Last Week, Elliot Rodger joined an increasingly long list of angry young men who committed the irreparable : Kip Kinkel, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Kimveer Gill, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, Seung-Hui Cho, Adam Lanza and several others, who held a grudge outside their educational institution. This type of senseless violence is horrible, it goes without saying. The crime writer in me is fascinated with these boys, though. Sudden outbursts of extreme violence like the crimes Elliot Rodger has perpetrated are unspeakable and terrifying and yet, they keep happening over and over again. Is the problem of young, angry white boys with guns without a solution?
Or is it a problem no one wants to claim responsibility for?
Here is a little case study to kick things off.
The case that's been fascinating me the most recently is a quieter one. It happened in Canada, on February 11. The media named the event : the triple homicide of Sicard Street. Believe me when I say this, it doesn't carry the weight or the complexity of what happened. I know the real names involved in this story because of social media leaks, but I'm going to use fake names here because they were all minors and the court will kick my ass if I don't.
Boyd is 17 years old. He's lonely, tortured and in love with Ava, a young girl in his class. He claims she's his girlfriend, but it isn't clear *. For all we know, she's had a stable boyfriend for a couple years, Raylan. Ava rejects Boyd one last time last September and he starts planning his Grand Finale. On February 11, he walks into her house on a Saturday with his buddy Dewey and firearms and shoot Ava, Raylan and Ava's sister Winona. The two boys had planned a suicide standoff with the police, but the cops were professional on this one, so they smoked them out of the house and arrested them. Both kids are currently in jail, awaiting their trial. Last news was that they chose to remain incarcerated throughout their trial.
* social media leaks showed contradicting evidence about an alleged relationship between Boyd and Ava. I'm leaning towards the idea that there wasn't and it was all a teenage miscommunication.
Or is it a problem no one wants to claim responsibility for?
Here is a little case study to kick things off.
The case that's been fascinating me the most recently is a quieter one. It happened in Canada, on February 11. The media named the event : the triple homicide of Sicard Street. Believe me when I say this, it doesn't carry the weight or the complexity of what happened. I know the real names involved in this story because of social media leaks, but I'm going to use fake names here because they were all minors and the court will kick my ass if I don't.
Boyd is 17 years old. He's lonely, tortured and in love with Ava, a young girl in his class. He claims she's his girlfriend, but it isn't clear *. For all we know, she's had a stable boyfriend for a couple years, Raylan. Ava rejects Boyd one last time last September and he starts planning his Grand Finale. On February 11, he walks into her house on a Saturday with his buddy Dewey and firearms and shoot Ava, Raylan and Ava's sister Winona. The two boys had planned a suicide standoff with the police, but the cops were professional on this one, so they smoked them out of the house and arrested them. Both kids are currently in jail, awaiting their trial. Last news was that they chose to remain incarcerated throughout their trial.
A clandestine media snapshot of Boyd being arrested, last winter.
Whether or not Ava had a pre-existing romantic relationship with Boyd is irrelevant. The kid committed murder because of something every young boy has to suffer through : romantic failure. Social media leaks, last winter, showed alarming signs of depression in the way Boyd expressed himself artistically and communicated with others. The way he used language reminded me a lot of Kimveer Gill, during his last days. Boyd and Dewey are probably going to prison for a long time. Whether it's 10 or 25 years will be interesting.
A couple days later, a man was arrested for premeditated murder on his father and stepmother up north and the boys were forgotten. Another pair of young, angry white boys. Another unspeakable horror. Another one bites the dust. Unlike what the slew of public intellectuals likes to pretends when this happens, this is not a series of isolated events. Elliot Rodger happened and public opinion dismisses the murders as a mysoginistic rampage, so there will be another, unfortunately. Other horrible crimes committed against young women. Yes, Elliot Rodger hated women. He made it plenty clear in his video diary. But he also made it plenty clear that his mechanics of social interaction are broken beyond possibility of repair and that he could victimize with the best of the best, which is a symptom of being a psychopath. It is also, you know, a fact that Rodger was receiving psychiatric care since he was 9 and started refusing treatment about 4 years ago.
I have no explanation as to why these things keep happening, but I know it's very complex. It's not something you can dismiss because you have a scapegoat to blame. Here are a few factors, who I believe play their part in sudden outbursts of senseless violence from young, white men.
Guns
It's an obvious answer, but I don't think gun control would be the answer. It's a lot more severe in Canada, but these things keep happening over here too. Someone who feels homicidal rage will find ways to kill, no matter what.
Mental Health
Is it possible we don't care enough about mental health? Could we be dismissive of everything that's not schizophrenia or ADD? Mental issues are portrayed in a wacky, parodic fashion in mass media, but they are sneaky predators. Extreme cases may be acting funny, but in most cases it just transforms the people you love into terrifying beings.
Isolation
This one is a personal hypothesis of mine and a distant cousin of the previous factor. Isolation will fuck you up. It's something you're bound to be confronted with in the internet age. Having people to bounce your behavior off of, being subjected to the social consequences of your every actions is important in the development of a person. Stay alone for too long and you'll start believe in your ideas like they were the word of God Himself.
Culture
It's easy to blame unspeakable violence on an educated man who prones rebellions like Marilyn Manson. Truth is, in every narrative (or almost), the hero gets the beautiful girl at the end. Even the most harmless, E for Everyone movies are guilty of this. Am I wrong to believe there is something toxic about that? Every young boy is raised to the promise of professional and emotional success and it could not be any further from the truth. It was probably the greatest giveaway of Elliot Rodger's psychogolical issue in his video diary : he didn't understand why everything didn't come to him, like they do in movies.
Mysoginy
Is it possible that we're a little mysoginistic as a society? Girls are not treasures for boys to conquer. They all should want something else than getting married, have kids and a beautiful house. Even if that something is a fuckin' glass of water.
Every young, angry white boy like Elliot Rodger is ultimately responsible for his actions. But we let it happen. I know it's frightening and appalling, but we're not innocent bystanders in this. We let mass murder become a cultural phenomenon. It's going to happen again, guys. Unfortunately.
* social media leaks showed contradicting evidence about an alleged relationship between Boyd and Ava. I'm leaning towards the idea that there wasn't and it was all a teenage miscommunication.