Friday, August 03, 2012

CU knew about Batman threat

I suggested last week that it would have been impossible to identify the Batman killer as a violent threat. Maybe I was duped by self-serving lies from the university. It is now being reported:
The psychiatrist treating accused Aurora theater gunman James Holmes was so concerned about his behavior that she notified other members of the University of Colorado Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment, or BETA, team that he could potentially be a danger to others, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CALL7 Investigators.

Those concerns surfaced in early June -- almost six weeks before the shooting, sources told CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia.

Sources say Dr. Lynne Fenton, who treated Holmes this spring, contacted several members of the BETA team in separate conversations. According to the university website, the BETA team consists of "key" staff members from various CU departments who have specific expertise in dealing with assessing potential threats on campus. And, sources say, officials at the University of Colorado never contacted Aurora police with Fenton’s concerns before the July 20 killings. ...

CU Chancellor Don Elliman said at a news conference the school did everything properly. “To the best of our knowledge at this point we did everything that we think we should have done,” he said last week. ...

CU spokeswoman declined comment on Fenton or any BETA team actions, citing a gag order.
Gag order? It is not legally possible for CU to be subject to a gag order about this. Apparently CU will hold press conferences proclaiming its innocence, but clams up when its culpability is exposed.

If this is correct, then CU is much more guilty of endangering the public than the Penn State football program. PSU faces dozens of multi-million dollar lawsuits, and CU might also. There is a lot of research in trying to identify psychopathic serial killers, such as that described in How to Spot a Killer: Inside the Mind of a Killer.

2 comments:

Jacob Ian Stalk said...

I hope you're not suggesting that psychologists should be compelled by law to report the violent fantasies of all men in their care on the exeedingly remote chance they'll act on them, as that would be pure radfem.

George said...

No, I would not favor such a law. But I think that is where we are headed. Just look at the Penn State scandal, which is causing increases in requirements to report suspicions.