Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Minnesota Cho in the Making

I went to my local library today to spend a few hours studying and writing, thinking this would be a good place to work with no distractions (like my refrigerator and the Internet and that newspaper lying over there). I set up my computer and books in a study corral in the back of the library (far away from the kids section). I walked by the row of adults at the computers and noticed a gentleman sitting in one of the chairs by the window, reading a book about Greece. I started into my work, happy to work peacefully in this nice location.

Then they came by my desk; a middle-aged man and a scrawny teenage boy, about fourteen or fifteen, sipping on a soda. They sat down behind me and the man started chatting away with the kid. He kept his voice lowered – after all this was a library – but, nonetheless, his constant jabbering was extremely distracting for anyone trying to study or work. I put up with it for about ten minutes and then I turned and asked the man to stop talking. He told me he couldn’t, that he was tutoring the boy, and he had to do it in a public place. I asked him how long he planned on continuing the noise making and he told me it would be two hours.

I then asked this man how he thought other people could concentrate if he used the library as social hour, considering one was not allowed to talk on cell phones in the room. He ignored me and started on with his tutoring. The boy laughed at me. So I asked the man what kind of example he thought he was setting for this boy by breaking the rules of the library and annoying the other patrons. The boy laughed again and then he said, “Bitch.” The man said nothing. I asked the man why he was ignoring the fact the boy just called me a bad name. He ignored me again. I went to the librarian who told me the man was an instructor for at-risk youth. At-risk youth! I guess that man was sure teaching the boy how to act right! My guess is that this useless excuse for an adult male was a do-gooder who thinks buying a juvenile delinquent a drink and helping him do his homework is all he needs to become a worthwhile citizen; how he behaves should be ignored. I got the librarian to move this charming duo to a back room and on the way the boy called me a bitch again, but my guess is they will be back in the library next week even if they break the rules and abuse the other patrons.

This is why Cho Seung-Hui got as far as he did; no one ever told him to stop. No one ever told him other people have rights. No one ever punished him for his mistreatment of others. He grew up to think others didn’t matter. My guess is this boy is learning just those same lessons from the moronic adults around him. When he kills one of them someday, we shouldn’t say we didn’t see it coming.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown