be heard and attract immediate response. If one chooses to run alone under those conditions, recognize a cell phone is not capable of deterring or stopping an attack then and there.  Carry a concealed handgun, and be proficient in its use.

But that’s not enough.  One must also employ situational awareness.  They must always be looking around them, identifying potential problem areas at a distance, potential threats, and reacting appropriately, potentially preventing a confrontation.  In Tibbetts’ case, the killer apparently circled around her several times before leaving his car and approaching her.  We don’t know if Tibbetts recognized this danger, but if she did, she apparently didn’t respond to it.

Situational awareness is not paranoia.  It’s merely intelligent watchfulness.  It is not psychologically debilitating.  Evil exists, and it takes advantage of the weak and unaware.  Compared to men, almost all women are weaker, and most human beings are unaware.

credit scarymommy.com

Our hypothetical woman should be able to walk naked behind that equally hypothetical bar, and Mollie Tibbets, an attractive, petite (only 5’2”) young woman, should be able to run, alone, anywhere she pleases, but human nature doesn’t well comport with “should be,” and evil delights in those that ignore it. And no, it’s not the fault of men. The overwhelming majority of men would have loved to be there to protect Mollie Tibbetts.  That’s what actual men do.  That’s what I would have done, but I can’t be there for everyone, even Mrs. Manor, so she employs tactical thinking, situational awareness, and carries a concealed handgun.

Fortunately, the number of sociopaths, compared to the whole population, is small, but a woman need only meet one once.  They’re out there; waiting their chance.  Thinking tactically and employing situational awareness saves lives.

But Mollie Tibbetts was only 20!  She couldn’t buy or legally carry a concealed weapon.

Perhaps that sort of law needs to be changed.  Perhaps we shouldn’t allow publicity-seeking mental adolescents that have no understanding of reality and the Constitution make law. Perhaps all 20 year-old women contemplating running alone in an isolated area should weigh whether obeying such a law is moral, wise and conducive to longevity.  Am I advocating disobeying the law?  No, only considering options in light of human nature and reality.

In the needless death of a lovely young woman, there are lessons aplenty.  Women need not stop exercising.  They need not be paranoid.  But they do need to recognize reality, the reality that tells us that not everyone in the world wishes us well, and that our own choices contribute to everything that befalls us.

Molly Tibbetts
credit: facebook

Progressives cry about the children of illegal immigrants temporarily separated from their arrested parents.  Perhaps they could shed a tear, even contribute to secure borders–choose the lives of Americans over potential future voters–and remember Mollie Tibbets: forever separated from her family, forever a victim of an uncaring self-imagined elite, forever 20.