Watching the vultures circle. [twitterage]

Posted on By pukeko

At the end of this mornings lectionary post I got diverted into the latest college shooting and asked where the services were. One of my colleagues, who has worked in the USA, said that his parents were concerned and the police did a “welfare check” and considered he was unusual, but not commitable.

I’m not going to criticize the police officers who made that check. It is very easy to get these things wrong, because murder, particularly mass murder, is a very rare event and one cannot predict these things. What worries me is that this tragedy is becoming a sensationalized and politicized. One has to feel for the parents, who did the correct thing, with an adult: they called for help, they raised their concerns.

And I am sure that the police will investigate further. In the meantime, people are jumping to conclusions.

Well, you turn him down. And you ask for help if he gets in the way. Most of the time the support network around they young man, (and women) will be giving them very direct advice on these issues. Most men will not act out: and as there are more men who are antisocial and psychopathic than in the autism spectrum, young women are much more likely to have to deal with someone who is bad, not socially inept to the point that they need suuprt in daily living, Which is what this young man needed.

Let’s have some common sense here. We are all getting too sensitive, and at the same time we are becoming less compassionate.

We are dealing, Ito quote Billy Bragg) with a society that has destroyed both green fields and factory floors, while also disarming its bombers. It appears that even the malls had disappeared but the bankers remain. In this context we need to guide and advise and protect those who are vulnerable, not let them act on their thoughts. Perhaps I’m paternalistic. But that is better than seeing the vultures of the press and the twitteriat circle around seven grieving families.