God definitely has a sense of irony.

Don’t believe me?

Well, let me provide some evidence to support my position. You see, there was an anti-crime walk in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Apparently, there was a shooting that took place at the exact same time.

Police responded to four shootings in the District on Monday, one of which erupted during a Northeast neighborhood’s anti-crime walk.

Gunfire rang out on the 1800 block of Benning Road NE on Monday night. It’s the same block where four people were struck in a shooting around 11 p.m. on Friday. Four men and a woman survived the attack. Police released video of two men walking near the scene who are suspected of assault with intent to kill.

“This is absolutely unbelievable,” ANC Commissioner “We’re not tolerating this type of violence in our community.”

“Our walk was punctuated by a call that there’s another shooting over here. This has to stop,” Henderson said. “We’re sick of it.”

I can certainly understand Mr. Henderson’s feelings on the topic.

However, marching against violence is stupid in the first place.

Look, I get that these are people who wanted to do more than scream that someone should do something. They’re people who wanted to do something. I applaud them for that.

However, there’s a big gap between “doing something” and “doing something useful.”

Marches are supposed to show people that there’s support for a given position. Does anyone in this country believe there are others who support violence in general? Of course not.

Instead, these marches are nothing more than an effort to feel like they’re doing something without having to do anything. They can go for a walk and say they’re activists, all without having to get their hands dirty.

The irony of a shooting happening at the same time as a march against violence isn’t lost here. It’s a sign of how pathetic an effort marches like this are.

Here’s a tip for the marchers. If you want to change things and combat violence, start looking at why people go down that road in the first place, then combat that. Work to keep young people out of gangs. Work to combat drug abuse in your community, things of that sort.

At least then you’re doing something that might be useful for stopping the violence. You’re not taking a walk that’s only slightly more exercise than the self-aggrandizing back patting that takes place after such marches.

If the people of D.C. want to do something about violence, the first thing they need to do is stop wasting time on marches that are nothing but an attempt to tell everyone that you don’t like violence. The thing is, no one likes criminal violence. You’re not “raising awareness” of crime we’re already aware of. You’re not “calling attention to the problem” that we’re already paying attention to. You’re accomplishing nothing.

So take that energy and start looking at things that will do some damn good in your community.