Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy
It's disgraceful that many of the Florida shooter's classmates knew of his social media posts and thought he was capable of doing something drastic, but did nothing with the info. They have blood in their hands.
Fact is, we will.never eliminate egoistical narcissist mass.shooters looking for fame and upping the body counts.
But come on, if you see some moron posing with guns and spouting off political B.S. on social media with extreme views, then warn others. And be armed and prepared.
|
What do you expect people to do?
I work at an institution that attracts a lot of loony toons social media posts. It is not uncommon to get SPECIFIC threats involving guns, targeted political rhetoric (largely from the alt right/white supremacist/anti--semitic groups, but we're apparently an equal opportunity offender), and other disturbing posts. I document and report them, and in some instances have been in touch with the FBI when we've been in the news and specific members of our community have been targeted by internet lynch mobs. What happens? Absolutely nothing.
Several years ago, a high school acquaintance posted multiple photos of guns and drugs on her Facebook page. She had several small children, so I reported her to CPS. I later found out several others also called the police. Nothing happened, except I had content to use when I present to college kids about appropriate social media usage.
So the classmates know there's a problem. They tell their teachers or principal. What next? They expel him, and warn teachers about seeing him on campus with a backpack. That happened. They can't force every person with a gun and crazy opinions into mental health care. The shooter stopped seeking care some time ago - we don't have a mechanism to force him back in without a specific threat to himself or others. That wasn't there.
I don't mean to pick on you, but I think those who are less involved with social media professionally seem to think that an undefined *something* can be done. This has been my career for almost a decade and I have seen some things, and even been personally doxed simply because someone angry at the university I worked for found the communications staff on a website. The law has been slow catching up with reality, and even then, being weird and violent on social media isn't a crime. Without a specific threat, the most that could have been done was: the school expelled him. It's scary, but reality.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
