I can’t quite wrap my head around this whole Rolling Stone Boston Bomber cover controversy. There have been plenty of heinous criminals, dictators, and terrorists on the covers of news magazines and newspapers. It seems as though everyone is riled up because he’s young and good-looking. Perhaps this drives home the point that you can’t see evil coming and evil people don’t necessarily look evil.

I think a lot of people feel as though they are safe if they’re not hanging out in back alleys at 3am or aren’t dressed provocatively, or don’t live in a bad neighborhood. I think so many people don’t care about crime and/or the dangers of the world because they believe themselves to be safe because they make what they consider good decisions and do all the right things and go all the right places. I think the smug and foolish notion that you can see the bad people coming and insulate yourself from the dangers of the world is what allows a certain portion of the population to look down their noses with smug superiority at crime victims. It allows them to say things like, “What was he doing out that late?” and “She should have worn a longer skirt and a turtleneck sweater.” and “He was hanging with the wrong crowd.”

Perhaps the outcry over Rolling Stone’s choice of cover image isn’t so much outrage as it is fear that evil can and does walk amongst us unnoticed.