Candace’s post on the inadequacy of the training of campus police is most interesting. In addition to the training they might not be getting enough of, could there be some training that they get too much of, like, for instance, sensitivity training? Some have suggested that the Virginia Tech campus police, and of course the Virginia Tech administration, were quick to believe that Emily Hilscher’s boyfriend, Karl Thornhill, was the culprit because they had been imbued with the PC scenario in which the greatest threat to a woman is her boyfriend, perhaps especially if the boyfriend has guns. Could this have been another case of the Duke syndrome playing out, in the sense that young white men are the presumed villains of contemporary society, at least in academic circles?
Here is an article telling that the police, the real police this time, sent a veritable SWAT team to Karl Thornhill’s house to arrest him. This was after he was first questioned earlier in the day. The article does not say if this arrest, which involved kicking in his door and pushing him to the floor and handcuffing him and one of his female roommates, occurred before or after Cho’s second killing spree. Karl’s grandmother is quoted saying that they do not wish to criticize the police, that they understand the police had to follow such leads as they had. And, indeed, they thought Karl had guns and was a potential killer, so they needed to be sure he had no opportunity to turn on them. But it still makes you wonder. All this energy to go after Karl while the real killer was left free to destroy so many lives.