Murder in the Newsroom – Reaching the Boiling Point
Op-ed by Steven C. Millwee, CPP and Michael Yoder
Active shooters, school shootings, and workplace murders have reached the boiling point. The truth about these recent tragic murders is that they were all foreseeable. Modern threat assessment tools and background screening systems would have identified Jarrod Ramos, the alleged shooter at the Capital Gazette newspaper, as a person with the highest threat classification.
We have become like those slowly boiling frogs, of legend, who have become conditioned by the rising temperature of warning signs. We minimize the growing red flags as normal behaviors, if not ignore them until it is too late. At the other end of the political correctness spectrum, many bury their heads in the proverbial sand believing that background checks are intrusive and prevent ex-offenders from becoming employed while ignoring security concerns. Yet, employers and the government have legal obligations to know who they hire, retain and give access.
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit has studied workplace violence and active shooters. Active shooters and workplace violence killers plan their attacks, often taking weeks, if not months before pulling the trigger. Active shooters that just snapped without warning signs, also known as stressors, is a myth. The bureau found that active shooters have 3.6 separate stressors in the year before they strike. On average, each shooter displayed 4 to 5 concerning behaviors over time that were observable to others around the shooter. The most common behaviors were related to his violent ideations and intent, known as leakage, making veiled, indirect or direct threats of violence, the inability to forgive, problematic interpersonal interactions, isolation from others, and deterioration of his mental health. Most attackers have never been diagnosed with a history of mental illness.
We all demand a safe workplace that must rely on background screening and vetting systems. Here is what one patented background screening and threat assessment system, TerrorAlert®, iReviewNow®, SecurThreat®, would have uncovered about Ramos that would have provided a historical report and action steps to mitigate the risk of violence:
· Ramos had been arrested for felony harassment after stalking a woman online that he knew from high school. He was subsequently convicted.
· Ramos filed a lawsuit against the newspaper for defamation for publishing an article about his harassment conviction. The lawsuit was dismissed by the court. Ramos did not stop there, he appealed the court’s ruling, which was dismissed with harsh criticism.
· Ramos made threats against the newspaper and its editor resulting in police writing a report. Though law enforcement recommended prosecution and the paper obtain a restraining order, the newspaper feared such would exacerbate the volatile Ramos. Threats never disappear through inaction.
· Ramos made specific threats of violent retaliation against the newspaper and its employees in social media postings.
· He never attempted to hide his inability to forgive but escalated his hatred and threats into a specific target and victims, the highest red flag for becoming an active shooter.
In the aftermath of mass casualty shootings, we find that many failed to report warning signs. They fail to see that the water is getting warmer with each new red flag. Those that interact with increasingly dangerous violent offenders have normalized the behavior.
TerrorAlert, takes each behavior and alerts the users to take action before the water reaches its boiling point.The warning signs demonstrate the behavioral leakage that Ramos had been cultivating for decades. He went from a nobody to a somebody. “You don’t know me today, but tomorrow you will never forget me.” We will not forget him, but his actions give us important reminders.
First, we are all stakeholders in our own safety and security. We must remain vigilant about the warning signs of violence. Empowered with knowledge, we each are responsible for helping report these warning signs.
Second, we must embrace that threat assessment and background screening tools that help make each of us safer at work, play, and home. Ask yourself, “What excuse would you be willing to accept if Ramos’ had threatened to kill you?” Becoming the target of someone’s violent ideations, plans or actions makes it clear we all have skin in the game. The level of open hostility in society by some makes it foreseeable to expect more active shooters until America speaks out and stops the madness. A report that alerts that a subject is a “red alert” highlightsthe old adage, 'Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me'. Nothing is further from the truth. Words matter, as past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Steven C. Millwee, CPP and Michael Yoder are nationally recognized experts on homicides, workplace violence and threat assessments. Millwee, the inventor of several background screening and terrorist prevention patents, iReviewNow® and TerrorAlert®, is the president and CEO of SecurTest. Yoder retired as a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, assigned to its prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit, performing profiles of violent offenders. He is the executive vice president of SecurTest, which performs thousands of background checks and threat assessments for the federal government and private employers around the globe.
