Hit List Hysteria

Today the F.B.I. announced it is taking what amounts to a no-tolerance policy toward the authors of the recent “hit lists” found on area campuses.

I know the investigators and local agents are good people.

There is no doubt in my mind the FBI folks I’ve talked to are sincerely interested in doing what’s best.

I freely admit I could not do their job.

I wonder how many inside the FBI would agree with me.

After all, they are enforcers of the law and not makers of the law.

They are also not allowed to speak out about certain things because of the nature of their job.

What gets me is what they are being asked to do.

The rules just don’t make sense in this case.

If I am a student, and I’m pissed at you, it would be better for me to walk up to you and kick you in the nuts than to write your name down on a piece of paper.

I think everyone has gone a little crazy since Columbine.

This week they found a list at LC-M high school.

The list didn’t say “Kill These People”… It was a list of names.

This is a hit list?

I guess Santa Clause should be prepared for the FBI to come knocking’ on his door soon.

The guy keeps a list of people called “The Naughty List.”

He needs to be prosecuted!

A few years back there was a kid in Vidor, Jasen Ketl.

Apparently he had a list AND a cache of weapons.

This is a different situation than kids who are pissed and take their aggression out with a pen rather than a fist or a gun.

Everyone needs to chill out!

If memory serves me correctly, just before the hurricane there was an elementary student in

Port Arthur who had a list she titled “People to kill.”

She had erased the word “kill.”

Someone found the note in her possession.

She did not post the list, it was found on her.

I seriously doubt this elementary student who wrote a note in anger actually owns an AK47.

Last year in Jefferson County I remember covering a murder trial in which the defendant got PROBATION.

How can you justify giving a child 2 years in prison for writing an angry note and give an adult who killed probation??

Is this a matter of typical American politicians reaching a reactionary answer to actual violent kids?

Cookie-cutter answers do not work in the real world.