Gah!
So I've been watching and participating in a few discussions on the Vtech shootings and I have to say I'm disgusted. First off the situation is appauling but on top of that the knee-jerk reactions range from ignorant to embarassing. Everyone is perfectly happy to blame the police and the university for not doing more to stop this guy. But what no one has been willing or able (that I've seen) to discuss is HOW they should have known that this was going to happen and do what people are now saying they should have done.
The police were faced with a double homicide, there had been a loud argument heard previously and they had reports of a rocky relationship with a boyfriend. So they did precisely what they're supposed to do in that situation, investigate the most likely suspect, they brought the boyfriend in and questioned him.
The university is getting blamed for not immediately warning the students and locking down the campus. Thing is it's a campus of over 36,000 with more than 50 buildings and this happened early in the day when not all personell were present. In addition even if they had managed to somehow predict an impending massacre, warn all 36,000 students in two hours and secure 50+ buildings the shooter didn't appear any different than the other students until he opened fire. He wasn't waving guns around and he didn't even appear particularly stressed.
What happened, to put it simply, sucks on a large scale. But it's unreasonable to blame people for not magically knowing then what we know now.
The police were faced with a double homicide, there had been a loud argument heard previously and they had reports of a rocky relationship with a boyfriend. So they did precisely what they're supposed to do in that situation, investigate the most likely suspect, they brought the boyfriend in and questioned him.
The university is getting blamed for not immediately warning the students and locking down the campus. Thing is it's a campus of over 36,000 with more than 50 buildings and this happened early in the day when not all personell were present. In addition even if they had managed to somehow predict an impending massacre, warn all 36,000 students in two hours and secure 50+ buildings the shooter didn't appear any different than the other students until he opened fire. He wasn't waving guns around and he didn't even appear particularly stressed.
What happened, to put it simply, sucks on a large scale. But it's unreasonable to blame people for not magically knowing then what we know now.