Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I tend to agree with those who deride Salon for jumping on the angle that the university reacted too slowly to the tragedy. This kind of blatant sensationalism, one day after an event, is no better than the headlines with implicitly screaming fingers pointed at the shooter's status as a foreign (South Korean) student. At times like this, I'm looking for the facts, not conspiracy theories, and it's a shame that salon is trying to harness the same base human emotions, just targeting a different crowd. The details and time for assessing adequacy of response will come later.
With 25,000 students + several thousand staff on campus, we're talking about coordinating an entire community the size of Hyde Park in Chicago, New London, Conn., or Middletown, NY (verified in wikipedia). A) 2 hours response is not unreasonable for a community that size, and B) It's hard to imagine orchestrating a shut-down for a community that size, in the event of a shooting where the gunman is loose.
With the resources of a community of several million in the San Francisco Bay Area, it still took a good hour for news of the hit and run driver who ran down 15 people in 30 minutes, who was still loose.
They do whatever it is they do. The issue is why on God's Grey Earth do colleges toss out students for carrying a beer, or aggressive eyerolling or inappropriate multicultural sensitivities or putting a dumb picture on Facebook and force everyone to go to daterape training and this week's genocidal cause/picnic and yet, and yet they have no particular comment either way about a backpack full of guns and ammo? Apparently you risk a higher probability of expulsion for calling someone a nigger bitch than you do shooting at someone? Why is that? Sure I understand the whole western VA rural redneck ethos were people grew up with beer, blasting cord and squirrel guns but let's at least give lip service to equity and reality, shall we?
Unless you are on the rifle team guns have no place on or near any college facility, ever. Period. End of story, full stop. Let's apply the same bike helmet wearing micromanagement CYA bullshit policies as ZOMG! Alcohol, drugs, to firearms. You are found with a firearm in your possession you are expelled immediately, period. If you have a problem with that take it up with the ACLU and/or your Congressperson.
Then when that's done, then you can complain that the cops didn't handle the worst mass murder in American history, with the proper alacrity. But until then, until we stop giving guns the universal pass then this is what you will get. And trust me, it will only get worse.
To the people trying to turn this into a feminist issue: the point is not that the police don't take domestic violence seriously. The point is that domestic violence is not random. It has a specific proximate cause and is aimed at specific people. There was no reason to think that the shooter is then going to go on a random shooting spree. If the shooter had instead shot people randomly on the dorm floor, then the police would have had reason to think that this was a shooting spree and the criticism would be justified.
VA Tech is the size of a small city. We don't shut cities down every time there is a murder. Why would university officials think of shutting down the university?
I teach at a large university. In the five years that I have been here, there have been at least two murders involving students in domestic disputes. Of course, no one thought for a second that the campus should be shut down. What, besides hindsight, would have made VA Tech administrators think that this incident was different than any similar incidents involving students that occur every few years?
As a former educator/administrator who was deeply involved in campus security concerns for many years, I say the administration/campus security at VT could not possibly have reacted in a more incompetent fashion. They had a obvious murder(s) with no perpetrator in custody, and did not lock the campus down, did not use the most expedient methods to warn people on campus, and did not call in additional agencies to provide adequate protection.
"Stay in your room ..... report any unusual activity ..... ?????"
Jesus H. Christ !!!
The police did what they thought was the right thing to do. I'm sure they are having a hard time not beating themselves up about what they "if only" could have done already. We don't need the media speculating on whether or not they could have had a stroke of divine inspiration and foretold that a mass shooting would take place.
Unless and until the media and the blogosphere would like to be the people charged with informing the students what to do next, would like to be the people running toward the gunshots instead of away, would like to be the people desparately trying to end the unfolding tragedy instead of standing there jawing about it, would like to be the ones thinking bloodsweep, JVD, airway, get a backboard, would like to be the ones in the CISD the next day, would like to be the ones saying "I wish we could have...", unless you would like to do those things, butt out.
The students are going to feel this way. After any disaster or tragedy, victims express feelings that they think more could have been done. That's natural. What is ghoulish is for the distant electronic bystanders who know next to nothing about it to pile on.
We have them on all of the major highways in Texas, most likely funded by the US-DOT. Why not on all the college campuses at various locations, other than the $6M jumbo-tron at the football field that is used for 6 or 7 homegames during the year. Why not use them as a public safety/announcement board for the entire student body - not just the season ticket holders? Some high schools and even churches use them. Electronic bulletin boards are everywhere. Yep, it's too late now but something for the alumni and the university adminstrations to think about...
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
