Mark Steyn: The psychological profilers haven't hit the sniper yet

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 10/20/2002 | Mark Steyn

[mrustow]

Very true. In times like these, I prefer talk radio to talk TV. On the TV talkshows, it's non-stop psychological speculation. On the radio phone-in shows, the talk is all of bullets and angles and which semi-automatic is chambered for which calibre. Being blessedly free of professional full-time performing experts, the radio shows have only thousands of gun-nut listeners to rely on, and, in their area of expertise, they at least know what they're talking about.

Sounds just like FR, LOL. Thanks for the ping!

[chuckles]

Has anybody heard any talking heads say it might be a tree hugging PETA wacko? The shootings started about the time bow hunting started. Maybe a PETA terrorist showing humans what it fells like to be hunted.

That's my opinion and I'm stickin to it!

[I. M. Trenchant]

When he has his best stuff, Steyn is vastly entertaining as a satirist, as he is in this column, but Mark seems a mite reserved about evaluating the possible aims of the Washington area sniper. I thought he might have dared to speculate further when he said:

In fairness to the Islamofascists, when it comes to their "murderous pleasures" variety is the spice of death. They disdain a consistent modus operandi. Much of what they do is unprecedented: September 11, the shoe bomber, the Afghan resistance leader they assassinated by posing as interviewers and killing him with a disguised camera. Before I rule out the Islamists, I'd want a better reason than Prof Leyton's.

Indeed. Whatever else is common to Islamic terrorism, it is uniformly directed to damaging the U.S. economy, which has been sorely damaged by the unprecedented decision to transfer Middle East conflicts to the continental U.S. The effects of the WTC plane hijackings and bombings on the nation's largest industry, tourism, have been devastating, and if this sniper activity is viewed as a possible extension of the same strategy, the effect of what is happening in and around the D.C. area, especially in and about gas stations, is likely to have a profound impact on local tourism.

Pending the number of such sleeper cells there might be throughout the U.S. -- be they Islamists, or homegrown Arabists who passionately oppose U.S. Middle East policies in particular, or government policies in general -- the D.C. area sniping could be a paradigm for what might happen in different regions of the country. It is not difficult to imagine how such activity, if randomly staggered, geographically and temporally, could paralyze the domestic tourism and travel industries. As Steyn says, Before I rule out the Islamists, I'd want a better reason than Prof Leyton's.

[Conservative4Ever]

Mark Steyn rules!!

Red

[monday]

"and if this sniper activity is viewed as a possible extension of the same strategy, the effect of what is happening in and around the D.C. area, especially in and about gas stations, is likely to have a profound impact on local tourism"

Possibly. The DC area has no real economy though. It is mostly just a parasite to the rest of the nation. If it causes the hemorraging of money, caused by gov't waste, to slow even a little, it will make the rest of the US economy healthier.

[fire_eye]

'I've just never seen a serial killer whose motivation seems to be to create terror in the community rather than to see his individual victims suffer,' said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston who has written books on serial killers."
The reason Prof Fox has never seen a serial killer do that is because that's not what serial killers do; it's what terrorists do.

No sher, s**tlock... (ref. to "Prof." Fox here...*) Sure took him both braincells to figure that one out.

I keep coming back to a small detail in the snipers' behavior: One shot, even when they miss.

A real psychopath gets his kicks from watching people die, from reading about their deaths... but whoever is doing *these* shootings has enough fire discipline to only shoot once, even when he misses

Methinks that someone with a deep-rooted hatred of humans at large would not be able to resist firing again, if they failed to connect. Remember, they've spent hours setting up the scenario and waiting for the right target and the right circumsatances. Nevertheless, when he/she/it misses, there is *still* no second shot.

Whoever this is, is a professional...

[I. M. Trenchant]

No doubt you're right about the immediate effects of the D.C. area killings on the economy, but if the same activity were generalized, and were to have the same effect (social paralysis) in other areas that it is having in the D.C. area, the effects could be significant out of all proportion to the loss of life involved. Additionally, the discomfort of the wealthy mandarins who live in the Virgina area is likely to have political effect out of all proportion to their numbers.

[unending thunder]

Professional indeed. These are not random killings. Well planned and executed after a great deal of ground / map work. The actual peeps killed are random.

Compare and contrast the efforts of the LEO's. 2 weeks on and we have FA in evidence, identity, motive, where they work / live / eat / keep their vehicles / weapon(s) used.

Shirley LEO's can be duplicating the snipers homework, identifying likely spots, (near IS routes, overlooking woods, whayever and ruling out least likely and concentrating resource on most likely ) One thing is certain, the guy(s) (team girl(s) knows where they are going next.

I say bring in the Boy Scouts of America - at least we know there will be no faggots on the job.

[Dan Day]

Don't rule out a bear with a grudge.

I knew this would happen eventually thanks to that "right to keep and arm bears" amendment.

[MeekOneGOP]

.....Whoever this is, is a professional...

And also there have been reports/witnesses that there are more than one in the vehicle. It's an well-organized, well executed plan. And the fact that it is carried out in the close proximity to Washington, D.C. lends credibility to the terrorist slant.

[Momaw Nadon]

Is it time to bring in psychics to solve the DC area sniper case?

[Man of the Right]

The psychobabble is designed to fill a news hole.

The security agencies made a fundamental error denying the Islamists were not involved at the get-go. Now, it's going to be extremely hard to accept what's increasingly obvious.

Unless a sniper/spotter team screws up, the ring is going to continue to get away with it -- perhaps forever. The reason the incidents occur day afer day, week after week, and soon, month after month and year after year, is that the authorities have no intelligence. The failure to put the intelligence agencies on a war footing (a real, not a rhetorical war) following 9-11 results in the bad guys skating circles around the federal government. With superior intelligence, a very small force could take the terrorists down. Lacking intelligence, we witness the same mantra repetitively: swarm, close the interstate, hold a news conference, announce one-to-two days later the so-called sniper was involved, and wait for the next incident.

[Man of the Right]

The real ones are working, probably not too effectively.

[stands2reason]

Good luck finding out. All I know is he's originally from Canada, but now lives in New Hampshire. He needs to have an official website, or at least an e-mail addy. The most I find about him on the net is written by leftists---not good!

[McGavin999]

But let's try to put together a more detailed psychological profile: it's clear we're dealing with someone who craves publicity, who derives some kind of sick thrill out of what he's doing, whose sense of superiority is fed by the kick he gets being one step ahead of the cops, whose need to express his fantasies leads him to repeat the act again and again, until eventually his arrogance causes him to slip up, he gets careless and sloppy.

OMG! It's Bill Clinton! ;o)

[Gritty]

Steyn profiles the profilers. Except in this case, he is correct and most profilers are not.

[nicmarlo]

Perhaps the killer's British. Perhaps he's a Gilbert and Sullivan fan. Perhaps he's a troubled loner trying to sound like an Islamic terrorist. Or perhaps he's an Islamic terrorist trying to sound like a troubled loner.

LOL. Perfect.

[free me]

Love the "ping pic", thanks!

[LibertarianLiz]

America's diversity-conscious pantywaist newsrooms

Yeah, Mark Steyn!

[LibertarianLiz]

The reason Prof Fox has never seen a serial killer do that is because that's not what serial killers do; it's what terrorists do.

And, another one I just had to pull out.