Review: Columbine

Columbine by Dave Cullen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It is hard to imagine a book more definitive on the tragedy than this one, so I had to give it four starts. It has the timeline and details of the killer's attack (with all the ineffectual timed bombs and effective pipe bombs I didn't recall), the ineffectual and glacial police response (and cover up of pre-attack investigations) and the later life arcs of key survivors and participants. The attack is played out early on and something about this audiobook (maybe that it was spoke to me and not read by me) seemed almost excited, dare I say gleeful, about it. That was rather unsettling.

One thing the book makes clear is out these teens surprised law enforcement with their arsenal and the their level of weaponry. The point is made is that this contributed to a trend in police taking an active response to an active shooter. Now, in Ferguson, MO we see the pendulum has swung to far in the direction of militarization of the police.



View all my reviews