When academics kill: Aurora shootings bring Alabama, Virginia Tech killings to mind
Friday, July 20, 2012 at 3:07PM Update July 20, 2012
During a press conference Friday evening, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said there were a total of 70 victims with 12 dead. Initially officials believed there were 71 victims. He also said a “handful” of the victims suffered injuries because of “the chaos.” More details will be provided in our next column.─The Editor
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Aurora suspect James Holmes allegedly fired on moviegoers attending the premiere of the new Batman film in their city.
According to media like Fox News, U.S. News and World Report and CNN, Holmes is a 24 year old Aurora resident who recently withdrew from the University of Colorado where he was in the Ph.D. program, working on a degree in neuroscience. According to the San Diego Police Dept., Holmes attended high school in San Diego.
Merriam-Webster defines neuroscience as “a branch (as neurophysiology) of science that deals with the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, or molecular biology of nerves and nervous tissue and especially their relation to behavior and learning.”
No one knows whether frustration within the academic sector had anything to do with the violence in Aurora. At this point, nothing is known about the shooter's motive.
What is known is that the suspect, Holmes, was not the tea party member an ABC personality suggested might be the shooter shortly after the news broke on Friday morning.
Some killers have committed acts because of frustration over academic politics or class warfare ideology in line with groups like Occupy Wall Street. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) actually said OWS would be “effective,” and she also said, “Bless their hearts.”
Although other grassroots movements have sprung up, Pelosi has not praised them as she did OWS.
Amy Bishop still awaits trial on charges she killed 3 fellow professors and wounded 3 others at the University of Huntsville (Ala.) in 2010. Bishop was reportedly angry after being denied tenure. Her trial has been delayed over financial issues—her attorneys want the state to pay for experts. Bishop also killed her younger brother when she was 20 years old but she was not charged with a crime related to that killing.
The Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people before killing himself, was a self-confessed rabid anti-Christian who hated the wealthy. In a multi-media message sent to a traditional network, the killer who was a senior at Virginia Tech said:
You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac weren't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.
Traditional media tend to cast blame on those who disagree with big government principles, and thus far, the media have been wrong every time. ABC, for instance, has issued an apology for misidentifying the Aurora shooter.
Unfortunately, the lie persists as you can see by message boards and comments on sites like CBS News where commenter rsamps1 said, “So the shooter, James Holmes, is a Tea Partier. What a surprise.”
It's quite possible that the person ABC misidentified has grounds for a lawsuit.
Breitbart said there’s a good chance the suspected Aurora shooter is a registered Democrat and provided several pieces of data to back up the claim. Unlike ABC, Breitbart, however, cautioned readers about the possible connection.
(Commentary by Kay B. Day/July 20, 2012)
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