>The Dunblane massacre that precipitated wholesale
>firearm confiscation in the UK was a failure not of the
>principle of private gun ownership, but of social
>responsibility up the chain of civil authority. The
>beat cop knew the perp was a nutter, and reported it
>repeatedly. Nothing was done and, afterward, nobody in
>authority lost his job or pension.
>
>We had another example of the same dynamic recently in
>Colorado USA. People in authority knew, and did
>nothing. Now there's plenty talk of tightening the
>screws on kids who are 'different'.
>
>This is symbolic of a pattern.
>
Nicely said, Margaret. There is a definite pattern here - it is always human error/operator's fault - never a systemic failure. The Exxon Valdez disaster was caused by a drunken skipper, not by a faulty design of an inherently risky operation. Police violence is always the work of some rotten apples on the force, not the system of policing that resembles a military pacification. Ironically, I heard the same spiel on the other side of the iron curtain - where the assorted motley of guitly characters included bureaucrats, kulaks, speculators, hooligans, saboteurs etc. -- anything but the system itself and its captains.
Wojtek
>