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The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier
Townhall.com ^ | June 21, 2017 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 06/21/2017 5:54:56 AM PDT by Kaslin

We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea's dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22.

But it wasn't the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died.

More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier's own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity.

Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier's small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell.

Warmbier's thoughtless taunters instantly transformed him into a bigger, badder villain than the barbaric DPRK goons who beat, starve, rape and kill enemies of the state for such offenses as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, possessing Bibles and disrespecting Dear Leader -- in Warmbier's case, by attempting to steal a propaganda sign that read "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il's patriotism!" as a souvenir.

The Huffington Post published an acid rant by "Blogging While Black" writer La Sha titled "North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal." She rejoiced at Warmbier's sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that "the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad."

Instead of faulting a repressive socialist regime, La Sha blamed Warmbier for "being socialized first as a white boy, and then as a white man in this country." The HuffPo's megalomaniac millennial had the gall to compare her daily plight of living and breathing freely in America to Warmbier's captivity:

"The hopeless fear Warmbier is now experiencing is my daily reality living in a country where white men like him are willfully oblivious to my suffering even as they are complicit in maintaining the power structures which ensure their supremacy at my expense."

But it wasn't just babbling diversity bloggers who exploited Warmbier's imprisonment.

For a few cheap yuks, liberal black comedian Larry Wilmore plowed ahead with smug disregard to how Warmbier's parents, family and friends must have suffered as photos and videos of their son and loved one were plastered all over media. To canned laughter, Wilmore mocked Warmbier on his Comedy Central show with a graphic labeling him an "ASS," which spelled out a fake frat name, "Alpha Sigma Sigma."

"It's just tough for me to have much sympathy for this guy and his crocodile tears," Wilmore snarked as he roasted the "Frat Boy."

Left-wing website Salon added another layer to the white male-bashing echo chamber:

"This might be America's biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea."

Not to be outdone, Affinity Magazine (a "social justice" online magazine for teens) stomped on Warmbier's grave after his death was announced:

"Watch whiteness work," the publication tweeted. "He wasn't a 'kid' or 'innocent' you can't go to another country and try to steal from them. Respect their laws."

This from a rag that had deified Black Lives Matter icons Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin as downtrodden youth whose extensive rap sheets must remain unmentioned at all costs.

Otto's saboteurs engaged in the very same bigotry and stereotyping they recklessly accuse everyone else of at every turn. The far left learned nothing from leaping to conclusions about the Duke lacrosse players or the wrongfully accused members of Phi Kappa Psi at University of Virginia -- where Warmbier was a junior double-majoring in commerce and economics.

By all accounts, Warmbier was a charismatic and caring human being whom one high-school classmate called "Everyone's friend." He was a lover of cultures and intellectually open-minded -- "a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds," according to his family.

Utterly consumed by malignant identity politics, the left-wing intelligentsia have become the intolerantsia. They are bent on dehumanizing individuals, fomenting racial, ethnic and class division in the name of "progressivism," and never taking responsibility for the damage done.

Contrast the no-regrets policy of these "Frat Boy"-bashers, with a former North Korean prison guard, Lim Hye-jin, who escaped recently and recounted the horrors of life in the camps.

"We were manipulated not to feel any sympathy for prisoners," she said. The guards of the totalitarian state "do not see them as human beings, just as animals." After realizing she had been brainwashed by ideological monsters, she spoke out.

"Now I know they were normal people, so I feel very guilty."

Will the short, slandered life and double death of Otto Warmbier prompt the American left's cruel character assassins to admit the same?

Soul-searching, alas, requires a soul.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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1 posted on 06/21/2017 5:54:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Somewhat disappointed this morning when I read his family did not want and autopsy. Frankly, there should be in cases like this.


2 posted on 06/21/2017 6:03:29 AM PDT by donozark (JAMES COMEY: Democrat Presidential candidate 2020.)
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To: Kaslin

Every time one of these left wing lowlifes endorses some Democrat, the Republican should put together a commercial reminding the voters of the vile, disgusting comments and ask the Democrat candidate why he accepts the support of such people.


3 posted on 06/21/2017 6:06:57 AM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: Kaslin

Unless I missed something, why hasn’t Drudge touched this story?


4 posted on 06/21/2017 6:11:06 AM PDT by glenduh
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To: Kaslin

Things like this is why the Democrats are losing. The constant race hate and SJW crap is a big turnoff to normal people.

The RATs are quite frankly, PUS FILLED HATERS, and that is their main message.


5 posted on 06/21/2017 6:21:54 AM PDT by dforest
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To: Kaslin

Sorry.....like Iran, North Korea is not that place for a fun filled jaunt or for educational purposes either.
WTF was the organization that sponsored this fiasco thinking. Heck it’s dangerous enough visiting Paris or London. Going to visit the Norks is just insane.


6 posted on 06/21/2017 6:23:20 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: dforest

I could not have said it any better


7 posted on 06/21/2017 6:25:20 AM PDT by Kaslin (The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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To: donozark

Why? What good would it do? It wouldn’t bring him back alive. And I believe the bill will be high enough without adding another expense to it.


8 posted on 06/21/2017 6:35:33 AM PDT by Kaslin (The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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To: glenduh

If I am mistaken Drudge had a link when Otto Warmbier died.


9 posted on 06/21/2017 6:37:26 AM PDT by Kaslin (The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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To: Vaquero

The organisations that sponsor trips to norklandistan should be sued into oblivion...


10 posted on 06/21/2017 6:37:58 AM PDT by GraceG ("It's better to have all the Right Enemies, that it is to have all the Wrong Friends.")
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To: donozark

Somewhat disappointed this morning when I read his family did not want and autopsy. Frankly, there should be in cases like this.


I thought autopsy is mandatory in all cases of suspected homicide in all jurisdictions in America (except whatever jurisdiction Chappaquiddick Bridge is in).

How can this not be suspected homicide?

How could this decision have been left up to the family, who are surely subject to threats from NK and their allies in the US media and the dem party?


11 posted on 06/21/2017 6:43:18 AM PDT by samtheman (Trump++)
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To: Kaslin

Even now there is no proof Warmbier did anything at all. Saying someone took an ad poster is like saying the picked up a paper coaster from off the table. How do you disprove that?


12 posted on 06/21/2017 6:59:14 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory.)
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To: samtheman

If exams...blood, urine, scans, x-rays, mri’s, etc were done while alive, what more could be found in an autopsy?


13 posted on 06/21/2017 7:08:29 AM PDT by glenduh
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To: xzins

Well, not to disparage anyone, but I think they found the stolen propaganda piece in his possession???


14 posted on 06/21/2017 7:10:44 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: samtheman; Kaslin

A judge sided with the family. However, this should be considered a homicide and the wishes of the family overruled. I have actually been in attendance during autopsies. Several of which, had been opposed by families. One would think the family would want to know? I certainly would...


15 posted on 06/21/2017 7:24:24 AM PDT by donozark (JAMES COMEY: Democrat Presidential candidate 2020.)
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To: xzins

The norks couldn’t care less.


16 posted on 06/21/2017 7:38:43 AM PDT by Kaslin (The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Maybe they found it in Otto’s possession by design. I read his fellow travelers said Otto was in his room sleeping.


17 posted on 06/21/2017 7:39:40 AM PDT by glenduh
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To: donozark

I too was disappointed and confused by the announcement that there wouldn’t be an autopsy. I would have thought the federal government, at least, would have required one. My only thought was they already knew what his cause of death was from the tests done after his arrival back in the states.


18 posted on 06/21/2017 7:39:48 AM PDT by Humal
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To: Vaquero

The sponsoring organization is a business and does the trips for money. I’m sure that this is a source of revenue for the DPRK. The deceased appeared to be an intelligent worldly young man who should have been able to figure out that Norkland was not like the Middle East. He had a brain fart when he ventured off-limits and took the poster, probably as a souvenir. Most of us have probably been stupid when we were younger. But we didn’t die for it. The Kim Dynasty needs to be dissolved. Acid would do quite nicely.


19 posted on 06/21/2017 7:41:52 AM PDT by VietVet876
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Also, he sort of admitted it, when he pleaded with them and said it was the biggest mistake in his life.


20 posted on 06/21/2017 7:42:16 AM PDT by Kaslin (The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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