Do you think Virginia Tech authorities are partly responsible for what occured at VT?

Officer

There is no short answer for a question like that, but here is what I think.

With out a doubt the person who committed the action is the most responsible, Cho had choices and we can all see the aftermath of that. With that said authorities have a responsibility to do a lot of things especailly on a campus environment.

There are a number of elements to look at here:
1) At the time the first murders occoured the initial stages of an investigation would just be getting off the ground, detectives being notified, evidence being gathered, suspects being listed. Locking down the building in which things happened is definitely a correct response.

2) As the first murders are being investigated as far as we know at this point there was nothing to point to the elements of a mass murder or a hostage taking situation, it is very rare that someone would committ two murders, leave and then committ a mass murder.

3) With that in mind authorities had to work with what they had, meaning if they were to lock down the entire campus (which by the way is an impossible task in and of itself) they could alert the suspect making him think they knew who he was. Also keeping in mind that telling an entire campus that two people have been murdered in a dorm could create a whole new set of problems for an already stretched police force at this point.

4) Some people will say that his prior record of stalking or mental behavior issues were signs that this was going to happen. That may or may not be true, on a college campus thousands of people are "stalked" every year and little comes of it. With the criminal justice system designed the way it is and over worked as it is there is little hope that non-violent offenders will get anything other than a stern lecture and a boot out the door.

In summation are the authorities responsible, perhaps in a very limited capacity but the end result lies with Cho.

Ibredd

If they pulled the guns from the secuity guards and legal holders. Yes

Clif S

No because the campus is the size of a small city. When there is a murder of two people in a medium size down they don't alert the entire town immediately, in some areas it might not even make the news at 6 or the newspaper the next day.

miss_amantha

I believe they are partly responsible for not alerting students of the earlier incident, which may have possibly prevented the second incident from occuring or at least maybe lowered the total death toll. In one student's testimonies, he heard a warning after the first incident and called the school to see if he should attend or not and all the school officials said was to "proceed with caution" without giving details. Would you proceed with caution if you were aware of the details of the first incident?

STEVEN F

I agree with the 'size of a small town' answer. I would have given it myself if someone hadn't beat me to it. The ONLY way I would hold them PARTIALLY responsible is that IF they allowed concealed carry permit holders to bring their guns on campus, one of them MAY have stopped the shooter sooner.

riteon

No, I do not, its crazy to always try and blame someone for everything that happens. How do you control a mental case? How do you know this person is capable of doing such a terrible thing? You can speculate to hell and back, but until it happens, its only speculation. The world is full of people with mental problems, most don't kill.
No one basically has any control over a person until they do...do something so horrific. Then its to late, soooo, what can a person do.

Aztrik

. I think *** Holes who judge others, and intentionaly hurt others are the ones responsable. I think everyone who knew that dude and diden't try to help him are responsible. I think the people he was room mates with are responsible. I think people who made jokes about the dude are responsible, I think the mental Health industry is responsible for throwing pills at the situation. I think Society as a whole is responsible, and that includes YOU and me. Everyone who refuses to reach out to thouse who are difrent are responsible.

6.5 x 284

yes...also liberal paperpushers/dogooders that preach that psych records should be kept confidential and that allowed that Cho dummy to slip thru the cracks cause the Docs couldnt tell the Police that they were talking to a freak that was about to blow....

Gene K

Absolutely NOT!! This was a totally unprecidented happening! You can not show me where a murderer has killed and then came back 2 hours later,to kill some more. This guy was so deranged,what was to say that he would not come back the next day,or the day after!! They had to assume that he was fleeing or in hiding,,Right??

Jeff S

I DEFINITELY think they should have canceled classes for the remainder of the day after the first shooting occurred in the morning.

B.Kevorkian

No. Such second guessing and figner pointing accomplishes nothing. The shooter did it, he bears 100% of the responsibility.

Lessons can and should be learned from the tragedy, of course, but not by playing the 'blame game.'

peach

No I do not. The shooter is totally responsible. However, he showed many signs of his unstable personality to many different people. Maybe this could have been avoided if someone would have taken him seriously.

Many times we do have warnings that some terrible thing could occur. Such was the case with 911. But at the time we don't think it could happen, or choose not to believe the signs.
We are all guilty of that at some time in our lives.

maguire1202

quickgun

No more responsible then Noah was for the rain. Because someone goes crazy why would you hold someone else responsible we need to each be accountable for our own actions and cho is to blame and him alone.

Godly Reality Check

No, Cho is. Quit pointing fingers cause you're only helping the psychos case out.

Right from wrong in this case is just obvious!

Sara S

Yes. For two reasons
1-The man was was declared an "imminent danger to self and others"...that should have been their FIRST clue to get him off campus ASAP. Who dropped that ball?
2-He killed two people, and then disappeared for two hours!! I don't know about Virginia, but in Georgia, we would lock ALL the schools down until the SOB was caught!!

God bless those innocent people. My heart and prayers go out to them.

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