Heads must roll at Virginia Tech

The police chief said “we thought it was domestic violence” as if that was no big deal. They prejudged the case. At first they responded to a 911 call thinking a “fratboy” had slapped his “bitch”. As soon as they had two dead college students they had two murders, no suspect, no weapons and they “assumed” domestic violence.

Now I wasn’t there hearing the evidence unfold just after 7am but what I heard at the news conference was, “We assumed this was a domestic violence case, we assumed that the shooter left the campus and maybe the state, and we assumed we were going to have a quiet day from here on in”.

And we apparently assumed we didn’t have reason or the ability to execute a lock down. We sent an email and carried on a normal Monday.

Then today they refused to answer questions at the morning “press conference”.

Well I am sorry, but in the US military there is a saying that “assume” makes an ass out of u and me.

When asked about the policy for getting that campus into lock down, the police chief at the news conference yesterday could not answer the question. I read that the university’s emergency guidance is six pages long and says things like “call 911”. Well, we are engaged in a war on terror, you know? One might expect more. Every Fox News Channel talking head is connected via the Internet in a “Red Alert” system that could be used to alert them to something like another 9-11.

If I am correct in my reaction to this, lives could have been saved by appropriate law enforcement and a reaction from the University President during the 7am hour.

I am sorry if people take offence or disagree but I was in the US Navy for 20 years and it is a place where every man and woman learns accountability. If I lost 33 college students or sailors on my watch the phone would have already been ringing. The Chief of Naval Operations would be telling the top dog to clean out his desk pronto. Likewise the University President should go and take that police chief with him.

The next shots I’d like to hear ring out should come from the firing squad. At least that is more honourable than a hanging.

I think the Governor needs to make a phone call.