I’m just worried all this attention might tip a few other nutcases into action.
It usually smokes the copycats out of the woodwork. One interview with an FBI person (I think) yesterday said they fully expect it.
NBC screwed up on this one. There’s no law enforcement reason to air this crap, and it’s just going to encourage every other nutbar seeking a self-aggrandizing way to go out in a blaze of glory. They absolutely should not have aired it. In fact. they shouldn’t have even opened the thing - the postal service alerted them that it was likely from the shooter; they should have left it on a table, untouched, until the FBI could get there to retrieve it.
That’s the thing about nutcases, though…ANYTHING could concievably set them off and tip them into action. Like “Catcher in the Rye”.
One young lady who complained of being stalked by Cho declined to press charges. She couldn’t have known that Cho would deteriorate to this level; she may have even felt that she was doing a kindness by dropping the charges. But thanks to all this coverage, the next fearful young lady will act to protect herself, and her classmates.
Serious mental illness should not be a dirty secret- we need to know what it looks like, what it sounds like, and what the potential for either healing or meltdown is. If Cho’s fellow students, teachers, and doctors had any idea what his potential for violence was, more would have been done to find help, or lock him up. There is a lesson in this, and if we are privy to this information, we will be better prepared to handle the next incident.
Yes, it is gruesome. Yes, the coverage is sensationalized and tacky. Yes, it will further traumatize the survivors. This is news, and information that we all deserve to have access to. Those who don’t want a reminder can change the channel- or in the case of several of the surviving families, boycott NBC and cancel interviews. I see no reason that the VA state police or any government entity should protect us from information. We need to learn from this in order to prevent a repeat.
The mailman noticed the address and said something. That’s somewhat different than the postal service “alerting” them. If they’d caught it back at the post office and thought it was threatening or otherwise important to the FBI’s investigation, they wouldn’t have delivered it. NBC’s security force is made up of ex law enforcement and after consulting with them it was decided they would open it; they handled it correctly. Everyone wore gloves and the authorities were immediately notified once the contents were identified.
The problem is that 20% of the people I interact with on a typical day look normal but act oddly. Another 20% Look odd but act normally. 10% both look and act odd. So that’s half the people I run into each day. 
You must not be reading the right newspapers.
He’ll need a theme song. I nominate Lump by The Presidents of the USA, altered to fit.
He’s Cho He’s Cho
He’s in my head
He’s Cho He’s Cho He’s Cho
He might be dead
Cho lingered last in line for brains
And the ones he got were sorta rotten and insane
Small things so sad that birds could land
Is Cho fast asleep or rockin out with the band
That tune’s been playing in my head since I saw the title of this thread, but I couldn’t put my finger on the title of it until today. Apologies to all that will find it offensive, but Lizzie Borden had her own song when she was the national sensation. I mean no disrespect to his victims, and I’m not trying to glorify Cho (the lyrics aren’t particularly flattering).
The guy was mentally ill - he wasn’t some gangsta out for glory, he was clearly clinically out of his gourd.
Not sure how it goes in the USA, but in the UK there’s little chance he’d have stood trial for murder… he’s obviously mentally incapacitated and would have been put in Broadmoor for the rest of his life.
I’m in no way justifying something so horrific, but this was a guy pushed over the edge into his own twisted world… he’s arguably as much a victim as those he shot.
Once you lose a grasp on reality like Cho did, you’re pretty much compelled to go where the psychosis takes you.
Keith Olberman better not waste another hour on this story tonight like he did yesterday. :mad: