"...loner with a taste for Nazism"

[Bella]

Before Monday, before the storm of bullets that left 10 people on this Indian reservation dead, Jeff Weise was rarely noticed here. But when he was, people saw a confused, brooding teenager with few friends, a peculiar attraction to Nazism and a lifetime, already, of family troubles.
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One of my friends, who often shops at stores like Hot Topic and has a decidedly edgy look, is infuriated at how events like Columbine (and now the Red Lake school shooting) make 'normal' people glance askew at "goths." Every article I've read about the shooting makes mention of how Mr. Weise was a "goth" or how he wore a black coat and drew scary pictures.

I am also astonished at the strange responses from different townspeople, such as the person who said the gunman couldn't be a Nazi because he wasn't white. I was at work today and heard people talking about how the papers must have "got that part wrong" because there's no way a racial minority would want to seperate himself from the rest of American population. This ignorant woman just couldn't understand "why some people have issues with just being normal."

I get a kick out of people who say "I mean, how could this have happened? They just never saw it coming." When are schools going to wake up and realise that they can't plan for this type of thing - that the people who are going to commit acts of violence like this are the people who aren't likely to get noticed every day?

[LadyShea]

His dad suicided, his mom is institutionalized due to brain damage, he is a marginialized minority living on one of the poorest reservations in the country and he was an outcast. I don't see why this is so overly shocking. Not that all kids in such situations would snap, but certainly he should have been receiving therapy or being monitored in some way due to being "high risk" for some kind of negative beahvior.

Our society is stupid. They look at music and clothes and video games and stupid shit like that....but they don't discuss that maybe his fucked up life might be a factor?

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

His dad suicided, his mom is institutionalized due to brain damage, he is a marginialized minority living on one of the poorest reservations in the country and he was an outcast. I don't see why this is so overly shocking. Not that all kids in such situations would snap, but certainly he should have been receiving therapy or being monitored in some way due to being "high risk" for some kind of negative beahvior.

Well, FOX News had it right. One of their commentators blamed in on the availability of free porn on the internet.

Our society is stupid. They look at music and clothes and video games and stupid shit like that....but they don't discuss that maybe his fucked up life might be a factor?

No, because that invariably leads to a discussion without the reassuring morality lesson that makes conservatives feel so warm and fuzzy.

Also, that I predict this story will be totally gone from the media by middle of next week. It's already happening now, in fact.

Contrast that with coverage of the Columbine killings which went on for months. They had fund drives, public memorials, monuments, legislation passed, visits and condolences from high dignitaries, etc. etc. etc.

When white suburban kids get mowed down by an armed killer, apparently it's a national tragedy and we're all supposed to have one big national cry-fest. But let poor minority kids on a reservation get killed, and it's just a footnote on a slow news day.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by Sauron

Also, that I predict this story will be totally gone from the media by middle of next week. It's already happening now, in fact.

Contrast that with coverage of the Columbine killings which went on for months. They had fund drives, public memorials, monuments, legislation passed, visits and condolences from high dignitaries, etc. etc. etc.

I'm afraid you're absolutely right. How sickening. In fact I just went to CNN's website to see if they had any coverage of this at all, and the only note is under the "US" heading in the lower left, an article titled "Shootings stir memories of Columbine". So even now we're called to use this tragedy to again mourn the loss of the white kids at Columbine. That's fucking sick.

[lisarea]

While I'm sure racial issues are somewhat involved in the reporting on this story, also, the tribal authorities are keeping reporters out of the area, and anything that doesn't have good pictures to go with it gets less airtime.

It's probably a combination of those two factors, really.

[viscousmemories]

Ah, good point. I didn't know reporters were being kept out. That does make a little more sense than a broad conspiracy to keep the Indians down. I'm still pretty appalled that I didn't even hear about this until this thread, though, and at how little coverage there is elsewhere. It's pretty sad.

[LadyShea]

From what I understand, the Chippewa do not want another media circus like Columbine. This is a small community and probably the worst thing to ever happen there.

Also, with Columbine, we had dramatic pictures of SWAT teams and students running for their lives and hanging out of windows, because the attack was still going on when the news cameras got there. Made for good TV.

[Bella]

From The NY Times:

Mr. Weise, who wore eye makeup and a black trench coat that fell to the ground over his 6-foot, 250-pound frame, had been told recently not to study at school, but to study privately with a teacher at home. The reason, the principal said, was to offer Mr. Weise the extra help he needed, given what the principal described only as his "issues."

Mr. Weise, who had been held back in school, was teased because he was larger than most of the other sophomores, because he dressed in "Goth" style and wandered around by himself...

More stereotypes. Gah.