In the wake of the horrible shootings at Virginia Tech, I was appalled to hear, only a few hours later, complaints that the Virginia police did not do their job in preventing the second shooting. As far as the police knew, they were only dealing with an isolated incident, and were following standard protocol in their investigation. They had no way of knowing who or where the shooter was, let alone that he was going to strike again.
This young man, who had been flagged by classmates as a possible school shooter, was highly motivated in his actions, as is evident by the accounts that we are getting from the survivors.
It seems that in this country we are quick to point the finger at the authorities for dropping the ball when a tragedy occurs, but they had no way of knowing how this day was going to unfold. Those police officers were just like the rest of the country in the shock that they felt as a result of this incident. We have to remember that those officers were the ones who were trying to get into the building to save those they could. Officers put their lives on the line every day to protect us and we should not be so quick to point our finger at what we think is their inadequacy.
I am sure that there are going to be many more questions that emerge from this situation but one thing is certain: We should not be pointing our finger at the police for this tragedy, they weren’t pulling that trigger. If we’re going to point a finger at anyone, it should be at Cho Seung-Hui, for his lack of sacredness for human lives.
Alisha Davelaar
Marysville
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