Some people have credentials, and others don’t

More here about shooter Aaron Alexis:

He sought treatment with the Veterans Administration for paranoia and hearing voices in two states.

Considering what I have heard about the VA, that may have been his biggest mistake.

In August, Newport, R.I., police were called to a Marriott Hotel room where Alexis said he was being followed by three people and heard voices coming from his closet. He couldn’t sleep because he thought they were using a microwave machine to send vibrations through the ceiling, the police report says.

That’s probably a clue about something. Like, either he was mentally ill or he wasn’t. (Either way, it indicates a problem.)

It may also indicate a serious problem with the so-called “security clearance” industry in this country. Why would they give a secret clearance to someone with a history of mental illness, bizarre beliefs, dislike of his country, and violent behavior? Naturally we only hear about these things when someone goes violently bonkers and kills people. Had this man managed to restrain his impulses on Monday and confine himself to video games, he’d still be going to work at his supposedly secure location daily, and all would be well.

Would it?

I can’t help wondering how many other nutjobs are running around with official credentials, and even power. No, I don’t mean finger-on-the-button style power. But let’s take a regular ordinary (or what passes for ordinary these days) job that entails power: POLICE OFFICER. What would have stopped this Aaron Alexis character from simply applying to a police academy somewhere? With his military background and secret security clearance, I would think he’d be a shoo-in. (Even without taking into account the P.D.’s improved affirmative action scores.) And then he would be free to do stuff that’s a lot more exciting to a controlled psychopath than working in some dumb office.

He wouldn’t have to get his jollies pretending to kill people in video games, because he’d be legally empowered to break down doors and shoot civilians!

Like shooting to death an unarmed man who had just been in an accident and was running to the police for “help.”

Or even shooting an innocent man for the crime of lying in his bed.

Opportunities abound.

As to “gun control,” all that term means is taking away guns from ordinary citizens. No one for a moment proposes that the empowered, credentialed killers in our midst should ever be disarmed.


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One response to “Some people have credentials, and others don’t”

  1. RigelDog Avatar
    RigelDog

    The grant of a security clearance is outrageous. It particularly pisses us off because my spouse almost had a clearance denied because several years before we’d had ONE 60-day credit card late payment. Our finances were fine and showed no other problems; it was a card we used infrequently and I’d simply forgotten that I’d used it so was not on the lookout for a bill among the everyday junkmail. But hey, we can all understand why that was a huge issue but shooting at annoying neighbors and hearing voices coming from the microwave are A-OK.