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.
Sounds weird
Better than nothing if it would move them into something constructive... but alas it moves chattering class into more chatter.
That almost made me throw up.
Megyn Kelly’s demeanor and the dad and the boyfriend who were so cool, calm and collected and didn’t start the crocodile tears until the “Gun Problem” was being discussed.
This is why so many people believe these events are false flags or staged to forward an agenda.
If something like that happened to someone I love I would be far too wrecked to go on national teevee crying about gun control laws.
Megyn was almost demonic in that segment.
What she did to DT was nothing compared to her tone last night.
Everyone on the left is. All of them, all day yesterday. Not one of them condemning the act of a gay reprobate, but all of them condemning the gun.
So...he was a victim of racism? They called him the ‘n’ word? Well. now the world calls him MURDERER. SO much better than the ‘n’ word...in fact reinforcing the fact that the two words are linked . I hope the victims families SUE the station for hiring this POS-and his family too- for inflicting him on society. I would.
On twitter within minutes of the shooting.
Ohhhhh if it wasn’t for those awful GUNS nobody would ever embrace such vicious EVIL!
Ummm... looking at places like Australia and Europe, what actually happens most of the time that there is a really effective effort to grab guns, which is a pretty vain effort in America, is that knife killings step way up.
Time to bring back God and faith to the USA nation once again.
No, he was homosexual.
......BUT BUT BUT it was the gun's fault!
Can we get rid of all penis’s so we won’t have anymore rapes?
Starting, of course, with SOMEONE ELSE....
I, for one, am grateful for the gun...Which saved us the indignity of a drawn out trial, or the indignity of having to feed, clothe, and care for him until he died of old age in a penitentiary. :) It’s much harder to off oneself with a knife or pipe wrench.
And now could parents and teachers stop with the lie to youngsters that they “can be anything they want to be”? These two talented, exemplary young people were murdered before they could realize their dreams because a total misfit thought he was as good as they were and was being fired, not because of his obnoxious lack of civility and talent, but because he was a Black homosexual. Someone did a poor job of preparing him for reality.
As the modern adage goes, “S*** happens” in this imperfect world. The job of parents is to make certain their children are always loved, but not coddled into thinking that their dreams will always come true. The real life lesson is learning how to deal with life’s hard knocks without letting resentment and hate destroy our lives and the lives of others.
Until you have a tragedy happen to you .............you have no idea how you would behave. You would be in total shock and might appear calm and then you might fall to the ground screaming and sobbing.
It takes the right wing to pin the killings on his gayness ....
We are in a circus world when a murder can’t be taken as a murder.
You mean, the act of the devil with the gun, you are grateful for. Let’s see how well that plays out before God.
“You must not watch CNN.”
Never. And I haven’t been watching the news much lately, too depressing, so I did miss all the yelling for the control after this shooting. Glad everyone set me straight. I turned fox news on after reading this and the first thing I saw was the journalists dad.
GUARANTEED he was a devotee of MSNBC.
He could be Al Sharpton’s son.
The only actual source of “love with plenty to spare” is the Lord, and it takes taking Him at face value before seeing that benefit begin to actually kick in. And here’s where the world has a lot of sad hypocrites. “Return to God” they scream, while remaining distant strangers to Him themselves.
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