Amish school massacre -- a "number" of people dead

[Jon Miller]

All evil people are sick in the head.

JM

[Vince278]

Understanding people's motivations still won't make them right. It's a waste of time to ask why these things happen.

[Dr Strangelove]

I don't quite see how what this guy did could be called revenge. He violated two preschoolers when he was 12 then evidently was "tortured" by the memory, so he repeats the crime. How was that revenge, unless he blamed society for making banging kiddie poontang taboo?

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, I thought revenge was a mis-statement also.

Everything I have heard about this case makes me think he was just plain old evil. I mean, if he was just pedo ****ed in the head, why (when he was kept from molesting them by the arrival of police) did he kill them?

JM

[Elok]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
All evil people are sick in the head.

JM

In one sense, yes, but in that sense we are all "evil," just to different degrees. The term loses its meaning. The word evil to me implies the free, conscious, and repeated choice to commit wrongs. This man was an (apparently) innate pervert, and does not seem to have been thinking very clearly either. I would not call a schitz who kills strangers because he thinks his pepperoni pizza will kill his parents otherwise "evil."

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
But that's the point: he's not a lone nut. In fact, there seem to be a frightening number of nuts just like him. So you've got to ask: why does the US produce so many violent wackos?

Do we? We're five to ten times the size of most other Western countries, so from any individual country we aren't going to hear about as many as we do from here, and any individual nut over hear is more likely to be on our news than over there.

[Vince278]

Just heard that they interviewed his two former "victims" and they both said they never encountered him. Perhaps they were also part of his fantasy which he wanted to act out (then and now)? He's sounding even sicker and sicker...

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Yeah, it's the media's fault. Nothing to do with the guy just being wacked out crazy. Nothing to do with easy access to guns. Just blame the media. We're used to it.

Have a look at the network television programming lineup sometime. There is rarely a night that goes by where there isn't some salacious child-sex themed drama or news magazine. And that's just one medium. I know that the reason that this stuff is programmed is that it sells. So does heroin, but responsible people don't sell it regardless of the legality. This means that news editors shouldn't go on and on about these sorts of crimes, it tends to create a copycat wave, leaving society less safe. I expect that you would object if news rooms were whipping up war hysteria, why is whipping up crime hysteria different?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Sikander


This means that news editors shouldn't go on and on about these sorts of crimes, it tends to create a copycat wave, leaving society less safe.

The copycat thing is actually nicely documented in the book The Tipping Point. Apparently, a surprising number of folks who contemplate anti-social actions, but keep themselves in check, finally go through with whatever their planning when they read about other people doing it. For example (if I'm remembering this right; don't have the book here), there's apparently a noticeable spike in US suicides whenever a celebrity off him/herself.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Winston
Some people will instantly try and politicise anything, even a human tragedy such as this.

I guess you protest just the same after each horrendous pedophile crime, when people call for the return of the death penalty.

[Tingkai]

The theory that news reports cause crime and suicides has been proven wrong.

In the U.S., there has been more crime reporting than in the past, yet crime rates have generally decreased. People do not sexually abuse children because they see a news report about sex crimes.

For suicides, studies have found that copycat suicides often occur after suicides are reported, but in the long run, suicide rates do not change. So news reports may influence how a person commits suicide, but do not influence the tendency to commit suicide.

Health officials in North America once advocated a ban on reporting suicides. They have now changed their stance and offer guidelines for reporting suicides.

One reason for the change was that they realized that the ban on reporting suicides meant that people were not aware of how many people killed themselves.

The same goes for crimes. By reporting on crime, we can make people confront the issues that cause crime. Censoring crime reports will not solve the problem.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Tingkai
For suicides, studies have found that copycat suicides often occur after suicides are reported, but in the long run, suicide rates do not change.

Sure, if you average it all out over the long run it blurs any short run statistical anomolies but they do seem to occurr.

[Adam Smith]

In other news, the Washington Post reported this morning that Fred Phelps planned on picketting the funerals, but changed his mind after learning that the mourners would receive police protection. Bless his diseased little heart.

[Elok]

He was planning on picketing an Amish funeral? I didn't know they supported homosexuality...but then logic ain't his strong suit.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Elok
I didn't know they supported homosexuality...

They don't. The others are just being *sses.