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News The First Victim Is Truth

Posted by on April 23 at 16:54 PM

Christine Wenc, a former editor of The Stranger, sent in a link to this piece at Mother Jones and asked me to Slog it. Here are the money graphs:

The first person killed by Cho Seung-Ho, a freshman named Emily Hilscher, was initially rumored to be Cho’s current or former girlfriend – the subject of his obsession or jealous rage. It now appears that she never had a relationship with Cho, but the rumors were spread quickly, especially by blogs and by the international tabloid press. The UK’s Daily Mail headlined the “Massacre Gunman’s Deadly Infatuation with Emily,” while Australia’s Daily Telegraph published a photo of a smiling Hilscher with the line “THIS is the face of the girl who may have sparked the worst school shooting in US history.” (The page is still up.) Some accounts stooped to suggesting, with zero evidence, that the victim had jilted Cho, cheated on him, or led him on.

More significantly, local police and university administrators appear to have initially bought this motive, and acted accordingly. In the two hours between the murders of Hilscher and her dorm neighbor Ryan Clark, and Cho’s mass killings at another university building, they chose not to cancel classes or lock down the campus. (They did choose to do so, however, in August 2006, when a man shot a security guard and a sheriff’s deputy and escaped from a hospital two miles away.) Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed the first shooting was a “domestic dispute” and thought the gunman had fled the campus, so “We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur.” The assumption, apparently, is that men who kill their cheating girlfriends are criminals, but they are not crazy, not psychopaths, and not a danger to anyone other than the woman in question. (Or, as one reader commented at Feministe sarcastically, “Like killing your girlfriend is no big deal.”)

Says Christine:

From the very start of this coverage most reporters blithely went along with the “just a domestic dispute” idea, and implied that the young woman in the dorm—the first one killed—was somehow romantically connected with Cho and this is what set him off. I admit that I thought this was probably the case myself at first, since this sort of thing is so common. When I used to read the news on public radio there would be something on the wire about a man murdering the woman he was involved with about once a week. It’s not a feminist harangue—it’s just true. It has become part of our social wallpaper, kind of like car accidents.

Even so, from the start of the Cho coverage I was angered by the idea that somehow it wasn’t a big deal because it was “only” a domestic dispute. (As well as the implication that she somehow brought this upon herself, if only for being a pretty young woman).

So I’ve been waiting to see if someone would write something about how disturbing it is that we seem to find shooting your girlfriend so ordinary. I was very happy to see this Mother Jones article. As it turned out, she was not involved with him at all.

CommentsRSS icon

1

"But I do think that male violence against women is a huge problem, and I wish more straight men would step up -- more than already do -- and take responsibility for ending it. This shooting spree would seem to have more to do with male-on-female violence than it has to do with Korea. That's all I'm saying.

Thank you and good night.

Posted by Dan Savage | April 18, 2007 9:53 AM"

2

What I heard Saturday morning on NPR was that they initially thought it was a totally different guy - an actual ex-boyfriend of the girl who was killed first - and were busy looking for that guy instead of Cho (and instead of locking down the campus). This is the first I've heard that they thought the girl was *Cho's* girlfriend.

3

When comparing it to mass-murderer, it is appropriate to call killing one's significant other "only a domestic dispute."

4

Oh no...the early news stories are inconsistent with what we now know. How long will it be for the compulsive paranoids start saying that it was an "inside job" like 9/11, ya know?

5

Stalkers don't kill imaginary girlfriends.

Pistols do.

6

Like the earlier SLOG post ruminating about the lack of discussion of "class issues" as it relates to Cho, I think this is a red herring.

Yes, it is true that domestic disputes that end in someone (usually a woman) being killed is becoming commonplace enough that it seems barely worth noting. Yes, it is sometimes implied that the woman brought it on herself. Yes, this is a serious subject that deserves some research and discussion.

But, no, I don't see that it has anything to do with Cho.

I suppose it is natural to wonder, in perfect hindsight, if the school should have locked down the campus, and if that might have prevented the larger tragedy. But seriously, what is the precedent for such an action? How often have we heard of a two stage mass killer with a significant time lag between two separate sets of killings? Although I haven't studied the subject, every crazed gunman I've ever heard of snaps, goes and goes on a killing spree, and it only ends when he either (A) shoots himself, (B) gets shot by the cops, (C)takes hostages & barricades himself in somewhere, (D) gets talked out of the previous 3 options and gives himself up to the cops. I've never heard of a crazed gunman snapping, killing a few people, then taking a 2 or 3 hour break before snapping a second time and going on a second killing spree.

Going on past history, every minute that passed after the first shooting, the greater likelihood that the first killing was an isolated event (domestic or otherwise), and that the killer probably left campus. Turned out not to be the case, but it seems like a perfectly reasonable danger assessment at the time.

Also, I'm not totally buying the accusation that we always blame the victim of domestic violence. In the murder/suicide that occurred earlier this month at the UW (which actually was a domestic dispute), I don't remember hearing or reading anyone saying that the woman was in any way at fault or brought it on herself.

7

hey sda, how about we heard of a security guard being shot on the same campus last fall? maybe we aren't primed for 2 stage murders... but they sure closed the campus down then.. but not for the murder of 2 students.. are all lives equal?? not in america. get real.

8

@6-
Domestic disputes that end in a woman being killed are not "becoming" so commonplace that they're beneath notice. This isn't a new problem. Men have been abusing, battering, and killing their female partners since time immemorial. The only difference is that in modern times, it's considered a problem and steps are being taken to end it. Of course, we still have a ways to go, but I believe we are winning this.

9

Good news: domestic disputes ending in murder are not "becoming commonplace": in fact they are falling. "The number of intimate partner homicide victims has declined since 1993, with greater declines seen for male victims. During 1993, the number of females murdered by intimates was 1,571, compared to 1,159 during 2004 -- a 26 percent decline. The number of males murdered by partners during 1993 was 698, compared to 385 -- a 45 percent decline." http://crime.about.com/b/a/257251.htm

That makes men about 25% of the victims. Men may in fact be killed at a higher rate than that, because women tend to use three methods--hiring a contract killer, having a boyfriend do the killing, or using poison--that either show up in statistics as "multiple-offender killings" rather than killings by an intimate partner, or are not detected at all.

For an example of a murderer who killed at several locations, see Luke Woodham, who in 1997 killed his mother before driving to school, killing two girls (including his ex-girlfriend), and was on his way to a middle school to continue his rampage when he was stopped by an assistant principal with a licensed .45.

Maybe psychologists can take note of the history of stalking and other signs and come up with a profile to spot these (mostly) guys before they snap? I hate these fucking mass shootings!

10

Sadly, both women and men are frequently killed as a result of disputes, domestic or otherwise.

Happily, the killers almost never follow up such murders with an indiscriminate massacre. The police response was reasonable, and it had nothing to do with sexism or the perceived "importance" of the first murder.

Think hard - do you really want to live in a society where your government reacts hysterically to every possible threat (Terror alert red!! Invade Iran!!) and is given the power required to guarantee bad guys won't ever hurt us (wire tapping, torture, extraordinary rendition)?

11

It is very easy to connect the dots between minimization of hostile, misogynist behavior, mental illness and threats of extreme violence. Same goes for homophobia, racist behavior, beating homeless people, etc. Dehumanization is dehumanization. And the lack of access to mental health care in this country is criminal.

Schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, depression, etc. etc. just means you're mentally ill - that's different than someone who's mentally ill with a deep-down dangerous hatred of women. One does not equal the other.

I don't know what we can do about that in the short term, because you can't just say to someone "Please check the box if you hate women" when they go to buy their murder weapon of choice. But a simple first step would be to take any and all allegations of stalking and harrassment seriously. As much as things have improved in the last 15-20 years, we're still not safe. Currently, the answer to "How do I keep myself (and others) safe from a stalker?" is "Disappear". How do we take the next step?

Still formulating this, but it's been a lively topic of conversation in many meetings over the last few days. And it's amazing the gender divide in perception of the recent events in any group discussing them...

12

When something senseless and tragic like this happens people often try to use it as a platform for their own issues. For example, much has been made about how video games are responsible for increased violence. In fact, Cho didn't play video games. Let's chalk this up to what it really is, a mentally ill person who snapped.

13

You know, we could also be talking about the fact that the first (white) female victim was found together with the first (black) male victim.

And then we could use that as a starting point for our discussion of the "domestic dispute" theory, which as far as I can make out was advanced mostly by the local press soon after the first two deaths, and not by the local police— I don't care how racist your local cop is, he doesn't look at a black male corpse and a white female corpse and conclude "murder/suicide" when the obvious weapon is missing.

There is indeed something else to be said about the assumption on the part of the local press that the first two murders were "domestic"— that is, committed by someone who knew the victims— we can say with authority that this is statistically the most likely scenario, and therefore a reasonable assumption (provided the weapon is found at the scene of the putative murder/suicide, of course, but the police did not release that particular bit of information immediately).

I'll agree that the initial hypotheses advanced by the media were weird and off-key, but damn it, the initial reporting in mass killings is always weird and off-key. "Trench Coat Mafia," Anyone?

It pains me to see political organs like Mother Jones milking this tragedy to advance their own agendas. Haven't we seen enough of that shit, already? Yes, it's a goddamned national tragedy that most of the violence in the US is domestic violence. But trying to connect that tragedy to the VT tragedy, which is of a different character completely, seems wrenchingly crass to me.

14

"But I do think that male violence against women is a huge problem, and I wish more straight men would step up -- more than already do -- and take responsibility for ending it." - Dan Savage

How am I, as a "straight" man, who has never EVER been violent towards a woman (or a guy for that matter), supposed to "step up and take responsibility for ending it"?

Just wondering.

15

elswinger:

You can start by calling bullshit on misogyny when you recognize it. You can also not be an asshole.

16

I agree that it is too simplistic to say the authorities didn't take enough action after the first killings because the first victim was a woman. Those of you who say that based on statistics, the police shouldn't have assumed that the killer would go on a rampage are right. But the writer of the article also goes on to say that Cho had a history of harassing women in college. I don't think it's fair to say that Mother Jones is hijacking this story to irresponsibly push their agenda, given that misogyny was an early cause for concern among his professors and classmates.

17

#15 I don't hang around or associate with people who treat women like shit, and for calling me an asshole you can fuck yourself.

18

Geez, elswinger. Defensive much?

Misogyny isn't just treating women like shit. Women are objectified, infantilized and fetishized. As a "straight" guy, can you honestly say you're not guilty of any of that?

And I didn't call you an asshole (I provided links to help you overcome your cluelessness). But I'm getting close.

19

"Women are objectified, infantilized and fetishized. As a "straight" guy, can you honestly say you're not guilty of any of that?"

I'll cop to the first two, but that is called being attracted to someone. What's it like in your sexually inhibited universe?

20

Even if the VT killings had begun with a "domestic dispute", people seem to forget that many of the most infamous killing sprees in our history began this way.

The Bath School disaster and the Whitman massacre, respectively the most deadly school-related mass-murder, and the former most deadly campus shooting, both started with domestic killings. Kip Kinkel killed both his parents before his spree at Thurston High school, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre#Historical_context

21

Don't forget people who were recently fired from their jobs going all "postal."

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