A gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday, shooting at police from within the building during a five-hour standoff that ended with his surrender.The first thought that came to my mind was probably the same thought that popped into your head: Why hasn't the news media proclaimed Dear to be a terrorist? You know damned well that if he were of Arab heritage, journalists would not hesitate to use the T word.
Three people, including a police officer, were killed, Colorado Springs Police Department Lt. Catherine Buckley said. The police officer who was killed was a member of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs police department, she said.
The gunman walked out of the facility just before 5 p.m. local time and officers took him into custody, officials told NBC News.
Three law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspect as Robert Dear, 57.
Nine people, including five Colorado Springs police officers, were shot and wounded, Buckley said. All were in good condition at area hospitals, Buckley said.
The full name of the gunman appears to be Robert Lewis Dear, age 57. An internet search has revealed that there is a 57 year-old Robert L. Dear who is a resident of California, although he was born in South Carolina. He has a website in which he identifies himself as a "Code Compliance Officer - County of Kern Bakersfield, California." Bullet hole imagery adorns his site. Cute!
If I have mixed up two separate 57 year-old Robert L. Dears, my apologies to the guy in Bakersfield. But right now, I'm pretty sure that we're dealing with the same person.
UPDATE: Turns out the shooter is 59. The Robert L Dear who put up that website listed his age as 57 in 2013. The shooter is said to hail from North Carolina. The Robert L Dear who lived in Kern County has lived in both South and North Carolina. And there is a facial resemblance. So I feel safe in saying that this is the same guy. Unfortunately, his blog has been scrubbed clean, if every it held anything. Previously, he has been arrested on minor beefs -- animal cruelty, eavesdropping, vehicular violations.
The rich do no time. Robert H. Richards IV, the wealthy scion of the DuPont family, was found guilty of raping his three-year-old daughter. The judge decided not to sentence Richards to prison, on the grounds that he "would not fare well" behind bars.
Do you think that you could get out of jail by claiming that you would not "fare well" in prison?
Fascism returns to Paris. In France, the hysteria over terror has led authorities to shut down blogs that offer alternative sources of information. We're not talking about pro-terror blogs: We're talking about blogs which try to go beyond mainstream news sources.
Les Moutons Enrages, Sputnik France and Fawkes are other popular alternative media sites which ‘Le Blog De La Resistance’ author Z references in his post. Most remain defiant, with the first promising to ‘open up in Russia if necessary’. Z points out that Francois Hollande has been promising to silence ‘conspiracy theorists’ since January this year.
Here’s a question: when leaders keep telling us not to allow terrorists to change our way of life, why is crushing dissent the first thing they do when something horrific happens? Isn’t dissent part of living in a free world? Aren’t protests and asking tough questions of those in power just a couple of the liberties we are supposedly trying to ‘spread‘ around the world? Isn’t that part of what makes democracy so great?
7 comments:
A 57-year old spree killer? I suppose you're only as old as you feel.
Doubtful about the shooter being the same as the man pictured on the website.
"arrested for animal cruelty", is not a minor beef.
Why the constant need to demonize Christians, Joseph? Abortion is a grisly procedure, and it's one who's true nature is largely sterilized by our media. It's a wonder this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, and, if anything, a testament to the teachings of Christ that it does not. Islam does not teach such mercy for it's enemies, and neither does Judaism.
Neither Islam nor Judaism have a problem with abortion either. If you want to piss off reactionary anti-choice Christians , ask them to cite any scripture to support their position. They won't be able too because there isn't any. My personal theory is that its due to "the Apocalypse of Peter" a text popular among Christians in the first and second centuries that didn't make the cut for the New Testament but promulgates a Neo-Platonic conception of the soul and contradicts the Talmud regarding the sinfulness of abortion.
Oh, please. There's no facial resemblance at all, Joseph, except that they're both white guys in their late fifties. I think you have a promising career ahead of you working for DHS, where you can while away the hours adding innocent people to the no-fly list because their names are similar to that of a Gitmo detainee.
Did my comment get lost? I'm pretty sure I posted it here and I thought it was quite the whackological take.
Post a Comment