Tinman.. funny cause it's sorta true. But, a Korean dude who plays hoops doesnt act social at all "on the court" should be more accurate.
halfbreed, I agree that responsibility of this heinous act falls strictly on this guy's shoulders. but don't you think the fact this happenned is symptomatic of something wrong about society? and by that, i don't merely mean American society, but also, in this particular case, Korean society? Short of getting too Fox Mulderish, I think the "blaming" comes as a final outburst to deep alienation. I think what this guy was w/o a doubt wrong, heinous, and unforgiveable. But I do think that the people's who survive him - his family, his friends, his religious affiliation (if any?) also have major responsibility to bear. It works both ways imho. Each person has the power to enlarge the lives of others, for the better - or conversely destroy them. To the extent that the people in this madman's life contributed to his social alienation, imho, they're at fault too. -theSAGE
I'm surprised that nobody has stepped forward with the "I knew him and...." or "I was his friend and..." line yet.
To think of it.... given the "Jail Blazers" reputation, it's amazing Ha Seung-Jin didn't machine gun the team at some point.
I guess rapid load magazine sounds alot more dangerous than removable magazine? Because removable magazine is the correct term.
Actually, the South Korean Foreign Ministry has issued its condolences. The exact quote from AP was, "We are in shock beyond description," said Cho Byung-je, a ministry official handling North American affairs. "We convey deep condolences to victims, families and the American people." The ironic thing about your question is that i'm quarter black, quarter asian (Korean), and half of me is white. Some people see me as black, some see me as dark asian. For me, i'm just an American, but without a doubt i'm reminded of my multiple ethnic background a little more often than i'd like. Am i worried about this kind of racial prejudice? I lived with it for over 30yrs, you lean to tolerate it but it never gets comfortable. I guess i am worried. For people like me, growing up you learn that others will find the colors, ethnicity they'd like to see in you. People will see what they want to see in you, for the haters, i'm sure they won't have any trouble seeing an asian in me. But i read this board and i'm hopeful that most people are rational and they won't tolerate bigotry that stem from ignorance. The problem's actually the press, i don't see one column stressing patience and tolerance. It hasn't been that long that after 911, Indians were mistaken as middle eastners and some punks decided to shoot them down in cold blood. Not stating that it would have been ok if the victim really was a middle eastner, murder is murder, there's no justification for it. I'm sure many asian american families are worried, it's a sad day.
We don't hold people responsible for their actions? Who are those people the state is killing up in Huntsville? Who are all those people in the overcrowded jail cells of Harris county? It's our responsibility to try and figure out why tragedies like this happen. If there's anything that can be found that could possibly prevent another incident in the future, we should study everything we can to do just that. It's not about holding someone responsible for their actions, our society does that quite well. Asking questions about what could've caused actions doesn't change that at all in most cases. At the most, the type of punishment that's given can be changed if extreme circumstances are found such as mental illnesses. While I certainly feel the media's placing way too much emphasis on the reactions of university officials, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
If you are interested about the "girlfriend" who provoked it, she might have been identified. She was one of the first two killed. No details on how it was provoked, other than some argument. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21576271-5001021,00.html
I dont see where you're going with this. Was the shooter a prior offender? I thought there was still a insanity defense, wouldn't that cover mental illness?
Should we also start blaming the parents of Hitler and Stalin? There's plenty of Koreans who are under immense pressure to do well in school, they don't go shooting up the place. Because one Korean shoots up people does not mean it's time for a investigation into their society. That's the kind of typical invasive, we can do better thinking that got us stuck in Iraq in the first place.
I'm trying to debunk the argument that we has a society don't hold people responsible when we try to figure out why violent crimes occur. In the vast majority of cases, we hold those people responsible. Trying to figure out the why doesn't change that.
nods I agree with you. There's nothing wrong with asking those questions as long as you don't shift the focus too far away from the perp itself and his heinous deeds.
LOL, so no police should ever be needed simply because of the fact that when someone decides to shoot others, it really can't be prevented in any way?
???? So you know for sure that the police/university were clueless and should have done a better job. You have all the info needed right now to come to that conclusion. My point is I will believe they were doing their duty to the best of their abilities given the information they had at the time. Once this is all over reviews of what actually took place will determine if mistakes were made. You and the media have already decided you could have done a better job even though you don't have all the information.
i can't imagine anyone saying that the act committed by the student was not heinous. he takes the responsibility first and foremost for his own actions because he is an adult who can make decisions for himself. of course that is the main point. Questions have been raised about whether university officials had responded adequately to the shootings. There was a two-hour gap between the first shootings, when two people were killed, and the second, when a gunman stalked through the halls of an engineering building across campus, shooting at professors and students in classrooms and hallways, firing dozens of rounds and killing 30. Officials said he then shot himself so badly in the face that he could not be identified. The university did not send a campus wide alert until the second attack had begun, even though the gunman in the first had not been apprehended. “We had one shooting early in the morning that initially, and we don’t know the answer to this, appeared to be a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide,” Mr. Steger said. “It was characterized by our security people as being contained to that dorm room.” “As we were working through what we were going to do to deal with that, the message came on over the radio that another shooting across campus was taking place, and that’s when the large number of people were killed.” Responding to criticism and suggestions that there was a delay between the first shooting and the first e-mail notifying students that something had happened, he said that the first dormitory was immediately closed down after the first incident and surrounded by security guards. Streets were cordoned off and students in the building notified about what was going on, he said. “We also had to find witnesses because we didn’t know what had happened,” he said. Wounded people were sent to hospital and, based on the interrogation of witnesses, they thought “there was another person involved.” The Virginia Tech attacks started early in the morning, with a call to the police at 7:15 from, as students were getting ready for classes or were on their way there. from NYtimes
Cho wrote a play called "Richard McBeef" and is now online at smokinggun.com. While the content of the play is disturbing, I would still say that he wrote a decent play: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html
