A Letter to the People of Gettysburg

[Supreme Being]

To the People of Gettysburg

A Letter to the People of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

For 149 years, Gettysburg — the scene of the bloodiest battle of America’s Civil War — has been a type of Mecca where people go to remember those who were wounded and died when neighbors killed neighbors and families turned on one another … for year after bloody year.
To equate the recent assault on one lone traveler in your town would do injustice to the 35,000 Americans who were wounded or killed during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.
On Thursday, July 13, 2012, a weary Appalachian Trail hiker was confronted, hunted down, and set on fire by five people in a small blue car. His crime? Coming to town to resupply to continue his peaceful hike.
This early morning attack cannot be attributed to black people or white people … men or women. Rotten apples from each of these demographic barrels were involved in the heartless victimization of an Appalachian Trail hiker, possibly because those who tortured him thought he might be homeless. As if that were a sensible alibi for their monstrous cruelty.
Roughly 84 hours have passed and — to our knowledge — no one has been identified as suspects. Before publishing this story I phoned the Gettysburg Police Department. Sgt. Wilson is leading the investigation and will be available for an interview on Monday, July 16th.
All I can report to you now is that the hiker has healed sufficiently to leave Gettysburg. For his safety — until his attackers can be brought to justice – the victim’s location will not be revealed here.
The weather at my home is lovely today. My motorcycle beckons me to go for a ride in the nearby mountains. I do not work on Sundays. However, there is no prohibition to doing good on anyone’s Sabbath.
I am writing to the people of Gettysburg as a member of the Appalachian Trail community, not as a professional writer.
It is my firm opinion/belief that at least one of the five people who viciously set the straggler afire and left him to burn in an alley could be identified, if someone were willing to call the police.
The only way to mitigate this stunning act of cruelty is for one or more of those involved to come forward, confess to the crime, identify the others involved, go to trial and accept the punishment meted about by a jury of his or her peers.
No matter how long it is before the guilty parties are brought to justice, their consciences will haunt them. They will have no peace, no joy and no rest. Whatever enjoyment they perversely found — in dousing a man with gasoline or some other flammable liquid and tossing a match at him for the singular purpose of watching him burn — will torment themselves more than any pain or suffering inflicted upon a stranger in their town.
Knowing who did this … even suspecting a likely culprit … and not notifying the police, in my humble opinion, makes a person an accessory to this horrid crime.
How difficult can it be to identify the two black men, the one white man and the two white women who were in Gettysburg around 1 AM on Thursday morning … driving around town in a small blue car? How common can that be?
This is not as hard as finding a single indescribable person in Los Angeles or Tokyo. We’re talking about Gettysburg — a town with a population of just over 8,000 individuals in 2009. There are big-city high schools that are larger than that.
Someone in Gettysburg must know who did this. That blue car with its five occupants got gas a day or so before the attack. Unless the car is hidden in someone’s garage, it will need gas again. These people didn’t simply vanish. They have friends and families and neighbors and coworkers. Someone knows who they are … someone is not calling the police … someone is an accomplice to their crime against innocence.
Once again, Gettysburg symbolizes the battlefield of senseless violence and destruction.
Citizens of Gettysburg: We call upon you to help identify those in your community or those who passed through who disgraced Gettysburg and all of humanity by attacking a member of the Appalachian Trail community.
Join us in the fight to right this wrong. Don’t just sit on the fence between right and wrong.
Join us in seeking the guilty and protecting the innocent. Please. Help us bring these violent criminals to justice.
You would ask for nothing less if the victim were in your family, as this hiker is in ours.
Thank you,
Robert Sutherland

If you have information about the attackers, please call the police at (717) 334-1168.
Adams County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those involved. Call Crime Stoppers at (717) 334-8057. Callers may remain confidential.

[Hairbear]

very nice .i dont think the people involved will be able to keep it to themselves for ever .justice will be done.

[DogPaw]

The poor soul. I hope whoever did this is found and brought to justice. I cannot advocate any violence towards even the worst of humanity, it's just not in me, but please, don't let people like that wander the streets and trails any longer. Find them, Gettysburg, and bring them to justice.

[rocketsocks]

very nice .i dont think the people involved will be able to keep it to themselves for ever .justice will be done.

Funny how when enough time passes, relationships dwindle, and loyalties are not as strong, I think in time the offenders will be caught....at least that is my Hope!

[Lone Wolf]

like the hiker, maybe the perps were just driving through town and not from there. this case is bizarre

[rocketsocks]

Good job Robert, it can only help.

[max patch]

You're preaching to the choir here; send this to the Gettysburg newspaper.

Oh, and I think you are giving these thugs more credit than they deserve. I don't think they have a conscience at all and are not "tormented"; they probably think the whole thing was funny.

[rocketsocks]

You're preaching to the choir here; send this to the Gettysburg newspaper.

Oh, and I think you are giving these thugs more credit than they deserve. I don't think they have a conscience at all and are not "tormented"; they probably think the whole thing was funny.

I guess I just assumed it was being written to be sent as an "Letter to the Editor" piece ???

[Jack Tarlin]

I like it fine, except the bit about Gettysburg again symbolizing "senseless violence and destruction." The thousands of good men who died here, on both sides, believed very much in what they were doing and why they were there, and it is an insult to their memory to say that what they were doing at Gettysburg was "senseless."

Otherwise, a fine essay.

[DogPaw]

Isn't violence for what you believe in the most senseless sort there is, when you think about it?

[fins1838]

Joe Paterno sat on that same fence. And guess how the people view him now.

[fins1838]

agree sir.

[rocketsocks]

Isn't violence for what you believe in the most senseless sort there is, when you think about it?

Violence begets violence, If I'm faced with a choice of taking care of loved ones or strangers, and violence is the only option, then it is clear what has to happen, I can believe in it, but I don't have to like it.

[rich5665]

Not to put a dismiss your finely written letter; But you have taken into assumption that the idiots that committed this heinous crime live in Gettysburg. I can tell you that when I was young, it was not uncommon for me and a group of my friends to jump into a car and cruise around several towns and cause a little mischief. So, if one can assume that these monsters were from Gettysburg, then one can should also assume that they are not. It would be nice if one or more of them also had a conscience, but then again they may have zero regard for life as has been demonstrated with the recent events in Aurora. I feel that the best we can do at this point, is continue to offer our prayers up for the hiker, hope that at least one of the five realizes they've done wrong and will turn themselves and the others in.

[DogPaw]

Violence begets violence, If I'm faced with a choice of taking care of loved ones or strangers, and violence is the only option, then it is clear what has to happen, I can believe in it, but I don't have to like it.

I don't debate you at all on that point, though I have a very bad (or good, depending on how you view it) habit of nursing the people I've clashed with back to health.

[Jack Tarlin]

If you're waiting for one of these guys to turn themselves in, don't hold your breath, More likely scenario: In an unguarded, stupid, probably drunk moment, one of the five talks about the incident to someone else; gets anonymously fingered shortly thereafter; gets grilled by investigators; confesses; and cuts a deal ratting out all the others. Most stuff like this gets solved because of loose lips and an informant and not because of a crisis of conscience. And that's exactly what's gonna happen here eventually.

[DogPaw]

You give me little hope for humanity with that, Jack.

[kayak karl]

You give me little hope for humanity with that, Jack.

all of humanity? or those 5.
jacks, right. the last 3 major crimes in our town were solved that way. the other thing that can happen is one of the 5 did not know what they were planning and wants out.

[Supreme Being]

I did not write this letter. It was written for the newspapers/online community by Robert Sutherland. I was merely sharing it with everyone on WB. I apologize for the confusion.

[rocketsocks]

If you're waiting for one of these guys to turn themselves in, don't hold your breath, More likely scenario: In an unguarded, stupid, probably drunk moment, one of the five talks about the incident to someone else; gets anonymously fingered shortly thereafter; gets grilled by investigators; confesses; and cuts a deal ratting out all the others. Most stuff like this gets solved because of loose lips and an informant and not because of a crisis of conscience. And that's exactly what's gonna happen here eventually.

Agree...100%