[A-List] 20+ Students Killed In Deadly Shooting At US University (Virginia Tech)

["Leigh Meyers" <the.buffalo.in.the.midst@xxxxxxxxx>]

From my blog... including a piece I posted last week on the elementary
school police state called Florida:

Update: Deadly Shooting At US University [Was: Child-Rearing In A
Police State Called Florida USA - Six Year Old's Temper Tantrum At
School Garners 1 Felony & 2 Misdemeanor Charges For Child]
<http://leighm.net/wp/2007/04/16/felonytantrum6/>

âand when the socio-institutionally abused child grows up:

Eyewitness Accounts From The BBC:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6561335.stm>

  I am a graduate student at VT. This has been quite a surreal and
grim morning for us all. We had a shooter on campus on the first day
of campus and now this. We have been under a lot of stress lately, as
there have already been several bomb threats over the past few weeks,
even as early as Friday. I do not know if the threats are related to
today's shooting. I still can't believe this has happened.

  BBC: Deadly shooting at US university
 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6560685.stm>

  At least 20 people have been killed and more injured after a
gunman went on the rampage at the campus of Virginia Tech university
in Virginia, US.

  Police say there were two separate shooting incidents - one at
West Ambler Johnston Hall, a student dormitory, and Norris Hall, an
engineering building.

  The incidents were about two hours apart. Police say that the
gunman at Norris Hall is dead.

  The state university in the town of Blacksburg is home to 26,000 students.

  "We have a ballpark figure on fatalities. It's at least 20
fatalities," Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said.

  Mr Flinchum said it was unclear if the assailant was a student,
but said that a number of the victims were.

  "Some of the victims were shot in a classroom," he said.

  "Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider
of monumental proportions," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger
said, adding that the university was in the process of informing the
next of kin of those killed.



The anniversary of the shootings at Columbine is coming up on 4/20.

I've waxed philosophical on WHAT THE HELL the anniversary of Hitler's
birthday, the Columbine shootings, and the raid on David Koresh's
Branch Davidian compound in Waco Texas HAS TO DO WITH MARIJUANA!

I believe I have the UNIVERSAL answer, seeing that all other solutions
to this puzzle are a mixture of guesswork (police code âwhere? What
town?) or local flavor (the 'class clown' contingent at the local high
school gets out of remedial studies at 4:20pm.).

Here's the answer: If the population of the planet had been consuming
the sacrament, marijuana, for the last hundred years or more, the
world would be so much less likely to have cultivated murderous,
hyperagressive cretins like Hitler and his henchmenâ

âSo much less likely that anyone would have messed with the Branch
Davidians for their cultish belief system that affected no one but
themselvesâ indeed, the individuals in the group may have been treated
to the love and understanding of a more humane society that would have
made a strong personality like David Koresh unnecessary to their
spiritual growth.

âSo much less likely that the educational system of the United States
would turn out students who "Test well", hyper-compete, get good
paying jobs, but who look at the world around them with disgust &
disinterest at anything beyond the never-ending need for instant
gratification of their media created desires, a world they are
expected to conform to despite it's utter dysfunctionâ a world where
the common questions to the universe of adult-created problems they
face as a they grow to adulthood within society and culture are
dismissed by the parents as irrelevant to the child's success as an
'employee' of society.

Because the parents dismissed those questions in their own lives too.

â-Leigh



Of course they couldn't just leave the child under the table until the
parents showed up or the tantrum tempered downâ

Because the school authorities in Avon Park Florida are Effing
psycho-emotional children themselves, and their police chief lacked a
proper upbringing, or was reared by something not quite homo sapien. â
Leighm, Father of three perfect angels (NOT!)


In child-arrest case, the adults are the ones out of control
<http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5639946>

By Bob Herbert

San Jose Mercury News
04/11/2007

AVON PARK, Fla. - When 6-year-old Desre'e Watson threw a tantrum in
her kindergarten class a couple of weeks ago she could not have known
that the full force of the law would be brought down on her and that
she would be carted off by the police as a felon.

But that's what happened in this small, backward city in central
Florida. According to the authorities, there were no other options.

"The student became violent," said Frank Mercurio, the no-nonsense
chief of the Avon Park police. "She was yelling, screaming - just
being uncontrollable. Defiant."

"But she was 6," I said.

The chief's reply came faster than a speeding bullet: "Do you think
this is the first 6-year-old we've arrested?"

The child's tantrum occurred on the morning of March 28 at the Avon
Elementary School. According to the police report, "Watson was upset
and crying and wailing and would not leave the classroom to let them
study, causing a disruption of the normal class activities."

After a few minutes, Desre'e was, in fact, taken to another room. She
was "isolated," the chief said. But she would not calm down. She
flailed away at the teachers who tried to control her. She pulled one
woman's hair. She was kicking.

I asked the chief if anyone had been hurt. "Yes," he said. At least
one woman reported "some redness."

After 20 minutes of this "uncontrollable" behavior, the police were
called in. At the sight of the two officers, Mercurio said, Desre'e
"tried to take flight."

She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her.
Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre'e would
pull her legs away, the chief said.

Ultimately the child was no match for Avon Park's finest. The cops
pulled her from under the table and handcuffed her. The officers were
not fooling around. In the eyes of the cops the 6-year-old was a
criminal, and in Avon Park she would be treated like any other felon.

There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with
kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: "You can't handcuff
them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have
to handcuff them up by their biceps."

As I sat listening to Mercurio in a spotless, air-conditioned
conference room at the Avon Park police headquarters, I had the
feeling that I had somehow stumbled into the middle of a skit on
"Saturday Night Live." The chief seemed like the most reasonable of
men, but what was coming out of his mouth was madness.

He handed me a copy of the police report: black female. Six years old.
Thin build. Dark complexion.

Desre'e was put in the back of a patrol car and driven to the police
station. "Then," said Mercurio, "she was transported to central
booking, which is the county jail."

The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. "Those are the
normal procedures for anyone who is arrested," the chief said.

Desre'e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a
felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and
resisting a law enforcement resisting a law enforcement officer. After
a brief stay at the county jail, she was released to the custody of
her mother.

The arrest of this child, who should have been placed in the care of
competent, comforting professionals rather than being hauled off to
jail, is part of an outlandish trend of criminalizing very young
children that has spread to many school districts and law enforcement
agencies across the country.

A highly disproportionate number of those youngsters, like Desre'e,
are black. In Baltimore last month, the police arrested, handcuffed
and hauled away a 7-year-old black boy for allegedly riding a dirt
bike on the sidewalk. The youngster was released and the mayor, Sheila
Dixon, apologized for the incident, saying the arrest was
inappropriate.

Last spring, a number of civil rights organizations collaborated on a
study of disciplinary practices in Florida schools and concluded that
many of them, "like many districts in other states, have turned away
from traditional education-based disciplinary methods - such as
counseling, after-school detention or extra homework assignments - and
are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor
transgressions."

Once you adopt the mindset that ordinary childhood misbehavior is
criminal behavior, it's easy to start seeing young children as somehow
monstrous.

"Believe me when I tell you," said Mercurio, "a 6-year-old can inflict
injury to you just as much as any other person."

--30--