Heads must roll at Virginia Tech

The entire nation will now collectively mourn one of the great tragedies one can endure: the death of so many of our children.

But a detailed analysis of the facts will also be ongoing. There are many questions from all observers.

It just seems to me, when law enforcement agents find two dead bodies on a sleepy university campus in the 7am hour, they should immediately slam the “Red Alert” button.

I know I am going to get hate mail and I may be rushing to make a judgment. Monday morning quarterbacks aren’t always very welcome. But this essay is about executive decision-making and accountablility.

Yesterday there were some lame remarks about getting out an email (two hours late) and that there wasn’t time to get the word to both lock down the campus and stop the influx of tens of thousands of commuters.

We aren’t thinking big here. Hokie people are telling me there is no way to lock down a 26,000 person (or more) city. Well I do not buy it. If a hurricane is bearing down on a US Naval Station we execute a pre-planned emergency evacuation system. We use the TV, radio and all our assets. We get most of the ships out to sea and most of the sailors and their families into safe locations.

Don’t they have radio and TV in Blacksburg, Virginia? If, at 7am, a tornado was announced heading for that campus, what would have happened? How about a snowstorm? We had high winds in Washington D.C. this week and the schools were closed three hours early. It was on every radio and TV station in seconds. With that huge force of law enforcement, a good police commander could have closed every road into that campus in no time.

They have radios, cars and flashing lights, don’t they?

Did anyone notice that a bunch of those law enforcement officers were, ahem, chubby?

Law enforcement officers at Virginia Tech didn’t save one life. They didn’t waste one bullet doing it either. Somebody should be ashamed: law enforcement agents didn’t fire a shot. The only shooter on that campus got tired after all the mayhem he made.

If my kid was dead and killed in the classroom after 9am I’d be one angry parent.

When is the last time law enforcement found two dead students, murdered students, on that campus at 7am? And no murder weapon, no certain motive and no suspect.

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.