Going postal

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Going postal is an American English slang term, used as a verb meaning to suddenly become extremely and uncontrollably angry, possibly to the point of violence. The term derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. Following this series of events, the idiom entered common parlance and has been applied to murders committed by employees in acts of workplace rage, irrespective of the employer; and generally to describe fits of rage, though not necessarily at the level of murder, in or outside the workplace.

Contents 1 Earliest citation 2 List of postal shootings 3 Notable postal shootings 3.1 Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986 3.2 Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1991 3.3 Royal Oak, Michigan in 1991 3.4 Double event in 1993 3.5 Montclair, New Jersey in 1995 3.6 Goleta, California, in 2006 4 Analysis 5 Satirical references 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Earliest citation

This term first appeared in print on December 17, 1993 in the St. Petersburg Times.

"The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as 'going postal.' Thirty-five people have been killed in 11 post office shootings since 1983." Some USPS workers do not approve of the term "going postal" and have made attempts to stop people from using the saying. Others feel it has earned its place appropriately.

[edit] List of postal shootings

Main article: List of postal killings

[edit] Notable postal shootings

[edit] Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986

On August 20, 1986, 14 employees were shot and killed and six wounded at the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office by a postman, Patrick Sherrill, who then committed suicide with a shot to the forehead.^[1]

[edit] Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1991

On October 10, 1991, Joseph Harris shot and killed four people, including his former boss and two other USPS employees a year after being fired.^[2]

[edit] Royal Oak, Michigan in 1991

On November 14, 1991 in Royal Oak, Michigan, Thomas McIlvane killed five people, including himself, with a Ruger 10/22 rifle in Royal Oak's post office, after being fired from the Postal Service for "insubordination." He had been previously suspended for getting into altercations with postal customers on his route. ^[3]

[edit] Double event in 1993

Two shootings took place on the same day, May 6, 1993, a few hours apart. At a post office in Dearborn, Michigan, Lawrence Jasion wounded three and killed two (including himself). In Dana Point, California, Mark Richard Hilburn killed his mother, then shot two postal workers dead.^{[4][citation needed]}

[edit] Montclair, New Jersey in 1995

Christopher Green was sentenced to two life prison terms, plus 25 years, for murdering four men and wounding a fifth during a $5,100 robbery at a tiny neighborhood post office in Montclair, New Jersey, on March 21.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Goleta, California, in 2006

Jennifer San Marco, a former postal employee, killed six postal employees before committing suicide with a handgun, on the evening of January 30, 2006, at a large postal processing facility in Goleta, California.^[5]

Police later also identified a seventh victim dead in a condominium complex in Goleta, California where San Marco once lived.^[6]

According to media reports, the Postal Service had forced San Marco to retire in 2003 because of her worsening mental problems. Her choice of victims may have also been racially motivated; San Marco had a previous history of racial prejudice, and tried to obtain a business license for a newspaper of her own ideas, called Racial Times, in New Mexico.

This incident is believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out in the United States by a woman.^[7][8]

[edit] Analysis

Researchers have found that the homicide rates per 100,000 workers at postal facilities were lower than at other workplaces. In major industries, the highest rate of 2.1 homicides per 100,000 workers was in retail. The next highest rate of 1.66 was in public administration, which includes police officers. The homicide rate for postal workers was 0.26 per 100,000. The most dangerous occupation: taxi driving, with a homicide rate of 31.54 per 100,000 workers.^{[citation needed]}

However, not all murders on the job are directly comparable to "going postal". Taxi drivers, for example, are much more likely to be murdered by passengers than by their peers. Working in retail means one is exposed to store robberies.

[edit] Satirical references

• The computer game Postal takes its name from the expression "going postal", even resulting in a trademark lawsuit from the United States Postal Service.
• An episode of "The X Files" entitiled "Blood" features a postal employee who snaps after submission to thousands of subliminal messages. He goes up into the clock tower of a local university and begins firing down on people with an assault rifle, (bearing a close resemblance to Charles Whitman).
• In Seinfeld, when asked about why post office workers snap, Newman, who works as a mailman, responds, "Because the mail never stops". He continues to go on a rant until he is jolted to a stop by Cosmo Kramer.
• In the fifth season episode of The Simpsons "Homer Loves Flanders", Flanders has a fantasy scene where he opens fire from a tower, like Charles Whitman. When one of his bullets strikes near a mailman, the man responds by pulling an assault rifle out of his work bag and firing back. In another episode, "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", a postal worker assures Bart that the days of the "gun-toting" postal worker "went out with the Macarena". Hearing this, Principal Skinner expresses his relief that he works in a public school.
• In an episode of Dexter's Lab, there was a villain called "The Disgruntled Postman" who was foiled by Major Glory before he could affix a stamp to a bomb which he would send to the White House to blow up. The Disgruntled Postman actually resembled the DC Animated Universe version of The Joker.
• In the episode of Rocko's Modern Life called "Commute Sentence", a postal worker on a subway car claims he is becoming "disgruntled", causing everyone to flee in terror. This turns out to be a ruse so he could get some "swinging room".
• In the film Jumanji, the character of Van Pelt, a sadistic 19th century safari hunter played by Jonathan Hyde, goes to a gun store to buy ammunition for his old hunting rifle, but winds up with a more modern automatic rifle. To get used to this new firearm, he takes aim at a person on the street. The owner of the gun shop worriedly asks, "You're not a postal worker, are you?" Van Pelt simply looks at him, puzzled.
• In the film Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, at the beginning (when there is a satire of The Untouchables), Frank hears a voice (off-camera) that shouts '"Oh, my God! Look! It's disgruntled postal workers.". Then, he looks at the entrance of the train station and sees many workers going postal, shooting blind with machine guns and submachine guns.
• In Office Space, when Ron Livingston is at Chotchkie's complaining about his job to his co-workers, he remarks "Boy, I'll tell ya, some days... One of these days it's just gonna be like... " while mimicking the sound of a machine gun and firing an imaginary one.
• In Soul Plane, Tom Arnold converses with Karl Malone about their years playing high school basketball. After Tom said he "sucked", Karl threatened him, to which Tom humorously replied: "What are you going to do? Go all...Postal on me, Mr. Mailman?". ("The Mailman" is Karl Malone's nickname)
• In an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway?, during a skit revolving around a post office, Colin Mochrie asks Wayne Brady what training he has to become a postal worker. Brady cocks an imaginary gun and says "I'm an expert marksman". In addition, during another skit set at a post office, Wayne pretends to play a guitar, which agitates Colin. He grabs the guitar, then pretends to smash the guitar first over his leg, then over Wayne's head. Wayne gasps in surprise, then pretendedly walks over to a cabinet and opens a door. He grabs an invisible gun, cocks it, and walks back over to Colin and Ryan Stiles with an angry look on his face. Colin and Ryan hesitantly join in Wayne's singing.
• In the computer game Duke Nukem 3D, the 6th level of Episode 4: The Birth is called "Going Postal."
• In the pilot episode of the comedy TV show MAD TV, the opening joke shows two executives traveling all over L.A. to get cast members for MAD TV. One of them, played by Phil LaMarr, is a mailman who is just walking out of a building with a submachine gun and screaming at people around him. A later sketch portrayed three separate postal workers deciding to "go postal" on the same day and arguing about who would be allowed to do it, before being interrupted by a fourth armed man, whom they shoot when they realise he is not a postal worker but an armed robber. The sketch concludes with the three postal workers shown on the front page of a newspaper applauded as heroes.
• The Discworld novel Going Postal revolves around the reopening of the postal service in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork where employment really can do funny things to your head as evidenced by several, if not all, employees.
• In a Ctrl+Alt+Del comic, a worker at the "United Piñata Postal Service" snaps, and kills its fellow workers with a baseball bat.^[9]
• In the video game True Crime: Streets of L.A., the dispatcher says that there is a disgruntled postal worker holding a person hostage.
• In the film Jingle All the Way, the mailman character threatens to bomb some officers. He proves his insanity by claiming, "And I work for the Post Office so you know I ain't stable!"
• In the computer game Chaos Overlords, one of the gangs for hire is composed of disgruntled postal workers.
• In an episode of Deadliest Catch, when a crew member's coat is ripped by a tote on deck, the tote is tossed overboard and riddled with a full clip of bullets by the crew member. The narrator refers to this action as "going postal".
• In an episode of Late Night with David Letterman, during a multiple choice quiz bit, there was a question where David Letterman played some stock footage of children playing with toy guns. The question: "What are these children playing? 1) Cowboys and Indians; 2) Cops and Robbers; 3) Mailman."
• In an episode of King Of The Hill, Hank as a 41 time Employee Of The Month is allowed to hire a new accessories associate. After several missteps Hank fires his new hire Leon, Hank's boss Buck Strickland warns that Leon could comeback and "light the place up." The next day Joe Jack runs in claiming that Leon was in the parking lot looking Disgruntled. Later in the same episode Leon is replaced by an attractive woman named Maria whom Hank passed on earlier with resentment from his wife Peggy. Peggy upon finding this out appears in the parking lot looking Disgruntled.
• In the film My Fellow Americans, Jack Lemmon and James Garner are discussing an insane NSA agent, wondering "why isn't he in the Postal Service where he belongs?"
• In The Riches season one finale, Davie Panetta, carrying a water gun, walks into Wayne's office, and shoots him in the crotch of his Khaki pants. Hugh promptly walks in and says, "Don't go all postal on me there."
• In an episode of Married...With Children (I Want My Psycho Dad, Part 2) while being shot at in a hotel, one of Al's (Officer Dan) friends fired back out into the street and commented "Damn postal workers".
• In the movie Demon Knight, Irene and Deputy Bob find a trunk loaded with weapons, and learn that Wally, a postal worker killed by a possessed Cordelia, had been planning to attack the post office.
• In the PC game Dark Forces the code "LAPOSTAL" unlocks all weapons.
• The film He Was a Quiet Man revolves around a disillusioned office worker with ideas of murdering his co-workers, a fellow co-worker then "goes postal" and shoots up the office before the lead does. The lead then stops the shooter by killing him with the gun he himself planned to use to kill his co-workers.
• In the pilot episode of the television series Seven Days, the russian terrorist whose plan is foiled by the hero is said to be "a disgruntled postal worker" as a cover up.
• In the movie "Next Friday" Michael Blackson argues with Mike Epps at the music store and then claims that "I'll go postal in this mothafucka!"^[10].

[edit] References

1. Bob Dart, "'Going postal' is a bad rap for mail carriers, study finds", Austin American-Statesman, September 2, 2000^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bibliography

• Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond is the title of a book by Mark Ames, which examines the rise of office and school shootings in the wake of the Reagan Revolution, and compares the shootings to slave rebellions. (ISBN 1-932360-82-4)
• Going Postal is also the title of a book by Don Lasseter, which examines the issue of workplace shootings inside the USPS (ISBN 0-7860-0439-8).
• Lone Wolf, by Pan Pantziarka is a comprehensive study of the Spree killer phenomenon, and looks in detail at a number of cases in the US, UK and Australia. (ISBN 0-7535-0437-5).

[edit] See also

• List of postal killings
• List of massacres
• Amok
• Road rage
• Spree killer
• Postal (computer game)

[edit] External links

• Copycat Effect- review of Coleman's book on tendency of publicity about mass deaths to provoke more with section on postal shootings
• USPS's campaign against the use of this phrase. (See articles with "Going Postal" in the title)
• Gun advocate website listing 1986-1997 incidents
• 2000 Report of the United States Postal Service Commission on a Safe and Secure Workplace (Report that called "going postal" 'a myth')
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the report's release