Follow Up to THIS STORY
Several months ago we shared the story of Eric Sheppard Jr. a radical “Black Lives Matter”, “F**k The Police” and Islamic radical who used a philosophy of black supremacy similar to the New Black Panthers. Sheppard gained brief notoriety when he held a U.S. Flag Stomping event at Valdosta State University.
After his public exposure, and after the police filed a warrant for his arrest on firearms violations, and after he mailed a racist manifesto to a local Georgia Newspaper – while on the run, he was finally arrested in Tampa Florida by U.S. Marshals.
Eric Sheppard’s story disappeared from the headlines and never resurfaced.
Yesterday, while reviewing the social footprint of Oregon shooter Chris Harper-Mercer, an almost identical world-view to Eric Sheppard Jr. was evident in Mercer’s social media history.
Chris Harper-Mercer, a mixed-race angry 26-year-old, was essentially the mirror image on social media as Eric Sheppard Jr.
Mercer held sympathetic words and thoughts for the Virginia shooter Vester Flanagan, and similarly raged against white people, and expressed sympathy toward the Black Lives Matter movement. (Example Below):
However, today almost all of that social media history is GONE -> Example Here. It is either removed entirely, and/or edited for content. How it could be edited is a mystery unless there is some other issue at hand.
In addition, as several researchers have noted, anyone who held attachment to Mercer appears to be deleting the content of their association. Including Umpqua Community College itself.
As D-Man was pointing out Mercer was part of a production class going to present a play at Umpqua Community College named “BLITHE SPIRIT“. The play was scheduled to run later this month:
From the cache Centerstage Theatre at UCC
Please join me in congratulating the team for our Fall show! This is going to be an awesome comedy to start out the year. This British comedy comes with witty language and spooky effects. We are especially delighted to feature our local star who is now based out of NYC, Josh Carlton!
BLITHE SPIRIT, by Noel Coward
Presented by UCC Theatre Arts Oct 30-Nov 8
CHARLES: Josh Carlton
RUTH: Rebecca Miles
EDITH: Abby Dooley
DR. BRADMAN: Devin Barnett
MRS. BRADMAN: Alexandra Duvall
MADAME ARCATI: Rachel Fitzhugh
ELVIRA, the Blithe Spirit: Chloe Quinn
Understudy for DR. BRADMAN: Benjamin Jacobsen
Directed by Stephanie Newman
Assistant Director: Aaron Carter
Stage Manager: Anna Mae Whatley
Production Assistants: Alex Frier, Joel Macha, Mary Chitwood, Chris Harper-Mercer, Isaac Guerrero, Ashley Jakubos
Lighting Assistant: Devin Barnett
Special Effects: Jim Smith, Keith Weikum
Program/Ads: Fred Brenchley
Marketing: Travis Newman
Other Volunteers: YOU! Get involved and have some fun!
However, everything to do with that production has been scrubbed and deleted. Including the FaceBook page (since deleted) But visible on Cache HERE and more HERE.
Being part of an Umpqua college production class and performance etc. would run counter to the seemingly preferred media narrative of Chris Harper-Mercer being a loner, no?
Indeed if you were to look for information about Chris Harper-Mercer even being enrolled as a student at Umpqua you might even find contradictions and obfuscations about it. It seems rather odd that only foreign publications even make note of this fact:
“But he was listed as a “production assistant” in a Facebook post promoting a performance of a Noel Coward play by the school’s drama group” (link) ~ British
“Police think Mercer may have been a student at Umpqua because he was found with a receipt from the campus bookstore showing he had purchased textbooks.” (link) ~ Canadian
While generally there will always be a “fog” about events, as something happens and people rush around trying to identify the full story, one would think it would be really easy to determine if Mercer was a student, and what classes he was specifically enrolled for.
Then there’s this little snippet which might clear all of this up:
Stacy Boylan said his daughter told him the man “gave somebody a box, somebody who lived, and said, ‘You gotta deliver this.’ Somebody has a box. I don’t know what that’s about.”
Law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation told CNN that the gunman handed his writings to a survivor, telling that person to give it to police, but the sources could not confirm the writings were inside the box. (link)
So apparently he was given a “manifesto” (another similarity to E. Sheppard Jr) to a surviving student of the shooting.
Summary: The immediate on-line web history of Chris Harper-Mercer showed him to be a mixed-race, angry young man in general alignment with various radical racially aligned groups such as Black Lives Matter, F**k The Police and F**k Yo Flag – all of which carry a sentiment of favorability and ideological alignment with Islam which was similarly evident in the Ferguson protest movement.
[ Against this backdrop shooting “White” “Christians” makes sense. ]
However, in the course of several hours (one media cycle) – the media narrative is selling a profile of a loner, mentally disturbed individual without any mention of his previous writings (deleted/changed), behaviors (hidden) and social tendencies (ignored).
Why?
Perhaps the answer lies within the response to the shooting from the White House where President Obama took quickly to the microphones to decry another school shooting without fully understanding the motive and intent.
Mercer’s possible motive and intent would now represent a political embarrassment against the backdrop of Obama’s speech if it aligns with something other than needed.
