It’s About Making Babies!

Fox News tonight has a number of ‘reporters’ ranting and raving editorial and personal comments.

News people are looking through records and tracing Cho’s steps back in time from Norris Hall at Virginia Tech. On the one hand, many people are asking why the scum acted as he did. Some want to know how to protect themselves and their loved ones. Most, though, follow the gore and vicarious thrills of the preparations and conflicts that shaped the kid with the guns.

And a small number will be impacted by how effectively the scum’s words get published. By how many times it repeats on national TV, radio, newspaper, debated by Presidential candidates, etc.

This is *not* the way to keep others from enacting terrorist plots, of using random killings to ‘make a statement’. When the kid first pointed a gun at a person for the first time, he dropped from being a responsible person to scum. A killer, on the vicious level of the past names, and should be no better known that he was the day before.

This is a media event, instead of a crime, because news and other broadcasting and print owners can sell air time.

This is also a media event because almost any has-been, talking head, or wannabe can get air time by making some statement to further some cause or campaign. I saw one near-hysterical ‘reporter’ lose any pretense to courtesy or address on air to maintain that the ‘warning signs’ should have alerted the school, or the mental health system of Virginia, or the Virginia Courts. or someone. Someone should have decided the kid was a danger, and stopped him. She further ranted that his brush with treatment for mental illness should have prevented Cho from buying his weapons. And time after time reporters and talking heads badgered interviewees with leading questions to ‘prove’ their personal pet slant or theory.

Gimme a break. Any scum wacko that decides killing randomly is a good thing will not worry about whether the guns or whatever he uses is obtained *legally*. The kid decided he was going to blow some people away, he would have gotten the weapons. But the ‘reporter’ still thinks that if Virginia’s gun laws were as tough as New York’s, Cho wouldn’t have gotten the guns legally. And I almost agree. I believe Cho would have gotten weapons illegally.

I shudder to think about the ranters about ‘the signs’, ranters about whether Cho spoke in class, talked to anyone, had friends. Other kids that grew up with violence are not going to be outgoing. The kids that are treated successfully for emotional issues. The kids going through puberty, or take the wrong dare, or get kicked out of class, get belligerent because of stuff going awry in their lives — we have an opportunity to ignite a class war, and a terrible witch hunt.

We have to continue to help people with problems. We have to continue to encourage and permit people with youth crimes and treatments in their past to build a good life. This is truly a time for the admonishment of ‘He who is without sin, cast the first stone.’ This is a time for healing, not scourging the countryside looking for killers-to-be.

I don’t want to see a witch hunt.

The court system is geared to presume innocence. The justice system in America won’t act against an individual for being at risk for committing a crime. So any witch hunt will split society. More poor, and people living in poor neighborhoods, are going to suffer the trauma and abuse that lead to the ‘signs’ that woman on Fox News was ranting about. That middle-class white lady wants the dangerous people locked up. The issue here is clearly class warfare — about insulating the white middle class from ‘bad things’.

What happened at Virginia Tech, and how it got so bad, is probably due to parents and insurance companies using lawyers against schools and medical facilities. And about cutting funds for treating the mentally ill and those that need support to overcome emotional issues. This transfer of responsibility from the citizen to the institution while tying the institution’s hands has been going on for years. This resulted in the school keeping Cho in class when he should have been charged for stalking, for bullying, or expelled. This kept the medical professionals from being able to intervene when it seemed warranted. This kept the drama professor from consulting with medical and legal professionals to evalute Cho’s disturbing work.

Although Hollywood puts out films just as hate filled, just as twisted, just as horrible. Can anyone say ‘Grudge II’, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”, etc. It is my understanding none of those writers killed and college students. Cho’s drama assignments were relevant in this case, but not conclusive evidence of something wrong. Many writers have used their works to explore, purge, and resolve conflicts and anger.

Now that Virginia has screenings and waiting periods for making gun purchases, there are probably fewer sales by sellers that don’t care who they sell to. But the responsible sellers, that evaluate each purchase before making the sale? The rules tie their hands, forcing them to make some sales they would have refused without the controls. And there is a tendency to trust a procedure. That is, regardless of how dicey the seller feels about a particular purchase, if the records check comes back clean, the implication is that there isn’t any problem. Should we repeal the gun purchase legislation, and hold gun sellers more accountable for how the gun is used, similar to the tavern keeper laws regarding sale of liquor to intoxicated drivers? Maybe. Should we encourage police to be more willing to fire on people in the act of committing a crime with a gun? Probably.

Another issue raised was the court sending Cho for treatment at a mental health facility, then a special court releasing him to outpatient care. One the one hand there must be protection from fraudulent accusations and actions, on the other people that need treatment should receive needed treatment. And when cleaning everything up, recall that many people entered the homeless population when then-President Ronald Reagan closed a large number of facilities and unfunded a lot of mental health care. We have many regions threatened by gang violence, organized crime, and unscrupulous public officials. Such regions, many without resources to hire attorneys or otherwise buy a bit of justice, are more likely to need medical and mental health support, and be more likely to be unable to afford that help. Class warfare again.

MSNBC seemed to be carrying the same saturation level of coverage about Virgina Tech as Fox News. I am dissappointed in the editorial staff and owners of both organizations. Fox New actually flashed ‘News Alert’ about receiving a copy of a video that arrived at NBC today. Days after the last shot was fired, there isn’t anything happening to warrant an ‘alert’ — no action that we as a nation need to take in the next minutes and hours. New people may amuse themselves about selling soap.

But they are also broadcasting training materials that the shooters at Columbine and other schools, including Cho, used to build their plans and motivations.