I predict the Va Tech Police Chief will be gone

[Hokie]

This was not handled well. There was a slow response to the first shooting. I know second guessing is going on but the sheer magnitude of this tragedy will cause a take no excuses atmosphere. The police chief will lose his job. The president of the university may eventually be gone as well.

[soothsayer]

1. Nah, his name is too perfect: Flinchum. You can't make up names

that perfect.

[Wickerman]

2. From what I've read the administration made the decision

The President and his chancellors (?) sat down and met for about 45 minutes. When they finished they sent out the first email, mere moments prior to the 2nd event.

[Virginia Dare]

3. I think you're right, there will be fall out from this..

the press scrutiny will be unrelenting, and they seemed pretty overwhelmed by it all yesterday.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Sounds Like A Lot Of Buck Passing Is Coming

"The lag" will surely be the story here...why students were assured the campus was secured when the gun and gunman hadn't been apprehended. Seems like this was an incident above their pay station and they fumbled in critical moments. Yesterday, when I heard the hemming and hawing on some basic questions by these men, I could hear the lawyers cash registers ringing.

What I question is any security in the classroom building. While I'm totally against metal detectors and you need to keep college campus buildings free and open...were there no survellience cameras or someone patroling the halls who could have suspected something strange was going on. It seems the police were totally blindsided by the later shootings and by the time they could react it was too late.

Unfortunately, the fallout of this tragedy will soon become a political football...it didn't take anytime for those who needed to push their agendas here to do so, be assured the rhetoric will start ramping up as the corporate media plays this card to draw ratings.

[ThatsMyBarack]

5. The shooting itself didn't shock me.

Why should the AWOL authorities?

[Robbien]

6. He shouldn't be, but by the way MSM is going on a witchhunt

he will be hurt.

Why would you close down a whole city of campus buildings because there was a shooting in one of them. Perhaps the mayor of the city should go down for this also since he didn't close down the public buildings. Hey talkingheads, a new target!

[godai]

8. No, there's a law which requires prompt notification...

when a major incident occurs on campus. They made a huge mistake assuming that the shooter was gone.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

11. Do you have more details on the law?

I heard on a local radio station this AM that there is a federal law and also IIRC 30 states have such laws. I think the name Clancy is associated with the law or the group the person being interviewed was with. I will use the google and see if I can find anything more substantial on this


edited to add link. I was googling Cleary - but it is the Clery Act

http://www.securityoncampus.org/schools/cleryact/

[godai]

14. Here's the relevant section about timely warning

Thanks for the link. Under timely warning:

Although the format for the warning has not been mandated,
the notice must be timely and reasonably likely to reach the entire
campus community and aid in the prevention of similar crimes.
Therefore, timely warnings must be issued in a manner that gets the
word out quickly communitywide. They may be e-mailed, posted
around campus, or otherwise distributed according to your
institution’s policy. A combination of dissemination methods may
be used. Timely warnings may not be issued in a manner or posted
in a location that requires the campus community to make requests
for them or to search for them. The responsibility for the warning
rests solely with the institution.

http://www.securityoncampus.org/schools/cleryact/handbook.pdf

There was a warning after the 1st shootings but too late to minimize the subsequent murders. It was critical to get the email out sooner, before the 9 am classes started.

[Thirtieschild]

12. The MSM can't exist without scapegoats

Watched them scapegoat the university yesterday, asking leading questions of students - did you feel betrayed by the university, etc. My husband spent one horrible year in local tv (WSB) and says that they ask quesions like that (and how did you feel when you saw your parents killed by that car?) but that the questions are NEVER supposed to get on the air, just the answers. Sometimes questions and answers both get on the air and then there is hell to pay, not that the questions were asked, but that they are broadcast. They disgust me so much it's hard to watch.

And yes, the university could have put out a warning earlier, but I believe them that they thought this was an isolated incident, an issue of domestic violence between boyfriend and girlfriend.

[wakeme2008]

7. I agree

to Assume that the first shooter has left the campus was crazy. They should have locked down until they knew for sure.

[godai]

9. Agree. I think the University President will also be gone.

They are trying to spin this that the 1st shooting was the end of everything, but it wasn't. A huge error in judgement.

Today's news conference was a joke, with no Q&A. They finally dropped the suggestion of 2 separate shooters, but, with this, their whole original premise collapses.

[MANative]

10. I agree - My husband was a state trooper

who worked as a liaison with colleges for over 12 years (many moons ago!). He was appalled and angry at their reaction - even before he knew any details about the timeline, he said that the very first thing he'd have done is to lock down the school. He related an incident where he responded to a report of a large pool of blood in an elevator at a dorm, and he said that until he found exactly what happened, he ordered every dorm locked down, and officers posted at every location. That happened in 1992. (Turned out that a drunk student had badly cut her hand on a broken beer bottle.)He was also stunned that they turned off the security access system in the dorms during parts of the day. Back in the late 80's and early 90's, he had established 24-hour security doors at the schools he worked with. Of course, that doesn't prevent students from trying to prop open doors, or to even open doors for people they don't know.

[Penndems]

13. We need to let the investigation continue on its course

Once it's been concluded, we'll have a clearer understanding of what occurred on this horrible, tragic day and assign blame where it deserves to be placed.