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The cluster effect: Shootings beget shootings, media begets media
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by Kaitlin | April 20, 2007 at 02:58 pm
1042 views | 10 Recommendations | 3 comments
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Virginia Tech Killer Cho Seung Hui Sent Package to NBC News
uploaded by indierockcafe
Virginia Tech and now NASA--North American institutions have of late become the site of some serious incidents. This is nothing new to author Loren Coleman, who wrote the book Copycat Effect: last fall after the Dawson College shooting, Coleman said the following to CTV. CTV notes that it seemed like a "prophetic" statement before Dawson; in the wake of Va. Tech and NASA, it again seems premonitory:
In a September 18 email to CTV, Coleman said, "I predict that this week or next, there may be another major 'going postal' workplace rampage or school shooting."While Coleman's email may now seem eerily prophetic, he told CTV.ca his prediction two weeks ago was simply the result of observing patterns among widely-publicized events.
These "clusters" (which have thus far manifested in bomb threats at schools, lockdowns, and now, the shooting at NASA), are completely normal consequences--after shocks, even--of these events. Coleman says that it's one event, and the ensuing media coverage, that triggers another. For Dawson it was an event in August of 2006 (if not before). For Virginia Tech, it could have been Dawson, but the more interesting thing, of course, is that Va. Tech was on the eighth anniversary of Columbine. In essence, this cluster began with Columbine. Where will it go next?
Listen again to what Coleman to further said last fall in his own blog:
Here is what I am finding:
- most contemporary school shootings tend to occur primarily during two periods of the school year - at the beginning (late Aug through October) and near the the end of the academic year (March-April)...
- copycats follow a regular temporal pattern that repeats - these could be after a primary media event in a day, a week, two weeks, a month, a year, ten years - vulnerable humans have internal media clocks...
- copycats imitate the previous violent attacks, oftentimes down to specific details as that mirror the previous specifics of the shooter, the victims, and the methods -
- "celebrity" events have a far-reaching impact and modeling effect - so, of course, Columbine serves as a dark cloud over many school shootings.
And perhaps more chillingly, quoted on his own blog from CTV:
Then, three days later came the shooting in Amish country, the deadliest of the cluster with five dead. Coleman says violent offenders, intent on shocking the public, sometimes "compete for the highest body count."
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 15:09 on April 20th, 2007
Kaitlin, thanks for bringing our attention to this topic. Makes me remember a programme that used to run on Brazilian TV, called "Cidade Alerta" (Alarmed City). They broadcast domestic tragedies and hostage takings live. And it turned out that they were never at a loss for an event to broadcast liev with heli-cams. It seems to me, this was the ultimate form of waiting for one's fifteen minutes of fame and a very clear indication to me that those shootings could be as much about (however weird) issues inside the gunman's head than competing for a good media slot. Thanks again, Kaitlin. Good stuff.
at 18:33 on April 20th, 2007
People tend do behave under theories they believe, so sometimes it's like theories practice themselves in the real world. I hope the theory of competing to kill won't become the cause of a real competition.
at 09:12 on April 23rd, 2007
Kaitlin, this is good. That´s enough to write on the subject, did it?
A fact like this is really a thing that must be unclothed layer by layer, because something this high is a thing like a bridge over the San Francisco bay: it was not a thing that jus happened. It was engineered along of the last four decades - at minimum. But let me remember these various layers.
1) Gun control: it was proved that allowing people to carry guns in the schools could reduce or even eliminate the victims.
2) The Nietzsche Syndrome of the existencial murderer: Cho has a profile that could match some literacture character like ´Dostoievski`s Raskolnikov.
3) The pray ban on US Schools: since 1963 god is not welcome to the american schools no more. The last episode - the liturgical mass to honor the victimsat VT, Jesus Christ was not mention.
4) Malelessnes education: the culture of be a perfect chicken it is been spreading over all US schools by the name of "polictical correctness". The "sitting ducks" syndrome that trust in the criminal to spare your life, not in yourself. Who plays dead could turn into a real dead...
5) Allowed Drugs use: it was reported that in many cases of mass shootings the perpretator was using (or suffering the lack of it) some of psychologic drugs (anti-depressive drugs). Cho was one of them.
5) Jihadism: Cho converted to islam before the crimes? The less problable theory.
In LAtin America, they blame to the capitalism...And of course the "gun culture" in the USA.
Oh, Mona Charen, a conservative columnist that I like say that graphic violence in the movies could be the inspiration behind it (only if you are weakened by all options before, it would work, but still is here listed).
This case is an Onion...
Luís Afonso