America isn't the other side of the pond.

[franceslievens]

Last week Antwerp had its very own version of  the Columbine drama: depressed 18-year-old kid shaves off his head, puts on combat boots and army gear, buys a gun, kills some random people on the street and gets shot in the gut by an officer.

This week newspapers say the shooter might have been re-enacting scenes from Grand Theft Auto.

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Judging from the reports we got about this here (and they are probably biased in the vein of "See, it doesn't only happen in Germany") the shootings weren't quite random as the boy apparently wanted to kill 'foreigners'.
Well, now they're blaming the videogames again - they will also probably come up with several film titles...

In my state, this happened yesterday: a depressed kid stood up in class, handed a suicide note to a friend, went to the window, opened it and jumped out. His injuries were so severe that he died in hospital.
Great way of causing trauma to his classmates and his teacher.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Yes, he was deliberately shooting at foreigners, as for why, we don't know yet. The officer that shot him eventualy, said that the boy asked to be killed. He was suicidal, but why he wanted to take others with him? Officers that questioned him said he was acting in some kind of rush and now understands his mistakes and knows he should be punished severely. I wonder if the kid can say himself why he acted like this -- what drove him to it.

That story is so sad and sickening. All of them will feel guilty for what that kid did.

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

I know of a very fascinating but also disturbing interview with a German academic who has researched the amok phenomenon - I've caught bits and pieces of it on tv. It seems to be an almost exclusively male behaviour. Wikipedia on the origins of the word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amok). Human behaviour is often incomprehensible and that's such a terrible cliché to use regarding such a tragedy.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Interesting, because in Dutch exists the expression "amok maken". It is more widely used than the original Malay word, and also incorporates groups that vandalise property and generally run rampant.

I hardly understand my own behaviour -- especialy regarding my pupils. But that's another story.

[candlelightfrot.livejournal.com]

In America anyway (I can't speak for the English), the phrase is "to run amok."

That's too bad about what happened. Is there an idea that he might have been influence by the far-right movement among the Flemish?

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

That was said in the first news items that came out, especialy since they learned his aunt is member of Vlaams Belang (the former Vlaams Blok). His own family has no affiliation with Vlaams Belang whatsoever, and Vlaams Belang of course has distanced itself from what has happened.