August 26, 2015

"During a live interview from Bridgewater Plaza, approximately eight gunshots are heard as reporter Alison Parker is seen interviewing someone on screen."

"The camera, presumably held by photographer Adam Ward, then drops to the ground and the broadcast cuts back to the anchor desk. The video captures an image of the what’s believed to be the suspected shooter before it cuts away."

Ward and Parker shot to death, this morning in Roanoke Virginia.

UPDATE: "Authorities have identified the gunman who killed a TV reporter and photographer as former WDBJ employee Vester Lee Flanagan II" AKA Bryce Williams. He was pursued, and he shot himself and is now in custody and critical condition. Sometime between the murders and the self-shooting, he posted this on Twitter:



UPDATE 2: The murderer has died.

226 comments:

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Roughcoat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JCC said...

@ Freder -

The US murder victim rate for non-Hispanic whites, in 2013, is 1.88 per 100,000 population. That includes (non negligent) manslaughter. That is higher (presumably) than the industrialized Western European democracies (assuming past trends for such hold), but inexact since recent murder numbers are unknown for those countries. Further, the UN numbers published are known to be unreliable, such as in the example of Great Britain where crime reporting is widely compromised (down). It is however comparable to or lower than many East European nations, and is not significantly higher than others, East and West. And among those counties enjoying lower murder rates, there are more reasons for this aside from the prevalance of firearms. Certainly the existence in the US of a large, disaffected, poor and violence ridden minority subculture would be the chief suspect.

You can offer all kinds of abstruse and convoluted reasons for why we should all feel guilty for this (I don't), but the fact remains that the leading cause of death among young black men is other black men. The reason that the US is the most violent of the 1st World democracies? Young black men.

BTW, this also proves you can do pretty much anything with statistics, especially if you don't care of they're accurate or if they come from some BS site. I got these from the FBI's latest UCR's (although the FBI is not immune to making things fit the politics).

Roughcoat said...

If there was a law forbidding dual citizenship it would be impossible to enforce. I recognize that. This a matter of conscience and doing the right thing. Of giving one's word and keeping it. Of being fully committed and loyal to America. Of being an American. A person swears a solemn oath to do something (in this case to renounce loyalty to all other countries) and then doesn't do it. What does this say about that person? At best it says he doesn't believe that when he gives his word it doesn't mean anything. That's an awfully bad thing. I could have gotten Irish and Swiss citizenship and this would no doubt have helped me professionally. But I was born an American and when I was growing up in the 1950s I recited the Pledge of Allegiance with my hand over my heart at the beginning every school day. I've given my word and I'm never going back on it.

Roughcoat said...

Correction: At best it says he doesn't believe that giving his word means anything.

Freder Frederson said...

And of course the official murder rate in the U.S. does not include "accidental" and "justified" homicides, which no agency tracks. I guarantee you that those numbers (especially white folks) are astronomically higher than Europe, where a homicide with a firearm is presumed to be a crime.

CEL said...

Freder,
If it comes down to "what you consider" then your assertion that it was "quite simply" a lie is in error. Period. No wiggle room. Now we will learn whether you have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that. My money is on your lack of character, and I think you will move to how far apart 2.0 and 2.5 are in a population of 100,000. Clearly much farther apart than either is from 19.0, right?

As for ARM, reading all the posts in one sitting, it is clear that the rest of you waste your time. He is either a paid hack, trolling you or simply a morally deficient human being. Regardless, his arguments are in bad faith and really not worthy of response. Alinsky types will ultimately get what they richly deserve - and most likely from their fellow travelers. In the meantime, isolate him and hold him up to ridicule.

Michael K said...

Commenters on this blog almost never acknowledge when they get something wrong,

Welcome to the club.

Freder, I will allow you to wallow in your own brilliance.

CEL said...

So you went with expanding the pool by adding scare quotes to negligent and accidental. How honest of you. Oh and you were starting from 1.88 not 2.5. Oops. Go get some more commie, er progressive, talking points.

Bobby said...

Roughcoat,

Granted, but to be fair to Jorge Ramos, I don't actually know that he has retained or exercised his Mexican citizenship since becoming a US citizen in 2008. Michael K made the claim that Ramos "has said he votes in Mexico [sic] elections" -- I didn't independently verify or even ask him for proof because it was irrelevant to Alexander's error. It's entirely possible that Michael K's evidence- even if he were to provide it- predates Ramos's naturalization, in which case we're having a hypothetical discussion about some other guy who meets the qualifications of what we're discussing. Or it's possible that Ramos has exercised dual citizenship because the Supreme Court has sanctioned it, and that if the Court had ruled differently, he would have behaved differently (as with all laws, we know that it influences human behavior in both intended and unintended ways).

Philosophically, I don't really like or understand the concept of dual citizenship when it requires seemingly contradictory oaths and declarations -- and I say that having parents, a brother and a sister who all maintain dual US-Israeli citizenship. But the list of items where my philosophy and US law are in conflict is long indeed, and as a sworn agent of the state, the law always takes precedence for me.

Drago said...

Freder is still smarting from the hilarity that ensued when he deigned to lecture us all on how impossible it is to negotiate salary, business perks, add-ons, benefits etc from a potential employer.



Drago said...

Homicide:

NOUN
1.
the deliberate and unlawful killing of one person by another; murder:


Freder: "And of course the official murder rate in the U.S. does not include "accidental" and "justified" homicides, which no agency tracks."

"Accidental"

"Justified"

Hmmmmmm......

CEL said...

Of course they do not because being right is not their point. They are all about the ends. They will pick up any rock. It is why the cure to whatever I'll is always the same - more state power. They were not about privacy, choice or civil rights. They have always been about raw power. There is nothing too depraved for them in advancing the ball. They are evil. We shy away from calling it that because of the various freaks and our own conformity. But we all know. See how the WH went straight to gun control. They only care about any of this to the extent the can benefit politically. They get fools who think it is all about hippy dippy ideals to support them, but it was never about that nonsense. Just look at what the Russians pulling the strings for those front groups say about the useful idiots.

CEL said...

Ills us nor I'llis. Hate autocorrect

Michael K said...

I find it hard to believe that anyone engages Freder.

JCC said...

Justifiable homicides can typically be included in those numbers. They are investigated and reported as solved murders by police agencies, a little known accounting trick but true. Some, but not all, fatal police shootings are now reported separately.

Unless of course you're murdered in Chicago, where you're often called "unclassified" in order to spare the City administration the embarassment of soaring crime rates.

The FBI numbers are quite flexible, let us say, and should be considered guidelines only, since local agencies tend to get creative when reporting. See above. Same thing in Europe, according to WIKI. i don't have personal experience with that, but do with US numbers.

Accidental deaths are not collected for a national (US) database as far as I know. Some murders are classified as accidents, certainly, just as some suicides are mistakenly classified as unsolved murders. The reporting is only as good as the bazillion different agencies who report the numbers. But the trend remains as a good indicator. The error rate is probably no better in Europe where inexperienced investigators rarely see a murder. If both numbers (accidents and justified homicides) are higher in the US, it would genuinely be attributable to the widespread availablility of firearms, right? For once, that argument would be valid. I would also note that in many places, such as the UK, there is generally no such thing as a justified homicide. A potential victim has an absolute obligation to retreat in the face of criminal aggression, even within the home. In many countries, the US concept of self-defense is unheard of.

Roughcoat said...

Bobby,

Point taken. We don't disagree. Thanks for your comments.

Birkel said...

Yes, JCC, European leaders have decided to make victims of their people (taking away guns and requiring retreat). But that will not stand long.

There are too many willing to kill for the victims to remain passive long.

cubanbob said...

Roughcoat said...

Holding dual citizenship is a form of bad faith."

Hold on there, I'm a dual citizen but not by choice. Not every country recognizes a citizen renouncing its citizenship to acquire the citizenship of another country.

Phil 314 said...

ARM,
This thread has demonstrated you are one of pod people.

Sad.

Rusty said...

The truly interesting fact is that out of 100,000,000 forearm owners in this country, only some 8300 decide to use one to settle their differences.

BN said...

I do not agree with the thouhgt that he or the act was "crazy." It was evil. There is a difference. We used to know what it was.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Frederson seems determined to prove that even proximity to American Blacks can increase the murder rate of non-Black Americans. Party on, Freder Frederson! You might want to peddle that trash at Stormfront. More takers there.

Bruce Hayden said...

I think that it is usually a mistake to engage with ARM. I throw Garbage in the same category. On the flip side, I will engage with Freder and Robert Cook. The difference, to me, is whether they are arguing in good faith, or just repeating (often inappropriate) progressive site talking points. And esp, I think with ARM, if most of us don't engage with ARM, he seems to go away much more quickly.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Bruce Hayden said...
I think that it is usually a mistake to engage with ARM.


For someone who never rises above being a tedious propagandist for the establishment Republican Party line you don't seem to be in a strong position to complain, about anyone.

Rusty said...

Blogger BN said...
I do not agree with the thouhgt that he or the act was "crazy." It was evil. There is a difference. We used to know what it was.


Sane people don't write 23 page manifestos.
He was led to believe he was entitled to a charmed life.
It didn't transpire.
He cracked.

chickelit said...

A problem that modern intellectuals have admitting that evil exists is the opening of the door to the opposite, goodness or God.

Another problem that some have -- Althouse perhaps especially -- is admitting that a Venn diagram comprising "evil" could overlap at all with one comprising "gay" or "black." In her mind (I base this purely on reading comprehension), no gay person nor any black person can be evil a priori. It would undermine some sort of theory she's constructed.

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