"You do the things you do because you’re a homicidal maniac."
The
line is from an X Files episode. A brutal serial killer asks a clairvoyant to
help him understand the deep reasons why he commits such horrific crimes. That’s the answer.
Short
and to the point.
I think
of this quote whenever there’s a murderous rampage, like Columbine or the more
recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado.
When a
deranged person kills a lot of innocent people the media goes into a frenzy
searching for the “why” of it all. As if
there’s always some deep meaning and logical explanation of what happened. Or something everybody overlooked that might give us a clue to preventing it
from happening again.
They
are wasting their time. Some people
simply want to kill a lot of other people to become famous. That’s
it. Given the opportunity, they will
fulfill their darkest, most murderous fantasies to that end. The more ghastly, the better. Virtually nothing can stop them.
Except permanently removing them from society. Even then, that's usually after the fact.
Their
quest for fame is abetted by the media ostensibly providing “in-depth coverage”
of the tragedies – while filling the 24-hour news cycle. This not only grants mass murderers the
celebrity they seek, but also encourages other potentially dangerous misfits, often
giving them a helpful how-to for their own shot at infamy.
We’re
all smart enough to know that the media isn’t doing this out of compassion for
the dead and wounded. Nor are they doing
it to advance truth and justice.
Knowing
– as we now do – that the Aurora murderer was a brilliant guy and was in the
process of dropping out of school is useless.
The fact that he dressed like the Joker for his assault is also
useless. Or that he left the theater and
re-entered after he’d put on body armor and gathered his weapons --
useless. Or the detailed list of all the
weapons and ammunition he purchased – also useless.
What do
we do with that information? And why do
we even care? He’s a mass murderer. A bright and methodical one, but still a mass
murderer. We got it.
The
rest is ghoulish voyeurism.
After
all the coverage, here’s the net/net of days of round-the-clock “in-depth”
reporting:
He killed a dozen people in a crowded movie theater,
and wounded scores of others. He
booby-trapped his apartment to kill even more.
For the
murders and maimings, he should die. As
quickly as possible. Justice delayed is
justice denied. In this case, it can’t
come soon enough.
But of
course that’s not the end of it. Gun
nuts on both sides are using this incident shamelessly to promote their agendas. The NRA folks think that armed citizens in
the theater could have shot him down.
Gun-control folks think it’s just one more sign that it’s too easy to
get guns in this country.
Politicians
will soon jump into the fray. They’ll
want to know if this was a hate crime, had a causal relationship with violence
in movies, if video games had an impact, if schools should do a better job of
screening students for psychological problems, if we have enough grief
counselors, are we spending enough on mental-health funding, etc.
In
short, more political theater.
And you
know the media will milk this for weeks to come. (There’s surely an “anniversary of the Aurora
massacre” on the drawing boards for 2013.)
Be prepared also for the sweeps week specials: The massacre in Aurora – do YOU know the
warning signs your child may become a serial killer?
Meanwhile,
the FBI says it will be months before they can determine his motives. Wow. His
motives seem pretty clear: he wanted to
kill a lot of people, and he did.
So
where’s the mystery? Let’s have a speedy
trial and put this monster down.
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