J.K. Rowling Sends Dumbledore Letter to Shooting Massacre Teen

[Valkrex]

Damn. I believe this is appropriate here: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly2r9uGdX51qhiopi.gif

Holy shit that's a terrible story though... Best of luck recovering Cassidy, and I admire your courage and strength through this horrible ordeal.

 

[Saltyk]

It's been a while since I read up on this case, but wasn't it implied he was heading or planning to kill her grandparents as well? I seem to recall that they had evidence that this guy planned to kill even more people and it's one reason they have credited her with saving lives.

Anyway, awesome girl, a great treat, and I hope the bastard rots in jail for the rest of his life, til he dies from the death penalty or natural causes (whichever comes first). Hopefully, she can fully recover from this tragedy.

 

[Roxor]

Dumbledore dead for 10 years? Considering Half Blood Prince takes place from 1996-1997, he's been dead for 17 years, not 10.

Yes, I know it's nit-picky, but someone had to say it. Besides, everyone else has already covered all the nice stuff to say about it.

 

[DoctorM]

Wait, am I the only one who found a handwritten letter by a dead guy who was murdered in front of children completely inappropriate and creepy?

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Wait, am I the only one who found a handwritten letter by a dead guy who was murdered in front of children completely inappropriate and creepy?

Maybe it was penned by his magical portrait.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Wait, am I the only one who found a handwritten letter by a dead guy who was murdered in front of children completely inappropriate and creepy?

Dumbledore will only be truly be dead when everyone is no longer loyal to him.

At least that's what the books say.

 

[Haru17]

This is hardly to say that all mentally ill people are killers, but there should be treatment to help people before people die. I don't know specifically if Haskell is mentally disturbed, I would assume he'd have to be, but he could have done this as just an evil design of a sane person. Either way he probably needs psychological help, I don't know what could have caused someone to go off on their girlfriend's family like that.

But that (the bolded bit) is exactly the problem I have with this:
A person does something horrendous, cruel and monstrous... and that must mean he was mentally ill/disturbed. I know you qualified that statement, but it's still that particular assumption that I have a problem with. Especially considering the mentally ill are statistically more likely to be victims of violence than the average person...

It's also very much circular:
A person is deemed mentally ill because they did something horrible, which I deem so bad that only mentally ill people would do it, which means the person in question must've been mentally ill.

Yeah, I hear in many of these cases that the killer was always quiet until they opened fire. It's an inherent problem with trying to understand some mentally ill people, it's just that their brains work differently.

I'm arguing that perfectly sane people can snap. In fact, if the circumstances were right, you or I would probably snap despite not being deemed mentally ill. This isn't something that, say, somehow locating all the mentally ill people and treating them would stop from happening.

Plus, "mentally ill" is an incredibly broad term. Misusing it for... what exactly? Violent people? Antisocial people? Anyway, misusing it like that puts everybody with mental issue into that group of (potentially) violent mass murderers. Let's just say I have a problem with the implications of that.

Well, that's the thing, mentally ill is very much a sliding scale from what is conventionally deemed 'normal', it's all based on judgment calls. There's no switch in your brain or a line that can be crossed into the territory of mental illness, just different behaviors that can go wrong (for instance, uncontrollable aggression). If someone keeps committing violent acts then they have a mental problem; whether medical or learned. Thats not to excuse this man for his horrible actions, he did it whether mentally compromised or not. I just don't think offing him will solve anything, a death penalty trial will sure cost more than a lifetime in prison, money that could be used to treat disturbed individuals and prevent this kind of horror. Treatment needs to happen before these kind of disasters do. Massacres like this are admittedly not inevitable in every case, but if we can stop even one death both prospective victim and killer will be better off.

Too bad it's Texas, as the state government will probably just kill the guy, learn nothing, and let it happen again. If more money was spent on corrective treatment, mental and criminal, then this kind of disaster might be avoided. But apparently the richest country on the world can't afford domestic safety for its citizens so life continues to be cheap in America.

 

[Haru17]

Wait, am I the only one who found a handwritten letter by a dead guy who was murdered in front of children completely inappropriate and creepy?

Harry Potter really, really, really could not matter less here. Yes it's a nice show of support, but insignificant compared to the bigger issues here. 6 people are dead and, whether you believe in an afterlife or not, that's a bad thing. Rowling is just what makes this more of a headline than the thousand of other killings like this each year, that and Stay's heroism. Stay likes the books, and that's great, but I'm sure she has bigger issues to deal with.

 

[nohorsetown]

I'm a little pissed off at commenters' hopes (assumptions) that the kid will get through it, live life to its fullest, take comfort in J.K.'s letter and carry on, yada yada. This is extreme fucking trauma. You don't just tunnel through it. If you survive, you have to change. It is forced upon you. Cassidy will be extremely fucked up. Rowling's gesture is irrelevant, and would be offensive if it wasn't confidential. Her family was slaughtered. This is not some cheesy life-event that you cope with through some comfort object / celebrity intervention. Unfortunately, there will be media pressure for her to feign doing just that. Insult added to incomprehensible injury. I wish I had the guts to comprehend her hell and offer a heartfelt prayer . . . but it would still be insignificant.

No, seriously, friends -- pay attention! The woman who (smarmy cloying voice) "Set Up The Facebook Page" has this to say:

"In my opinion, a letter from Dumbledore is better than an actual visit from J.K. This is something that she will be able to find comfort in forever."

What the fuck? Comfort?? Are you fucking kidding me?? FAMILY. SLAUGHTERED. But ooooooh, a ~letter from Dumbledore~!!

Fucking insulting to the (horrifically wounded -- no, dismembered) human spirit. Misery is not a commodity.

 

[WindKnight]

It's been a while since I read up on this case, but wasn't it implied he was heading or planning to kill her grandparents as well? I seem to recall that they had evidence that this guy planned to kill even more people and it's one reason they have credited her with saving lives.

Anyway, awesome girl, a great treat, and I hope the bastard rots in jail for the rest of his life, til he dies from the death penalty or natural causes (whichever comes first). Hopefully, she can fully recover from this tragedy.

The article linked in the original post covers that, and yes - he was specifically after his ex-wife (the dead mothers sister), and he asked where she was before killing the family. It comes across like he wanted his ex-wife dead, and as much of her family as he could come across.

 

[Valagetti]

I'm a little pissed off at commenters' hopes (assumptions) that the kid will get through it, live life to its fullest, take comfort in J.K.'s letter and carry on, yada yada. This is extreme fucking trauma. You don't just tunnel through it. If you survive, you have to change. It is forced upon you. Cassidy will be extremely fucked up. Rowling's gesture is irrelevant, and would be offensive if it wasn't confidential. Her family was slaughtered. This is not some cheesy life-event that you cope with through some comfort object / celebrity intervention. Unfortunately, there will be media pressure for her to feign doing just that. Insult added to incomprehensible injury. I wish I had the guts to comprehend her hell and offer a heartfelt prayer . . . but it would still be insignificant.

No, seriously, friends -- pay attention! The woman who (smarmy cloying voice) "Set Up The Facebook Page" has this to say:

"In my opinion, a letter from Dumbledore is better than an actual visit from J.K. This is something that she will be able to find comfort in forever."

What the fuck? Comfort?? Are you fucking kidding me?? FAMILY. SLAUGHTERED. But ooooooh, a ~letter from Dumbledore~!!

Fucking insulting to the (horrifically wounded -- no, dismembered) human spirit. Misery is not a commodity.

I'm glad I'm not the only guy who has this view too. It was a nice gesture. The media and people in general talk the gesture up to the point where, it has the ability to reverse the shit. This is something that should go unnoticed, shes probably sick of the media and sympathy of strangers. And she has to live with this shit and the attention from sympathisers. This is probably not for the best of individuals mental health atm, though not everyone is the same.
The reason why people think along this line; in this situation, is because its a rationalisation, its nice to think Rowling made things better. She did a nice gesture, thats all it is... now lets move on to the next massacre shall we?

 

[DerangedHobo]

I know crazy shooters are, well, crazy... but to this day, I just cannot fathom how... EVIL... you must be to take the life of a defenseless child. It's one of those crimes where I simply cannot empathize in any way whatsoever because the very concept is so heinous and horrible to me.

I hope the poor girl who lost her family finds recovery and happiness in life. If this helps even a little tiny bit, I'm happy for it.

I don't understand how age or them being "defenseless" factors into it. Like shooting a 20 year old in the head for a senseless reason is somehow more heinous than shooting a 10 year old in the head. At the end of the day whether they were defenseless or not, young or old they're still dead so that becomes irrelevant.

As for spree killers being "Evil" I find it hard to concieve of someone being truly "evil". I see most, if not all, spree killers having a misshapen view of the world or them having an idea or group of ideas that let's them commit atrocities. In my increadibly armchair and naive view I find that every person can do horrible things provided they have some sort of reasoning that makes sense to them.

Not that I'm trying to defend the killer here, just trying to say that he's human and at the end of the day everyone has a breaking point.

 

[Queen Michael]

That's darn nice of good old Rowling. Now I'm glad I buy the Harry Potter books instead of getting them at the library.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

That was nice of her. I wish Cassidy the best of luck, and may the shooter get the death penalty. (Seriously, sane or not, what he did makes him unworthy of any sympathy.)

 

[Smolderin]

On July 9 Ronald Lee Haskell, 33, came to the Stay's home in search for his ex-wife, Cassidy's aunt. Haskell shot and killed Cassidy's father, mother and four siblings after Cassidy's parents refused to tell him where his ex-wife was. Cassidy was shot in the head, but she survived the shooting by playing dead. She immediately called the police to tell them what her uncle had done, and she warned the police that her uncle was headed to her grandparent's home.

She had the presence of mind to play dead and then warn the cops after being shot in the head.

That's one... tough kid.

Oh man...that is not just tough, just is just sheer badassery right there. Luck or no luck, this kid under fear of death and under the pain of having a bullet burrowed into one's skull...actually kept enough cool and reasoning to keep herself alive, not to mention still maintaining enough cognitive ability to dial 911....All of this under the stress of knowing that the entirety of her family had just been slaughtered...That isn't just steel...that is freaking adamantium. What is left of my heart goes out to this poor girl, and never would I wish a tragedy like this to befall anyone...But oh man, what an incredible story of will and perseverance.

 

[ckam]

Man, Rowling's such a nice person. Gotta say that the statement from that Boyer person was pretty funny, though.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Guys? Doing fucked up shit doesn't automatically make someone mentally ill. Some people are just cunts.

 

[Therumancer]

That's one of the coolest things I've ever read. Good going JK.

I also own all the Harry Potter books. While it's probably odd for a dude to say this, but my favorite character was probably Hermione.

My big hope here is that the system does justice by this poor girl, as opposed to making things worse by pushing her through the adoption and residential living systems. It would be nice if the media kept an eye on this, since I really do not trust that bureaucracy, which I've been through albeit from a different direction than being orphaned due to a rampaging maniac.