“We have to tell us what to do.”

This chapter discusses how, instead of establishing a top-down command and control structure, the Coast Guard — from the top brass down to the on-scene rank and file — allowed for the organic, needs-driven, decentralized response that played an enormous role in the ultimate success of the waterborne evacuation. This approach, in turn, allowed mariners to take direct action, applying their workaday skills to singular circumstances, without being stifled by red tape. No one had foreseen the sudden need for evacuating a huge swath of Manhattan Island. Yet as terrorized people continued to flee to the waterfront, more and more boats turned up to rescue them. As greater numbers of vessels and evacuees amassed along the shoreline, streamlining operations became the biggest challenge. The only solution was to get organized, and that organization was implemented in large part by Lieutenant Michael Day and the pilots operating aboard the New York, which continued its barrier patrol. Their efforts were made easier by the relationships that both the Coast Guard and the Sandy Hook Pilots had with the New York harbor community.

The Impact of Emotional Responses to Public Service Announcements: The Case of Gun Violence in Schools

We examine how people’s emotional reactions to gun violence public service announcements (PSAs) influence information acquisition, policy preferences, and political engagement. Utilizing a non-student sample of more than 100 participants, we look people’s emotional reactions (i.e., anger, sadness, contempt, and fear) to two Sandy Hook Promise PSAs. We assess people’s emotional reactions by relying on two complimentary measures: the traditional self-report measures as well as facial expression analysis. We demonstrate that when people are feeling sad after watching the Sandy Hook Promise PSAs, they are significantly more likely to retain information from a news article about school violence. Furthermore, feelings of contempt and fear lead people to seek out additional information about gun violence. In addition, we find when people feel anger, contempt, and fear after watching the PSAs, they change their views of gun policies. Finally, fear and contempt increase people’s likelihood of becoming politically mobilized.

De balas, política y medios informativos: análisis de la cobertura periodística de tiroteos escolares en The New York Times (1999-2018)

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un análisis a la cobertura realizada por el diario The New York Times a los tiroteos escolares de Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Sandy Hook (2012) y Marjory Stoneman (2018), considerados como los más letales de Estados Unidos en los últimos 25 años. A través de un análisis de contenido basado en la teoría del framing, el estudio revela que tras el tiroteo de Sandy Hook se presentó un cambio narrativo que se acentuó con el suceso de Marjory Stoneman, con el cual el debate político se convirtió en el protagonista, más allá del suceso en sí mismo. Esto, a su vez, influyó en el ciclo de vida de las noticias. Un análisis del entorno sociopolítico que rodeó cada uno de estos sucesos permitió concluir que, al tiempo que este debate se masificó, los actores políticos relacionados con los hechos adquirieron mayor relevancia, un síntoma de la sociedad cambiante dentro de la cual se desarrollan los eventos. De esta forma, el diario tomó un rol más crítico respecto a su gestión, dando primacía al marco de conflicto sobre el marco de interés humano. Esta relación entre producción noticiosa, sucesos trágicos y política nos permite discutir cómo la voz y el poder de un medio, al reconocer su propio potencial transformador, puede determinar aspectos básicos de la cobertura, como la caracterización de los actores involucrados o los temas en los cuales se hace énfasis en los artículos.

Dewey, School Violence, and Aesthetic Response

Since the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 there have been at least 159 school shootings in America (Everytown, n.d.). This chapter focuses on application of Deweyan thought to school shootings and aesthetic responses. Educational and aesthetic theories are used to understand the effects of school violence and inquiry includes analysis of artful works made in response to shootings. Common themes are noted across all 3 sites in various aesthetic responses and the steps toward reconstruction of associated living. Findings suggest engagement in responsive art works may ameliorate the disruption and trauma of school shootings. Within aesthetic response, there is potential for reclamation, restoration, and re-presentation of experience through the doubled reconstruction of communal spaces/places and of relational identity after shooting incidents. Considerations include the use of aesthetic response and associated living practices by activist and educators as a potential means to understand and work against gun violence.

Immunity to Environmental Crime, Harm and Violence: An Ongoing Pandemic and a Possible Narrative Vaccine

As of June 2020, there have been at least 2,540 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, on December 14, 2012. Some have suggested that the repeated trauma of these massacres has created a collective “emotional numbness,” lessening our empathy. This article asks whether a similar phenomenon is occurring with respect to environmental crime and harm. It considers whether we have developed “compassion fatigue” regarding environmental violence and contemplates a “workout regimen” for empathy for Gaia’s suffering. In so doing, it seeks to engage with emerging work in the penumbra of narrative criminology and green cultural criminology.