[email protected],the link is were you can email the Editor I did soon as I read this! The part that set me off was this part below:
For all you survivalists and Second Amendment freaks out there - yeah, I know it’s not the gun, it’s the person. But when people can get their hands on guns with a wink and nod, then all too often the result is what happened in Blacksburg on Monday morning.
WOW now we are freaks?
BOSTON HERALD
BPD chief: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
By Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald Columnist
The media room at Schroeder Plaza is about 700 miles away from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. But that hardly mattered.
Yesterday afternoon, Tom Menino, his police commissioner Ed Davis, the heads of the state police and the Cambridge police and the vice chancellor of UMass-Boston all wore the same expression during their press conference yesterday at Boston police headquarters:
There but for the grace of God . . .
Fact is, when you are entrusted with the care and protection of a metropolitan area that hosts more college students than just about anyplace else, Commonwealth Avenue, Harvard Square, Memorial Drive and the Back Bay might as well be around the corner from Blacksburg.
After he had assured the media scrum about a strong and renewed level of cooperation between the Boston police and various campus forces, Ed Davis stepped away from the podium to concede the obvious.
“As police,” he said, “we can only do what we can do.”
In the end, Davis said, even the most comprehensive strategies are no guarantee against a human time bomb like Cho Seung-Hui,now accused of slaughtering some 32 people, before taking himself out.
“The reality is, there’s simply too many guns out there,” Davis said, “and it’s become far too easy for people to get them into their hands.”
While it is true that what happened at Virginia Tech could have happened at BU, or Harvard, or UMass, it’s worth noting that Cho Seung-Hui had far less trouble coming by his weaponry.
In Virginia, you can buy guns at the rate of one a month if you so choose. Assault rifles are not frowned upon. Licenses are barely a formality. And you can begin amassing your personal arsenal at the age of 12.
For all you survivalists and Second Amendment freaks out there - yeah, I know it’s not the gun, it’s the person. But when people can get their hands on guns with a wink and nod, then all too often the result is what happened in Blacksburg on Monday morning.
After the various police agencies concluded their working lunch at headquarters yesterday, Ed Davis spoke about encouraging a “prevention” mindset on college campuses, one that included identifying peculiar behavior and watching for an unusual fascination with guns and violence.
Yet with all the talk of coordinated planning, the sharing of information, the streamlining of radio communications, Davis said that all the police ultimately could do in the face of someone intent on mass murder is to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
It is cold comfort perhaps, but it’s honest.
“Everyone searches for answers for something as incomprehensible as this,” said Tom Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant who is now an adjunct professor of criminology at Boston University. “The problem is we look through the prism of normal functioning members of society. And that view is about as far away from this behavior as you can get.”
Yesterday, one retired law enforcement source, enraged by the video clips of Virginia Tech police taking shelter behind trees and cars in advance of the SWAT teams, wondered why the campus cops weren’t charging into Norris Hall.
“I agree you can’t necessarily prevent something like this,” the verteran cop said, “but goddammit, you don’t have to wait for the guys with the helmets and the smoke bombs dangling off their belts. You just go in there and try to stop the killing.”
That is the kind of gut-wrenching discussion Ed Davis’ colleagues in Blacksburg must wrestle with. Fortunately, he knew he was separated by 700 miles . . . and the grace of God.
For all you survivalists and Second Amendment freaks out there - yeah, I know it’s not the gun, it’s the person. But when people can get their hands on guns with a wink and nod, then all too often the result is what happened in Blacksburg on Monday morning.
WOW now we are freaks?
BOSTON HERALD
BPD chief: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
By Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald Columnist
The media room at Schroeder Plaza is about 700 miles away from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. But that hardly mattered.
Yesterday afternoon, Tom Menino, his police commissioner Ed Davis, the heads of the state police and the Cambridge police and the vice chancellor of UMass-Boston all wore the same expression during their press conference yesterday at Boston police headquarters:
There but for the grace of God . . .
Fact is, when you are entrusted with the care and protection of a metropolitan area that hosts more college students than just about anyplace else, Commonwealth Avenue, Harvard Square, Memorial Drive and the Back Bay might as well be around the corner from Blacksburg.
After he had assured the media scrum about a strong and renewed level of cooperation between the Boston police and various campus forces, Ed Davis stepped away from the podium to concede the obvious.
“As police,” he said, “we can only do what we can do.”
In the end, Davis said, even the most comprehensive strategies are no guarantee against a human time bomb like Cho Seung-Hui,now accused of slaughtering some 32 people, before taking himself out.
“The reality is, there’s simply too many guns out there,” Davis said, “and it’s become far too easy for people to get them into their hands.”
While it is true that what happened at Virginia Tech could have happened at BU, or Harvard, or UMass, it’s worth noting that Cho Seung-Hui had far less trouble coming by his weaponry.
In Virginia, you can buy guns at the rate of one a month if you so choose. Assault rifles are not frowned upon. Licenses are barely a formality. And you can begin amassing your personal arsenal at the age of 12.
For all you survivalists and Second Amendment freaks out there - yeah, I know it’s not the gun, it’s the person. But when people can get their hands on guns with a wink and nod, then all too often the result is what happened in Blacksburg on Monday morning.
After the various police agencies concluded their working lunch at headquarters yesterday, Ed Davis spoke about encouraging a “prevention” mindset on college campuses, one that included identifying peculiar behavior and watching for an unusual fascination with guns and violence.
Yet with all the talk of coordinated planning, the sharing of information, the streamlining of radio communications, Davis said that all the police ultimately could do in the face of someone intent on mass murder is to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
It is cold comfort perhaps, but it’s honest.
“Everyone searches for answers for something as incomprehensible as this,” said Tom Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant who is now an adjunct professor of criminology at Boston University. “The problem is we look through the prism of normal functioning members of society. And that view is about as far away from this behavior as you can get.”
Yesterday, one retired law enforcement source, enraged by the video clips of Virginia Tech police taking shelter behind trees and cars in advance of the SWAT teams, wondered why the campus cops weren’t charging into Norris Hall.
“I agree you can’t necessarily prevent something like this,” the verteran cop said, “but goddammit, you don’t have to wait for the guys with the helmets and the smoke bombs dangling off their belts. You just go in there and try to stop the killing.”
That is the kind of gut-wrenching discussion Ed Davis’ colleagues in Blacksburg must wrestle with. Fortunately, he knew he was separated by 700 miles . . . and the grace of God.