Prior to
departing Wisconsin, I was briefed on the shooting at Capital Gazette in
Annapolis, Maryland. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their
families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the
scene. 1:49 PM - Jun 28, 2018 Tweet from Donald Trump
Strongly condemn the evil act of senseless violence in Annapolis, MD. A
violent attack on innocent journalists doing their job is an attack on every
American. Our prayers are with the victims and their friends and families. 3:53 PM - Jun 28, 2018 Tweet from White House spokesperson, Sarah Sanders
The
United States is most certainly living up to its sordid reputation as a gun
crazy nation that puts purported (and misinterpreted) Second Amendment rights
ahead of the lives of its citizens, and particularly ahead of the lives of
children. We have about as many guns – including at least 15 million AR-15
military-grade semi-automatic assault rifles – as we do people in this country.
Regardless of rather lackadaisical and half-hearted attempts to restrict gun
purchases such that those with criminal records, children, those with mental
health issues or a clear proclivity towards violence are theoretically denied
access to guns, buying a gun in the United States – in complete non-compliance
with any such restrictions – remains absolutely wide-open and easy.
This
time, the “incident” involved an Annapolis, Maryland newspaper (the Capital
Gazette), where a disgruntled subject of a Gazette report, a 38-year-old white male, who had lost a defamation suits against that paper, allegedly used a shotgun to blast away, killing five journalists and
seriously injuring two more. Apparently, the killer took his toll and just stopped
shooting on his own. His social media pages and his obvious and continuing
attacks on the paper were anything but secret, suggesting serious mental
issues.
“According
to an unreported 2015 opinion filed in the
Maryland Court of Special Appeals, He had plead guilty to criminal harassment
in July 2011. Five days later, an article about the case appeared in The
Capital, one of Capital Gazette's publications. The story detailed accusations
by a woman who said the suspect harassed her online and off for months, calling her
employer and trying to get her fired. The woman eventually went to the police
and he plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment in 2011.
“The
Twitter account that matches the shooter's name began tweeting about Capital Gazette
several months after the conviction… In July 2012, he had filed suit against
Capital Gazette for defamation, according to the 2015 court filing. The
complaint was just four paragraphs long, but he filed a longer 22-page claim
several months later… In 2012, a judge dismissed the lawsuit on the basis that
‘there is absolutely not one piece of evidence, or an assertion by you that the
statement [in the article] was false.’” CBS News, June 29th.
Still
he had a serious gun to vent his rage. He was taken into custody where he
was identified through facial recognition software (he did not cooperate when
he was arrested, even having tried to destroy his fingertips to prevent
identification)… and charged with multiple counts of murder.
Most
mainstream media coverage repeated the almost-always-ignored reality of too
many serious and unregulated guns in the United States. With the likely
appointment of another conservative justice to the Supreme Court, we are
probably going to see an expansion of gun-owners’ rights at the expense of
victims, even though even former uber-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia has
repeated that the Second Amendment is not an absolute right for citizens to own
weapons without restriction.
But
what is increasingly interesting about the reactions to such shootings is a
combination of disgust, bewilderment and increasing rage at the standard and
absolutely vapid “our thoughts and prayers are with the victims” or “we
strongly condemn” responses from those most responsible for the virtually
unrestrained gun trade in this country… the lock-step followers of the NRA gun
manufacturers lobby wish list. The survivors of the Capital Gazette attack were
no exceptions to these minimalist right wing memes.
“In
an interview with CNN on Thursday night [6/28], Capital Gazette writer Selene
San Felice told Anderson Cooper what it was like to hide under her desk while
the gunman opened fire. She also said the attack had left the newsroom
‘shaken,’ but she was not interested in politicians’ well-worn
platitudes.
“‘I’ve
heard that President Trump sent his prayers. I’m not trying to make this
political, right? But we need more than prayers. I appreciate the prayers. I
was praying the entire time I was [hiding] under that desk. I want your prayers
but I want something else,’ San Felice said… ‘I’m going to need more than a
couple days of news coverage and some thoughts and prayers because our whole
lives have been shattered,’ she added. ‘Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t
give a f**k about them if there’s nothing else.’” HuffPost, June 29th.
No Selene, there will be nothing else.
Looking back at the bigger Trump-led attack
on mainstream media (excluding Fox News and Breitbart) as the real “enemy” in
the United States, the inevitable question arose as to whether Trump’s constant
vilification of the press (with a 70% increase in threats against U.S.
journalists since Trump took office) might have encouraged this gunman. Typically,
one Fox News host instead placed the blame on Democrats and mainstream media:
“On his daily radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity appeared to blame the shooting —
for which no motive has been given — on Rep. Maxine Waters and President Barack
Obama. Hannity implied comments they made had caused ‘something horrible’ to
happen:
“You know, as I’ve always said, I mean
honestly — I’ve been saying now for days that something horrible was going to
happen because of the rhetoric. Really [Rep.] Maxine [Waters]? [Democrat
Maxine Waters called for restaurants and retailers to boycott Trump-associated
appointees and politicians.] You want
people to create — ‘call your friends, get in their faces,’ and Obama said that
too. ‘Get in their faces, call them out, call your friends, get protesters,
follow them into restaurants and shopping malls,’ and wherever else she said.”
Vox.com, June 28th. The right wing press has frequently stated that
liberal attacks on Donald Trump were invitations to violence.
As
a very, very recent example, responding to Waters’ words noted above,
right-wing activist “Milo Yiannopoulos encouraged vigilantes to start ‘gunning
journalists down’ just two days before a Maryland newspaper was targeted in
a mass shooting
that killed five people.
“Yiannopoulos,
the prominent right-wing figure and former senior editor at conservative news
website Breitbart, told US news
website Observer over text message: ‘I can’t wait for
the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight.’” Business
Insider, June 29th. Words exploded from the press as well.
Reuters Breakingviews editor Rob Cox tweeted: This is what happens when @realDonaldTrump
calls journalists the enemy of the people. Blood is on your hands, Mr.
President. Save your thoughts and prayers for your empty soul. Cox issued
an apology for this tweet shortly thereafter, saying he responded “emotionally
and inappropriately.”
There
is a lack of civility on both sides of the political spectrum, a fact which
makes a bad situation worse. But Trump’s attacks on mainstream media, a bastion
of democracy, is heavily statistically correlated with the incredible increase
of threats against the press. We have no excuses for our clearly over-the-top
gun violence. There is no excuse for a president to attack as the “enemy” and
purveyors as “fake news” any criticism of him and expect resulting peace and
stability.
I’m Peter Dekom, and as much as we
scream “national security” and build a military to protect us from foreign
malevolence, we are actually destroying our own nation from within.
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