Copycat Killing Season
After Seung-Hui Cho got the attention of the nation with his killing spree, copycats have popped up across the country. Some news outlets have raised the question of whether the media scrutiny of Cho’s act didn’t cause the copycatting.
From the Chicago Tribune: “The problem is events like these attract a lot of attention, and rightly so. Excessive attention to the Virginia Tech shootings drives the copycats, and that is exactly what is going on now,” said Jack Levin, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston. “I think the copycat thing in general has a short life span, maybe a few weeks. Then it will be over for most students,” Levin said.
But suicide expert Loren Coleman suggests the copycat current runs deeper in our psyche. He’s written a book about it. He wrote a blog entry on March 28th that looks remarkably prescient now: “During the spring of 2007, school professionals and paraprofessionals, law enforcement officials, and mental health personnel should be aware we are entering the most active “School Shooting Season” since 9/11. From the end of March through the end of May, this window of time could be very deadly. I sincerely hope I am wrong.”
Looks like Cho proved him right.
Coleman points to last fall’s school shooting season, which really got underway when Kimveer Gill killed one woman and 19 other students in Montreal. Gill killed himself when the police came and was said to have been a fan of the video game Super Columbine Massacre and the movie Natural Born Killers (See the recent post on pain-bodies fueling the demand for violent media).
He writes: “In the following days, Columbine plots were discovered across the country, with the media pinpointing plans for violence on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at Green Bay East High School and exactly a week later on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in Montgomery, Alabama, at Robert E. Lee High School.”
There should then, be no surprise that we see killers emulating and replicating the tragedy of VT. But how then is one to interpret Cho’s actions? Did he truly inspire and give hope to a class of mistreated and underappreciated?
His actions may have inspired others to cut bait with normalicy and of join the cult of the killer. By acting as Cho, they endeavor to be part of something bigger than themselves: the mystique of mass murderer. They long for connectivity. But make no mistake: killers forfeit their connection to humanity by denying that which ties us together. Theirs is a very lonely club.
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the beautiful cycle of life...lambs in the spring...wild flowers in the summer...enlivening winds in [...]
on 21 Apr 2007 at 9:34 pm 1.The Starmaker said …
It is a fact that children imitate violence they see on the screen.
Instead of the family members of the victims of the worst massacre in U.S. history
suing the campus, they should sue The Major Studios that *manufacture* the violence
that children see and imitate in the media.
Seung-Hui Cho was a 23 year old child, in all sense of the word since the majority
of 23 year olds in the U.S. are still living with their parents.
A message needs to be sent to the studios, stop manufacturing this stuff. And that message can only be sent
by class action suit.
The Starmaker
The Starmaker wrote:
>
> The only way to eradicate the Hollywood virus is for the members of the family of the
> 32 people who were killed *and* Cho Seung-Hui family members, in the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history,
> is for those family members to file a class action suit against all the major studios that put out this stuff.
>
> This time they’ll win.
>
> The Starmaker
>
> The Starmaker wrote:
> >
> > Evil is a disease of the mind.
> > And it spreads from one mind to another.
> > And Hollywood facilitates the spreading of this diseases.
> >
> > I don’t think I want to live in a world where people who use Evil
> > as an ingredient in their products to sicken the minds of our children with the Evil diseases.
> >
> > There’s nothing I can do about you adults.
> >
> > But you got to save the babies.
> >
> > ..
> >
> > Certainly people like this wouldn’t be allowed in Heaven!
> >
> > There is probably a place for them in Hell. But not Heaven!!
> >
> > And I certainly don’t want to be in a Heaven where people like these are let in!!!
> >
> > What kind of God would allow that?
> >
> > And certainly, they shouldn’t be on this Earth either.
> >
> > We are all just David’s in a world of Goliaths.
> >
> > The Starmaker
> >
> > This 23 year old, Cho Seung-Hui caught the disease from Hollywood.
> > http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1261563,00.html
> >
> > on a personal note….would you believe…that I plan to show
> > on my movie theater, you know, when I start selling movie tickets…
> > the first movie is going to be a Horror movie?
> >
> > In the meantime…here is what kids like to watch:
> > http://pw1.netcom.com/~starmaker/YT/Table-Theater-2-measure-abcdefg.html
> >
> > The Starmaker wrote:
> > >
> > > You know what’s wrong with these people who write and sell these horror stories…
> > > inside their minds..
> > > contains..
> > > Evil.
> > >
> > > The Evil exist *only* in their minds.
> > >
> > > Then they put it on paper
> > > They put it on screen
> > >
> > > and spread the Evil into the minds of your children.
> > >
> > > Evil exist only in one place in this world…in the mind.
> > >
> > > You know how it gets there. What are you going to do about it?
> > >
> > > The Starmaker
> > >
> > > The Starmaker wrote:
> > > >
> > > > You scriptwriters should be stopped from writing this stuff, and the people who pay you for it are equally guilty!
> > > > It should be a crime to write and sell this stuff!!
> > > >
> > > > You horror writers should be handcuffed, chained, Stabbed In The Chest, Tortured, Slit Wrists, Teeth Extraction, Knife In Back, Shot In The Head, Stabbed In The Ear,
> > > > Knee In Groin, your Tongue Severed, your Hand Severed, Blood Splatter, splatter, splatter, splatter, ….
> > > >
> > > > The Starmaker
> > > >
> > > > I forgot to add “female nudity” and Murder Of Wife!
> > > >
> > > > The Starmaker wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > If a toy manufacture makes a toy that chokes a baby to death, they get rid of the toy…
> > > > >
> > > > > Shouldn’t these people who write and make these movies be stopped? They are killing our children!
> > > > >
> > > > > I don’t even want children reading the keywords!!!
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/keywords
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337636/keywords
> > > > >
> > > > > Plot keywords for
> > > > > Hellraiser: Deader (2005) (V)
> > > > > Lesbian Scene
> > > > > Female Nudity
> > > > > Hallucination
> > > > > Bad Smell
> > > > > Blood Splatter
> > > > > Chosen One
> > > > > Destiny
> > > > > Handcuffs
> > > > > Stabbed In The Chest
> > > > > Back From The Dead
> > > > > Chain
> > > > > Hook
> > > > > Subway
> > > > > Slit Wrists
> > > > > Romania
> > > > > Shot In The Head
> > > > > Male Nudity
> > > > > Journalist
> > > > > Severed Hand
> > > > > Good Versus Evil
> > > > > Gore
> > > > > Knee In Groin
> > > > > Suicide
> > > > > Independent Film
> > > > > Pinhead
> > > > > Sequel
> > > > > Torture
> > > > >
> > > > > Neo Noir
> > > > > Disturbing
> > > > > Gas Mask
> > > > > Masturbation
> > > > > Black Comedy
> > > > > Violent Movie
> > > > > Tooth Pulling
> > > > > Severed Tongue
> > > > > Based On Comic
> > > > > Breasts
> > > > > Vaginal Sex
> > > > > Octopus
> > > > > Hypnotism
> > > > > Revenge
> > > > > Suicide
> > > > > Incest
> > > > > Wallpaper
> > > > > Flashback Sequence
> > > > > Imprisonment
> > > > > Jealousy
> > > > > Torture
> > > > > Manga
> > > > > Anti Hero
> > > > > Mysterious Villain
> > > > > Bible Quote
> > > > > Diary
> > > > > Drunk Scene
> > > > > Fall From Height
> > > > > Framed For Murder
> > > > > Game
> > > > > Hammer
> > > > > Handkerchief
> > > > > Knife In Back
> > > > > Long Take
> > > > > Monster
> > > > > Obscure Meaning
> > > > > Pacemaker
> > > > > Post Hypnotic Suggestion
> > > > > Scissor Stabbing
> > > > > Severed Hand
> > > > > Shot In The Head
> > > > > Sin
> > > > > Stabbed In The Back
> > > > > Stabbed In The Ear
> > > > > Stockholm Sweden
> > > > > Sushi
> > > > > Tattoo
> > > > > Teeth Extraction
> > > > > Violence
> > > > > False Imprisonment
> > > > > Cell
> > > > > Dark Comedy
> > > > > Death Of Wife
> > > > > Kidnapping
> > > > > Murder Of Wife
> > > > > Prison Cell
> > > > > Television
> > > > > Twist In The End
> > > > > Surprise Ending
> > > > >
> > > > > The Starmaker wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I was looking at this page
> > > > > > because I was thinking
> > > > > > “How come this guy doesn’t write a novel?”
> > > > > > I mean, he’s might be the Stephen King of screenplays…
> > > > > > (i never read a novel before)
> > > > > > and he hangs out on screenplay writing newsgroups
> > > > > > and he seems to specialize in Monster movies, or Horror movies…
> > > > > > http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1521005/
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Surely he can take one of his screenplays he has
> > > > > > hidden somewhere and make a novel out of it…
> > > > > > or does it take too much work to write a novel?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > He’s got some selling points!
> > > > > >
> > > > > > As a last resort, he can tell the publisher
> > > > > >
> > > > > > “If you re-arrange the letters of my name Neal Marshall Stevens, you come up with..
> > > > > > Mr. Satan Enslaves Hell!”
> > > > > >
> > > > > > That alone can be a title for his next novel!!!!
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > But what are these keywords I see?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337636/keywords
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Plot keywords for
> > > > > > Hellraiser: Deader (2005) (V)
> > > > > > Lesbian Scene
> > > > > > Female Nudity
> > > > > > Hallucination
> > > > > > Bad Smell
> > > > > > Blood Splatter
> > > > > > Chosen One (Chosen One? What does that mean? How does that fit in? I smell cinnamon http://www.wishingfish.com/asskisser.html)
> > > > > > Destiny
> > > > > > Handcuffs
> > > > > > Stabbed In The Chest
> > > > > > Back From The Dead
> > > > > > Chain
> > > > > > Hook
> > > > > > Subway
> > > > > > Slit Wrists
> > > > > > Romania
> > > > > > Shot In The Head
> > > > > > Male Nudity
> > > > > > Journalist
> > > > > > Severed Hand
> > > > > > Good Versus Evil
> > > > > > Gore
> > > > > > Knee In Groin
> > > > > > Suicide
> > > > > > Independent Film
> > > > > > Pinhead
> > > > > > Sequel
> > > > > > Torture