Loose Ends
17 April 2007 1:00 pm by Taylor Marsh
Loose Ends bumped & updated
 |
Viriginia Tech is a microcosm of our entire country. There is not a city, a
county or a state prepared for a direct attack on our usually tranquil lives.
We are no more prepared at home psychologically, technically or tactically today
than we were during Columbine and dare I say 9/11.
But since this is America, we also have heroes. Professor Liviu Librescu lost his life by trying to save his students. He’s pictured on this post.
Yesterday is going to trigger
some serious mental fall out and PTSD. Moderate
Voice has a great post up on the issue by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a psychologist and author I’ve read many times. Beyond the mental trauma is the
incompetence reality, which seems systemetic in our institutions at this point.
It’s obvious that Virginia Tech didn’t even have a fall back terrorism attack
plan they could implement. No one went on clamp down mode or even danger mode.
Even late yesterday the press conferences were appalling. In fact, I
found them frightening. Mr. Bush’s statement offered absolutely nothing, except
some wooden looking man delivering lines.
What is it going to take to prepare
us for a direct attack to our safety? If Virginia Tech is any example and I
believe it is, we’re in real trouble.
Then there is the hysteria mode of some wingnuts. The following comes from
Debbie threaten a lawsuit Schlussel:
Why am I speculating that the “Asian” gunman is a Pakistani Muslim?
Because law enforcement and the media strangely won’t tell us more specifically
who the gunman is. Why?Even if it does not turn out that the shooter is Muslim, this is a demonstration
to Muslim jihadists all over that it is extremely easy to shoot and kill multiple
American college students.
Leave it to a wingnut to make a tragedy about terrorism or Muslims. Of course, they’re missing the larger point, which is all
about our own preparedness for any assault on our institutions or society.
If a suspect is shooting people and you don’t have him in custody you do not
assume that the carnage is confined. What do you do? You find the shooter and
until you do he or she could be anywhere. Assuming anything when you know nothing certain gets people killed.
Defending the university’s response to the violence, Steger said officials
at first believed the incident was limited to the West Ambler Johnston Hall
dormitory, where two people were shot around 7 a.m.“It was characterized as being confined to that dormitory. We thought
we had it under control. I don’t think anyone could have predicted,”
that two hours later a gunman would attack across campus, inside the Norris
Hall engineering building, Steger told CNN. The gunman killed 30 people and
himself inside Norris Hall.Questions have been raised about why the university did not do more to secure
the campus in the two hours between the initial shooting in the dorm and the
violence in the engineering building.Steger said campus police had appropriately sealed off the dorm and focused
their efforts there, on the assumption that the violence had ended. …
It gets worse for the VA Tech administrators and police force from there.
Although the gunman in the dorm was at large, no warning was issued to the
tens of thousands of students and staff at Virginia Tech until 9:26 a.m.,
more than two hours later.“We concluded it was domestic in nature,” Flinchum said. “We
had reason to believe the shooter had left campus and may have left the state.”
He declined to elaborate. But several law enforcement sources said investigators
thought the shooter might have intended to kill a girl and her boyfriend Monday
in what one of them described as a “lover’s dispute.” It was unclear
whether the girl killed at the dorm was the intended target, they said.
At some point students started trying to get some guidance: When Blake
Harrison, 21, of Leesburg learned of the shootings, he said, he called an administrative
help line and was told to “proceed with caution to classes.”
“Proceed with caution to classes”? This is horrifying guidance.
Everyone in authority at Virginia Tech is now attempting to defend their actions. They need a script. They’re
going to be very busy. I also hope they have very good lawyers.
The sad fact is that if any large institution in this country was attacked
it is doubtful people on the scene could handle it. Just think of Virginia Tech a moment. Eight years after Columbine this is what we get? It’s truly frightening. Further complicating matters
is that local officials in most cities wouldn’t react much better. If something
really got serious and we needed the National Guard, well, let’s be honest about
it. We’d have to call Iraq.
UPDATE (1:11 p.m.): As I talked about on my radio show, Cho Seung-Hui (pronounced “Cho Sung Whee”) had alarmed many around him. Chicago Tribune, the AP have the story, and Smoking Gun has some of the shooter’s writings, which prove at the very least he was a lousy writer.
