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As expected, there’s been a tremendous amount of commentary resulting from the Virginia Tech campus shootings. Most offers opinions on the tactics used by the Virginia Tech Police Department–whether they should have locked down the campus after the first two bodies were discovered, questions about the two-hour delay in implementing an active-shooter protocol. This article offers a different perspective on the tragedy.
Thirty-two innocent lives were taken in a senseless act of horror by, what many media pundits have called an emotionally-disturbed person, a ticking time-bomb, a psychopath. Being trained as a law enforcement officer, not a psychiatrist, I do not know whether Cho Seung-Hui was a true clinical psychopath or not. However, I do know that he was evil.
As you can imagine, working the streets in a big city for over two decades allowed me to witness literally scores of awful incidents. Among the atrocities I’ve personally witnessed are: countless acts of murder, meaningless acts of violence committed by strung-out junkies, horrendous acts of abuse waged against children and a variety of other insane actions by people against themselves. A sampling? I once investigated a junkie streetwalker who prostituted her 11-year-old daughter to her drug dealer. The dealer was the most vile, filthy piece of human garbage you’d ever want to meet. The mother’s price for her adolescent daughter: two bags of smack. I interviewed a father who threw his baby daughter off a pier because he didn’t want to pay child support. I spent three full days investigating a murder when a “check on the welfare” call revealed a paraplegic female who’d been beaten to death with a hammer in her own apartment. This woman had been viciously murdered by her ex-con medical transport driver because he wanted her television set. The atrocities go on and on: one woman put her baby into a microwave because the infant wouldn’t stop crying.
I’ve also seen those after-the-fact talking heads in the media try to put labels on the criminals, almost as some kind of justification for the horrible acts they committed. And what I’ve come to learn is this: there are some people who are just plain evil. I’ve heard some media-types talk about how Cho was a loner, ignored by his college chums and psychologically bullied by his high-school peers. They have also pointed out that somehow, because he came from an immigrant family, his fate as a social misfit was sealed. A few experts have even offered these issues as reasons for Cho’s “acting out” against the 30 students and two faculty members he slaughtered. Others blame the easy access he had to the two handguns he used. My opinion? It’s all crap.
Here’s the bottom line. Some people were just born evil. I’m not a student of European history, but I think Adolph Hitler was just born evil. I don’t know jack about Islamist Fascism, but I think Osama bin Laden was just born evil. And I’m convinced that even if Mildred Scumbag wasn’t dropped on her head when she was a kid, she probably would’ve still pimped her little girl. I’m also of the opinion that Robert the Deadbeat Dad would have found some way to remove little Kaly from the face of the earth, even if the bay was frozen over that day. I believe that Frederick the Horrible would have used a butter knife to murder his wheelchair-bound victim, so he could get his hands on her new television set. And finally, I’m sure that Cho Seung-Hui would’ve found a way to murder almost three dozen of his college pals, even if he had to use a Zippo and some rolled up newspapers. My reasoning is this: Adolph, Osama, Mildred Scumbag, Robert the Deadbeat Dad, Frederick the Horrible and yes, most likely Cho Seung-Hui, are just plain evil.
About the author
Dave Grossi is a retired police lieutenant and force training commander from upstate New York now residing in southwest Florida. A private trainer and consultant, Dave testifies frequently as an expert witness in force-related cases.