Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/22/mass-shooting-at-munich-shoppi.html
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How awful. I wonder who did this.
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Please don’t.
If the person is mentally ill to the point where their illness sends them on a murder spree, then that person needs help, sympathy, empathy, and, more than anything, treatment, not pejoratives.
If the person is of sound enough judgement to be morally culpable, then tarring the mentally ill (who are statistically much more likely to harm themselves than other people) with the same brush is an incredible insult to the mentally ill, and only serves to increase the stigma they face that prevent so many from seeking help.
I understand that it’s difficult to put yourself into the head of a mass shooter, and much easier to think that reason has deserted them entirely, but the sad fact is that usually isn’t true.
Conflating metal illness with mass shootings, even through the lazy use of pejoratives, is much more harmful than helpful the discussion of either issue.
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The dilemma of CCTV - useful at times like this when the police need to identify the people responsible, and track their movements in order to find them.
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But there are only 2 options. It’s either lone wacko (Nothing to do, couldn’t be predicted, nothing to see here move along) or it’s terrorists (OMG, we need to write laws, beef up the police force, invade a country.)
Being rational about it is going off script.
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I see where you’re coming from and agree with you completely. I would only propose that we let whacko become synonymous with asshole rather than mentally ill. We weren’t using it anyway and I do rather enjoy saying “right wing whack job.” 
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Despite recent events, let’s not forget that today is also the fifth anniversary of Breivik.
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I dunno; it’s really hard to change the meaning of a word like that, especially when that’s not a thing people use it for (or at least, I’ve never heard “wacko” used as a synonym for asshole; I’ve heard it used to refer to assholes, but not to refer specifically to their assholishness).
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Yᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ, ᴛʜɪɴɢꜱ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴘʀᴇᴛᴛʏ ᴅᴇᴘʀᴇꜱꜱɪɴɢ ʟᴀᴛᴇʟʏ.
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You know it is bad when DEATH is depressed about the number of shootings! 
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Or we could just cut to the chase and say it was a lone asswipe with a gun.
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As has been my usual contribution, the reddit live-thread: https://www.reddit.com/live/xatg2056flbi
If it is an act of political terrorism then dismissing the act as insane is very counterproductive.
It may be an irrational act, but to write it off right there throws away the very real provocations that lead to these acts.
I’d say insane is reacting to stimulus that isn’t there.
But most of these people have some kind of logical perspective behind these acts, even if they are all twisted up with rationalizations.
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Reporting in from Munich, cops are still talking of at least three suspects, none caught. What I saw live was the panic due to rumors that kept popping up of multiple shooters at Stachus, then Isartor. I’m back home, but since public transportation is shut down thousands are stranded.
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An addendum: the rumors were all false, but people are skittish. And the hotels and people are taking in all those stranded. And the cops in Munich are some of the most competent, their speed was one of the reasons why so few victims died. As sad as tonight is, I am proud of my adopted city.
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I just saw a demo of the CCTV system used in Cleveland earlier today, I forget where (it’s that kind of day, arg), but it had some pretty interesting search features:
1.) Pedestrian walkway, search: deviations from standard
1.a) result: only showed people (objects really) moving faster than normal, pretty much all at the same time (so sk8rs, bicyclists, etc) and each had a timestamp superimposed over them. having them all appear at the same time was surreal looking.
2.) Highway, search: red vehicles
2.a) result: only red cars/trucks, again all at the same time (so the screen was full of red cars - looked really odd) each again with a time code superimposed over them.
except I’m willing to bet that CCTV probably didn’t help the Munich Police (or any other police force, for that matter) all that much in real time, and that the resources spent on CCTV across the city would’ve been far more useful realised as a few more bobbies or another helicopter, either of which can move, react, and do stuff, rather than just sit there as a passive witness.
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This is not the zombie outbreak we wanted
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You’re right to raise the question, is CCTV useful in real time.
The Met Police seem to believe so, particularly when it comes to ANPR cameras. And again, it’s fair to ask the question if there would be a better result from spending the money on other resources. My assumption is they know what they are doing, but it is an assumption.
As far as I am aware, there is very little CCTV in Germany, and I wonder if more would have given them an indication of where to look for the shooters.
Maybe we’ll know more, when the post-crisis reviews are done.
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BTW, am I alone in still feeling a sting when hearing there was a shooting in Munich from the last time - and realizing just how fsk’d up things are, how little has changed and really, how much more screwed up things are?
