Posted on 08/27/2015 7:28:19 AM PDT by shortstop
He waited for the cameraman to turn back.
He wanted the audience to see her die, and the cameraman had panned to the right, to show the resort, so he lowered the gun and waited for him to turn back.
Then he opened fire.
Some fat loser named Vester who wanted to kill some white people and settle some scores and make a name for himself.
He was “Bryce” on TV. And he was Bryce on Twitter as he posted the video of himself gunning down three innocent people, unloading his Glock into them and America's consciousness.
Camera in the left hand, gun in the right hand, nothing in the soul.
Two hours later he sent off his manifesto to where his talents never took him – network headquarters in New York. He ranted and raved, complaining of being wronged, of being overlooked, of being disrespected. And he talked about payback. A white guy killed some black people; and now a black guy was going to kill some white people.
“You want a race war?” he wrote. “Bring it!”
And over an incomprehensible morning, he fled. Swapping out cars and taking to social media and fleeing to who knows where.
But they were on him, and they got the second license plate, and a reader picked it up, and as the troopers closed he took the coward's way out.
Two hours later he was in hell.
And America is in shock.
Because at a certain level, the TV people are our friends. The folks from town who come into the living room or dance on the phone, telling about the weather and the robbery and the school board election. The people whose faces and voices and styles become familiar and fond. Strangers, in a way, but family in another way.
People who, annoying or frustrating at times, are actually in our service, performing a role foreseen and protected by our Constitution. We are better when we are an informed people, when we have the facts, and when the light of scrutiny is shined into the crevasses of power and intrigue. Done right, the news inspires as well as informs, and leaves us better and freer.
And the people who deliver the news become trusted confidants.
They are petty celebrities, and part of a place.
And an attack on them is an attack on a place.
And yesterday was an attack on America, and an American institution.
Long threatened by angry crowds, pelted by the occasional bottle or rock, screamed at by various bad guys and stonewalled by countless politicians, there has always been the undercurrent of risk. The uncertainty about who is going to do what when.
No matter the media. Reporters with microphones or notepads are just as vulnerable and as frequently targeted as reporters with cameras and lights.
But it had always been just below the surface, understood and warily watched for by many reporters, but unknown to the general public.
But now it is known, and it can never be unknown.
And the horrifying specter of monkey-see, monkey-do now stands in the shadows. Schools were never shot up, until one was. Movie theaters were never shot up, until one was.
Reporters were never murdered, until two were.
And one wonders if the sick lust for attention that marinates in the minds of the evil and ill will see in the butchery of yesterday not horror but inspiration. How long before someone else craving attention and notoriety, for personal or philosophical reasons, recognizes the power of the live shot and the vulnerability of the news team.
Evil like his was not unforeseen.
The federal government has warned of it in past terror alerts. If terrorists believed killing service members and police officers would strike at the American people, certainly – the reasoning went – they would recognize the same in an attack upon the press.
But this wasn't a terrorist, it was a narcissist.
And two people just starting their careers and their lives are gone, wiped out for no reason.
While America watched.
And America learned.
Anew, the value of human life.
And maybe for the first time, the importance of local reporting. No matter the medium or the mode of delivery, in the paper or on the phone, on the car radio or the bedroom television set. We are curious about our world, citizenship requires understanding, knowledge is power.
And each day an army of people goes out to gather that knowledge and deliver it to us. They serve a valuable role in a free society.
And like other defenders of freedom, sometimes their duty brings risk.
And it may even bring death.
I think America has realized that, and the journalism trade has realized that, and the future will worry about that.
But people like Alison and Adam will still get up every day and go out and do what they do. And like any number of other useful vocations, they will face danger in doing so, and press on undeterred.
Because that's who they are.
And that's who we are.
Very professional and informative. Thanks for the link.
There are many motives for murder. I just thought that since you apparently know what didn’t cause these particular murders then you might know what did.
In regards to the issue of purity, against sexual sin.
Actually, the station fired the monster as soon as he revealed his true nature, had a police escort remove him from the premises, and instructed station employees to call 9-1-1 if the saw him on or around the property. No one could ask more.
The people who should be sued are his previous employers, who in all likely gave bland, uninformative references when the station contacted them as previous employers. Businesses are reluctant to reveal true reasons for an employee's termination, fearing litigation, but there is some precedent for holding an employer who fails to reveal information which might have prevented previous harm to a plaintiff.
He wasn't provably a terrorist. This time.
But what he accomplished, even more than the Charlie Hebdo attack did, was to make it very, VERY real to reporters that they can be targeted any time they give somebody a reason to want to.
Which accomplishes a major aim of terrorism.
Since so many on the right are no longer fond of her she seems like she is shrewishly trying to gain cred with lefties.
“Isn’t anyone blaming the gun, yet?’
It’s the first thing Obamas filthy minions did.
In other words, you cannot do a Donald Trump, “you’re fired” without threat of being sued or worse, of being gunned down.
I know I wouldn’t want to parade my grief on a worldwide stage and exploit the death of my loved one to advance an agenda.
I am one of those who will be in shock and break down much later.
But I still couldn’t keep it together enough to go on television and be interviewed.
Sometimes I believe some of the bereaved are trying to milk it for all it’s worth for financial gain or fifteen minutes of fame. Was it Trayvon’s family or Michael Brown’s that were all over the media and later got into some kind of brawl over the royalties for the memorial t-shirts?
I am getting more and more disgusted and disillusioned by the day over what goes on.
The irony is that people like the victims must work doubly hard to overcome the professional handicaps placed in their way by people like Vester.
Diversity is a lie.
Diversity is just another way of saying “there’s too many competent white people. Let’s fix that”.
Things were better back when everyone knew their proper place. The perp was artificially elevated above his proper place, and he, like most of his peers, could not hack it at that level.
I do not mourn for those folks who are elevated above their proper level and then get mad or sad when they are forced by reality to come correct.
I DO Mourn for all the normal and productive people whose careers are handicapped or destroyed because of the farce of Affirmative Action, racial quotas, and “diversity”.
The producers of this country are being destroyed, and it’s all part of the plan.
Really, unbelievable.
Of course they are. You can't very well blame the black homosexual perp. He was the victim, silly.
Figgers.
“Was the shooter on SSRIs?”
Maybe he should have been.
Embrace them.
I blame this killing on Obonzo who has instructed “disgruntled” black people to start a race war and kill whitey.
the shooter himself bears no responsibility for his actions eh...?
Yes...we’ve already determined that homosexuality is a mental illness. That being said, there is also a varying degree of how much it affects the afflicted person.
I have known a few homosexuals, both male and female. Some of them are kind, caring people who wouldn’t hurt anyone. Even when people get in their face, they shrug it off. There are others, however, who are vocal, mean, and do not care. It’s not THEMSELVES who need to change, it’s EVERYONE ELSE. We (the ‘heteronormals’) must conform to their wishes, accept them as they are, and be happy about it.
As it stands, these so-called ‘victims’ can and have used the courts to inflict punitive measures against selected individuals (the baker couple in Oregon, the florist in Washington). What they WANT is nothing less than a FEDERAL LAW that says, “If you don’t accept us completely, we’ll destroy you financially and throw you in prison!”. I daresay that some would take that a step further and have us executed.
The scary part about this is....those who would go to this extreme have the ear of those currently in power in the FedGov.
I’d like to think it’s not going to get this bad, but I acknowledge that I may be ‘whistling past the graveyard’ on this. Even so, I’d also like to think that, if it DOES get that bad, that a large number...larger than they even supposed...of Americans would rise up and say “Enough!” and set about correcting the problem. If that happens, it will be bloody.
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