Grisly Columbine Evidence Put on Public Display

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

Pretty good timing what with the AWB being pushed in the Senate this week.
__________________________________________

Grisly Columbine Evidence Put on Public Display

Updated 4:27 AM ET February 27, 2004

By Keith Coffman

GOLDEN, Colo. (Reuters) - Black trench coats and an arsenal of weapons from the Columbine High School massacre were put on display on Thursday, while a report said police had 15 contacts with the teen killers two years before the attack, but nothing led them to suspect the murderous spree the two had in mind.

Security was tight at the Jefferson County fairgrounds where tables of evidence from the April 20, 1999 massacre were set out with deputies stationed at every table.

Victims' bullet-torn clothes, cans of gasoline the duo had bought to destroy the school, spent shell casings and unfired bullets, propane tanks and a sign that read "One bleeding to death" created a somber mood as members of the public viewed the evidence, some reduced to tears.

Twelve students and a teacher were gunned down by students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, who donned black trench coats as they carried out the deadliest school attack in U.S. history. The two shot themselves to death at the school, but not before they had killed 12 students and a teacher and injured at least 20 other students.

Parents of children killed at the massacre had complained that police kept details of the massacre from them.

On the same day the evidence was put on display, an investigation by the office of Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar was released, showing police had numerous contacts with the two gunmen up to years prior to the shooting.

"These contacts initially involved incidents such as snowball throwing and a phone-prank call, but progressed to threats via the Internet and a van break-in," Salazar said.

"Hindsight is 20-20. All of us wish there would have been something done," he told reporters after issuing the report.

The sheriff's office also released videotapes the two killers made, including one called "Hit Men for Hire," which Salazar said was " sobering and disturbing view of the minds of the Columbine killers."

For Evan Todd, what caught his eye among the pieces of evidence on display was the bullet-riddled chair that he ducked behind in the school library as gunman Harris leveled a shotgun at him and fired.

Buckshot and splinters laced Todd's back, neck and face, but the back of the chair took the brunt of the blast.

"It was kind of like seeing an old friend, a friend who probably saved your life," Todd, 20, said.

Now a college student, Todd was a freshman on the day of the shooting when Harris and Klebold stormed the entrance with shotguns, semi-automatic weapons and an array of bombs.

Seeing the chair and other evidence, Todd said, brought back memories of that fateful day when he narrowly escaped death, but it no longer consumes him as it once did.

"For so long, my life was Columbine and now I realize that I'm finally leading a normal life," he said.

 

[MicroBalrog]

But I thought that school shootings were committed by ordinary people who just snapped! That's what Sarah Brady told me!

 

[Mulliga]

Rather tasteless. Is this really being put up by gun control people, or just for curiosity's sake? Hard to believe people would stoop this low...or not...

I mean, these idiot killers wanted fame - now they have it. One armed student could have stopped it. One armed teacher could have stopped it. The only person who ever attacked the killers was that guy who said he "exchanged fire" with them, right? I've never met the man but I'm willing to wager all he did was fire a few shots at their general direction - hey, it's only a job, right?

And I know THR readers always think this whenever they read about the tragedy - the body count was LOW. These killers were NOT gun nuts. Give a shotgun or a hi-point to someone who actually knows what they are doing, and more people could have died. They played at being "hit men," but were never more than arrogant, depressed children...

 

[Mark Tyson]

We've been hearing a lot lately about school attacks that were stopped by the local police. Assuming that these stories are accurate and not blown out of proportion, maybe we have learned something . . .

Just think: they're stopping crime without resorting to more gun control!

 

[HunterGatherer]

Let me know if/when they ever display Sara Brady's head on a stick/in a jar/etc... I'll dress up to come out and see that.

 

[Cool Hand Luke 22:36]

MicroBalrog:

But I thought that school shootings were committed by ordinary people who just snapped! That's what Sarah Brady told me

It's the mind-control power that those evil guns have over anyone who picks one up, especially children.

 

[El Tejon]

Yeah, good idea, further encourage the copycats waiting in the wings now.

This April will be interesting. The Welfare State has created plenty of mad dogs ready to slip their fraying leashes.

 

[jsalcedo]

LITTLETON, CO—On April 20, when two students at Columbine High School opened fire in a brutal shooting spree that left 12 classmates and a teacher dead, many feared that this affluent suburban school would never be the same.


Members of Columbine High School's popular crowd, who, more than four months after the tragic shooting at their school, have finally begun to exclude again.
But now, more than four months after a tragedy that shook the nation to its core and marked the most notorious incident of school violence in U.S. history, the atmosphere is optimistic. Slowly but surely, life at Columbine is returning to normal.

Thanks to stern new security measures, a militarized school environment and a massive public-relations effort designed to obscure all memory of the murderous event, members of Columbine's popular crowd are once again safe to reassert their social dominance and resume their proud, longstanding tradition of excluding those who do not fit in.

"We have begun the long road to healing," said varsity-football starting halfback Jason LeClaire, 18, a popular senior who on Aug. 16 returned to the school for the first time since the shooting. "We're bouncing back, more committed than ever to ostracizing those who are different."

Added LeClaire's girlfriend, cheerleader Kellie Nelson: "A school where the jocks cannot freely exclude math geeks, drama fags, goths and other inferiors without fearing for their lives is not the kind of school I want to go to."

The resilient attitude displayed by LeClaire and Nelson speaks volumes about Columbine administrators' deep commitment to making the school a safe place for members of the popular cliques. Last spring, the entire nation watched in horror on live television as terror-stricken students fled the school, running with their hands above their heads, flanked by SWAT teams. But when Columbine reopened its doors on Aug. 16, a spirit of boosterism, school pride and unquestioning conformity once again prevailed as the elite jock crowd "took back the school" as its own.

On Sept. 6, amid a pep-rally atmosphere of marching-band fanfare, cheerleaders and mass chanting, a group of jocks wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan, "We, Not You, Are Columbine" were escorted by armed guards into the school for the first day of the new semester. Approximately one hour later, the rest of the student body was allowed into the building through a side door.

"It's almost as if a helpful 'big brother' is watching us now," homecoming queen Lori Nowell said. "None of the losers can mess with us. Now that the entire school is blanketed by surveillance equipment, the popular kids, like, totally rule the school!"

"Its gonna be a great year!" best friend Jessica Wohlpert added with a high-five.

As the school year begins under the watchful eye of 24-hour electronic monitoring and police protection, a sense of normalcy has returned to Columbine. Just like at any other school, the computer geeks are mocked, the economically disadvantaged kids are barely acknowledged, and the chess-club, yearbook and debate-team members are universally reviled. While these traditions are nothing new, from now on they will be much easier to preserve, thanks to the high-tech, draconian security measures that now dominate Columbine life.

Prior to the April shootings, it was thought that Columbine's unpopular students were under control. After all, geeks like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the "Trench Coat Mafia" members who committed the killings, had been persecuted for years as a matter of policy. But according to vice-principal Dr. Frederick Mondrian, the tragedy made Columbine administrators realize that not nearly enough had been done to enforce adherence to the school's dominant social pecking order.

"We thought that the systematic cruelties inflicted on our school's desperate, alienated outcasts would be sufficient," Mondrian said. "Those kids were beaten up, pelted with rocks and universally rejected by their more popular peers, not only because they were smart and computer-literate, but also because of the way they dressed and the music they liked. But the shootings sent a clear message to this school and this community: We hadn't done nearly enough to keep such misfits shunned and in their place."

To rectify the problem, school authorities consulted with top ostracization experts and developed a comprehensive jock-safety plan. Cameras were installed on school grounds, enabling authorities to more closely monitor the activities of all students for suspiciously nonconformist behaviors or modes of dress. All entrances to the school are now locked and accessible only by intercom or specially coded key card, preventing the sort of open, comfortable learning environment that might encourage students to express themselves. The soothing presence of armed patrols, coupled with high fences surrounding the grounds, reassures jocks that they can feel free to once again torment the school's geeks as they did before April 20, without fear of reprisal.


Above: An armed police officer stands guard over a group of Columbine cheerleaders.
In addition to these changes, school authorities have brought in special fashion consultants, who are lending their time and expertise to help educators identify "at-risk" clothing and hair. Students who are seen wearing "red-flag" items such as thick eyeliner, long coats, tattoos, Marilyn Manson T-shirts, non-designer jeans and the color black are now required to attend special makeover sessions with a trained psychiatric professional, who will assess the student's potential for nonconformist behavior and then outfit him or her in Tommy Hilfiger jeans, Gap T-shirts and Abercrombie & Fitch baseball caps with a curved brim, on penalty of expulsion.

Thus far, the beefed-up security measures have done wonders to restore the self-esteem of Columbine's jocks, who say they feel safer shunning, berating, belittling and picking on those who are different from themselves than ever before. And the jocks are doing their part to keep the untouchables in line, more than doubling the number of swirlies, noogies and wedgies doled out to Columbine's many outcasts since last year.

Happily, the many efforts to protect Columbine's jocks seem to be working. In fact, schools across the country have begun to pick up on the Columbine model, with many districts imposing measures even more stern than those at Columbine itself. These include mandatory dress codes, transparent book bags that are subject to random search, metal detectors, electronic handprint-identification systems and automatic expulsion of anyone who goes out of his or her way to "separate themselves socially" from classmates or "break the status quo."

Meanwhile, here at Columbine, the popular kids say they just want to get on with their privileged lives. As cheerleader Tammi Brandon put it at a recent pep rally, "Go Rebels!"

School authorities stressed that the remark merely referred to the name of the Columbine football team and was not intended to be taken literally.



http://www.theonion.com/onion3532/columbine_jocks.html

 

[motorep]

Mulliga- this wasn't done in bad taste, and it wasn't done by antis. It was done to try to put the community to rest and put an end to the many questions regarding the behavior of senior law enforcement as it related to the tragedy at Columbine. Its' intent was "here, this is everything we've got, every piece of evidence that was collected. The current Jefferson County Sheriff is about as up front a guy as you'll ever meet. That's all there is/was to it.