Posted on 02/20/2008 11:37:06 AM PST by Borges
I met Steve Kazmierczak in an introductory political science class in 2002 as a freshman in college. He was inquisitive, smart, respectful and nice.
But now I find myself wondering if I ever knew Steve, the man who shot and killed five people and then himself in a lecture hall at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University.
I found out about the shooting through a text message from a friend. A shiver went through my body when I called him for more details. As soon as I could, I ran to the nearest computer with Internet service and scoured the news sites for details. A chill rushed through my body as I combed through all the different articles.
I never, for even a second, thought I would know the shooter, the person responsible for causing so much chaos and havoc. The Steve I knew studied the consequences of chaos and havoc and spoke out against it.
When I found out it was Steve, I forgot to breathe for a minute. I saw the name and kept saying over and over, “It isn’t him.” The man who declared himself a pacifist wouldn’t own a gun, much less kill several people in cold blood.
But it was all over when I saw his picture. There was no denying it anymore: dependable, friendly, smart Steve killed innocent people. Steve and I took several classes together during my four years at NIU.
We would also see each other on campus during the semesters we didn’t have any classes together and catch up.
Our topics of choice: foreign policy and the Middle East. He would especially enjoy practicing his Arabic on me. In 2004, NIU decided to offer a year’s worth of Arabic classes. Steve took both classes without hesitation, excited as could be.
“Assalamo Alikum,” he would say to me, which means “peace be with you” in Arabic. He would proceed to ask me how I was doing and what I was up to, all in Arabic with a thick accent and a huge, excited smile.
Sometimes I was his walking dictionary and he would ask me, “What does this word mean in English?” or “What is this word in Arabic?”
We would debate on issues, sometimes argue, but he would always back his arguments with facts. It was about logic and things adding up to him. Once we took a course called “The Politics of the Middle East.” At the beginning of the course, our instructor informed us a research paper would be due by the end of the semester. Steve decided on Hamas, which is known mainly to the world as being a Palestinian terrorist group, which was the first thing that interested Steve about the group. But he also heard Hamas funded many social services, which also interested him. How could one group be put into two completely different categories, Steve would ask. Unlike most of us, Steve started his research from day one, reading every book he could find on Hamas. He’d give me a status report when we saw each other in class. Steve said that his perception of Hamas changed with all the research he did.
Aside from politics, we sometimes touched on personal discussions about our lives. His was not an easy one. We connected over our difficult upbringings.
Steve told me after high school he left home and had to fend for himself.
Before coming to NIU, Steve was homeless. It was through a great deal of effort that Steve came to NIU because he had to do it all on his own, he said.
He was proud of getting into NIU, excited to learn and do something with his life. At first he was interested in international affairs, but then developed a serious and deep longing to study criminal justice. Steve told me he would need to stay longer in school to get his degree in criminal justice, but it was worth it.
I don’t know the Steve who killed five innocent students who were doing precisely what he valued: learning.
Don’t suppose any of the famous tattoos was “Ismail’s Ax”?
Yeah, Hamas is kind of like the IRA.... a political/social services department and a terror department.
One suspects his opinion of Hamas didn’t change at all in fact, that he approved of them heartily to start with, and liked them throughout his research effort.
Weird goings-on in that head of his.
Good find Borges. My guess is a high percentage of these ‘random’ shooters in recent years are busy studying the koran.
This is off topic, but an interesting article. Seems the Tampa Airport authorities arrested a college aged kid trying to board a plane. In his backpack was a boxcutter hidden in a secret compartment of a book, also a Koran and a Bible. Weird.
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/20/Hillsborough/TIA_finds_cutter_hidd.shtml
Interesting to learn about his other interests.
Yeah, his supporters say he was only punished because “he was black and was carrying the Koran” forgetting the little matter of the concealed boxcutter!
And didn’t they find his harddrive ‘destroyed.’ Makes you wonder what type of trail he had on there.
L-I-B-E-R-A-L.
Period.
I’d bet several toes that there is a connection between “randon” shootings and teen suicides. Some clandestine think tank operation is running feasibility studies on turning young Americans into Manchurian Candidate kamikazes. What drugs was this peckerhead supposedly not taking when he went postal?
More likely an endless barrage of messages from university officials and faculty about how important it is for Americans to study Arabic and Islamic culture so we can “understand” them better. I recall a few years back (maybe still going on) a major university (maybe Duke? UNC?) was requiring incoming students to read excerpts from the Koran over the summer and be prepared to discuss and write about their reading when they arrived. Needless to say, the selected excerpts were non-representative, focusing on peace and brotherhood and all, while the parts about beheading anybody who renounced Islam weren’t assigned.
EXCERPT:
Steven Kazmierczak, at 27, looked like an average schoolboy - except that his arms were covered with disturbing images, including a doll from the horror movie Saw. Professors and students knew him as a bright, helpful scholar, but his past included a stint in a mental health centre. Kazmierczak allegedly had three tattoos done in recent months - one a skull being stabbed with a knife and another of the Saw character.
You are a sleuth of the first order!
Maybe professors like Marc Falkoff influenced him.
Falkoff represented Guantanamo detainees and spread their tales of abuse.
Falkoff also taught Criminal law at NIU.
Such as the riots in Afghanistan after allegations of Koran flushing.
Newsweek Pulls Back on Report That Provoked Afghan Riots
The magazine said that notes from Marc Falkoff, who is representing 13 Yemenis held at Guantánamo, blamed a guard stomping on a Koran for an incident in August 2003 when 23 detainees tried to kill themselves. One of the 13 told Mr. Falkoff, according to his notes, that another detainee had attempted suicide "after the guard took his Koran and threw it in the toilet."
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