Copy Cat Criminals

This week, another monster of evil showed his head by shooting three people live on TV during a morning news broadcast. This monster even filmed himself doing the shooting. Being a news reporter himself, he knew when they would be most vulnerable and when they would be live on camera.

Unfortunately, this will probably happen again. As these things have been happening too often, a Copy Cat Criminal will do the same thing. Most of the time, it’s already an evil person looking to do something bad, sees how much press an event gets and then tries to do it himself (yes, most of the time it’s guys).

The more these events and the losers’ names are publicized, the more it will happen. Some have called these events “home grown terrorist” but they are not. Even the current DOJ broad definition of terrorism doesn’t fit. The end of the definition of terrorism is to coerce the government or people to further a political or social goal. These people have individual goals and nothing bigger.

They see the news and want the kind of glory for themselves and for their individual reason for committing the evil act. They want to go down in a blaze of glory and be remembered for it. This has been happening for a long time and will continue to happen until we shun them as a society and in the news.

You can make a difference on this. Write your local paper and news media asking them to redact the individuals’ names that commit these acts and to not post pictures of them anywhere, ever. And if they use the names and pictures of the criminals, turn the channel, buy a different paper, or go to a different web site. As a society, we can fix this part of the problem easily.

When something like this happens, the news and people around say what a heinous random act of violence, but these acts are never random. Sane people don’t understand their evil reasons, but they have them. Normally they want to right some wrong that was done to them. The place, or in this case, individual people they are after has wronged them in some way.

The problem with seeing these “wrongs” is that these evil people carry this hate in their hearts for years and maybe even decades before they act. In this on-air shooting the shooter was fired from the news outlet two years before and in his “manifesto” (they always have a crazy manifesto they want read after their act) he claims that the individuals he shot made racist remarks towards him.

These acts are never random, they have reason behind them, and we just don’t always see the reason. Watch out for those people your organization, company, or you dealt with individually that just were not right in the head. If you see them years down the road, avoid them if at all possible. They aren’t coming back to say I’m sorry. Nothing good can come from a confrontation or even conversation with them.

What kind of people are they? Two things that should stick out: First is your own intuition. They just don’t seem right, or there is something wrong with them you can’t put your finger on. Second is that the person doesn’t relate to anyone at work or in your organization. They just don’t play well with anyone and can’t make any friends at work or at home. Even loners will have a friend or two at work and/or at home.

These people not having any friends maybe part of the problem. We all have thoughts we shouldn’t act on from time to time. I don’t mean homicide, but things like I’d like to tell that so-n-so what I think of him. But we have friends that we talk through this issue with. Of course, a good friend will listen and then help you with why you shouldn’t tell your boss off using foul language. Most of these evil people don’t have that friend to talk to and let that anger and resentment build for years.

A possible indicator that a person is going down the road of violence is that they are infatuated with mass murderers in the media. They look at body counts, call the perpetrators heroes, and study the killings in great detail. They want to emulate them and start to use language like “wouldn’t it be cool to do that”, “how great that must have felt” and “wish I could have been there”. Once the person gets to this point, you will probably have a problem.

Not everyone that studies mass murder is evil. I study mass murder and terrorism for a living and have for many years (going on two decades) and it’s not easy. Getting into the head of evil people is sickening, but I do it to teach others how to stop the evil before or during the commission of the crime.

One last indicator, if you are close to someone, that violence maybe imminent is a manifesto. All of them seem to keep a journal of what they are going to do and why they are going to do it. They sometimes turn that into a manifesto of why they are doing their act. I think this is so they can be remembered and get more fame. It works. For the last three days the news media has been going through this killer’s 23-page manifesto that was faxed to ABC News after the initial killing but before he was caught (and killed himself). If you find one of these on or around someone you are close to, it’s time to get professional psychological help. I’m talking that day, not tomorrow. Treat it like you found a suicide note, because you did.

In the end, most of these people are cowards. Once they get on the losing end of something they generally give up or, in this case, take their own life. For armed citizens, police, security, or military that confront these people, just be aware of their cowardice. They may want to commit suicide but don’t have the guts to do it themselves.  It’s been known by police for a long time, and called suicide by cop. If they don’t give up initially, you are going to have to put them down. They will either turn the gun on themselves once you get the advantage or they are going to continue to fight until they are dead. Make sure you don’t give them any opportunity to kill you, because they will. This is not a normal criminal but a mass murderer that will continue to kill until someone stops him. Don’t be one of his victims, be the victor!

All these indicators were there with this on-air killer:

• He didn’t play well with others. He lived in 13 states with different jobs, being fired from most for making threats of violence or trying to sue the organization for some perceived wrong.
• He set himself up as an outsider so he couldn’t have friends. Threatening people, accusing every one of racism and homophobia is a great way not to make friends.
• He couldn’t hold a job anywhere for a substantial amount of time.
• SIDE NOTE: If you are hiring someone, call the references and former employers to make sure you don’t bring evil into your work place. I don’t care how great his resume is; check out his references.
• He saw himself wronged everywhere he went
• He studied mass murderers saying the Virginia Tech shooter was his hero.
• He found someone that wronged him (supposedly)
• He found his opportunity for a glory moment (he even filmed it).

The only thing new about this killing is that he filmed it and then put it on the Internet. With more and more social media and easy posting of videos going on, and now that it has worked, I’d expect to see more killers copy catting this guy and trying to film their act and post it on the Internet. They may even stream it live.

Stay Safe,

Ben