You may have heard about the student who intervened when two younger girls were harassed outside a McDonald's in the city of Offenbach, Germany.
The young woman was beaten so viciously that she died.
Public praise for the courage of a migrant daughter swept the country, young and old came together in an outpouring of sympathy for her and her family.
You can read up on the events on this English language news web site.
Could this tragedy have been prevented?
It is an easy question to ask, a staple in so much of reporting that it can be almost meaningless.
We didn't ask the question, but then a friend launched into the subject in a telephone conversation right after the initial how are you.
I grew up there, I know that exact location, it is a bad place. This location has been a trouble spot for as long as I can think. Forty years ago, it was Germans, then Italians, now whoever did that. Talk to the taxi drivers.
Has bad city planning, bad policing, a case of horrid Feng Shui in an industrial city nobody neglected for the last half century or so contributed to the tragedy?
Other than the friend, no one has asked. We don't know, and Germany's answer to a literate population, the tabloid BILD is too busy hawking footage of the incident from the McDonald's parking lot surveillance tape to ask.
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