"The Recriminations Have Only Begun..."

Thus saith Geraldo Rivera who is in full tabloid reporter mode as he appears live from Virginia Tech. Geraldo apparently feels that police are omniscent and therefore following the first shooting should have known there would be another two hours later across campus and should have sounded the tornado sirens, shut down the city, and kept 25,000 from coming onto the campus. His reporting, typically breathless or dripping with emotion, is simply not fair to the campus officials and law enforcement personnel who have just had the toughest day of their professional lives.

Both St. Rivera and the other media are questioning why there was not a general lockdown following the first shooting in the dorm. With hindsight that isn't even 20/20, they seem to imply that the police should have assumed that the gunmen would walk a half mile across campus and start another shooting spree two hours later. That's simply not reasonable, especially since nobody had a good description of the shooter from the first incident and he was carrying easily concealed handguns. Geraldo even describes the shooter as having a "bandolier", as though he's some type of cartoon Mexican bandit. Good grief.

Although there will be lots of people wanting to make scapegoats of the administration and police response, and it's way too early to know what everybody was really thinking, I've got to believe they acted in a manner which they felt best fit the situation at hand. The poor police chief was getting peppered with an array of stupid questions from the media, none of whom apparently listen to anyone else's questions or answers since the poor guy had to keep repeating himself. So far, the press hasn't come out looking too bright in the aftermath of this tragic incident.