Not that the UC Riverside professor in the piece you linked to failed to express sympathy. He rightly described the images of the wounded students as “horrifying.” Nowhere does he leave the impression that he just doesn’t care about the deaths of the students (which he calls “senseless”). He even writes at some length - far from playing the victim! - about feeling a measure of moral responsibility himself for the grisly crime as a fellow ethnic Korean. But he’s also worried about media analysis unintentionally creating an environment that fosters distrust of Cho Cheung-sui’s group just because of Cho Cheung-sui. This is a perfectly legitimate concern. What’s your problem?

Not that the UC Riverside professor in the piece you linked to failed to express sympathy. He rightly described the images of the wounded students as “horrifying.” Nowhere does he leave the impression that he just doesn’t care about the deaths of the students (which he calls “senseless”).

You’re right — the deaths were certainly horrifying — to him.

But he’s also worried about media analysis unintentionally creating an environment that fosters distrust of Cho Cheung-sui’s group just because of Cho Cheung-sui. This is a perfectly legitimate concern.

I disagree. Questions like “What caused him to do this?” are irrelevant and never end up going anywhere productive. If the media (I don’t care if it’s Fox News or Democracy Now) asks such a question of an interviewee, they’re basically demanding an answer to the tune of, “Well, surely our lax gun control laws are the root of this,” or perhaps “Violent video games. Definitely violent video games.”

Who cares?

The killer didn’t kill because he was South Korean or depressed — he killed because he was a self-centered criminal.

Naturally it would be very disappointing for South Koreans, or Asians for that matter, to be “targeted” as a result of the murderer’s ethnicity, but guess what: The people that are going to do these ridiculous things are going to do them whether or not they’ve undergone your Orwellian re-education.

(None of this bears on my post - I didn’t say we should try to understand what made Cho kill thirty-odd people, I said it’s legitimate to worry about the social side-effects of the media’s reporting. But just so I don’t appear insufficiently argumentative:)

Context is irrelevant and unproductive? The VA Tech massacre is certainly a bad example if you want to argue for that. The writing was kind of on the wall. Cho had been ruled “an imminent danger” by a Virginia court and detained in a psychiatric ward (though to be fair, it was “imminent danger to himself”). He had manifested aggressive and antisocial behavior for years. His creative writing was violent. His teachers sent him to the councillor apparently without follow-up. And he was able to legally purchase firearms. These kinds of factors explain how Cho’s rampage was possible. Intelligent reaction and increased sensitivity to them in the future might make a second Virginia Tech less likely. Or maybe not; but they’re at least they’re worth public discussion.

I’m guessing that you don’t like psychologizing Cho Seung-hui because you feel it humanizes his actions. Well, maybe it does, but not in a way inconsistent with him being evil or otherwise fully responsible. It’s only natural to deplore him, but it’s incredibly irresponsible to oversimplify his motives and history.

Yeah, well, maybe there will be fewer of those people if the media is more careful.

I don’t disagree with this. I think the crime is awful–but I have to ask, if speculating as to his motives never leads anywhere productive/useful, do you suppose villainizing and simplifying them does anything better?

Furthermore, do you really think self-centered criminality just emerges from nowhere? as a matter of fate? If it does (and I’m not saying it doesn’t) then how can we find any more fault with him than with someone who was born retarded? Yes, the ’symptoms’ of the person who was born retarded don’t manifest as horrible acts of violence, but the point is that in this model of sponataneous generation all moral responsibility is removed.

Maybe I’m naive to think that by studying the psychology of killers/criminals (i.e. trying to discover the origin of their actions) we can prevent crimes. And just an aside: is it really so horrible to consider that along the way we might accidentally end-up humanizing the actions of our worst criminals?

I’m actually NOT trying to be argumentative here (i.e. I’m not claiming to have the answers to the questions I pose), but your post does bring up a TON of really interesting and difficult moral/philosophical questions that in my opinion bear discussion.

The writing was kind of on the wall. Cho had been ruled “an imminent danger” by a Virginia court and detained in a psychiatric ward (though to be fair, it was “imminent danger to himself”). He had manifested aggressive and antisocial behavior for years. His creative writing was violent. His teachers sent him to the councillor apparently without follow-up. And he was able to legally purchase firearms. These kinds of factors explain how Cho’s rampage was possible.

Not to rain on your psychoanalytical parade, but I suppose it would have been helpful if you (or anyone else with this information) had done something about it. It’s easy to say all this now — but so what? Do the dead come alive? Is the process of grief hastened somehow?

Bruenner thinks it has something to do with the psychology of criminals:

Maybe I’m naive to think that by studying the psychology of killers/criminals (i.e. trying to discover the origin of their actions) we can prevent crimes.

That sure leaves my ears ringing with Minority Report. But this crime wasn’t prevented, despite the murderer sharing more than one characteristic with the Columbine shooters, so I ask again: why the sudden biography? Was it that threshold of 30 victims that had to be passed in order to start taking this seriously, or what? Maybe his symptoms make him a textbook whacko killer; that’s well and good, but why isn’t this stuff taken on only by law enforcement instead of sullying a tragedy in the public spotlight?

It’s only natural to deplore him, but it’s incredibly irresponsible to oversimplify his motives and history.

Lest a killer be responsible for his actions! — no, it wasn’t him, it was his illness. It was the girlfriend dumping him. It was the poetry. It was a bad haircut. It wasn’t his fault, and he was utterly convinced of that: just pull up his suicide note.

To that end, here’s Bruenner again:

If it does (and I’m not saying it doesn’t) then how can we find any more fault with him than with someone who was born retarded?

Because a sane person is always in control of his actions.

Not to rain on your psychoanalytical parade, but I suppose it would have been helpful if you (or anyone else with this information) had done something about it.

What? What kind of response is this? I didn’t take any steps to prevent Cho from killing people because I never knew he existed. Why didn’t other people, like the psychiatrists who studied him or the agency that licensed him a gun permit, take more precautions? That’s a great question - such a great question that my last post was entirely about why we should ask it.

It’s easy to say all this now — but so what? Do the dead come alive? Is the process of grief hastened somehow?

Of course not. The point isn’t to bring back the dead, it’s to prevent people from dying. It’s ironic that you demand commentators to mourn instead of thinking about what might make further tragedies unlikely. (After all, that would require us to come up with more sophisticated explanations than “he was a self-centered criminal.”)

Lest a killer be responsible for his actions! — no, it wasn’t him, it was his illness. It was the girlfriend dumping him. It was the poetry. It was a bad haircut. It wasn’t his fault, and he was utterly convinced of that: just pull up his suicide note.

Now I’m sure you’re not reading me: I said in the very sentence before that that he was evil and responsible for his actions. What is this insistence on this ludicrous “either-he-was-deranged-or-he-wasn’t -responsible” dichotomy for?

Maybe his symptoms make him a textbook whacko killer; that’s well and good, but why isn’t this stuff taken on only by law enforcement instead of sullying a tragedy in the public spotlight?

Because the details of the case, like those of Columbine, bear on policy issues.

Now I’m sure you’re not reading me: I said in the very sentence before that that he was evil and responsible for his actions. What is this insistence on this ludicrous “either-he-was-deranged-or-he-wasn’t -responsible” dichotomy for?

Stupid me - this makes no sense. The dichotomy is “either-he-was-deranged-or-he-was-responsible.”

Now I’m sure you’re not reading me: I said in the very sentence before that that he was evil and responsible for his actions. What is this insistence on this ludicrous “either-he-was-deranged-or-he-wasn’t -responsible” dichotomy for?

I read you loud and clear. I just dislike the public eulogy.

Because the details of the case, like those of Columbine, bear on policy issues.

I may be a cynic, but I don’t think the reason all of this is made public has anything to do with policy.

Let’s see how badly NBC News wants this their “exclusive” footage to be spread around:

In interviews yesterday several competitors questioned some of NBC’s decisions concerning the way it distributed the images, which went out accompanied by a list of rules for how they could be used, including points like: “No Internet use. No archival use. Do not resell,” and “Mandatory credit; NBC News.”

They’re in the news business. It’s no big surprise, and I’m not being original or breaking the mold by criticizing media outlets for being insensitive, but still.

Tfgeneral…

$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,nc…

Mickeyssportsarea537$anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,…

hey nice site….

Was not looking for your site, but great stuff….