Posted on 04/20/2009 10:58:31 AM PDT by gorilla_warrior
Ten years ago today, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed their high school with bombs and guns. They killed 15 people, including themselves, and injured 23 others, some severely. The nation thought the shooters’ parents were mostly to blame. Adults cast a suspicious eye on high-school-age males who were bullied, played violent video games, listened to Marilyn Manson, took an interest in the macabre, enjoyed shooting guns, or dressed like “Goths.”
Americans had to respond somehow, but at the time they could not respond to the facts: There was little information available, and much of what was available was false. The county police department suppressed and even destroyed key documents, the confusion of the situation spawned many myths, and people’s biases spawned many more.
But now that the police documents have become public and some investigators have been willing to speak to the press, we have a basically complete account of the day’s events and the surrounding circumstances. Journalist Dave Cullen, who’s been on the story since the beginning, pulls that account together in Columbine.
The book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what happened on April 20, 1999. Cullen arranges the story almost like a novel, with various storylines advancing simultaneously. His prose is clear, simple, and direct. Through the facts he presents, his own analysis, and the analyses of others, Cullen provides good answers to the two central questions: What exactly happened that day? And what made Harris and Klebold do it?
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
In so many cases kids get suspended or even charged with a crime for innocently taking a pocket knife or some relatively harmless weapon to school. In this case all the signs should have been obvious but they were not stopped. Unreal.
Americans are not comfortable with friendly fire deaths involving children. The Israelis are a bit more lenient in that regard.
If the gunmen has been aware that there were armed people in the building, they may have deterred by that. The Virginia Tech gunman checked the classrooms for badges before he started shotting.
We wonder as we turn our children into psychopaths with SSRIs
bfl
As part of their plan, after they stopped killing at the school, they were going to go to the Airport, hijack a jet, and fly it into a building.
Pure, unadulterated evil.
When it comes to kids I stay until I am out of bullets or blood and not that is not armchair bravado. Twice in my civilian life I have had to protect others - once people I did not even know. Mad 2, bad guys 0.
Revisionist history BS. Gardner did not leave the scene. Clowns like you should be working for CNN.
I’ve long felt this way as the only SWAT activity I saw was parade like marches to show off gear. A couple of our current warriors could have handled the incident quickly with far fewer losses.
Yes, like Ashley Smith, the 11 year old girl with a Tweety Bird keychain!
Get it right before you start calling names and throwing insults. Do not get me started on how F'ed up SWAT was that day.
The US Army taught me to press your advantage. He thought he hit the gunman in the first exchange he should pressed the attack especially since Smoker arrived at that time.
Hey here's and idea. Do not read my posts if you do not like them!!! Keep your stupid a$$ opinion to yourself since you insist on defending cops all over FR when they commit acts that cannot be defended in any logical mind.
"There's still a lot of opposition -- some criminologists, sociologists, and psychologists don't like psychopathy at all," Hare says. "I can spend the entire day going through the literature -- it's overwhelming, and unless you're semi-brain-dead you're stunned by it -- but a lot of people come out of there and say, 'So what? Psychopathy is a mythological construct.' They have political and social agendas: 'People are inherently good,' they say. 'Just give them a hug, a puppy dog, and a musical instrument and they're all going to be okay.'"
If Hare sounds a little bitter, it's because a decade ago, Correctional Service of Canada asked him to design a treatment program for psychopaths, but just after he submitted the plan in 1992, there were personnel changes at the top of CSC. The new team had a different agenda, which Hare summarizes as, "We don't believe in the badness of people." His plan sank without a trace.
Basically, it's political correctness denying the truth.
I'm also becoming increasingly convinced that a lot of post-modernism, moral relativism, and what passes for modern moral philosophy is the product of psychopaths who have never feel that anything is "just wrong", thus they promote a world view where right and wrong don't exist and nothing is truly and objectively wrong. And if the psychopaths are in leadership positions in academia, politics, and so on, they have no interest in esposing themselves to the public and every interest in denying that they exist.
I LOVE your tagline! Coy little reference to one of my favorite movies!
“The Israelis are a bit more lenient in that regard.”
And Palestinians and Muslims are even MORE lenient than the Israelis - hard to believe, isn’t it?!?
A very good point is what would have happened if these killers had been captured alive and had stood trial. I am sure there would have been a litany of liberal platitudes about how these poor boys were misunderstood and were not deserving of harsh punishment. Quite frankly had they been captured alive the most fitting punishment for them would have been execution. Fortunately they took care of that themselves.
“I’m also becoming increasingly convinced that a lot of post-modernism, moral relativism, and what passes for modern moral philosophy is the product of psychopaths who have never feel that anything is ‘just wrong’, thus they promote a world view where right and wrong don’t exist and nothing is truly and objectively wrong.”
This is in FACT the cause of the majority of the declines in America and around the world! There is no “evil” (other than the Bush administration - ask a liberal), these people are just misunderstood, maladjusted human beings that have had a hard life and need added support (read hug, puppy dog and instrument) to expose them to the “love” of the world. Forget that they beat the puppy to death with the instrument and “hugged” it till it’s innards popped - BTW, can the government send more money for additional puppies and instruments!
So, does the technical definition of insanity apply here or what?
Shortly after Columbine I remember reading an article that cited all of the then existing guns laws that had been broken in the shooting. Does anyone recall how many already existing laws were broken?
“...and not that is not armchair bravado.”
I don’t believe it is. You are a culture relic.
Every man who lived on the street where I grew up, (especially if he had a sidearm on his hip) would have gone into that building under those circumstances that day. They would not have swaggered in, shoulders swinging and eyes slitted with grim purpose, rather, they would have turned pale, their eyes would have bugged, they would have utterd “Jesus Christ”-—and then done what they had been raised to do and what the culture expected of them.
“Culture” is all. It really is.
Did he call any "shots?"
Here's from an article about a teacher who died. Notice that this teacher did more than any SWAT team member.
Born October 22, 1951 47 years old
William "Dave" Sanders was a computer and business teacher at Columbine for 25 years, and coach of the girls' basketball and softball teams. He left behind his wife, four children and five grandchildren.
His students said he was a teacher, a friend, a mentor and an inspiration. When the gunmen started firing outside the school he ran to the cafeteria and sounded the alarm. He, along with two of the school's janitors, helped get more than 100 students out of the path of danger by herding them away from the shooters. He saved untold numbers of lives that day.
By the time the gunmen arrived, the cafeteria was nearly empty thanks to him. He was in the upstairs hall trying to get students safely hidden in classrooms when he was shot from behind by Eric Harris. He was hit in the torso, head and neck. He managed to get himself into a science lab (listed as UA24 in the Columbine Report, and SCI-3 on blueprint maps of the school) where he bled to death waiting for help that 911 dispatchers told students who were helping him was coming, but never arrived.
Trying to get help up to Coach Sanders, student Deidra Kucera posted a sign in the window: "1 BLEEDING TO DEATH". The sign was ignored. Despite their attempts to save him, Dave Sanders died nearly three hours later from blood loss. His last words were reported to be: "Tell my family I love them."
Dave's daughter Angela said at his funeral: "What you did in that school on Tuesday was an amazing act of heroism. Even after you were hurt, you continued to be the brave, selfless man we all know you are."
ping to above
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