Suzanne Schneider聽is a historian and writer. She is a core faculty member at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and the author, most recently, of "The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism."
In the days since a suspect drove his SUV into a crowd gathered to celebrate Vancouver鈥檚 Lapu-Lapu festival 鈥 killing eleven people and injuring dozens more 鈥 confusion has grown alongside the anguish. In the case of the accused, Kai-ji Adam Lo, there is no manifesto to scour, no social media radicalization to uncover, no obvious political motivations to blame 鈥 just a yet-unspecified history of mental health struggle that, based on what we know at this point, gave clinicians no indication that he was a danger to himself or others.
Making sense of an attack that appears senseless is no easy task, and partisans tend to advance competing explanations: inadequate mental health treatment squares off against broken families or economic despair. The reality is that there is very little empirical research about random acts of violence 鈥 those targeting strangers without a clear motivation 鈥 and that any singular explanation will be inadequate.
In this case gaps in mental health care may indeed be the primary culprit. But random acts of violence also suggest a fraying social fabric. Beware the easy answers, especially those that prescribe more surveillance and policing in response to every social crisis.
Researchers like to stress that violent crime remains at historically low levels despite recent increases, and that crime committed by strangers represents a minority 鈥斅, according to Statistics Canada 鈥 of such events. But appeals to cold hard data do not fully counter the psychological effects. Random violence unsettles us because it underscores our essential vulnerability, the very thing that modern life works hard to minimize through an arsenal of scientific, technological, and political means. Victims are killed and wounded by chance, which is to say, without reason. No appeal to merit or prudence helps, and many of us struggle to make sense of a world in which lives are so casually extinguished.
indicate that vehicle-ramming attacks (VRAs) have spiked in frequency over the past ten years, with much of the increase attributable to Islamic militant groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. These, at least, we know how to explain. Vehicles are an easily accessible weapon that can be turned against soft targets with relative ease; bollards and other protective measures offer some resilience, but they cannot remove the threat entirely. These are high-profile events 鈥 spectacular in the literal sense 鈥 with intense media coverage serving to amplify their effects far beyond the immediate area. In my own on the Islamic State, I stressed how violence has become an end in itself, untethered from traditional political goals and undertaken by young men (they are almost always men) who desperately want to 鈥渄o something鈥 in a world in which real change is elusive. I hypothesized that there was some correlation between the growing sense of futility around entrenched social and political crises and the attractiveness of violent acts that allow perpetrators to feel empowered, however temporarily and despite the horrific cost.
But VRAs have also been adopted the world over by those with no discernable political motivation, leaving no plausible explanation beyond possible mental illness, road rage, or intense frustration. Just this year we have witnessed attacks of this sort in , ., , the , and . The latter country has experienced at least three vehicle ramming attacks since last November, the most recent being an April 22 assault outside an elementary school in Zhejiang province that killed fourteen people. The scholars Vincent Miller and Keith Hayward have noted the mimetic nature of VRAs, as a tactic introduced by Islamists has been adopted by a wide range of assailants (including those engaged in anti-Muslim violence), some with no discernable motive. This suggests there is an imitative quality to the violent act itself, images of which travel around the globe at lightning speed, that makes it difficult for any society to fully insulate itself.聽
The race to adopt more strident security measures is an understandable response to tragedy, and in some cases, well worth the effort. However, this approach treats symptoms instead of causes, and cannot be adopted in lieu of a more fulsome conversation about what communities require to live without fear. A society in which random acts of violence become commonplace is not one that can be healed by more policing and barricades. It is not just better research and mental health resources that are required, but policy interventions that work to strengthen the fraying social fabric. The unsatisfying truth is that there are no easy fixes. Beware anyone claiming otherwise.
Suzanne Schneider聽is a historian and writer. She is a core faculty member at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and the author, most recently, of ”The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism.”
Opinion articles are based on the author鈥檚 interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
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