They Walk Amongst Us:
A Reprint With An Additional Article On The Parkland Florida Shooting


Originally Published September 26, 2013
Tell me how we miss these people; enough already. Let's start at the beginning: A general
discharge from the Navy indicating eight to ten events of misconduct, a discharge that the system
converted to an honorable discharge, arrested for shooting three bullets into a neighbors
apartment, shot out three of his neighbors tires, admitted he had blackouts that were fueled by
anger, identified by his father as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from involvement in 9-
11 rescue attempts, a sweet and intelligent guy, but very aggressive, identified by a lay person at
the Buddist Temple where he worshiped as someone who might kill himself one day. Well
Aaron Alexis doesn't have to kill himself, somebody did it for him. Security did it at The
Washington Navy Yard. But, not before he went on a rampage and shot and killed 12 people and
injured countless others both physically and emotionally.
They walk amongst us and we don't even know it. But, we do know it! Take a look at the track
record. Not only do we know it we ignore it. Aaron Alexis discharge from the Navy was
commuted from a general discharge to an honorable discharge. He had up to ten counts of
misconduct while in the Navy. Who makes these systemic changes? He was identified by friends
and co-workers as aggressive, had swings in his personality, was potentially bi-polar, carried and
used weapons, and had suicide ideation. Yet, it was reported that he as a civilian information
technology contractor, he worked on the Navy and Marine Corps intranet and was given a
security clearance classified as "secret." He had a bogus common access card and gained
entrance into the yard with a minimum security check. He was deviant and dysfunctional enough
to smuggle weapons into the yard probably because his intranet security clearance gave him the
full blown view of where to hide himself and his weapons. And, oh yes did I mention that he
applied and was granted a license for these weapons like he was applying for a dog license.
I don't understand it. I do understand it, but I don't. I can give you the reason, but I can never
excuse it. You see reasons have become excuses. We evade the excuse and call it a reason and in
doing so we allow those who are dangerously mentally ill to walk amongst us and have their way
with us. We remain politically correct at the risk of allowing someone with Aaron Alexis's
profile to walk into a Navy Yard, open fire and kill twelve people; people that he didn't even
know but that represented the dark world that he lived in. Oh, he had anger issues for sure, but no
one will know who he was angry at. Political correctness will be the undoing of this country. The
truth is something that we all think but rarely say for our own fear of judgment by others. But, if
we don't learn to understand that someone with Alexis's profile is dangerous we will fear the
judgment of others who accuse us of racial, political, psychological profiling. I love this quote by
George Orwell; "The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those that speak
it." The truth is they walk amongst us and the question is who or what do you fear.
Nikolas Cruz
February 15, 2018
There have been many other school shooting since I originally published the article on Aaron
Alexis seen above. I wrote this article because of my outrage that as a society we have plenty of
information available to us about the danger of certain individuals, in fact more now than ever
before; social media has taken care of that. With all that knowledge isn't it time to reevaluate our
stance on being politically correct and start taking a look at the social media footprint that these
deviant minds leave for all to see. Now let's take a look at Nikolas Cruz and The St. Valentine's
Day Massacre that occurred at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. One
of the ten deadliest shootings in United States History; Seventeen students and teachers are now
dead.
The teachers were warned in advance about Nikolas Cruz, he was placed in an alternative school
and was ultimately expelled because of some undisclosed behavioral issues. I mean we don't
want to hurt this guys feeling by letting anyone know that he was thrown out of school for
threatening teachers and students, deviance, violence, and for basically disrupting the lives of
anyone that told him NO! Or anyone that got in his way. He was not allowed to bring a backpack
to school; for fear that he might be carrying concealed weapons. A former student said that he
was found to have bullets in his backpack. He was also found to be abusive toward his ex-
girlfriend and others.
Other Comments Made
"He seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this."
Some other students echoed that opinion when interviewed.
"Everyone predicted it," one told WFOR-TV.
But police said they were not warned of any possible attack by Mr. Cruz. (How Come)
Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters: "We received no warnings. (Then why was he
thrown out of school? Isn't that enough of a warning that he is dangerous)
"Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls
or threats that were made."
According to reports Mr. Cruz told the family he was staying home and that he did not want to
go to college because it was Valentine's Day.
In many instances people start to rant about doing more in terms of mental health awareness and
I agree more has to be done but Cruz is not a mental health problem he is a behavioral problem
who because of his look and his attitude people walked around him and teachers quaked in their
boots at the thought of having him in their class. He is a young man who was never corrected as
a child and became warped in his thinking believing that he could say and do anything he
wanted.
How do you stop this madness? It's not gun control and it's not pouring more money into the
mental health industry (Although that wouldn't hurt). It starts well before a school shooting; it
even starts before a child starts school. It starts with making a child understand the difference
between right and wrong and that there are consequences for bad choices. In reality we have soft
peddled and allowed kids to do and say whatever they want at a young age without some type of
firm and fair discipline designed to help them develop consequential thinking and do a self
evaluation before they act on their impulse.
Today kids feel good about themselves for no apparent reason with everything that the child does
being recognized as AWESOME. Win-Win doesn't exist somebody has to lose except my kid,
and when he does the child can't manage the disappointment and the parents are afraid that his or
her self esteem will be damaged for a lifetime. We have to balance rules with compassion and
make children understand that the world doesn't revolve around them.
As a society we have to stop walking around behaviors that we believe are circumstantial and are
caused by outside influences. I realize that many people were raised in less than ideal conditions
and war and neglect have left a wake of people with PTSD and a variety of conditions that need
help and treatment. I have no idea what kind of environment Nikolas Cruz was raised in or what
his parents did to discipline him. I do know that Cruz's actions were one of pure evil and were
designed to inflict pain and suffering. He had a digital footprint that indicated that he was a
danger to others. He apparently wasn't a danger to himself because he didn't commit suicide
after the massacre as so many perpetrators do after a school or other shootings. His behavior
frightened people enough so they backed down from him like a child having a tantrum and
allowed him the freedom to say and do whatever he wanted.
It's not gun control and it's not mental illness it's the acceptance of deviance at low levels that
leads to a person like Cruz upping the ante and believing that he can get away with this kind of
behavior without consequence. The proverb goes "It's easier to build a boy than to mend a man."
Somebody dropped the ball in Cruz's construction and left an individual that truly is unfix-able.
He knew his life was over the minute he made the decision to massacre the students and the
teachers at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School. How his life will end is up to a judge and
jury now. It will end, but this is no consolation to the families who have to go on living without
their children and their loved ones.