UVa Football Players Killed...

[RP]

This happened last Sunday night, but here in Charlottesville, it seems that it just happened. Please think a good thought for the deceased, their families and their friends....https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ampus-shooting

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Lots of anger out there these days. I can't contemplate the pain some of these families are going thru.

[Jim Owen]

On a school bus, just coming back from a trip to see a play.

Absolutely horrible. When I was at Uva, I had the pleasure of teaching a couple of football players. They were thoughtful, bright young men who just happened to be althletes.

Senseless violence. The shooter was a former Uva football player, but his time on the team was brief and didn’t overlap his targets.

[RP]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

On a school bus, just coming back from a trip to see a play.

Absolutely horrible. When I was at Uva, I had the pleasure of teaching a couple of football players. They were thoughtful, bright young men who just happened to be althletes.

Senseless violence. The shooter was a former Uva football player, but his time on the team was brief and didn’t overlap his targets.

Not that it makes a difference but it was a commercial bus, not a UVa vehicle. The suspected shooter jumped up as the bus was coming to a stop and said something to the affect of "You guys are always messing with me" before shooting. Evidently, the suspected shooter was not a member of the class but was "invited" to come because he'd had the instructor for another class.

There was a large memorial held at JPJ Hall yesterday. I actually have no connection to UVa besides living in Charlottesville; I found the yesterday's memorial extremely moving. https://www.aol.com/news/virginia-ho...175644298.html

[Bob Womack]

Yesterday, UVa's biggest rivals, Virginia Tech, played Liberty University's Flames. The two teams coordinated and wore the dark and light uniforms of UVa and UVa helmet stickers as a memorial to the slain players. I was impressed and touched.

Today, some of the Washington Commanders players are wearing memorial items on their uniforms and some staff are wearing UVa colors. Nice.

Bob

[TRose]

Apparently the shooter had ,at some point, requested a hazing investigation concerning his experience with the football team. The investigation was started but promptly dropped when none of the witnesses ( other football players ) were willing to cooperate.
Then the shooting occurred.

None of that history justifies the senseless tragedy but may begin to explain it.

[Dirk Hofman]

Memorials, commemorations, thoughts and prayers. So sick of it all.

[RP]

Originally Posted by TRose

Apparently the shooter had ,at some point, requested a hazing investigation concerning his experience with the football team. The investigation was started but promptly dropped when none of the witnesses ( other football players ) were willing to cooperate.
Then the shooting occurred.

None of that history justifies the senseless tragedy but may begin to explain it.

The suspect was on the team in 2018 but never played. He did not return to the team in his second year at UVA. The victims were second year students so their presence on the football team would not have overlapped with the suspect. That's not to say that their paths could not have overlapped in other ways, but not as football players. He grew up in the projects in Richmond, VA and was said to have gotten into lots of fights, possibly because he was more studious than his classmates. I'll be interested to see specific motive behind what seems pretty senseless. His father said the the younger Jones was acting paranoid when he saw him a month ago. I'm starting to wondering about the beginnings of schizophrenia or PPD...

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental illness characterized by paranoid delusions, and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. People with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily insulted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. They are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other interpretations or evidence.

They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.[verification needed] People with PPD may have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others' actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right. Patients with this disorder can also have significant comorbidity with other personality disorders, such as schizotypal, schizoid, narcissistic, avoidant and borderline.

[Mdinterman]

Lots of support from Va Tech community just as UVa supported Va Tech in 2007 when 31 individuals lost their lives in our shooting. Like a lot of Hokies said “a tragedy like this transcends a school rivalry”. The upcoming Tech UVa football game has been cancelled and as far as Tech is concerned, what ever helps the Wahoo Nation heal, we are behind it. I hope this wound heals quickly for UVa.

[RP]

https://www.aol.com/news/uva-footbal...173707574.html

[rokdog49]

These irrational killings have become a daily occurrence in the United States. I can remember a time in my life when this did not happen at all.
Today, it happens everywhere and by many different people but the reasons are pretty much the same.
It is pure self-serving behavior.
When anyone justifies the action to take away life, it’s using evil and power at its worst level.
It’s not hard to track the beginnings of this behavior and why we are where we are.
Sadly, the downward spiral is accelerating.
Prayers for all of those who suffer the loss of loved ones.

[H165]

These irrational killings have become a daily occurrence in the United States. I can remember a time in my life when this did not happen at all.

I'm 73 and it's been happening all my life. What has not always been happening is the commercial media and social media visibility and coverage, and the ability to comment in social media.

There was another incident late last night at a Walmart a couple thousand miles away from me. I saw it on the news; instantly.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

These irrational killings have become a daily occurrence in the United States. I can remember a time in my life when this did not happen at all.
Today, it happens everywhere and by many different people but the reasons are pretty much the same.
It is pure self-serving behavior.
When anyone justifies the action to take away life, it’s using evil and power at its worst level.
It’s not hard to track the beginnings of this behavior and why we are where we are.
Sadly, the downward spiral is accelerating.
Prayers for all of those who suffer the loss of loved ones.

Violent crime was higher decades ago than it is now but we have some changes that can be deceiving. Reporting and news is different now decades past what was FCC regulation called Fairness Doctrine. Rural and small town crime has become about commensurate with urban crime.

@RP point on paranoid personality disorder is important to consider and it appears we're in an I hope short-term cycle of more poor behavior being unacceptable.

Tracking the beginnings of this behavior would be complex. We are the same species but a whole lot has changed over some major revolutions starting with agriculture and cognitive revolutions themselves thousands of years old.

The way parochial behavior or polarization has reversed a trend from my growing up times to now is likely a problem. I personally feel we all need to concentrate on functional matters we have in common more than social matters that can be divisive.

I understand prayer working as some mindfulness techniques do, but our real job should be getting along, accepting lots of differences, and just promoting good behavior.

40+ years ago a kid from my childhood neighborhood was in a campus gun incident. It was lucky no one was killed. It shocked those who knew him because he came from a good family but he was also a bullied kid and probably had something like paranoid personality disorder mentioned here. For decades other incidents remind me of that.

FWIW, I have 3 college students now so think about the pressures for that cohort a lot.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by H165

I'm 73 and it's been happening all my life. What has not always been happening is the commercial media and social media visibility and coverage, and the ability to comment in social media.

There was another incident late last night at a Walmart a couple thousand miles away from me. I saw it on the news; instantly.

What’s been happening all your life?
Mass school shootings by teenagers? Shootings in theaters? Mass shootings in bars? Shootings in retail stores? Mass shootings in churches and temples? Shootings on college campuses? Drive by shootings in urban areas? Mass shootings in the workplace?

Granted the coverage of said events is off the charts but I would challenge you to document the kinds of mass shootings in the numbers and frequency that are happening today vs when you were ten years old. There is no basis in fact.


BTW, I’m 73 as well and nothing like this was going on when I was young…anywhere.

[RP]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

...BTW, I’m 73 as well and nothing like this was going on when I was young…anywhere.

I'm approaching 73 and if such killings were so rampant when I was a kid, I sure was sheltered from it. The only one I can vaguely recall was the shooting spree by Charles Whitman at the University of Texas in 1966...