All you animals of the field, all you animals of the forest, come to eat. The leaders who are to guard the people are blind; they don’t know what they are doing. All of them are like quiet dogs that don’t know how to bark. They lie down and dream and love to sleep. They are like hungry dogs that are never satisfied. They are like shepherds who don’t know what they are doing. They all have gone their own way; all they want to do is satisfy themselves. They say, “Come, let’s drink some wine; let’s drink all the beer we want. And tomorrow we will do this again, or, maybe we will have an even better time.”
Another day, another mass shooting. This time, at the U.S.-Mexico border town of El Paso, where at least 20 people died at a Walmart Superstore.
It’s inarguable this shit needs to stop — unless you’re a Trumpanzee. Don’t be surprised if Ted Cruz holds a gun rally in his home state, so in the NRA pocket lies he.
But we in the media are doing a piss-poor job of stemming the rising red tide. And our ineptitude was on full display today on the 24/7 news outlets. Namely, the way we danced around the suspect’s identity and the manifesto he posted an hour before the massacre. While they noted the shooter drove 635 miles to get to the slaughterhouse, for hours they kept his identity off the airwaves and headlines. That is, until the AP did some real reporting, talked to cops, and released his identity: Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas.
Why so long? Because innumerable outlets have taken a cue from YouTube celebrity Ben Shapiro, a conservative blogger and editor of the right wing outlet The Daily Wire, an arm of the Trump propaganda machine. After the undeniable surge of mass shootings under Trump, Shapiro adopted a policy of not identifying mass shooters, supposedly out of concern for copycat killers. Uh huh. It also conveniently keeps his underwriting by the Koch brothers and their alt-right buddies flowing smoothly.
In truth, of course, it’s to mute outrage over mass shootings and easy public access to assault weapons. Don’t expect to see this chart from the FBI database in The Daily Wire:
Yet somehow, Shapiro’s social media popularity has swayed countless outlets who envy his success, even though the guy has a voice that sounds like Mickey Mouse on cocaine in a helium bouncy house. But I digress. He has successfully deflected criticism of Trump and “white nationalists,” who have pivoted to that term to escape their true identity: xenophobic homophobes. And for an entire day, they kept Crusius’ photo off the air, per the Shapiro rule of not offending conservative advertisers.
To hell with that. We at the HB have a policy: the only way we can battle villainy is to not fear identifying villains. Criminal anonymity is reserved for victims, not victimizers. So here’s Crusius, entering the Walmart:
Here’s the coward’s senior high school photo:
And here’s the picture that accompanied his manifesto:
And it’s that last element where we truly dropped the ball: the manifesto. The only quote CNN, FOX or MSNBC used was his initial greeting, “Hello FBI.” While it was a chillingly useful tidbit, they completely backed off quoting anything else in the manifesto, noting that the rant, posted on the right wing website Chan8, had been taken down. I guess that sufficed for reporting for them.
Not here. A simple reporting dive into Chan8 and its umbrella owners, Chan4, immediately located the letter. And because we believe truth equals power, I’m going to quote it here. Maybe outlets will find a spine and eventually do the same, but I’m not holding my breath. What’s so strange about the self-imposed embargo is that not only does the post shed light on that nut job; it also contains a silver lining that you’d think outlets would leap on to bring some hope to the day’s hopelessness.
The manifesto is broken up into six chapters: “About Me;” “Political Reasons;” “Economic Reasons;” “Gear;” “Reaction;” and “Personal Reasons and Thoughts.” It’s entitled “The Inconvenient Truth.”
It begins with this telling sentence: “In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto.” It’s a reference to the two mosque shootings in New Zealand in March that left 51 people dead and 49 injured. That scumbag, Brenton Tarrant, 28, of Australia, video streamed the first slayings on Facebook Live and wrote a manifesto calling for ethnic purging. Lemme get this straight, CNN: you’ll rant until you’re blue in the face about what a racist Trump is, but won’t quote the terrorist note of one of his followers?
In the “Economic Reasons” section, Crusius writes “In short, immigration can only be detrimental to the future of America.” Sound like a president you know? Again, is this somehow too inflammatory for the American public to hear?
Under the section “Gear,” he writes “Main gun: AK47. I realized pretty quickly that this isn’t a great choice since it’s the civilian version of the ak47 (sic). It’s not designed to shoot rounds quickly, so it overheats massively after about 100 shots fired in quick succession. I’ll have to use a heat-resistant glove to get around this.”
Crusius likely meant to call it the civilian version of an M16, since that’s what it is. He goes on to mention the bullets he’ll bring, “8m3,” along with an AR15 for good measure. And he concludes the “Gear” section with a note that news outlets, particularly those that call for gun background checks, should be taken to the woodshed for omitting:
“I didn’t spend much time at all preparing for this attack. Maybe a month, probably less. I have to do this before I lose my nerve. I figured that an under-prepared attack and a meh manifesto is better than no attack and no manifesto.” To all media claiming to care about gun violence, you should hang your heads in shame. Again, why the omission, you cowering invertebrates? Does that not trend enough for you on Twitter?
Most infuriating, though, is a throwaway line in the middle of the manifesto that at least offers a glimmer of optimism: The shooting did not end the way Casius envisioned — or wanted.
“My death is likely inevitable. If I’m not killed by the police, then I’ll probably be gunned down by one of the invaders. Capture in this case if (sic) far worse than dying during the shooting because I’ll get the death penalty anyway. Worse still is that I would live knowing that my family despises me. This is why I’m not going to surrender even if I run out of ammo. If I’m captured, it will be because I was subdued somehow.”
Asshole was captured. He was subdued somehow. And I’m sure that we’ll be Johnny on the spot to attend the press conference hailing the real heroes of the killings, along with the hundreds of El Paso residents who circled the block in Texas summer heat to donate blood. And they deserve our praise and admiration.
What they don’t deserve, though, is media coverage that lessens the monstrosity of today. Cloaking his ID, his photo, his rambling screed, is an utter public disservice. You are my brothers and sisters, fellow journalists. But fuck you.
And please, spare me any commentaries on how Crusius should get the death penalty. Wrong. Death row inmates get their own cell 23 hours a day, with one hour of “yard time,” which is also inmate-free.
Instead, convict him for 20 life sentences to run consecutively. Place him in the general populace. Let him learn real racial equality in a shower.
Lemme get this straight, CNN: you’ll rant until you’re blue in the face about what a racist Trump is, but won’t quote the terrorist note of one of his followers?
