Another fine kettle of fish

There's new information viz the Columbine shooters, which you can read about here, if you haven't yet.  And how come you haven't read up on that yet?  Huh?

Anyway, in that article psychologist Peter Langman writes, It is hard to prevent murder when killers do not care if they live or die. It is like trying to stop a suicide bomber.

The attack Harris and Klebold pulled off was well-planned over a period of more than a year, and Harris, who conceived the attacks, was more than just troubled. He was, psychologists now say, a cold-blooded, predatory psychopath — a smart, charming liar with "a preposterously grand superiority complex, a revulsion for authority and an excruciating need for control, according to Dave Cullen, author of Columbine.

What's the difference between the Columbine killers and the Mumbai shooters? One group was trained and sponsored by the government of Pakistan and so was better trained. And there are more Columbine killers and Mumbai shooters practicing all over the world tonight ~ gunnin' for you, butter-cup.

Okay, now read this excerpt from an article I found while researching this post:

British Columbia Psychologist Robert Hare has done some ground breaking research into the study of psychopaths and has found that psychopaths tend to under utilize regions of the brain that integrate memories and emotions. These findings helped support long held theories that the destructive nature of psychopaths was neurobiological in nature. Aside from the neurobiological aspects of psychopathic behaviour: The psychopath knows right from wrong; they are quite often charming, glib and impulsive individuals. They often brag about grandiose life ambitions, but often lack the skills or the discipline to achieve their goals. Psychopaths are easily bored and crave immediate gratification. It has been found that psychopaths, quite often, have very high intelligence quotients. When caught in a lie, the psychopath will shift blame, or switch topics with no apparent embarrassment. They do not form deep or meaningful relationships, and often end up hurting people who get close to them. While they are intellectually aware of society's rules, they feel no guilt when they break them.

While many of the aspects described above fit the profile of the Super Predator, there are some important differences. The "super predator” is almost completely without ambition, they are often of below average intelligence, and they do not recognize ~ intellectually or otherwise ~ any rules of society. While psychopaths and the super-predator both share the inability to feel emotion, the psychopath can feign it to achieve a result, the super predator seems completely incapable of even that. More interestingly, the super predator is remarkably candid. They will more often than not, admit not only to their crimes, but also as to the why, and as to the fact that they did nothing wrong and would do it again.

Psychopathy does not always manifest itself in criminality. In fact, a psychopath could be a highly functioning and highly successful individual in society. In contrast, the super predator lacks the intelligence or the masking capabilities of the psychopath to achieve success outside of the criminal world. (Bennett et al, 1996, p. 29) The super predator is not psychotic. Psychotics are largely out of touch with reality. They suffer from delusions, hallucinations, or other disordered states. They are often found not guilty of crimes they commit by reason of insanity. (Kahlia, 1996). Today, especially in the inner cities, children between 5 to 9 years of age are often left to their own devices. They spend much of their time hanging out on the streets or soaking up violent television programs and violent rap music; they have easy access to guns and drugs, and can be extremely dangerous. By the year 2005 they will be teenagers, a group that tends to be, in the view of Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, temporary sociopaths... impulsive and immature.''

There are currently 39 million children under 10 in the U.S., more than at any time since the 1950s. This is the calm before the crime storm, says Fox. So long as we fool ourselves in thinking that we're winning the war against crime, we may be blind sided by this bloodbath of teenage violence that is lurking in the future. Nearly all the factors that contribute to youth crime -single-parent households, child abuse, deteriorating inner-city schools - are getting worse. At the same time, government is becoming less, not more, interested in spending money to help break the cycle of poverty and crime.  

Okay, that's all you need for now.  It's a good essay, the remainder of which can be read here.

In case you're not up-to-speed on criminal justice stuff, John DiIulio coined the phrase Super Predator some years back and wrote here of his scientific, wild-ass guesses on the subject.

And, coming full-circle back to Harris and Klebold, catch this one last piece here on how they and Cho at VaTech, though they all had "issues", could not have been identified as people sure or even likely to commit the slaughter they indeed did commit ~ and no one can ever predict future slaughterers. The best any expert can really give us is a... scientific, wild-ass guess.

So, are we going to stand anymore around bitching about which side of the psycho-argument is most true ~ or holds the most danger if all of them are true?  I don't know.  You don't know.  None of the sky-pilots who thought up this psycho-stuff know for sure either. 

God knows, and he ain't talkin'.

The deal is this, whether you understand it or accept it or like it.  Or not. 

You can comfort yourself by noting that the homicide rate is down over the last several years ~ but that's because medical science is saving many more, Hmmm, these gates really are pearly after all people and making them into, I got my ass beat/stabbed/shot and almost died until the Doc saved me Agg Assault victims.  What does that mean? Murders are down because doctors are able to save more almost-victims but the result is that charges of Aggravated Assault, the crime just below Murder in most jurisdictions, has increased as much as five-fold in some areas.

You can comfort yourself by believing that since W is now back in Texas, the world will like and respect us again and those nasty terrorists will back off and just blow themselves up accidentally since they're all just poor, dusty knuckle-heads anyway.

You can comfort yourself with delusional hope that a suave community organizer has the brains and the balls to take on some of the worst bad-guys and savages since the Barbary Coast pirates and Hitler.  

And you can place your remaining feeble faith in stupid people who end up being cops, like this insipid POS, who, as you can see here, has clearly put her religious beliefs ahead of the safety of her fellow officers and the citizens of the fine city of Philadelphia.  How is a hijab a threat to other officers and citizens?  Some bad actor come up from behind and grabs our little princess by her tightly-emplaced scarf and then commences to quickly choke her til her knees give out and she goes down. As she's losing consciousness, because she is not a warrior her main concern will be that her head not be uncovered lest she dishonor her god, so she'll reach up to loosen the tension growing 'round her windpipe and carotid artery ~ while the bad-guy, who's doing this easily with one hand because this so-called cop is such a cup-cake, reaches down and takes her duty pistol.

And extra mags. 

Which he can then use against the real cops and any loose-change citizens in the AO.

So where am I going with this?  Here:

You don't know where they are.  You don't know who they are or where they go to church, and many of them do.  You don't know when or where they will attack so you don't know if you'll be in the AO when they do.  The only thing you do know is that you can be prepared no matter who, what, where, when, why... and how.  I've talked about this in the last few posts here and in many not so recent posts you can search out and find in just a few minutes.

Only you can care enough to be aware of suspicious circumstances and people around you.  Only you can report these observations to the proper authority.  Only you can decide if you want to prepare yourself with force of legally-carried arms and ammunition and the training that can turn you into a warrior.  Only you can protect you. But they're not just after you.  They're after all those folks around you as well.

The cops can't do it all, can't be everywhere all the time.  They didn't drive in to work today just so they could wait around the corner from your house and beat the shit out of anybody who pisses you off.  Can you believe that?

A police officer who is becoming a friend wrote this to me a few days back, viz the Binghamton, NY situation:

... In the age of the active shooter, they must be taken down as soon as possible. We can't do the old surround and wait him out anymore. I couldn't bear to know that brother officers lay dying, I would have done something more than watch.

Having gone to a two-day training course on the active shooter last year, I can tell you it was some of the most realistic training I have ever had... it was thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

These events do require skill and coordination.  It was physically grueling.  I'm in good shape for my age but many have let themselves slide after getting the job. There are no requirements or incentives to stay in shape, which is a shame, because it drags down the agency and presents health risks for the individual officers.

See?  They're going to give it their best shot.  Most of them, anyway. So, encourage the ones who are obviously warriors.  They are the bad-ass boys with the bad-ass toys.  We need more cops with nick-names/call-signs like Chainsaw, or Trouble and none called Pudge or Old Shoe.  So, don't be shy about reporting the ones who are lazy, incompetent pension-chasers.  Attend city or county counsel meetings to see if you can move the "leaders" to pay for more great training for your warriors ~ as opposed to putting down really pretty paving-stones in front of city hall, like they just did where I live.

Another attack's coming.  The cops are preparing. Training.  Staying alert.

You need to get and stay prepared, too, unerschrocken.  Suck it up.

Comments

[Term papers]

in that article psychologist Peter Langman writes, It is hard to prevent murder when killers do not care if they live or die. It is like trying to stop a suicide bomber.

[Undaunted]

I'm not sure the originators of that term would assign it to jihadis, but I don't think it would be wrong to look at them through that lens, at least to try to uncover a deeper evil.

And thank you for the compliment.

[Civilus Defendus]

Does the islamic jihadi qualify as a Super-Predator? Raised under the choke hold of islam, which may stunt the brain's development, and taught to struggle in the way of allah - do they have a similar disconnect in their brains? Parts that don't communicate? I would see them as both physically damaged goods (wiring) and mentally/socially damaged as they pursue the goals of converting infidels to islam or conducting jihad against them. If you are taught non-muslims (Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc) are pigs and dogs - not human -and the vilest of creatures, is there any compuncton for harming them? Plenty of justification in the quran, sira and hadith for slaughter and subjugation of the infidel. Thank you for your valuable contribution, Undaunted.

[Undaunted]

Yes, emphatically. I've often posted that advice here.

[Jim]

Just curious...Gabe Suarez runs training events, Front Sight in Nevada, and others are available to the public who want the skills and peace of mind. Do you advocate the citizens to seek this training and become engaged in the solution rather than waiting on the 911 call to show up and make a report of the resulting incident? --bbstacker