You Can't Handle the Truth! No Truth-Handler, You! I Deride Your Truth-Handling Ability!

Speaking at Virginia Tech, Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police, said he appreciated NBC's co-operation, but regretted the decision to broadcast the tapes.

"A lot of folks saw images that were very disturbing," he told a news conference.

"This is a kind of image that people in my line of work have to see, and I'm worried that people who are not used to seeing them had to see them," he said. (Link.)

OK, implication #1: the police would prefer to keep some information away from the public not because it's related to an investigation, but simply because they don't think it's appropriate? That would be censorship, which is in no way, shape, or form the purview of the police department. Unless it's a political-police department...and I suppose this is still early-21st-century America....

Aside from the political considerations of, there's the social one: the police are not in loco parentis. It's awfully paternalistic of the police to suggest that they know what's best for society. I'm sure they mean well, but that's overstepping their authority. To quote someone (Rummy) I'm sure (having lived there for several years) many Virginia State Pigs admire, "...freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes...." There's also a matter of statistical bias here. When one spends many hours a week attending to something, one begins to think it is more common in The Real World than it actually is, whether "it" be archaeological sites (as in my case) or the unpleasantness of humanity (as in this instance).

Implication #2: TV is complicit in some people's doing bad things. I know the TV people don't believe it – how could they and still get up in the morning? – but much of the public does, and I seem to recall something to the effect that the police tend to agree. (And, the police tend to favor handgun control legislation, too, FWIW.)

I haven't seen the video in question. I have no intention of doing so. When I looked on a news site and saw a frame-grab of Mr. Seung-hui pointing a handgun at the camera, I jumped in my seat. Seeing a gun pointing at you is a scary thing. The only other time I remember seeing such a thing was about 14 years ago, when I watched the commie version of War and Peace: Count Somebody-Or-Other was hauled up in front of a French firing squad in Moscow, and the camera showed his POV, staring down the barrel of a musket. I know muskets were large-caliber compared to today's long guns, but even so, damn, that thing looked huge.