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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I just read about the problems in France's suburbs in the NY Times Magazine this past Sunday. Remember in November 2005 when there were almost three weeks of riots? Well, there was one (1!) homocide.
Today, some jerk guns down over 30 people in Virginia.
I'm with "RealName". For god's sake, get rid of these guns already. Other countries don't have this problem. Unless, as another letter writer pointed out, that country is in the middle of a WAR.
This is just pointless.
damned if you don't. How do you respond to a deranged killer??
"Go into the school! Even if you are the first cop on the scene, screw the roadblock, run from class to class, trying to draw his fire! Put your life on the line to save those kids."
Umm, that's kind of how the marines respond in such a situation. They tend to over-respond, hose down the area, and kill anything in the vicinity -- woe to all -- friend or foe. Not a good response to a lone loonie . . .
"Police need to be better trained in taking these people down, not setting up damned parameters."
Cute, but I think what you're trying to say is 'perimeter' . . .
Although it is always better to have emergency plans for horrible events like a crazed gunman loose on campus, or a anthrax attack, or a dirty radioactive bomb, than to have no plan, such plans will only be partially effective in eliminating death and destruction.
Remember the cruise ship Sea Diamond at Santorini took five hours to evacuate, and there was no one shooting.
This is the kind of headline I'd expect on FOX News. Just as bad is the crap on CNN, where they are practically harassing the students until admitting MAYBE something different could be done, despite most of them not looking to blame the university.
Maybe it will come out that there was clearly something that should have been done, but right now this kind of article is irresponsible and not contributing anything.
Something that struck me as really odd was a conversation taking place this afternoon on CNN as to whether or not the gunman was a "terrorist." The verdict was no, because he has no known ties to organized terror groups around the world. And of course, lexically, I understood what they meant, but it still struck me as an absurd debate. Of course he was a fucking terrorist. He terrorized and murdered innocent people. Al Qaeda doesn't have a trademark on the word, CNN.
For years, people have died from weapons purchased easily in Virgina and funneled into gun control towns like NYC - 90 percent of the guns used in crimes here come from out of state - and Bloomberg has sued gun dealers in Virginia and already settled with five - which includes court monitoring.
You're gonna blame the university? That's a gun free zone. Like NYC, the guns came in from off campus - brought in illegally, probably purchased legally in Virginia - though I hear the guy was an exchange student - so he might've got them through a straw purchase - also easy in that state. We've paid the price for Virginia's irresponsibility for years - in New York, now they're paying big-time, down there...
Uh-oh. The guy was an exchange student? Maybe an illegal? Wait till ol' Gin-blossom O'Reilly or Lou Dobson get their hooks into this one . . .
We have no shortage of home-grown homicidal maniacs.
No, you're not wrong, Anonymous, that this isn't the first time a murder spree was instigated by a domestic violence incident.
In 1990, 87 people were killed in a fire at the Happyland Social Club, started by a jealous boyfriend who had just been dissed.
Gun proponents point to this as an example of when a person could kill a large number of people without guns. I am of two minds on this issue, as I am a survivor of stalking and I have a gun myself.
What IS it about the 3rd week in April!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Patriot Day, Waco, Columbine, now this...
Oops I forgot one...the Oklahoma City Bombing
"My blogging today got delayed by the Virginia Tech tragedy, and coincidentally, so will Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Senate testimony, which was postponed from tomorrow to Thursday. At first I thought the delay might help Gonzales."
--Joan Walsh
And you wonder why the editor-in-chief runs finger-pointing headlines instead of getting the facts straight first. Fuck Salon and the editor-in-chief who rode it straight into the ground.
I half expected to be the only one commenting that it is probably a bit unfair to start blaming the university's actions. Kudos (although I am not surprised) to my fellow Salon readers for being, REASONABLE.
Of course universities are not prepared for this sort of thing. If they had locked down the university, and it had turned out to be an isolated domestic issue, I'm sure Salon would have written a criticism quoting students complaining about how school officials overreacted like fascist overlords. And you know what, I would have agreed. University administrations are not security experts, they're educators. They took the advice of local authorities, which from what I can gather, would have been right 99% of the time.
My thoughts go out to the people in the VA Tech community.
Thank you erithtotl...I agree completely.
This article is crap. Crap crap crap. But not just the administration was second-guessed today. During the ~4pm news conference one reporter asked why no one confronted and tackled the shooter. He graciously volunteered that if he were in such a situation he would have lunged for the shooter. I am sure he would have...as soon as he was done crapping his pants. What an asshole.
...first of all, you had a good post, so why the hell are you ashamed of posting your name? Or a consistent pseudonym? Are you part of the culture of fear?
Second, perhaps emergency plans might not have caused zero deaths, but it would have saved some lives. That's not very satisfying, I know. If only 14 people had died, it would still be worse than Columbine, and there's no way to know that the emergency plans had saved 19 lives. The phrase "it could have been much worse" wouldn't satisfy the 14 dead.
But the idea that there WERE emergency plans, and someone was carrying them out, might have reduced the shitstorm that the college administration will shortly be receiving.
I came across a post...don't know if it was here or on Democratic Underground...where someone blandly said "The college is covered. They are insured and their lawyers will ascertain that they had no responsibility to protect the lives of their students, who are considered adults." In other words, the American institutions of higher education are all run by Michael Browns. Heck of a job, guys. You have no reason to complain about the Bush Administration.
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
