Sunday, April 8, 2012
Foster on the Oikos University Shooting
As we have seen in our class readings, lectures and discussions there are many different factors in what constitutes a crime and/or a criminal and what policing is and who the police are. This kind of crime is incredibly traumatic and not easy to understand. We have seen policing as a science and looked at statistical data as a visual model in order to more easily understand the correlations between crime/criminals and multiple other factors. This particular shooting was not gang and/or drug related and, by all accounts, the gunman never displayed previous violent behavior, is not a drug dealer and/or gang member.
A big take home point of our reading of Prof Musheno’s book is that storytelling is a very effective tool for frontline workers in having their voices heard as well as listening to the voice of the citizenry they serve. It is extraordinarily difficult, on a very visceral level, to even want to listen to the story of a man who acted with little to no provocation over what appears to be a tuition dispute of six thousand dollars or less over which he killed seven people and injured at least three others.
In my experience, the most gut-wrenching stories (cases) are often the most worthwhile in terms of understanding what happened, what did not—and maybe should have happened—and what to do to avoid future events such as this one. It must be incredibly difficult for Oakland Police to divorce themselves completely from the citizen narrative and their own individual judgments of the situation and the man who killed seven of his former classmates. on such an individual and understand where they are coming from. The communities involved with Oikos University (predominantly Korean)—as well as the Oakland Community at large—are looking to officials to make some sense of this, what seems like senseless, loss of life.
It seems as if that is the role of the state in a situation like this: to mitigate suffering of the community by somehow making sense of what appears to be a senseless act of violence. The front line workers, in this case the individual Oakland Police officers, are the people who are attempting to make sense out of this event. This overwhelming event is still extremely fresh in our consciousness; however, I hope the police and the community at the very least in terms of how to manage the public’s grief following such an event can gain something. So, as personally painful as it maybe to overlook one’s own moral judgment of the gunman, in order to serve a utility to the citizenry it seems necessary for the police—in this instance especially—to maintain the state narrative in order to allow the University (and larger Oakland/Bay Area community) to grieve their loss and, I hope, learn something and move on from such a traumatically violent episode in Oakland’s already violent history.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I was also thinking about the motives and circumstances behind this shooting after it happened and I couldn't help comparing it to what happened at both Columbine High School and Virginia Tech. Especially in cases of senseless school killings, I agree that stories are a crucial facet for understanding the nature of crime. The effect that these deaths has on the community is heightened by the fact that the killings were experienced by a group of individuals, who believed they were in a safe environment until they underwent intense trauma.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is especially tragic that this shooting took place in Oakville, considering the fact that students often find refuge in schools and universities as a way of escaping bad neighborhoods and street violence. Many times the simplest explanation for a crime is mental insanity, and in this case, who knows if such a shooting could have been prevented. After Columbine and after Virginia Tech many individuals said that these shootings could have been prevented if someone had only listened to the perpetrators before it was too late. In these scenarios, accountability is hard to place and I think it does not specifically fall on one person or another- whether they be the parent, administrator, or law enforcement officer connected with the perpetrator.
Allison B.
The blogger's point on the role of the government & the frontline workers lead me to a point that I've been pondering quite deeply for the past few months, and that is the question of rationality.
ReplyDeleteWhat we see in the mentioned shooting in Oakville is a case of irrational, unexplainable behavior whose scientific explanations are seldom grasped by the general public, let alone lead to any meaningful preventive measures. Yet, to appease to the general sentiment in demand for further security, the government and the police rush to provide explanations and policies--more counsellers, more patrol officers, more interaction among community members, etc.
As this all goes on, I can't shake off the feeling that much of this depends on a very rational approach to policing--provide disincentives and systematic couunselling; provide unbiased, anti-witch-hunt approach to the killer; listen to the stories and come up with a cause-and-effect explanation--after all, we're very used to asking "why" such a thing has happened?
The case expands beyond this case of shooting: even in our lecture, we try to explain gangs, law enforcement, policies, private policing, etc, based on a rational cause-and-effect model--that certain entities act on a given set of motivations.
I think this rhetoric is too often used to demonize the innocent and absolve the condemned. In its attempt to come up with an explanation, the police inadvertently place burden on the community--the community was in fault, of course, because if not, how else would we explain this madness?
But I think we should treat madness as plain madness sometimes. To assert that an irrational tragedy was caused by a crazy person seems too scary and random, which is why politiicans so often try to point out causes specific to that community, but in reality, we all know that every community--whether it be Oakville, El Dorado, Emerald City, or else--has its potential victims, pariahs, and outcasts. To make normal, day-to-day citizens seem like negligent neighbors who failed to prevent a violent event seems to stem from a desperate grasp for a rational explanation.
this was by JHN by the way
DeleteI definitely agree with the author's point that "it seems as if that is the role of the state in a situation like this: to mitigate suffering of the community by somehow making sense of what appears to be a senseless act of violence. The front line workers, in this case the individual Oakland Police officers, are the people who are attempting to make sense out of this event."
ReplyDeleteIt is actually very interesting that he points this out because there are definitely citizens who watch or read the news and become frustrated with the lack of transparency between the police and the the community. Often times people want to know more, especially in a case like this where as far as the public knows the circumstances in which the shooting took place seem so bizarre. People are left to wonder why the police have not said more or given more information out. This could even be misinterpreted as a lack of answers/progress on the part of the police. However, it is important to keep in mind the state agent narrative of the police. And I agree with the author on this point again that this is necessary to maintain the protection of those grieving.
EM