Ragnar
<--- Pic is not me
McVay, 49, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Capt. Parker Sever said
Those words, that sentiment, is not just meaningless. It's intentionally meaningless. PoliticalChic nailed it in the OP and I think there is a not so subtle blaming of the victim going on, as though she were "struck by fate". As if she were hit by a meteor and not another human being.
She was the one in the right place at the right time. Good Lord to Capt. Sever: Where the fuck do you go when your car is dirty? Dairy Queen? The murderer was in the wrong place (planet Earth) at the wrong time (ever). He may as well have said "shit happens".
What a destructive and idiotic mentality.
/rant
"...a not so subtle blaming of the victim going on, as though she were "struck by fate". As if she were hit by a meteor and not another human being."
President Eisenhower once, famously, said: "public opinion wins wars."
I believe that you have identified the nexus or Eisenhower's reference, and the deleterious effects that Hollywood (read 'Liberals') have had on society's attitude about crime...
In the 1949 seminal film, "Knock On Any Door," starring Humphrey Bogart and John Derek, a young (handsome) perp kills a police officer, and his lawyer (Bogart) has the jury wringing their hands over the terrible childhood of the perp.
It is worth seeing, and draw you own conclusions re: the view that society should make excuses for killers, and ignore the hole that they leave in the lives of those associated with the victim.
Great example of the mentality at work. Been a long time and it's worth re-watching "Knock On Any Door". Courtroom speech aside, there were a lot of redeeming conservative oriented acts by many characters in the film. (specifically the perp's last actions) In this context though you are right. I guess at the time I must have just explained away "Bogey's" speech as trying to get into the social workers pants. (I know now that's just a sad rationalization)