There’s been a lot of commentary over the past few days on the Aurora, Colorado movie massacre. A dozen innocent lives were taken. The youngest was only six years old. This was undoubtedly a senseless act of horror by what many media pundits have called an emotionally disturbed person or a “ticking time bomb” and/or a psychopath.
Being trained and educated as a law enforcement officer — not a psychiatrist — I don’t know whether James Holmes was a true clinical psychopath or not.
However, what I do know is that he was an evil person.
In my 20+ years working the streets, I’ve seen a lot of horrible things. Murders, senseless acts of violence committed by strung-out junkies, children abused by parents, and people who’ve burned themselves to death.
A sampling?
I once arrested a junkie whore who prostituted her 11-year daughter for two bags of smack to her dealer — the vilest, filthiest piece of human garbage you’d ever want to meet.
I had to interview a father who threw his baby daughter off of a pier because he didn’t want to pay child support to his ex-wife. I spent three full days between New Year’s Eve and January 3 investigating a murder when a “check on the welfare” call revealed a paraplegic female who’d been beaten to death with a 20-ounce claw hammer in her own apartment. The woman had been viciously murdered by her ex-con medical-transport driver because he wanted her television set.
The atrocities go on and on.
I’ve also seen those after-the-fact-talking-head experts try to put labels on criminals, almost as some justification for the vicious acts they committed. And what I’ve come to realize over the course of my two decades on the street is this: the reasons why people do some of the unspeakable things they do aren’t really relevant.
Some people are just born evil.
I’ve heard some media-types talk about how Holmes, a PhD candidate in neuroscience, might have been under pressure at the University of Colorado-Denver Medical School because he was “the top of the top” while at the University of California-Riverside.
Others blame the easy access he had to the firearms he used.
My opinion?
It’s all crap.
Here’s the bottom line. Some people are just born evil. Now, I’m not a student of European history, but I think Adolph Hitler was born evil. I don’t know jack about Islamic 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 he she was a kid, she probably would’ve still pimped off her little girl.
I’m also convinced 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 color television set.
I’m convinced that PhD candidate James Holmes would’ve found a way to murder a dozen Batman fans, even if he had to use a Zippo and some rolled up newspapers to do it.
My reasoning is this: Adolph, Osama, Mildred Scumbag, Robert the Deadbeat Dad, Frederick the Horrible, and yes, most likely James E. Holmes, are just plain evil.
Colorado has the death penalty. Enough said.
