Editor of Yeti Newsletter Arrested

Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 18th, 2007

April 18, 2007

Some Colorado campuses are raising security measures in the wake of Monday’s massacre at Virginia Tech and on the eve of the eighth anniversary of bloodshed at Columbine High School.

The University of Colorado, the University of Northern Colorado and Boulder High School were investigating incidents Tuesday related to threats and potential disturbances.

CU campus police arrested a student for investigation of interfering with staff members and students after he engaged in a heated discussion with classmates over the Virginia Tech rampage and said that he “would be capable of killing 32 people,” Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said.

Max Karson, 21, was booked into the Boulder County Jail on Tuesday evening after an afternoon interview, the commander said.

Students in the journalism course where the discussion took place told CU officers that they had become fearful about attending the class Thursday, Wiesley said.

The witnesses told police that Karson said in the discussion that he was angry enough to kill people, that the conditions in the classroom were making him angry, that the faults of CU would make him angry enough to kill 32 people, and, “if anyone in here says they’ve never been so angry that you wanted to kill 32 people, you’re lying.”

Karson drew the attention of campus administrators last fall when fellow students complained that a satirical newsletter he published, the Yeti Newsletter, was offensive to women.

At Boulder High, Principal Bud Jenkins informed parents by e- mail of three threats made concerning April 20, 1999, the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School rampage that left 15 people dead. The first graffiti message was found scrawled in a bathroom just before spring break. It read: “Everyone Dies April 19.”

On Monday, two students told administrators they had seen similar statements in the boys locker room and another on a work desk.

University of Northern Colorado President Kay Norton sent e-mails to students Tuesday letting them know that police will be “highly visible” at the school’s University Center today for Foreign Language Day.

Norton said UNC had received an anonymous threat several days ago related to the event. Authorities suspect the threat came from a high school student who has been banned from the campus, Norton said.by Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


20 Responses to “Editor of Yeti Newsletter Arrested”

  1. jayman responds:

    Typical of the overblown and irrelevant overreactions that follow a tragedy like this. What exactly is “interfering with staff members and students”?

  2. elsanto responds:

    Freedom of speech is always the first to go…

    …after all common sense has gone out the window.

  3. gridbug responds:

    I read an article yesterday that purported to finger video games as the primary explanation as to how the Virginia Tech shooter became so proficient in his skill and demeanor with multiple firearms. WTF?!? Since when is mastering a PS2 game controller even REMOTELY like brandishing a real live weapon??? Apparently gross stupidity has no limit in certain factions of today’s America.

  4. Bob Michaels responds:

    I can’t defend this Ass, his remarks warrant a suspension.

  5. btgoss responds:

    I hope I can present this in the proper light, and I feel that the people who read this website might be open enough to think about this.

    I see there is a comment about video games not being the cause of this, and many years ago I would have agreed. I now feel that today’s media and culture may have in fact helped contribute to this terrible event. Without going into details, and without presenting point by point examples I want to ask this.

    What helped end the Vietnam War? Music and popular culture. It started the revolution and change of thought that forced our government to finally withdraw our troops from SE Asia. Music and the popular culture of the time changed the way people think and react. How can the same not be true now? (Remember there where other negatives that came from the culture of the 60’s as well, but we clearly place blame/praise on that culture for those results.) Today’s popular culture of video game violence, and culture of self can’t have the same effect? That would be bad science to think that this is the case.

    Sorry to get this much more off topic, and please kill this post if you feel it is too far afield, but it what I think.

  6. sadisticgreen responds:

    The media is always quick to jump on a suitable scapegoat. For example, after the Columbine shootings Marilyn Manson was blamed by some?! Ridiculous. The ones to blame are the shooter(s) themselves. It’s moronic to suggest that TV or video games are responsible. You would need to have a fairly simplistic mind for a game to affect you that much. Btgoss – Vietnam ended because you had no reason to be there in the first place and good men were dying for no purpose.

  7. silvereagle responds:

    Pilots use flight simulators to prepare them not only for flight, but for emergencies that may arise. They develop confidence to rapidly solve complex problems. And the parallel comparison is obvious with computer games like DOOM, Grand Theft Auto, etc. The entire killing series of video games, is just an irreversible perforation of that invisible envelope of society morales, that never should have been breached. Although the majority of citizens can handle those video games without adverse reaction, it is the 0.0001 % that cannot. That small fraction are the ones that then go POSTAL, as the behavior was first defined to describe Postal workers who brought automatic weapons to work, for payback.

    As far as the Yeti newsletter editor incident, looks like some good preventitive medicine that can also serve as a warning to other would be assassins. Unfortunately as we speak, there are likely dozens of other kids who are entertaining the idea of duplicating the Virginia Tech incident. This is because society has told them that killing is OK by selling them the killing video games, has allowed them access to their own personal killing simulator, and ultimately has conditioned their minds to ignore normal emotional responses that otherwise would keep them inside of that invisible envelope.

  8. joppa responds:

    Scapegoats are quick and easy to fix on, when our society doesn’t want to admit that we have some real problems. First, this kid gave some serious warning signs, but there was no mechanism to confront them. We have abysmal mental health services in this country and its amazing we don’t have more of this stuff.

    Sounds like the kid in Colorado needed somebody to talk to, and if he was saying stupid stuff that indicated that he was a danger to himself and others, he needs to be evaluated – even against his own will.

    If you work in the legal, law enforcement or mental health field, this isn’t about freedom of speech, its about safety. There are some mean and disturbed people out there, and we do a disservice to ourselves if we don’t pay attention to them. They won’t just curl up under some park bench or live under a bridge, some of them show up in our schools and kill our kids.

  9. Mnynames responds:

    I have to take exception to placing the blame on popular culture, much as was done following Columbine (Bad time to consider black trenchcoats fashionable, let me tell you). If this had any basis in fact, then one would expect to find the countries with the most violent media to have the most incidents of violence, but this is demonstrably not so. Look at Japan- their pop culture has the most graphic depictions of violence, rape, and pedophilia out of all of them, yet their national murder rate (Last I checked, which admittedly was a few years ago) is something like 6 or 7 a year, mostly Yakuza (Mob) related. Compare that to New York City, or Philadelphia, both of which have more murders than there are days of the year. Will people with such violent obsessions gravitate towards such depictions? Well, sure they will, but these are actually more likely to serve as a release valve, a catharsis, than they would to build up any added pressure towards acting on such impulses, as most psychologists will tell you. No, it’s not pop culture, not by a long shot.

  10. gridbug responds:

    It’s a complicated issue, that’s for sure. I do think it’s unfortunate that in such an “enlightened” country as America there’s such a glorification of violence (Americans love Jack Bauer!) while sex and nudity is treated like the plague (thanks, kooky Christians!). Add to that the constant reminders by the ruling administration of the “climate of fear” we’re living in these days and it’s no wonder there are so many ridiculous-at-best attempts to target the source of the problems via scapegoating, ignoring the larger truths to the issue.

    What’s this got to do with our favorite hairy hominid? Only until we can successfully reason with the ignorant beast within will we be able to embrace the benevolent wisdom of those who haunt our wild lands.

  11. Mnynames responds:

    Joppa makes a very good point too. Our society tries to sweep such unpleasantries under the rug (Or overpass), rather than address their complexities.

    BTW, I’m actually rather a fan of Japanese pop culture, so don’t think I was necessarily dissing it. But it is what it is, and some of it is quite extreme…

  12. btgoss responds:

    Mnynames your point about Japan is somewhat correct. While they don’t kill each other as often as we do here in the states. They have other pressing problems, that are being attributed to their current popular culture. You mentioned rape, and pedophilia, these are two huge problems in Japan right now. The Japanese culture has produced an even more unhealthy image for young women then here in the states (if you can imagine). You don’t get used panty vending machines from a healthy culture. But since they don’t kill each other it is alright?

    We have a violence culture in the states, from video games to music, and a reasonable person cannot say that can’t have an effect. It doesn’t effect all of us, but it has an effect.

    And I think we have to start thinking realistically about those effects, or things are going to get worse.

  13. captiannemo responds:

    The combination of a persons mental state combined with whatever outside influances he or she is subject to in some cases can have the effect seen here.

  14. Bob Michaels responds:

    The man was not mentally fit to live in society, he was a danger to himself & others. He was committed in 2005, but let out, Why?

  15. Mnynames responds:

    “Only until we can successfully reason with the ignorant beast within will we be able to embrace the benevolent wisdom of those who haunt our wild lands.”

    Brilliantly said.

  16. aastra responds:

    “…their (Japan’s) national murder rate (Last I checked, which admittedly was a few years ago) is something like 6 or 7 a year, mostly Yakuza (Mob) related.”

    **

    I think you meant to say 600 or 700 a year, which is still a very low number for a country of almost 130 million people.

  17. Mnynames responds:

    My bad. I remember now…my statistics were for Tokyo, not Japan as a whole. Still big difference between 6-7 murders per year in Tokyo (Pop- 35 million) and nearly 400 in New York City (Pop- 10 million), although apparently there’s been an upswing in crime in Japan within the last 10 years, which I was not aware of.

    As for some of Japan’s other problems, one that’s sort of relevent here is the rise of incest, particularly between mothers and sons, often owing to the father being away at work so often, and then having to go party with the bosses afterwards. I had several classes in college on Japanese culture and history, and this is one of the elements we talked about. Spousification, as it’s known, is enough to screw anyone up, even if it remains behavioural rather than sexual.

    Didn’t mean to turn this into a forum on Japanese society, but I felt I did need to correct my statistics, as Aastra was right to point out…

  18. traveler responds:

    This is a very interesting topic for me. I am a gamer, a Christian, and a creationist. I do believe that the current culture does carry a lot of the blame, but neccesarily in video games. I have played all of the games mentioned above, and even more. Many of these games are on pc, and some on game consoles. I also am a hunter and come from a gun family. There is very little in common between the two. Just because you can shoot on a game, does not mean you can shoot in real life. There is also a big jump from “killing” in a game to actually taking a life. Maybe the parents of some of these kids should have been more involved, or teachers. I am not blaming them, only the individuals themselves hold the blame. Maybe the parents should have had a little more interest in the kids activities? Or maybe we should reconsider the idea of teaching kids that we are all just animals anyway, and that there are no moral absolutes. I mean if we are all just animals, just mistakes, then what does it matter? IF we are just cosmic burps, then does it really matter to them what happens?

    JMHO

  19. Mnynames responds:

    I’m afraid Traveler falls for the common fallacy that to be moral requires that one be religious. Personally, I find such a notion to be quite insulting, for it implies than mankind can only be good if it is threatened with torture. The reality is far simpler. We are biologically programmed to feel good when we do good, and bad when we do bad. Further, bad consequences often naturally follow bad deeds- treat someone badly, and they will begin to feel badly about you, for example. If you choose to see a supreme being involved in such programming, well, so be it, but belief is frankly irrelevant, and it makes perfect evolutionary sense for such traits to be naturally selected for as well, for the good of the species, regardless of whether that species is human, elephant, or mole rat (so long as it is passingly social).

    Those that believe in eternal damnation frankly believe that they have no real choice- it’s morality at the point of a metaphysical gun. Personally, I have far more respect for those who choose to do good without believing that there will be any divine punishment if they don’t, because it’s the right thing to do, because it makes sense, heck, because it feels good to do it.

    The great liberation in knowing the truth that the universe and everyone in it have no pre-destined purpose (An “accident”, as some choose to insultingly call it) is not the freedom from morality. Rather, it is the freedom to recognize that each person is the captain of their soul, the master of their own fate, and to knowingly choose your own purpose, one that fulfills you, both mentally and spiritually.

    Personally, I wouldn’t want to live in any other universe, although a world in which more people recognized this truth might be nice…

  20. gridbug responds:

    traveller…

    I absolutely appreciate and agree with your opinion that video games do not equal the real-world experience of shooting a gun and taking a life. That’s pretty much common sense. There’s a WORLD of difference between the two… it’s troubling that some folks (read: politicians, knee jerk reactionaries, etc) can’t seem to grasp that fact.

    There are and always will be troubled souls in the world who have a hard time distinguishing fact from fantasy (insert Dubya reference) and yes, more attention needs to be placed on the tragic disconnect between parents and children in respect to the sort of responsible guidance kids need to become socially responsible members of the populace.

    I don’t believe in Christianity and/or creationism. Personally, I feel that irregardless as to how and why we were placed on this planet, the fact is that we’re here and we all need to pull together if we’re going to survive the troubled future that we ourselves have wrought. It seems very irresponsible and destructive to the overall good to just assume that since we’re “only animals” it doesn’t matter what we do with the time we’re given. If in fact this is our one and only go around on this plane of existence, I’d prefer to spend my last moments knowing that I tried to make a difference and to be a force of good in the world. The concept of moral absolutes is open to debate, but the inherent common sense “good equals good, bad equals bad” programming we’re all born with should prove as good a guide as any in how to conduct one’s self, and it especially applies to parents. Or at least, it should.

    Communication leads to education. Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment leads to peace.

    And that ain’t a bad thing. 🙂

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