Nailed it!! A Tweet from "Atlanta's Mayor" going around FB.

[jillan]

[onehandle]

1. Pretty sure that's not the Mayor. nt

[jillan]

3. I know :) but that's who this person thinks they are on twitter.

[Recursion]

2. Yep. We ask "why do white males go on spree killings?"

rather than "why when non-white males go on spree killings do we find another name for it?"

[DesertDiamond]

24. Do black men actually go on spree killings? I'm open, just haven't heard of any.

[DesertDiamond]

25. I take that back, there was one in the 1990s in Washington D.C. But seems comparatively rare.

[WiffenPoof]

30. Wasn't Colin McFergason (sp) a Man of Color?

I believe he shot people on a subway (he shot some black teenagers) - I could be wrong.

-Paige

On Edit: His name is actually Colin Ferguson. He apparently killed six in a train station. More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Ferguson_(mass_murderer)

-Paige

[malaise]

38. He was a middle classs Afro-Jamaican man

who went to a very good school

[WiffenPoof]

40. Yeah...I'm Not Disagreeing...

with the OP. It's just when the question was asked, Ferguson popped into me head.

-P

[arely staircase]

67. which makes him totally not black

just messing with you

merry x-mas, malaise

i hope all is well in the tropics tonight

[malaise]

68. LOL

[Nay]

31. Not that I recall; the DC snipers were serial killers, as was Wayne Williams (Atlanta) who was a

serial killer of children (and a few adults).

Serial killers kill their victims over a period of weeks, months or years, while spree killers go on a one-time blowout, usually with gun(s), and kill a bunch of people all at once or, sometimes, on a spree that only lasts for a few days as they run from police.

[MADem]

63. The DC sniper mastermind, John Muhammad, wanted to kill his wife.

So he went to DC and started killing a bunch of people, using that Malvo kid as the shooter. His plan was to shoot his wife, so she'd be assumed to be yet another "random" victim and the crime wouldn't be traced back to him, since the cops always look at family first when someone dies, ordinarily.

[Honeycombe8]

53. Yes. There were those two snipers in the NE...older one and younger one.

They had changed their names to be middle eastern, but they were Af. American. Although they may have been foreign.

They were called and treated just like other snipers. There have been quite a few, most of them white, I think.

[Schema Thing]

4. meh. Timothy McVie and Terry Nichols

are considered first and foremost "terrorist" and menaces to society.




The word "terrorist" has a specific meaning, and trying to muddy it up in order to inject race into this particular discussion is not helpful, imo.


That said, I certainly understand a Black person's frustration with how they are treated in the injustice system.

[jillan]

7. I don't know about that - I hear McVie & Terry Nicholas' names coming up alot lately as examples

of mental illness.

[Schema Thing]

45. seriously? they had clear, stated, political aims.

I never hear them used as an example of mental illness. Especially when there are so many cases that clearly have a mental illness component, no matter the race or sex of the person. Adam Lanza being a prime example.

[KeepItReal]

5. It a tweet from someone called "Atlanta's Mayor..."

The official Mayor of ATL is @KasimReed

[Lex]

6. seems legit

(yeah, I know, it's just his twitter name)

[Bok_Tukalo]

8. That's easy, Mayor

One is commercial, one is political, and one is Solipsism.

[Livluvgrow]

9. that

is nothing more than a racist tweet. Killers are all treated as a menace to society. Would it make him feel better if a black man goes on a mass shooting so we could then ask why and look at him under a microscope? Most of the recent mass shooters where white and as it turns out insane.

[Tsiyu]

10. They where?

Nope. No racism here, folks...

[Livluvgrow]

12. please

do tell where I was racist. Should we just say they are misunderstood. Also you tellin me that anybody shooting up dozens of people are not insane? I didn't say mentally ill I said insane or is insanity now off limits too?

[billh58]

16. You totally missed the

point Bubba (I assume you missed the point, but maybe not). It is NOT the actual differences between mass murderers that the tweet is calling out, but the way the differences are portrayed by the fucking press. Get it?

[Bluenorthwest]

20. The VA Tech shooter, Asian. The DC snipers, African American. Fort Hood's Hasan is Palestinian-Ameri

2009 Binghamton NY shootings, killer Asian. This is off the top of my head. Seems there is no specific group immune from having killers among them, but every group shares the need to claim it is 'just those people' who do such things.

[Nay]

33. The difference between DC snipers and Hasan/VA Tech shooter is that the DC snipers would be

categorized as serial killers. Hasan/VA Tech shooter, and Lanza, are spree killers.

[brush]

55. 95% of spree killers in the US are white males. nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

64. do you have a link for that percentage? thanks.

[brush]

65. Link here

The percentage I quoted is too high but the article is worth a read.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/would_the_u_s_government_profile_white_men/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

66. thanks for the link and for the honesty.

[RC]

23. On DU, using facts to point out examples of racism, is in itself racism.

Such as the OP.

Another example of wrong thinking: The Sandy Hook killer was insane, therefore pointing out that fact is a slur on anyone with mental health issues.
More? Obama is a Democrat, therefore Obama is a Liberal/Progressive and is good for us and can do no wrong.
How about this? Knock-offs of military weapons in civilians hands, changes them from assault weapons, into normal hunting rifles, even though they still look and fire the same as the assault weapons they look like, with the simple addition of a rubber band.

I'm sure other DU'ers can come up with a lot more example of wrong thinking on DU.

[heaven05]

39. well

it is generally true that blacks who murder others, especially whites are seen and usually described in regard to the general black population as a total menace to general society. Whereas a lanza type is seen as an aberration because they were "troubled". Don't have to inject racism when it is already present in general societal thinking. This 'mayor' has a point to make and he/she made it. I have no problem with it.

[Tempest]

15. As a white guy, I see the post as extremely accurate

I can list off hundreds of examples of the tweet being correct.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. A racist tweet ...

I have a feeling that you will call every post/thread that recognizes disparate racial treatment as racist.

[BainsBane]

56. Persecution complex

Advanced by Fox News and far more nefarious groups. Any mention of race is "playing the race card" or "racist," unless they are complaining about how whites are the victims of endless racism; that, they think, is legitimate. I sometimes feel like I've entered bizarro world.

[uponit7771]

59. +1!

[gollygee]

22. How is it racist?

Does any recognition of race = racist?

I'm curious how you see this in that way. Maybe you'll come back and explain.

[datasuspect]

26. you

are a bullshit artist.

[McDiggy]

11. I really think it has to do with the situation...

A perfect example are the DC snipers. I would certainly consider Lee Boyd Malvo more a psychologically unstable kid than his "master" John Allen Muhammad, who I would consider a straight up terrorist.

[progressoid]

13. I was about to post the same thing.

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. But ...

Malvo was considered a menace, before he was considered psychologically unstable and Muhammad was never considered psychologically unstable (despite the fact he obvious is/was).

[Nay]

35. Plus, those two were NOT spree killers -- they were serial killers. There HAVE been a few Black

serial killers (Wayne Williams, for example), but I can't think of any Black spree killers (like Lanza, Loughner, etc.).

And even if you can find one or two Black spree or serial killers, these categories are still almost entirely filled with white males.

[caseymoz]

41. The Kirkwood City Council shooting case.

Where Charles Lee "Cookie" Thorton shot two police officers, the Mayor, two city council members, the public works director, and a reporter. Five dead and two wounded

This one was different than most in that Thornton had a clear motive: revenge. The City of Kirkwood harassed him over a long period and forced him out of business. Thornton had just lost a suit against the City.

That's different from the ones with the highest body counts, which usually have motives that are mostly in the minds of the shooter, which is exactly why they're called insane.

[Nay]

47. I agree that that case is a bit different. I don't remember how the FBI categorizes something like

that -- I assume that a clear motive makes it just another run-of-the-mill murder-for-revenge case for the local authorities to clear up. IIRC, revenge killings can escalate into spree killing (for example, if an employee shot the boss who fired him, but then also went out and shot strangers at random as he fled the police. That would be a person who was "decompensating," or losing the ability to control himself rationally, and ending up not just shooting the boss, but attacking anyone who was anywhere around for no reason at all except he was in destruct mode.

[caseymoz]

49. As I read the other day.

The FBI classifies an armed action as a mass shooting if four or more people, not including the gunman, are killed. They might have other criteria, I don't know. The one that just happened in Pennsylvania? A mass shooting. The motive apparently doesn't enter into it.

[Nay]

50. That makes sense to call them all 'mass shootings' and them break them down into other

categories according to specific characteristics of a shooting.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. More troubling is ...

Why when a Black man kills, ALL Black folk as a generalized group, are a menace to society. When a Foreign man kills, ALL Foreigners as a generalized group are terrorist. But when a White man kills, he is first an INDIVIDUAL, not representative of the whole, and then, pyschologocally unstable.

[Tempest]

17. That's right

You never hear calls for white men being profiled as unstable serial killers, yet 98% of serial killers are white males.

[Nay]

34. Yup. nt

[billh58]

19. +1000

Exactly.

[jillan]

27. What is even more troubling than that is that the majority of these mass murders has been by

white men.


And I am saying this as a white woman!

[libdem4life]

32. And most white men would agree with you...those who have dealt with their

"superiority" by chance of birth. Being a white woman is a far different experience than a black woman, as well. Being a rich kid is different than a poor kid. It is possible to observe differences and social facts without being a racist, (or a reverse racist, whatever that is) or sexist, et al. One cannot deal with a situation properly or effectively without noticing, understanding and acceptance. Then comes progress.

[qanda]

28. Yep! Yep! Yep!

Exactly!

[treestar]

61. Nails it down even more

[Shankapotomus]

29. I believe the African American man

who pushed someone to their death on the NY subway had been widely described as psychologically unstable.

[Nay]

37. Certainly. But he is not in the category of serial/spree killers that is the topic of this post.

[1StrongBlackMan]

42. No ...

he was widely described as mentally ill ... Big difference.

The former used to indicate a permanent condition; the latter indicates a condition treatable/temporary with the right doctor or the right lawyer, if one has the right skin color.

[Shankapotomus]

48. That's an important distinction I missed

As well as the fact that one's condition left him homeless and another's perhaps coddled by his mother, instead of treated.

[caseymoz]

36. Sorry. Not a fair comparison.

You'd first have to find a black guy who did a mass shooting in a school or public place that, for no reason connected to his life, kills 5-30+ innocent bystanders.

There was that case in Kirkwood, Missouri, the shooting at city hall. However, the history of harassment by the City of Kirkwood, and the fact that they put the guy into financial ruin, does offer an obvious criminal motive.

And that's the real difference. If the motive isn't robbery, revenge or jealousy or any other that's obviously criminal, and if the targets seem remotely connected or unconnected to the shooter, it's likely mental illness.

Added on Edit: Just to say, I recognize the disparate treatments the different races receive discussion of crimes, I just don't think this particular one is accurate. When we have a Black spree killer who had a history of mental illness, we'll see.

[bucolic_frolic]

43. Yeah, where IS Homeland Security on all these mass shootings?

They don't rise to the level of terrorism?

There's not a conspiracy supplying these weapons?

Are we safe?

[The CCC]

44. Nailed it!! A Tweet from "Atlanta's Mayor" going around FB

Those terms aren't mutually exclusive.

[mfcorey1]

51. The Mayor of Atlanta is Kasim Reed and that post is not from him. nt

[jillan]

57. That is this person's twitter name, as you can see from his tweet.

[bigbadR]

46. Destructive

The white race particularly white men have been historically and continue to be the most destructive group on planet earth. Their power, control and influence must become impotent or the human race will be an evolutionary dead end. Perhaps this is inevitable regardless of who is in power and control, perhaps this self destruction is hardwired into our DNA. But, really I think it is sociopolitical in nature and not an inherent biological problem. If so we can correct it again by destroying the influence of people with empirical, neocon, neoliberal, authoritarian and totalitarian ideas. Time to clean house, our very survival depends on it.

[radhika]

52. White men don't kill...they just stand their ground...

against those black social menaces and those foreign terrorists.

[jillan]

58. Excellent reply :)

[mountain grammy]

62. Yep, you nailed it, and came up with a real slogan for the NRA

[Skittles]

54. CORRECT

not saying it is right, just that he is CORRECT!

[valerief]

60. Spot on! nt