Another Mass Shooting

[Ymir's blood]

Nothing says, "PRO LIFE" like a Kalashnikov.

[The Man]

When will these Christians denounce radical Christian terrorism? Why won't they use the words "Christian terrorism" to describe the acts of Christian terrorists? When will they insist we rid our country of radical Christian terrorist groups? Where are all the so-called "moderate" Christians denouncing this kind of violence? Why didn't "moderate" Christians report this man to the community? The killer must have been raised in a Christian "no-go" area.

Christians may claim that these people are "not real Christians", but their holy scripture is full of violent acts against other groups, and there are plenty of Christians who endorse these acts, such as Canadian anchor babby Ted Cruz. The simple fact is that we have no choice but to shut down the worst churches; they are nothing more than radicalisation centres. Additionally, it is time for us to start a nationwide database on Christians, requiring mandatory registration. We also need to institute a moratorium on accepting Christian refugees and immigrants. It's not safe to accept them; some of them could be terrorists. Finally, Congress needs to hold emergency hearings on Christian radicalisation.

This is nothing less than an outright clash of civilisations. These Christians hate us for our freedoms.

In other news, the shooter was taken alive, which is a clear sign that he was white.

Seriously, though, some right-wingers are actually defending the terrorist. Little Green Footballs has been cataloguing comments on Twitter, Breitbart, etc. It's disgusting. Apparently even killing cops isn't enough to override their hatred for Planned Parenthood.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by Miisa

Are they booing or chanting?

Cheering obviously, as recent events give confirmation beyond doubt. Turkey is buying ISIS oil for half-price. Plus they shot down a Russian plane bombing ISIS.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

So those dickheads who shot five people at the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday? They're white! They're also racist 4chaner neo-Confederate militia whackos.

I see you left this one real quick after some facts come out, like BLM protesters fully admitting the group surrounded the videographers and started to strike them. Then the mass continued to chase them down as they ran from the violence coming after them.

[lisarea]

Jerome, you have some condemning to do, don't you?

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by Jerome

I see you left this one real quick after some facts come out, like BLM protesters fully admitting the group surrounded the videographers and started to strike them. Then the mass continued to chase them down as they ran from the violence coming after them.

Stay white, Jerry.

[Jerome]

OMG, people wearing face masks in the winter!!

BLM protesters at the event telling the story of how their compatriots struck and chased the people taking pictures.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by lisarea

Jerome, you have some condemning to do, don't you?

Right, Obama needs to stop killing brown people.

[Jerome]

You people are soo fucking racist. Like your whole thing is a group of blacks can't control themselves is common knowledge, so taking video should be known to provoke the pack.

That is your racist fucking premise.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by Jerome

You people are soo fucking racist. Like your whole thing is a group of blacks can't control themselves is common knowledge, so taking video should be known to provoke the pack.

That is your racist fucking premise.

You truly are the Henny Youngman of amateur sociological experimentation!

[SR71]

Originally Posted by Jerome

You people are soo fucking racist. Like your whole thing is a group of blacks can't control themselves is common knowledge, so taking video should be known to provoke the pack.

That is your racist fucking premise.

Yeah, that's why the black people shot the white people... oh wait.

[The Man]

Shut the fuck up, Jerome. You have no business calling anyone else a racist when you're defending white supremacist terrorists. You might as well be defending the Ku Klux Klan.

In other news, the identities of the three people killed in the Planned Parenthood shooting have been released.



University police officer Garrett Swasey, father of two. It should be noted that he was an evangelical Christian who was not particularly fond of Planned Parenthood or abortion, but unlike certain other Christians I could name, he did his fucking job. Unfortunately, it got him killed.



Jennifer Markvosky, mother of two. As may be noted from the picture, she appears to be a military spouse. She was there to support a friend who needed medical assistance from the clinic.



Ke'Arre Stewart, father of two and Army veteran who served in Iraq.

Naturally, not a single one of the people the terrorist killed was there to get or perform an abortion, and they were all police officers, military veterans, or military spouses, three categories of people the right wing claims to value highly. We can see by the continued reaction to the shooting what a lie this is: people are still continuing to give apologia for the domestic terrorism, just as Jerome here is continuing to defend white supremacist domestic terrorists. While people are continuing to insist we don't know the shooter's motive, the police have said that he very clearly stated "No more baby parts" as he was being arrested, and people who have known him have stated he read the Bible cover to cover several times and repeatedly posted Bible verses on social media. It is 100% clear that he was a Christian who was motivated by anti-choice ideology.

Meanwhile, several people have responded to the shooting by outright lying about the shooter's motives and identity. The worst are Ted Cruz and Jim Hoft, the Stupidest Man on the Internet, who have decided that because a single piece of paperwork from the shooter's past had his gender marked as female, he must actually be a trans woman. (Trans women are well noted for growing out their facial hair, don'tcha know). Clerical errors are umpossible! So they've responded to a terrorist attack by a white man by trying to vilify what is quite likely the most persecuted minority in America, a group that is vastly more likely to be a victim of violence (sexual assault, murder, etc.) than a perpetrator, and suffers several times more violence than the average population. Cruz has also decided this means he must be a leftist, because apparently conservative transgender people like Caitlyn Jenner don't exist. Similarly, Mike Huckabee eroded any goodwill he might have earned by calling the shooter a domestic terrorist when in the same breath he proceeded to make the terrorist's violence all about the "pro-life" movement, and insisting that he doesn't know of a single member of the movement who advocates violence (presumably he's never heard of Operation Rescue then).

I have never been more worried about the future of this country than I am now. We have a leading presidential candidate who is a borderline fascist (see Dave Neiwert's excellent writeup on this) and a rather large percentage of this country has not only decided that domestic terrorism is no big deal but has actually decided to throw their lot in defending the domestic terrorists. Meanwhile, we're supposed to be scared shitless of Syrian refugees because something something ooga booga Muslims, despite the fact that not a single refugee has committed a fatal attack on this country in the last fourteen years. I've never been more afraid that fascism could take root in this country than I am now.

[Jerome]

Originally Posted by The Man

Shut the fuck up, Jerome. You have no business calling anyone else a racist when you're defending white supremacist terrorists. You might as well be defending the Ku Klux Klan.

Looks like I hit the typical racist liberal nerve.

You people really do think black people are evolutionarly inferior to crackers like yourself.

I remind you, the liberals had a Grand Cyclops of the KKK as the highest member of the US Senate just recently.

[The Man]

Originally Posted by Jerome

Looks like I hit the typical racist

You've completely misjudged what set me off, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. You calling anyone a racist has absolutely no effect on anyone. You have been defending white supremacist terrorists throughout your posts in this exchange, so no one cares who you think is a racist. The reason your posts inspired the reaction they did is because of your defence of terrorists. Even if your story about the terrorists being struck is true (and it's funny that you didn't mention the fact that the terrorists were repeatedly shouting "nigger" before they started shooting into the crowd, instead claiming that "taking video" is what provoked the protesters), it doesn't change the fact that you're trying to come up with a justification for politically motivated terrorism.

liberal nerve.

I am not even remotely close to being a liberal and have not been for well over ten years, long before I started posting at this message board.

You people really do think black people are evolutionarly inferior to crackers like yourself.

And statements like this are why no one takes you seriously.

I remind you, the liberals had a Grand Cyclops of the KKK as the highest member of the US Senate just recently.

*photoshopped horseshit snipped out*

I would like everyone to pay close attention to what Jerome did here.

#1, equates Dixiecrats with liberals. As everyone with the remotest familiarity with history knows, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party underwent a shift in political alignment after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Nixon enacted his Southern Strategy. Jerome doesn't bother to mention that, because it would undermine his position that liberals are the real racists.

#2, completely leaves out the fact that Byrd later said that joining the KKK was "the greatest mistake I ever made", explicitly renounced his segregationist past, and underwent a complete 180° on racial matters, to the point that the NAACP gave him a 100% rating for the 2003-2004 legislative session. But of course Jerome doesn't bother mentioning any of this, because he is a pathologically mendacious sack of shit, and the only possible way he can think of to deflect attention from the racism of the modern conservative movement is to pretend that the actions of a Dixiecrat in 1964 and earlier have anything to do with the views of liberals in the 2010s.

#3, pretends that Byrd's leadership of the Senate coincided with his segregationist views, which it certainly did not. Indeed, a strong case could be made that Byrd had dropped said views by 1968, when he voted for that year's Civil Rights Act.

#4, calls a Senate leadership that ended twenty-eight years ago "just recently".

#5, posts an obviously photoshopped picture of Byrd, who had left the Klan by the time he was thirty-one at the very latest.

In conclusion, shut the fuck up, Jerome.

Anyway, that's enough time wasted on that horseshit. Via Balloon Juice:

One person who spoke with him extensively about his religious views said Mr. Dear, who is 57, had praised people who attacked abortion providers, saying they were doing “God’s work.” In 2009, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for the privacy of the family, Mr. Dear described as “heroes” members of the Army of God, a loosely organized group of anti-abortion extremists that has claimed responsibility for a number of killings and bombings.

And via the comments:

Does violent political rhetoric fuel support for political violence? Political leaders regularly infuse communication with metaphors of fighting and war. Building from theoretical foundations in media violence research, I field a nationally-representative survey experiment in which subjects are randomly assigned to different forms of the same political advertisements. I find that even mild violent language increases support for political violence among citizens with aggressive predispositions, especially among young adults.

Who could possibly have guessed that a slew of hate speech would incite someone to commit terrorist acts? It's a complete shocker.

There's also this:

… A recent study found that more than half of the 110 mass shootings in the United States between January 2009 and July 2014 included the murder of a current or former spouse, an intimate partner or a family member. Everytown for Gun Safety, the group that released the study, found a “noteworthy connection between mass-shooting incidents and domestic or family violence.”

This connection is not limited to mass shootings. An analysis of the criminal justice history of hundreds of thousands of offenders in Washington State suggests that a felony domestic violence conviction is the single greatest predictor of future violent crime among men…

Men who commit violence rehearse and perfect it against their families first. Women and children are target practice, and the home is the training ground for these men’s later actions….

And guess who had a history of sexual and domestic violence?

The man accused of opening fire Friday in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood was charged with rape in North Charleston more than 20 years ago, according to police reports…

A woman who worked at Citadel Mall reported to North Charleston police that Dear had asked her out numerous times and she always refused, saying that she was married, according to a police report. Dear allegedly continued to call her at work and home about two to three times per day telling her that he wanted to see her.

On Nov. 29, 1992, Dear showed up at the woman’s house while she attempted to take out the trash, according to the police report.

“The suspect then allegedly put a knife to the victim’s neck and forced her back inside her residence,” the report states. “The suspect then allegedly forced the victim down into the couch, struck her in the mouth with his fist, and then sexually assaulted her.” …

Dear has a history of arrests in South Carolina out of Colleton and Beaufort counties, records show. A background search completed by The Post and Courier found that Dear was arrested in 2003 on a cruelty to animals charge but was found not guilty in 2004. He was charged under the state’s Peeping Tom law in 2002 but that charge, too, was later dismissed, according to a background search.

In 1997, Dear’s then-wife reported that her husband assaulted her, according to incident reports released Saturday by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office. She declined at the time to file charges against Dear…

His second wife, Mescher, described Dear in divorce papers filed in 1993 as a controlling, abusive, womanizing man who liked to gamble but was tight with his cash when it came to supporting his family. She stated that he threw her around the room by her hair during one argument and beat her head on the floor. She also said in a sworn affidavit that Dear “erupts into fury in a matter of seconds,” and she “lived in fear and dread of his emotional and physical abuse.”

No one could possibly have predicted.

In other news, Trump says he understands why a conservative would attack Planned Parenthood. Plus:

What about Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and an advisor to the Center for Medical Progress? Newman wrote in his 2003 book that “the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people.” (Last week, presidential candidate and Senator Ted Cruz accepted Newman’s endorsement.)

“If you read that within the entire context of the book,” Mahoney said, “Troy addressed that is after they held a trial.”

Scheidler’s Pro-Life Action League is among the organizations that publishes the names, faces, and addresses of abortion providers. Asked if such disclosures could make providers feel unsafe, she replied, “We don’t pose any threat, we in the mainstream pro-life movement…. If they feel threatened, they can always get out of that business, I suppose. It’s not something that would make us back off on our mission.”

One notorious anti-abortion activist, who has long been an open supporter of violence against abortion providers, broke with the movement in offering direct support to Dear.

Donald Spitz, who runs the Army of God website and is based in Virginia, said of his fellow anti-abortion activists’ condemnations of violence, “They say that all the time. I think they’re hypocritical.”

While many groups insist violence against abortion providers is counterproductive to their cause, Spitz suggested such rhetoric is disingenuous. Referring to Scott Roeder, who murdered abortion provider George Tiller and who Spitz calls a friend, Spitz said, “How could that be counterproductive when he stopped them from providing abortions? They’ve lost their mind. They’re into political correctness way too far.”

As for Spitz’s own reaction, “I think Planned Parenthood is an evil organization, so I didn’t lose any sleep when I heard about it,” Spitz said. “They sell baby parts, and they reap what they sow, and now they’re complaining about it.”

He added, “There are no innocent people in Planned Parenthood. They’re in there for a reason.”

Spitz said he wrote to Dear on Monday to offer his support.

I'm donating some of the next paycheck I get to Planned Parenthood.

[lisarea]

Scheidler’s Pro-Life Action League is among the organizations that publishes the names, faces, and addresses of abortion providers. Asked if such disclosures could make providers feel unsafe, she replied, “We don’t pose any threat, we in the mainstream pro-life movement…. If they feel threatened, they can always get out of that business, I suppose. It’s not something that would make us back off on our mission.”

She's done a great job of describing what terrorism is and how it works. You target people you disagree with with violent, over-the-top rhetoric, get your base worked up, then let your martyrs take care of the direct violence. And when you are called out on that, you use that opportunity to publicly threaten and intimidate everyone who does whatever it is you disapprove of. (And, of course, that's just the leaders who avoid directly advocating violence.)

That is terrorism.

So are these, these, and many of these.

A significant percentage of anti-abortion activism is just plain terrorism. A much, much greater percentage than the percentage of Muslims who are terrorists.

If you have a genuine moral opposition to terrorism, and support guilt by association measures to contain it, you would be targeting anti-abortion activists well before you'd target immigrants or Muslims.

If you are not opposed to the anti-abortion movement, you are not opposed to terrorism.

[lisarea]

...and there's another one going on right now in San Bernardino.

[The Man]

It's probably worth pointing out that the shooting is occurring at a centre for the developmentally disabled, and just a few days ago the leading GOP candidate openly and cruelly mocked a disabled person. Before the last couple of weeks I might not have immediately gravitated towards suspecting a political motive, but these are the times we live in.

[Dingfod]

I suspect they thought Planned Parenthood's office was in that building.

[The Lone Ranger]

Amazingly, the San Bernardino incident is the second mass shooting today.

Are such occurrences becoming so common that they're scarcely even newsworthy anymore? Now that is a truly terrifying thought.

[lisarea]

Yes.

I'm not going to speculate on what these particular chickenshits are having this particular armed temper tantrum about, but for fuck's sake, gun nuts.

[Stephen Maturin]

355 mass shootings in 336 days is a lot. Looks like we need moar firearms. You know, for safety.

[The Man]

San Bernardino police chief calling the shooting domestic terrorism, says shooter walked in "as if on a mission". May be as many as 14 fatalities and 14 wounded. An arrest has been made.

I'll undoubtedly write a much longer post when I get off work. I only have time to post here during breaks.

[Ari]

An interesting update if true, it sounds like this was a targeted event by a previous employee. (which does explain why so many were left safe).

Hey people, try this cool thing called Chill the fuck out. Whatever mean (and considering you just killed a bunch of people, probably true) things they said about you, try this new thing called don't shoot a bunch of people before committing suicide (effectively) over it.
I mean I do wonder what the conversation with the girlfriend (I presume) who was with him was like. 'Sure let's put on the uncomfortable expensive gear and go murder a bunch of people, presumably to die in a shoot out with the cops, instead of flying to Hawaii and smoking their fine grade refer and/or sipping a fresh fruit cocktail... yeah option one sounds good.'

[The Man]

I have to amend one of my previous statements. The suspect was not arrested; he was shot.

The police have identified said suspect as Syed Farook, a U.S. citizen who is apparently a former employee of the San Bernardino Department of Public Health. This suggests one possible motive for the shooting, namely a case of workplace violence. It is worth noting that the Daily Beast apparently identified the wrong Syed Farook as the suspect; evidently three people by that name have worked for the California government at some point.

But of course none of that matters, because he is a Muslim. At this point I've basically given up hope. Trump's modern-day Nuremberg Laws are going to take him to the top of the polls and the whole election is going to be made about how Obama didn't keep us safe, even though this is the 336th incident like this this year and Obama's been trying to reform our gun laws since at least Sandy Hook and the only reason this one is any different is because this time a shooter happened to be a Muslim (as opposed to most of the previous times where the shooter was a white male and no one cared or people made excuses for him). The fact that the Colorado Springs shooter was a religious Christian is of course completely irrelevant and anyway it's Planned Parenthood's fault, but the fact that one of the San Bernardino shooters was a Muslim is the only thing anyone will ever talk about and we can forget about any kind of meaningful gun reform and fuck this shit I don't see any possible way anything ends well now.

Meanwhile, Digby points out that this happened merely a few hours before the San Bernardino shooting:

On Wednesday morning, a group of doctors in white coats arrived on Capitol Hill to deliver a petition to Congress. Signed by more than 2,000 physicians around the country, it pleads with lawmakers to lift a restriction that for nearly two decades has essentially blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting research on gun violence.

Read the whole piece; it's worth it.

The Rude Pundit is also on point (and again, worth reading in full):

If there will ever be a tipping point on guns, it will only happen when we say that disgusting acts are aided and abetted by disgusting people with disgusting beliefs. It will only happen when we treat the disgusting people with the disgust they deserve.

His piece on Colorado Springs is well worth reading, too.

Balloon Juice's collection of actually reasonable tweets about this is also worth linking.

I dunno, guys. I've pretty much just given up any hope that anything will ever improve at this point.

ETA: The second suspect has been identified as Tashfeen Malik, Farook's wife. Both suspects are dead. Despite initial reports, police no longer believe there was a third shooter.

Two of the guns used in the shooting were purchased legally. Police are still tracing leads on the other two.

[Vivisectus]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

355 mass shootings in 336 days is a lot. Looks like we need moar firearms. You know, for safety.

Yeah, but, you know, they never report the mass shootings that don't happen because there are guns present among the potential victims.

Although on second thought, they also don't report the mass shootings that don't happen because no-one had a gun.