Please no more sympathy for the shooter

[MaryMagdaline]

I know people here have big hearts and that’s why I love it here. I’m sorry if this kid was bullied in school, I really am. But he doesn’t get to kill two people and jeopardize the futures of 360 million people to decide their own destiny.
It’s always these violent killers who matter more than the rest of us -“What made Little Adolph so violent?” I don’t know and I don’t care.
Justifying his destructive rage is not helpful in promoting a civilized society. It sends a message to all the other lone wolves that it’s ok to express their rage by blowing up the world.

And take their damned guns . Please.

[Deep State Witch]

1. I Have NO Sympathy For Him

I grew up in the Pittsburgh suburbs in the 70's and 80's. I was bullied mercilessly. It would have never occurred to me to pick up a gun. Probably because my dad wasn't a gun person, and never touched one after his stint in the Army. So, this little snot gets bullied because he's weird and a nerd. He gets "red-pilled" and gets into guns. He probably either shot TCF to be famous, or to be the start of a Civil War. I'm just sorry that he's dead instead of arrested.

[delisen]

17. Murder is rampant in our society

What if we could figure out a way to prevent most or all murders.

I am thankful there are people who can try to figure out why people kill. Maybe it will lead us to prevention.

[Nimble_Idea]

2. I was confused, thought you were talking about orenge

[MaryMagdaline]

10. True. Almost everything I've said about this shooter applies to Orange guy.

He, too, has blood in his hands. He gets to blow up our democracy because Nancy Pelosi was mean to him or whatever. We live in the world of his personal grudges.

[GreenWave]

3. I don't see the sympathy. Folks want to justify why a Trumper did this.

[BlueKota]

26. That's where I am coming from.

I am confused as to motive. Why would a Republican gun nut hate Trump enough to kill him? I do think the fact that Trump himself is a bully may have been a trigger, but I don't believe it excuses or justifies what the shooter did.

I was bullied as a kid and I never thought of killing the bullies. My anger turned inward on myself, thinking there must be something I was doing wrong that I was always being mocked or criticized. I just wanted to make myself go away so I didn't upset anyone else anymore, and I didn't have to hurt so much inside anymore.

[MaryMagdaline]

33. I guess what I'm trying to say without really saying is that KILLING is the reason.

He has a taste for it. It’s ice cream. It’s sex. It’s chocolate. He can’t wait to experience it. Politics just gets you the access. It’s concerts, fairs, sporting events. Mass bodies to blow up; huge chance at notoriety. He probably doesn’t even hate Trump. He likes the violence of the Republican Party but doesn’t have any real empathy for people inside or outside the party. He’s too excited to have any real empathy.

[madaboutharry]

4. I don't have sympathy for killers.

I do think as a society we need to do a better job at finding the bullied and isolated people who become mentally ill and suicidal, who end up committing heinous crimes. Maybe if they get the psychiatric help they desperately need they would not end up causing so much mayhem and grief.

[womanofthehills]

13. Interesting- some news reports saying his father is a psychologist & his mother a councilor

Don’t know if this is true.

[MaryMagdaline]

34. Found that interesting. Like the Idaho killer. Mother and sister were therapists.

Crooks’s father is Libertarian. Can you imagine having a libertarian therapist??

[Peacetrain]

5. I have seen no sympathy for the shooter.. lots of discussions about why he

could have done this.. and bullying has been discussed as a trigger.. but no sympathy for him..

[RubyRose]

6. I don't understand how being bullied in High School

Translates into trying to assassinate a political figure. Taking it out on one of the people that bullied you, sure but someone that had nothing to do with it? I don’t think so.

[delisen]

21. Taking our resentment out on others

Is probably one of the most common behaviors of humans.

[happybird]

30. Scroll to the bottom for the section on violence and mass shootings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel

There’s overlap with having been bullied, or feeling like an outcast. Add in the eternal glory of internet fame and you get a high profile shooting.

[Quixote1818]

36. If their abuse has caused them to be mentally ill they never felt seen or heard so they have resentment towards society

as a whole. Killing someone famous allows them to take out their aggression on society as a whole and be seen for the first time. They become famous as the media will focus on them as the person who killed a big shot. He also may have seen Trump as similar to the bullies in school.

While I am looking at their psychological profile, in no way am I saying they should have sympathy.

[Emile]

7. Where is this sympathy for the shooter?

[Groundhawg]

38. I was shocked at some of the posts here i saw right after the shooting. It's like there was no humanity.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Are you including the shooter himself in the two he killed -

It did a second person die?

[bigtree]

9. link, or it didn't happen

[former9thward]

15. There are many.

In this thread https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143271325 if you can't see it you aren't trying.

[Emile]

28. I see some. Looks like for the most part are trolls

trying to make us look bad

[womanofthehills]

16. A family man died as his daughter wrote about her love for her dad

& how he threw himself over her during the shooting. A vet is in critical care- and supposedly a third person is hospitalized.

[asm128]

20. Sorry

No sympathy. They were at a hate rally.

[ecstatic]

35. On xitter, I showed my respects by liking a post

that honored the victim. Then I ended up seeing his profile and posts.

One post he responded to asked who would he save if there was a fire and AOC, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Putin needed to be saved. He answered "Putin 100%."

In another post he called Karine Jean-Pierre a DEI hire. And then in another post he cheered the idea of running over bicyclists. He was quite homophobic as well. Yikes! 😬

[Abolishinist]

42. Doesn't surprise me in the least... in fact I'd be surprised if

this or some variation is not who he is.

It's a difficult pill for me to swallow, but I have to say that if the choice is to

(a) demean the right as being dumb, stupid, ignorant worthless pieces of reich-wing garbage, or
(b) attempt to find some common ground, to view them as partially human, and they viewing us as such,

the best way to move a higher percentage of them to our side is (b) vs. (a).

But let's face it, it takes time, and it's not nearly as much fun!

[former9thward]

11. The "bullied mercifully" quote came from exactly one teenager.

That is it. And has been repeated around the internet as if it is an absolute fact. No other evidence. One anecdotal comment by an immature individual with a camera in his face does not make the truth. Pictures of him in school settings do not show that at all.

President Biden has called this incident "sick". Those who have saluted the shooter on this site (many posts) or showed sympathy for him are going against the President.

[womanofthehills]

18. Another kid who knew the student

Said he was quiet but nothing abnormal stuck out. He said he didn’t have many friends but had a few.

[former9thward]

22. Yes, welcome to high school for most folks.

Unless you are the star quarterback or prom queen most students don't have celebrity lives in High School. In fact in adult life as well.

[Abolishinist]

23. Exactly. And then there's this...

Crooks worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home less than a mile from his family’s home, according to Marcie Grimm, the center’s administrator.

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” Grimm said in a statement.

A colleague who worked with Crooks at the nursing home and who asked not to be named described him in an interview as “the sweetest guy.” Just this week, the colleague said, the two of them worked together to find an easier way for nursing home residents to open ranch dressing packets, an act the colleague said was indicative of how caring Crooks was.

“These stupid ranch packets in the kitchen — no one can ever open them,” said the colleague, who also went to high school with Crooks. “Earlier this week he was helping me with a bunch of sick old ladies (to) put ranch on their salads.”

Crooks, the colleague said, never expressed political views at work and wasn’t “a radical.” They added: “It’s hard seeing everything that’s going on online because he was a really, really good person that did a really bad thing, and I just wish I knew why.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/us/trump-rally-gunman-thomas-crooks-invs/index.html

[MaryMagdaline]

32. Oh my God

I feel as though I’m at the funeral for my country and someone comes up to give condolences - “So sorry for your loss, but you should know, he was a really good kid who did a bad thing.” Uggh! I have to live in a fascist country (maybe) with Trump winning this election because we have more sympathy with these young guys who fantasize about mass killings and we still think they’re good kids!
So WTF is a bad kid then?

[Abolishinist]

37. I have no idea if he was a "good kid" or not. That's not the point.

But it does seem to me that in the last 24 hours, many on this site have jumped to so many "conclusions" as to what happened that perhaps we should let this play out a bit more. You know, more legitimate information. As former9thward said, The "bullied mercifully" quote came from exactly one teenager.

For Christo's sake, there are threads talking about the shooter being in cahoots with right-wingers, that this was orchestrated by the right. That the former had a pill behind his ear that he crushed at just the right, pre-planned time. Ad nauseum.

And on the surface, there is little that would indicate that his parents were whack-jobs. Both of Crooks’ parents worked as social workers, according to state license records. His father is registered to vote as a Libertarian and his mother is registered as a Democrat, state voter records show.

[MaryMagdaline]

39. Sorry, Abolitionist. I should have pointed out that "he was a good kid who did a bad thing"

was a direct quote from a co-worker, from the article that you linked. Was not something I was attributing to you.

[LisaL]

41. Why does a social worker need an assault rifle?

[MichMan]

45. I saw quotes from 4 other classmates

Not one mentioned bullying.

"He was somebody who came across as lonely a lot," said Jameson Myers, who said he attended both elementary and high school with the suspect. Myers said that Crooks "tended to be more of an interesting one” and described him as "more socially reserved" and someone who "didn't have a ton of friends." But he said he never heard Crooks discuss politics or, specifically, Donald Trump.“I was friends with him- he never acted, like, by any means a political revolutionary,” Myers said, noting he was a fan of "Star Wars" and “was a very nice, even sweet guy from what I knew.”

"One thing I did know for sure was he was very smart," said another student, who told ABC News he sat behind Crooks in their AP statistics class. "I always remember hearing his test grades when we would all compare and he always did very well and math and sciences." The student continued that Crooks was "never anything but kind." "I would not say that he ever appeared as a threatening person," he continued.

Another classmate, Zoe Materkowski, said he was “just a quiet kid.” A classmate who graduated a year before Crooks similarly described him as a quiet student. “He was a loner,” said Jason Kohler. “He would sit alone at lunch.”

Another classmate who rode the same bus as Crooks and shared multiple classes with him described the suspected shooter as quiet but friendly. “I honestly can't think of a better word to describe him than normal,” said the classmate. “He just kind of stuck to himself.” The classmate added that Crooks was interested in building computers and never discussed politics. “It's just crazy, because he didn't really seem like he would be the type to think to do that,” he said about his response to learning that Crooks was the suspected shooter.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/suspect-in-trump-assassination-attempt-registered-as-republican-but-motive-unknown/ar-BB1pX4WN?ocid=BingNewsSerp

[Tree Lady]

12. I was bullied in junior high

really messed me up with self esteem. Parents and teachers back in the 60's did nothing. I had no one to talk to.

Ended up in bad relationships for long time, dead end jobs, but I pulled myself together about 20 yrs ago to now and I would never have thought about killing anyone, that seems to be more guys than girls although I did think of killing myself in high school. Thank god I had cousins who gave me support.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

27. Sorry to hear that... good for you in gettin past it!!!!

[MaryMagdaline]

31. I have to believe that there is something in you that says "my pain doesn't translate to inflicting pain on others."

Which is why you are a good person.

[Tree Lady]

40. Yes I try not to hate anyone

but Trump really tempts me on that. I know his parents treated him like shit but he had a choice to be like them or not..

[ImNotGod]

14. I will have sympathy for anyone I damn want to, thank you very much. I DO NOT have sympathy for any fascists

that is a certain!!!

[Pisces]

19. Who has shown sympathy?? I have nothing for him

[Kaleva]

24. I haven't seen any posts expressing sympathy

There may be some as I don't read every post in every thread

[Kingofalldems]

25. Gun control needed.

[LPBBEAR]

29. If Trump manages

to slink back into the White House as a result of this next election in a years time we'll all look back at this episode.....

and wish it turned out differently.

Vote Blue and keep him out.

[triron]

43. But we are good Germans.

[alarimer]

44. Doesn't it make sense to try and understand so as to prevent future events?

Bullying should have no place in society, not in schools, not in offices, not in politics or wherever else.

And obviously most people who are bullied don’t do what he did, but I think it’s still useful to try and understand.

[MaryMagdaline]

46. We should definitely study them. And disarm them.

[applegrove]

47. Talking about the kid being bullied is not empathy.

It is simply trying to get to an understanding of what happened. I don't see what you are seeing.

[radius777]

48. Bullying is a real thing, especially for the younger generations,

for which the bullying is amplified using social media etc. A kid who is a loner or outcast especially can get caught up in extreme communities. We don't know if that's the case here, but it is a possibility.