Beserk Gunman of the Month

[Pam]

Now a third one in Washington state

I guess we need to change the thread title to "Berserk Gunman of the Day".
I don't understand why they kill everybody and then kill themselves. Do that first jackass.

[Bobl]

I don't blame immigration policy for this cowardly murder. I blame the coward, a self absorbed spoiled brat with an illogical beef against who knows what. A selfish individual who chose to bring misery to the families of his victims. Another beserk gunman who just didn't care about anyone else. The real tragedy is that he didn't simply kill himself.

[oladub]

PITTSBURGH [[AP) — An ambush that resulted in the shooting deaths of three Pittsburgh policemen was precipitated by a 911 call from the gunman's mother over a dog urinating in the house.
According to court papers, Richard Poplawski and his mother argued about his dog's accident Saturday morning, prompting her to threaten to evict him and to call police. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...6_7cAD97CD3R80

The gunman who slaughtered 13 people at a US immigration centre was an angry loner who talked about assassinating the US president.
Former workmates said Jiverly Voong, 42, was obsessed with guns and grew to hate Americans who mocked his poor English as he struggled to find work. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-21254583/

Meanwhile in Washington a father killed his five kid after his wife left him. "Ryan Peden, a classmate of the eldest daughter, said she told him on Friday night that her parents had got into a fight and her mother had left.
The father followed the mother and tried to get her to return, said the 16-year-old." http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wor...ose_To_Seattle

No one has tied the cop killer's actions to listening to Rush yet or explained why he got into some fist fights, didn't get along with the neighbors and got kicked out of the Marines for throwing a food tray at a drill sargeant. But we have to blame his behavior on something. Maybe he also didn't get along with the neighbors and killed cops because he listened to the to and read between the lines of something Rush said assuming he even listened to Rush. I say this is proof positive that we need a Fairness doctrine to regulate free speech.

Mr. Voong, the recently divorced, recently unemployed Vietnamese legal immigrant who had a complex because of his poor English skills might have been listening to Rush too because he too wanted to kill President Obama. So maybe it's more than just reading between the lines of what Rush says, maybe it's just listening to Rush's voice if one can't speak English.

There isn't any evidence that the domestic violence situation in Washington resulting in six deathes had anything to do with Rush but Mr. Harrison was a diesel mechanic, his wife worked at Wal-Mart, and they lived in a trailer home so demographically it is possible that Mr. Harrison did listen to Rush and voted for McCain.

Setting aside the observation that none of these threen guys seemed to have a good relationship with women, White House snake and Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel reminds us, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,"

[ccbatson]

Anyone who believes that a radio commentator [[who people choose to listen to, or not) has any blame in the criminal actions of a lunatic needs to have their own head examined.

[oldredfordette]

It looks like he was a white supremacist

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiw...ard-poplawski-

[ccbatson]

Figures...not a conservative necessarily, and not attributable to anyone else on the right [[ie Rush).

[firstandten]

This is just my personal opinion and I am in no way a professional psychologist:

The important point to realize is that these people are commiting suicide. The homicides are NOT their main focus or they would try to get away with it. So why would they not just commit suicide in the privacy of their own homes? I think that they may have tried, but making the decision to commit suicide is actually very hard, so they decide to do something [[anything) so horrific that they will then have to commit suicide - they will have no other choice. I think it is simply a variation of "Suicide by Cop". They are simply too cowardly to commit suicide under normal circumstances and have to create a sitution where it is then possible for them to do so. This of course does not excuse the behaviour at all. I realize that many people would disagree with this theory, but looking around I haven't seen the "experts" explain it any better. It would also explain the seeming randomness of the choice of victims.

I definitely agree with that theory.

[oladub]

Like with the nut-job who shot up a church in Tennessee because he hated liberals and couldn't get to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. His house was filled with Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Coulter books.

Or the Unibomber, ex U of M instructor Ted Kaczynski, whose cabin contained a well thumbed, with notes in the margin, copy of Earth in the Balance by Al Gore.

[Jimaz]

You can't listen to hate speech like that every day without it effecting your psyche.

Or it could be that those whose psyche is already distorted gravitate toward hate speech. I don't know. Chicken or egg, I suppose.

I heard one psych analysis today that there may be a copycat factor contributing to this current abnormal increase in the rate of such incidents. They also mentioned a sense of a loss of power when losing a job and how going berserk is a compensating assertion of power.

[[Hats off to Lilpup for anticipating this trend about a year ago.)

I guess the big question should be what should be done to arrest the trend but I haven't heard of anyone who has a handle on a solution. That seems odd but it's been a long time since we've suffered this kind of economic strife. Maybe it just hasn't been on the radar of social scientists.

I'd like to hear more suggestions about what should be done to curtail future incidents.

[oladub]

detroitsuperfly, Yes I understand. When the Unibomber killed three people it wasn't as bad as when Poplawski killed three people because maybe Poplawski had been influenced by talk radio while Kaczynski was influenced by some other source. I watched some of the video in which a reporter keeps trying to get McCain supporters to say that Obama is a terrorist. Some did. Which reminded me of an article I read today about thousands of Pakistanis who are now in refugee centers because US drones keep bombing their villages killing more people than Poplawski and Kaczynski put together. I think if you asked them if they had been terrorized since Obama became President, they might say that Obama had brought change that even Cheney could believe in.

[ccbatson]

Influenced by?? Who cares? Criminal activity from horrible judgement is the fault of the individual perpetrating the crimes, and ONLY those individuals.

[Pam]

However, I do see MANY people whipped up into a frenzied rage by talk radio

Or by elected officials:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/23/...and-dangerous/

Can you explain how Minnesota elected this nut?

[oladub]

The witch hunt premise is being made that last week's shootings had to do with listening to Rush or other right wingers but where is the statistical proof ? Mr. Poplawski most closely fits the mold being associated with right wing radio types. He killed three while Harrison and Voong killed 18. Assertions aside, there is simply no proof that Rush's program influenced him at all. On top of that, there is no evidence that either Harrison or Voong ever listened to Rush or similar radio programs. Yet, the hysteria persists.

Perhaps the other side is whipping up a frenzy as evidenced by Pam's article. The article stated that Bachman's call for "armed revolution begins at 9:40". I listened, but she never called for "armed revolution". She said she felt like a foreign corrrespondent behind enemy lines in D.C., quoted Jefferson saying something about having a revolution once in a while, that Americans should fight back hard, and be "armed and dangerous on this issue". She didn't specify what she meant by armed and dangerous. Since she was speaking of the cap and trade tax issue, I assume that she was more likely speaking about being armed with knowledge than AK-47's. I didn't hear her mentioning arms or armed revolution at all. Did I miss the quote? Reading the responses to the author's mischaracterization, I had to wonder if the author wasn't stirring up some hatred himself with his lie. The readers of this blog go on to call her flipping idiot, crazy, greedy pigf*****, stupid c$nt!!!, among other things. I was surprised that a progressive referred to a woman as a stupid c$nt!!!.

Disclaimer: I am not defending Rep. Bachman. I know her to have a history of supporting neocon positions and voting for bailouts so I wouldn't consider voting for her. She often exagerated in her recorded radio talk. For instance, the Obama middle class cap and trade tax would not result in a 50% increase in the cost of energy as she claimed. At most, it will only increase the cost of electrical energy derived from coal by 40% and probably just 20% for natural gas. So, for instance, if DTE gets 79% of its electricity from coal, the cap and trade tax probably won't raise DTE customers' utility costs more than maybe 35% - not 50% as bachman claimed.

[Pam]

Disclaimer: I am not defending Rep. Bachman

Really? Sure sounded like it.

She didn't specify what she meant by armed and dangerous. Since she was speaking of the cap and trade tax issue, I assume that she was more likely speaking about being armed with knowledge than AK-47's.

[jiminnm]

Berserk pilot of the month:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090407/...s/stolen_plane

[firstandten]

Oladub- I think people like the Unabomber and Poplawski likely had some other major mental malfunction. Something organic. I think there is a lot of that going on these days. I think there is more mental illness now then there ever has been.
From simple treatable depresion, up to major psychosis. I really think that is the major cause of the random violence. Its not only an American thing. Remember the bus decapitation in Canada last year? But it sure happens here more than other places.

However, I do see MANY people whipped up into a frenzied rage by talk radio
Many people truly hate liberals. It completely irrrational, unjustified and learned.
They've been taught by punditry that liberals are the enemy, they will destroy America, are inferior, total failures, evil and stupid. Whlie on the other hand, they are taught that conservatives are always sucessful, responsible for all good in the world, superior, wealthy, logical and have common sense. Its escalating since the election. It truly reminds me of propaganda of the 30s, that blamed all evils of the world on the jews and Germans were the master race.

You can't keep up that daily pace of 24/7 rage and have it not escalate to something horrible. While much mental illness is organic and chemical, others are environmental. The daily pounding of negativity falls into the later catagory.

The Unabomber had a anti-technology rant and wasn't your garden variety right wing nut. He is probably more of a left wing nut. Both people of course are severely mentally ill, and I'm sure the unabombers home at the supermax prision will eventually cause him to lose any sense of reality he might have had left.

The irony of this thing is that the people that are bitter because they are homeless and jobless but they supported the dismantaling of our economy over the past two decades thru globalization, supply side economics, watching our manufacturing base go bye-bye ,de-regulation and thinking all this its a good thing because right-wing radio said it was less government and the big corporations will provide the jobs that we need.

Now during a shrinking economy you have a changing demographic. More people of color competiting for jobs. I'm afraid you are going to hear more revolution talk from the Chuck Norris's and Barbara Backmans of the world. The right wing nuts can sit and listen to the many right wing talk show hosts and conclude... Yea, its that damn socialist Obama fault we're in this mess with all that big government where is all the change he promised.

The change in my estimation is much more subtle I believe he wants us to look at a paradigm shift from big government=bad ,small government=good to government= make it work regardless of size.

[ccbatson]

Minneapolis...home of GOVERNOR Ventura, and CONGRESSMAN Franken...nuff said.

[ccbatson]

Schwarzenegger....Agreed.

California falls in line behind Minneapolis.

[firstandten]

Nope, he lives in the state of Denial, country of Batsonia.

Maybe the Detroit Yes folks can petition Southwest Airlines to have some one way specials going there I'm sure they could fill up the plane a couple times over

[Pam]

Another day, another shooting:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090408/...treat_shooting

[oladub]

Where's Detroitsuperfly? You now have more non-proof that that another immigrant with a language barrier has been listening to Rush or some other right wing talk radio guy.

[ccbatson]

Yes, I know, Minnesota, but the context was referring to the city therein contained so...

Beck is pretty spastic and inconsistent, sometimes out in left field, but sometimes he hits home runs.

[Pam]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31208188/

[Detroitej72]

Surprise, another racist nut who the right[[Beck) defends so dearly...

[Jimaz]

He reportedly "acted alone" yet "he was an active member of groups that deny the holocaust." This raises the question of where the precipitating act occurred.