This man could have punished those in front of him but instead of ruining their lives and lives of their families he chose to be a martyr.
Those people, that town will forever have that man's death burned into them.
We Americans will only be pushed so far before we take drastic measures...
He's not a martyr, he's a self-murderer. Murder is not martyrdom.
I wonder which would have collected more taxes for the city; his property zoned as residential or his property zoned as commercial? On its face, at least, his application for re-zoning did not seem to be unreasonable. Assuming that it would have cost them nothing to allow his rezoning request then they were just callous and indifferent to the man's plight. Not to be unexpected from government, I guess. That's what government does best.
He was obviously in some sort of extremely distraught mental state, he desperately needed help and I can't necessarily blame him for that. But still, suicide like this is one of the most selfish, self-centered acts a person can perpetrate. He inflicted the sight of his own bloodshed on other witnesses besides the City Council. It is not maryrdom.
Cordially,
I presume you are a radical Muslim, since that is the only relgion I know of that considers killing oneself over politics an act of martyrdom.
Among Christians and Jews, one can only be a martyr if someone else kills you for your confession of faith.