Thoughts On Parkland
The mass shooting yesterday at Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida (31 shot with 17 killed and 14 wounded), showcases a phenomenon that we see again and again in school shooting incidents that seem to happen at an alarming rate in our country. The phenomena I’m referring to, is the fact that many many people at Douglass High School as well as in the community, were AWARE that the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was a troubled and dangerous youth. Yet despite this fact, there was no therapeutic intervention or protective intervention on the part of the school or the police or friends and family, or ANYONE, that might have prevented this terrible attack. And, by intervention I DON’T mean merely expelling him from school. As this incident indicates, expulsion of and by itself (which WAS done in this case) does NOT ameliorate the inner rage and underlying psychopathology that fuels this kind of attack.
Cruz’s fellow students were aware of the danger. Fellow student Victoria Olivera, 17, said: “As far as I know, he was like a FUTURE SCHOOL SHOOTER”. Another student told CNN that “everyone predicted it”. Fellow student Joshua Charo, 16, said: “I can’t say I was shocked. He seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this”. Fellow student Chad Williams, 18, recalled that in junior high school, Cruz often set off the fire alarm as a prank and was finally expelled from that school. A number of students said that many of them had joked that Cruz was their “best candidate” to be a school shooter. Several admitted that they avoided him because of his demeanor.
Neighbors were also aware. One neighbor caught him peaking into her window. When asked about this he replied that he was “looking for golf balls”. Neighbor Rhonda Roxburg said that she knew “he was going to hurt somebody. I just didn’t know it would be this bad.” Former neighbor (and shooting survivor) Adam Habona said that he wasn’t “surprised” that Cruz was shooting up the school. He described Cruz as a “violent loner that used to steal from neighbors and throw coconuts at houses”. He said he once witnessed Cruz smash a security glass window in school.
Teachers were aware. Math teacher Jim Gard noted that there “were problems with him threatening students” leading up to his expulsion.
Town officials were aware. Parkland Mayor Beam Furr noted that Cruz had been getting “treatment at a mental health clinic, but that he hadn’t been back to the clinic for over a year.”
Online users were aware. His social media presence was quite concerning. A classmate, Mathew Walker, told ABC news that Cruz was known for posting photos of weapons on Instagram. Several photos have surfaced of him brandishing weapons in a threatening way. He boasted online of killing animals too.
Even the FBI was, surprisingly, aware. It turns out that they were WARNED about a dangerous Cruz email in September, 2017. While the FBI has been very good about carrying out surveillance of Carter Page and the Trump transition team, they are, apparently, not so good at assessing homicidal maniacs. On September 24, 2017 a bail bondsman in Florida, Ben Bennight, CALLED THE FBI and reported that he came across an online post from Cruz in which he indicated that he wanted to be a “professional school shooter”. The FBI did interview Bennight the next day, but apparently DID NOTHING else. They claim that they couldn’t figure out which Nikolas Cruz was involved. Does ANYONE believe that??? Note that Nikolas, in rhis young man’s case, is spelled with a “k”. I’d hazard a guess that any middle of the road hacker, using Nikolas Cruz’s name, facebook, Instagram and Google could have managed an exact identification in 15 minutes. Or less.
School Superintendent Robert Runcie, however, claims to have been unaware. Amazingly, Runcie said that the “school had no indication that he was a danger. We didn’t have any warnings”!
So, amid all of this awareness and concern and trepidation, we have an unspeakable tragedy. NO ONE intervened.
So, what are we to DO with the school shooting epidemic that America has on her hands? A couple of suggestions:
First, we should start by scrutinizing the FBI and reviewing, in detail, the way that it handles potential threats of school shootings, and ANY mass shootings, for that matter. Remember, in addition to this case, the FBI knew about the Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen 10 months before that massacre. AND , remember also, that they knew about (and, some say participated in) the attempted mass shooting by jihadi gunmen of speakers at a Free Speech meeting in Garland, Texas in 2016. Only a privately hired security team that killed the two shooters prevented mass casualties there. And remember that the San Bernardino mass jihad murderers Rizwan Farook and Tasfeen Malik were know to be in phone communication with people THE FBI WERE MONITORING (source: FBI Assistant Director David Bowdich, in an interview with NBC news on December 4, 2015). A major review and housecleaning of the FBI seems way OVERDUE.
Next, we MUST do something to keep firearms out of the hands of violent lunatics. I should make clear, however, that I am NOT advocating blanket gun control. In my mind, only simple minded people see blanket gun control as a solution to this plague. As pointed out by others many times, denying access to firearms for law abiding citizens is not only unconstitutional, it will NOT keep those with criminal or sociopathic intent from getting their hands on weapons. And, even if we were to somehow keep the guns away from the criminals and sociopaths, there are many alternative weapons that would suffice. Knives (like the Michigan airport stabber illustrated), bombs (as the Boston Marathon bombers and the Chelsea bomber have shown) and even automobiles (as the Hudson River bike path murderer has demonstrated) are more than up to the task. So, eliminating the right of citizens to bear arms will not accomplish what it aims to. But, having said that, I do think that we should make some effort to ferret out and deny gun sales to high risk individuals. I would advocate that all gun sales be closely monitored by federal agents in all 50 states. Local gun laws should not prevail in this matter, as it is easy to see that a gun, being quite portable, could be purchased in one state and subsequently used to commit heinous crimes in another. Restrictions such as prohibiting sale to ex-felons, those on a “no fly list”, those with restraining orders placed on them, and anyone with a severe psychiatric disorder (especially paranoid schizophrenia) should be universal. National data banks must be created to list individuals with the above restrictions and gun vendors must be required to clear any potential gun purchaser with the data bank. And, I do think that a psychiatric interview, or at the very LEAST a psychiatric questionnaire, should be mandatory for anyone purchasing a firearm.
And, finally we must develop the will and the means to INTERVENE in the lives of at risk youth. In our schools we need to set up independent departments and in our communities we need to set up independent agencies for the express purpose of intervening in the lives of antisocial or at risk individuals. Professionals in these departments and agencies would review complaints, queries or “tips” regarding problem individuals. Students and community members would be encouraged to make these queries, complaints or tips (anonymously, if necessary). We would need to enact modifications to our slander and libel laws in order to protect claimants in this situation from liability. It would be the responsibility of the professionals involved to asses the merits or lack thereof of the complaints. And, when deemed necessary, those professionals would then reach out to the implicated individual for further assessment, and, when indicated, would intercede with counseling, therapy, medications and other interventions as needed. And, if the at risk individual refuses therapy, or is recalcitrant or unresponsive to treatment, and is judged to be a continued to threat, we need to have the resolve to remove him or her (with the assistance, of course, of local law enforcement) from society through involuntary commitment. This step would require authorization from an oversight committee and periodic review would be mandatory. I would concede that this type of process would have to be closely monitored and must be sparingly used because, in a sense, it would be incarcerating someone for what he or she MIGHT do rather than what he’s already done, something we should NEVER take lightly. Be that as it may, America must be prepared to take bold measures because, across the land, school shooting has become an epidemic.