See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil
Refusing to look at the storm clouds, does not prevent a storm. Rant about obscuring the facts.
Just this past weekend (April 18–19), here in the eastern part of Canada, Nova Scotia, we suffered the most horrible mass killing ever seen in Canada.
You folks in the U.S.A. may have seen something on this in the news.
So basically, a small town Denturist, in his early 50s, grabs a refurbished (by him) police car, a gun and a makeshift police uniform and goes on a killing spree — to date 18 bodies have been recovered. Police suspect more will be found as the investigation continues.
No motive has been revealed pending the completion of the investigation.
What we DO know is this guy lived in a small town in Nova Scotia. He was a successful Denturist. He owned at least one location for his business. Recently, due to the Corona Virus pandemic, he was forced to close his business. He was, or had been involved with a woman. We also know that in attempting to capture him, the police shot and killed him.
The police have said that his killing spree appeared to been planned, and that not all his victims were known to him.
As lately as Monday — April 21 — our Prime Minister was offering his condolences and was asking that news outlets not give this killer any publicity by talking about him or mentioning his name to avoid giving him any “glory”.
Here comes the rant
And that is where my rant comes in. The killer is dead, the threat has been removed. Mentioning his name and speaking about what he did is NOT giving the killer any free publicity. HE IS DEAD, so no thrill tweets for him.
BUT — we do need to know what got him started so that others in the same mental state can hopefully be stopped before they turn to violence.
Refusing to talk about the facts and the killer is not helpful.
It’s the typical three monkeys response:
See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.
Unfortunately, this approach will not help us to understand all the facts, and to perhaps be able to learn from them.
After reading the story and looking at what happened, I strongly suspect that this man was always a bit unstable (from comments acquaintances have made), and that having to close his businesses simply tipped him over the top. All the grudges and anger he had been suppressing for years came to the top and he snapped.
The first victims in his killing spree were his ex — wife or girlfriend — not clarified — and her new boyfriend.
At some point during his spree he burned down several homes, including his own.
We may never know for sure what got him started, but refusing to mention his name, refusing to talk about it, refusing to acknowledge what happened — this will not help us to possibly help prevent other similar events from occurring.
There are countless troubled souls in the world. What is going on in the world right now is the perfect catalyst for tipping someone already on the edge, over the edge.
Keeping a kind and watchful eye on our friends, family and neighbours is a first step to seeing danger signs. Finding out about what may have triggered this killer, may be helpful in noticing warning signs in others.
You do not have to be a shrink to see that a person who is faced with catastrophic changes to their life, and who may have had a rough childhood, or difficulties at school and college, and who has suffered a broken relationship — that all those things could lead a person to snap.
So I’m saying forget about refusing to mention this man’s name and refusing to talk about the tragedy — let’s find out as much as we can, to try to save the next one.
