I hate to glorify what you did by giving it any more publicity, but
this is no lurid recap of your grotesque crime. This is a warning and a
not-so-veiled threat. I may not have known Shannon Harps, but I am a
30-year-old woman living alone on Capitol Hill who could just as easily
have been coming home with an armload of groceries at 7:00 p.m. this
New Year’s Eve. And I know many other women like Shannon and myself:
independent, socially conscious, loving, beautiful, intelligent women
working jobs that make the world a better place who moved here to start
adult lives for themselves. Whole, complete lives—and Shannon
will never get to do that. Because of you. You didn’t want her
groceries, her money, or her sex. You wanted her life. And though she
screamed for it, you still got it. Well, you should know there are a
lot of angry women and the husbands, fathers, brothers, boyfriends, guy
buddies (and their pit bulls) that love them who are just as pissed
off. Women are brushing up on their self-defense, traveling in pairs,
and looking over their shoulders while keeping their trigger fingers on
the Mace. If you’re caught before this goes to print, good. I hope you
rot in jail—and let this warning go out to any other soulless
asshole who thinks it might be fun to attack a woman. If not, although
the SPD can’t issue threats, I sure as hell can. Watch out,
motherfucker, this enraged white female isn’t carrying Mace. I’ve got
my own knife. And I’ll be aiming right for your balls.