It was a quiet night like any other in Kirkwood, MO. A small, tight-knit community filled with quaint shops and many bustling businesses. We had just been at my niece’s high school watching a basketball game. It was 7 pm, 35 degrees, and the Kirkwood city council was sitting down to start one more zoning meeting. It was a night like any other…
Except, on this tragic night, a disgruntled 52-year-old businessman went to “war,” as his brother put it. He settled a “score” with the government group that had added discord to his life and ended his problem. He also killed 5 other unsuspecting people, including 2 local police officers.
5 people who left their families overnight to help improve their community – lost their lives… These individuals had people at home waiting for them to come back – Alive. As the reporters said, it wasn’t like they went somewhere where they expected something violent to happen.
Unfortunately, this individual felt that he had aired his grievances and no one would listen to him. As an independent contractor, he felt that he was being racially discriminated against and that he was being harassed. However, his anger, outrage and negative behavior from 2005 until tonight’s tragic end troubled the Kirkwood city council and on many occasions his meetings and agendas could not be completed as planned due to to his actions. He thought of taking his fight to federal court in the form of a lawsuit. Judge Perry, who presided over his case, said that as a result of his behavior, his rights had not been violated and his suit was dismissed.
Yes, I have to say that it is very frustrating when our judicial system does not work the way we want it to. It can cause frustration, anxiety, hurt feelings. It involved over 21 parking tickets that were eventually dropped only for Mr. Thornton to sit out of any more meetings and let the council deal with other business. What else could this board have done? They felt they had given this citizen what he wanted, dismissed all charges against him “but he couldn’t let this go.”
I can really sympathize with Mr. Thornton’s plight for “justice” in an overburdened system. I don’t see this as a black or white issue. Our penal system often lacks “justice” and more often than not, it lacks reason. I too am currently fighting the system to prosecute a child molester who assaulted my daughter for over 3 years. This man leaves a trail of 7 other victims. My daughter revealed 9 months ago. The perpetrator still lives in his neighborhood, works in his store, travels across the state, may go to his church or spend time with his children. He is a well-versed, well-liked, well-educated and wealthy gentleman. He is free to walk around as we pick up the pieces of my 13 year old son’s life because the system has yet to do anything to get him off the streets. At this time, he will not find his name on any sex offender list; he won’t know you’re aware of him. He can attack again at any time. Yes, I know the frustration with our overworked “system.”
But… what makes a person go to this extreme? I’m sure this is a question many will be asking repeatedly over the next few days and weeks. Despite that, this is not a gun control issue. I have a house full of weapons. I have a concealed carry permit. It’s not the guns that kill, it’s the people who wield the gun that kill. To say that gun control in this case would have made a difference is ludicrous. If Mr. Thornton had hit multiple people with his car on the open road, we wouldn’t blame the car, we would blame Mr. Thornton. Therefore, we must also place the blame here where it belongs, on Mr. Thornton. He had a plan. He killed a police officer in the parking lot before he entered the building so the metal detectors inside wouldn’t have stopped his rampage. He may have saved some of the extra lives, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he shot that first officer. So should we have metal detectors in every town hall across the country? It is not a bad precautionary measure, we have them here in our town hall, why not others? A gram of prevention…
Still, would this have stopped a man on a mission and how do things get to this point? In all the anger I have as a mother who failed to protect her son from a family member, in all the frustration I have with our failure to prosecute a child molester when our governor says he will do everything in his reach to protect or the children but won’t take our calls or do anything to back up their claims and multiple speeches to that effect, I don’t see a riot in my future. Maybe against an unsuspecting pillow… and several outbursts in a counselor’s office. So what makes a person so volatile that he can end the lives of 5 other individuals, change the dynamics of so many family units and a community as a whole while others get by in less destructive ways?
I have a PhD in Criminology but I haven’t spent my life studying human behavior so I can’t answer that. I agree with Gavin De Becker when he says that we all sing a chorus song that could be called “Things like that don’t happen in this neighborhood.” The denial is a save now pay later scheme. We have allowed our denial and media exposure to become a guaranteed passport to the world of greatness. The lone raider with a grand idea and a gun has become an icon of our culture. With our denial, we have allowed ourselves to believe that violence and human behavior cannot be predicted. Yet as we drive to work on the highway in the morning, we are constantly predicting human behavior to keep us safe behind the wheel. We expect the thousands of drivers in rush hour traffic to behave as we do; however, we are still prepared and able to accurately predict those few who might not. In this field we have fantastic accuracy in predicting the human behavior of those we don’t know.
The violence that we most fear and abhor, the one that we call random and senseless, is actually not. For attackers like Mr. Thornton, there was definitely purpose and meaning. It’s at those times that we want to call the perpetrator a “monster” because when we look at acts as terrifying as yours, we don’t want to think that you’re nothing like any of us, but you’re finding your humanity, your similarities between you and me that we might to have potentially predicted his violence this tragic night. If we don’t see the similarities, it’s easier for us not to feel any responsibility for not reading the signs if there were none to read. Unfortunately, as in multiple attacks before this one, Mr. Thornton gave many “signals” and “cries for help.” Many chose to ignore these signs, hoping that the “problem” would go away on its own. Millions of people suffer from this same denial that prevents them from taking the actions that could reduce risks.
Neither privilege nor fame, money, race or the neighborhood we live in will keep violence away. Nobody is intact. Gavin De Becker is reported to have said: “In the last two years alone, more Americans have died of gunshot wounds than died during the entire Vietnam War. By contrast, in all of Japan (with a population of 120 million people), the number of young men shot to death in a year is equal to the number killed in New York City in a single busy weekend This time tomorrow, 400 more Americans will suffer gunshot wounds, and another 1,100 will face a criminal with a gun. Within an hour, another 75 women will be raped.” FBI statistics show that just during the time I watched the news of this horrific bloodshed so “close to home” – a 3 hour period – 6 other people were killed somewhere in the US and 491 others. violent crimes occurred. Leaving 6 more people without a spouse, or children without parents, or unfortunately parents without children. At what point do we stand up and demand an end to this national violence?
As communities, businesses, churches, organizations, we must come together and learn how we can “read” and pay attention to the warning signs. How we can be safe in our homes and transition areas. How we can work as neighbors to protect each other. The police and judicial system cannot be expected to deal with all of us. We are in charge of our own safety and security. We have to learn to do it.
Perhaps instead of spending much of our income fighting wars in other countries, we should spend extra money ameliorating the “wars” being fought without our country, communities, and homes (domestic violence). This is a year to vote, use that right to encourage our representatives to help make America stronger and our police forces out there every day risking their lives to help keep us safe.
