by Chris Bodenner
If you haven't heard about the horribly heartbreaking story of the murdered Hasidic boy in Brooklyn this week, here are the basics. A glimpse into the mind of the sick sociopath here. Among the several tragic ironies in the story, Alana Newhouse addresses the unintentional impact of the Internet:
[T]he news that hundreds of volunteers had poured in to help the Shomrim, the police, and eventually even the FBI canvass Borough Park and other parts of Brooklyn, it seemed clear that the Internet was being used to mobilize an already astonishingly mobilizable ultra-Orthodox community—one already related to Orthodox communities outside of Brooklyn. Given the historically complex relationship that the fervently observant have to technology—paradoxically both early adopting and often enduringly resistant—it was hard not to feel a sense of pride and, against evidence already mounting to the contrary, a tiny sliver of hope. This community was using all available tools to do what every community was meant to do: Care for its own.
Which is why I gasped yesterday when I read that investigators believe it may have been this very asset—the efficient, powerful activation of up-to-date resources—that caused the suspect in Leiby Kletzky’s murder to panic, and kill the child.
The Dish 