This man helped save six children, is now getting harassed for it

[DonViejo]

Gene Rosen sheltered six kids during the Sandy Hook massacre. Now he's become a target of conspiracy theorists

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

“I don’t know what to do,” sighed Gene Rosen. “I’m getting hang up calls, I’m getting some calls, I’m getting emails with, not direct threats, but accusations that I’m lying, that I’m a crisis actor, ‘how much am I being paid’?” Someone posted a photo of his house online. There have been phony Google+ and YouTube accounts created in his name, messages on white supremacist message boards ridiculing the “emotional Jewish guy,” and dozens of blog posts and videos “exposing” him as a fraud. One email purporting to be a business inquiry taunted: “How are all those little students doing? You know, the ones that showed up at your house after the ‘shooting’. What is the going rate for getting involved in a gov’t sponsored hoax anyway?”

“The quantity of the material is overwhelming,” he said. So much so that a friend shields him from most of it by doing daily sweeps of the web so Rosen doesn’t have to. His wife is worried for their safety. He’s logged every email and every call, and consulted with a retired state police officer, who took the complaint seriously but said police probably can’t do anything at the moment, and he plans to do the same with the FBI.

What did Rosen do to deserve this? One month ago, he found six little children and a bus driver at the end of the driveway of his home in Newtown, Connecticut. “We can’t go back to school,” one little boy told Rosen. “Our teacher is dead.” He brought them inside and gave them food and juice and toys. He called their parents. He sat with them and listened to their shocked accounts of what had happened just down the street inside Sandy Hook Elementary, close enough that Rosen heard the gunshots.

In the hours and days that followed, Rosen did a lot of media interviews. “I wanted to speak about the bravery of the children, and it kind of helped me work through this,” he told Salon in an interview. “I guess I kind of opened myself up to this.”

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/this_man_helped_save_six_children_is_now_getting_harassed_for_it/

[gollygee]

1. I wish people would stop calling the conspiracy theorists "truthers"

as it has nothing to do with truth.

Poor guy

[Tigress DEM]

5. But their theories SOUND so "truthy" to them.

You gotta realize that people who wouldn't know a fact if it bit them in the hind quarters, are just looking for the closest substitute so they can FEEL better about their crazy theories.

[LisaLynne]

7. I agree about not calling them "truthers".

They are about anything but the truth. Let's just call them asshats, like I do!

And, yeah, this poor guy! What the f is WRONG with these people?

[99Forever]

16. Whats wrong with them?

They worship at the altar of *The Precious*.

It's called being psychotic.

[DinahMoeHum]

19. I call them "Troofers"

ala http://www.screwloosechange.blogspot.com

[HappyMe]

11. They wouldn't know the truth

if it bit them on the ass. The truth is, is that these people need to shut their mouths about this guy. He gave those kids refuge.

[freedom fighter jh]

18. So anyone who thinks they see a conspiracy "has nothing to do with the truth"?

I agree that the conspiracy theory about Newtown is obscene and false. But do you mean to paint with such a broad brush?

Some conspiracies do happen. Discussing them -- even talking about your suspicions -- should not be off limits.

[HappyMe]

20. Here's the place to do it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1135

[EOTE]

21. It's a shame that those here who believed that Iraq didn't have WMDs didn't have such a forum

in which to discuss our wild conspiracies. Or that wild conspiracy that GWB was forewarned about a possible terrorist plane attack in the United States. Perhaps we'd be better off simply to not discuss such things.

[HappyMe]

30. None of those things can be compared in

the least to the morans thinking that this man had anything to do with Sandy Hook.

Apples & oranges.

[EOTE]

46. I know that very well, you should learn that yourself.

And not be so dismissive of EVERY so called "conspiracy theory" by suggesting that GD is not the place to discuss them.

[HappyMe]

47. Okay then.

[Springslips]

28. Sure, but when

Your suspicions crumble due to scientific and logical reasoning yet you still believe them then it isn't about anything in the real world, but about your own distorted psychology, ego, stubbornness. This should be soundly rejected and marginalized.

It is one thing to question whether Iraq had WMDs--that is good questioning of government-- it is totally another to suspect that Sandy Hook is a 'false flag operation'--that is just crazy talk. Suspicions brought up for discussion should have grounding in facts-- the more extraordinary the suspicion, the more facts needed for its grounding. Otherwise we spread unhealthy memes that create bubbles and divorces people from reality.

[freshwest]

62. +1

[2ndAmForComputers]

27. "Falsehooders?"

Mmm. I like the sound of it.

[RKP5637]

34. K&R !!! n/t

[Saviolo]

40. How do you feel about

Thruthketeers?

L - O - O (oh! they're coming to get us!)
N - E - Y (why? because they hate our freedom!)
I - D - I - O - Teeeeeees.

[WinstonSmith4740]

80. Love it!

But I think we're showing our age here!

[caseymoz]

38. I thought that was just the 911 theorist.

Has that become general.

I thought the irony there was appropriate, because it's pretty straightforward what happened on 911.

[Hugabear]

68. I prefer the term "batshit crazy assholes"

But I guess that takes a little longer to type out.

[Dont call me Shirley]

69. Orwellian "truth is false"

The original "conspiracy" contains a tiny truth, which then is embellished with fantasy and falsehood. The original truth becomes a jaded relic, one not to be believed. In it's stead the fantasy/falsehood becomes the "True" story.

[RVN VET]

73. Call them what they are

Callous, heartless, soulless blobs of ambulatory fecal matter. They want to be seen as significant, but they are merely loathsome.

[Canuckistanian]

74. +1

Good description.

[get the red out]

2. I never imagined

I never thought we would have conspiracy theorists denying the mass murder of children, and that there would then be enough people BELIEVING the shit to harass someone who tried to help survivors.

The messed up minds we have in this country are frightening.

[RKP5637]

36. This story is an excellent synopsis of some really messed up minds in this

country, and seemingly how prevalent and deranged they are ...

[southernyankeebelle]

3. This country has become a country of crackpots. How sad. I hope once our President

leaves office this craziness will stop. But I don't think so as long as there is a Fox News.

[SemperEadem]

24. this country always was a nation of crackpots

difference being, they didn't have such a wide variety of choices to broadcast their craziness and at the same time, be taken seriously by those who own and work for said broadcasters. They've got internet, cable, network and radio to give them legitimacy and that is what the main problem is.

It's all a part of the scared old white men having "their" country "taken away" from them... they feel that their fear justifies their craziness.

[southernyankeebelle]

35. God help us.

[NewJeffCT]

29. They were crazy when Clinton was president as well

Remember, lesbian Hillary had her lover Vince Foster killed? Congress had 5 or 6 actual investigations into Foster's death, and came up empty each time... even Tony Scalia said "enough is enough"

[southernyankeebelle]

37. Your right but it seems to have gotten worse. I wonder if every time there is a dem president

are we going to keep going through this.

[tblue]

50. Oh for sure. Ever since Watergate

the Republican Party went nuts. They wanted payback regardless of whether it was merited or not. The way they hounded Bill Clinton and then Obama relentlessly, manufacturing scandals and being purely partisan. It's all of a piece. The GOP sold its soul to the devil. It's not a party as much as a bunch of glorified vigilantes.

[southernyankeebelle]

60. What kills me they will go after dems for the silly stupid stuff. While Watergate and Iran Contra

were real serious trouble. The old man Reagan acted like he lost his memory. Crazy liar. Along with Bush I. They should have been in jail.

[NewJeffCT]

67. That's part of the Republican playbook

Rile up the loonies whenever there is a Democratic president - Birchers in the 60s to the Tea Party of today - that way, it makes the right wingers in Congress look sane/reasonable by comparison.

[RKP5637]

31. As a youngster, I thought the US had a lot of really F'ed up people, and

now many years later I still feel the same, except now they have louder megaphones. My hope now is with their loud megaphones more and more people are coming to realize how dysfunctional and delusional these individuals are ...

[southernyankeebelle]

33. Your right. I just wish they'd shut up now.

[RKP5637]

39. One of the really bad aspects are the likes of Beck, Savage, Limbaugh, Jones and similar

fanning the embers to keep all of the nuttiness going for egregious profit.

[southernyankeebelle]

44. Your so right.

[MicaelS]

49. This country has ALWAYS been suffused with crackpots.

Go read The Paranoid Style in American Politics if you doubt this for one minute. Read it and remember in was written in 1964, - 48 years ago.

The spokesmen of those earlier movements felt that they stood for causes and personal types that were still in possession of their country—that they were fending off threats to a still established way of life. But the modern right wing, as Daniel Bell has put it, feels dispossessed: America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion. The old American virtues have already been eaten away by cosmopolitans and intellectuals; the old competitive capitalism has been gradually undermined by socialistic and communistic schemers; the old national security and independence have been destroyed by treasonous plots, having as their most powerful agents not merely outsiders and foreigners as of old but major statesmen who are at the very centers of American power. Their predecessors had discovered conspiracies; the modern radical right finds conspiracy to be betrayal from on high.

The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms—he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point. Like religious millenialists he expresses the anxiety of those who are living through the last days and he is sometimes disposed to set a date fort the apocalypse. (“Time is running out,” said Welch in 1951. “Evidence is piling up on many sides and from many sources that October 1952 is the fatal month when Stalin will attack.”)

As a member of the avant-garde who is capable of perceiving the conspiracy before it is fully obvious to an as yet unaroused public, the paranoid is a militant leader. He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated—if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.

The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman—sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced. The paranoid’s interpretation of history is distinctly personal: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone’s will. Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional).

[RobinA]

58. I Thought It Would

stop when CLINTON left office. So much for that...

[southernyankeebelle]

59. That was a dream. I hope this doesn't continue every time there is a dem elected to

be president. Republicans act like the white house belongs to them and they are entitled.

[mucifer]

4. That is pathetic and those people all probably have guns.

One thing I do have to say is that Rosen is a great person who helped people out on a horrible day. They were out of harms way when they were on the end of his driveway. He didn't "save" them. He gave them the attention they needed in a crisis.

[Dash87]

6. Alex Jones's psychotic followers strike again

[lunatica]

8. I think one of those laws President Obama should call for is to make this kind of

harassment a Federal Crime. Force these assholes to shut up and go crawl back under that rock in their closets.

These people are threatening lives and scaring people for being helpful to society. Make those threats illegal.

[sasha031]

17. I agree, this can't keep happening

my heart breaks for Mr Rosen.

[n2doc]

26. Why isn't this considered terrorism?

I'll bet if the callers were islamic and making threats they would be treated as terrorists.

[The Wizard]

45. One sure fire way to stop these nuts

is summary executions upon their discovery. It would also cause Pox (deliberate typo) to be more responsible with its propaganda designed to divide Americans based on delusional beliefs founded in superstition and mythical selection to exceptionalism rooted in geographic origins and the blessing of that geographic region by an imaginary sky hero.

[siligut]

52. It already is

http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18/18USC00241.html

CITE

18 USC Sec. 241 01/05/2009
EXPCITE

TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 13 - CIVIL RIGHTS
HEAD

Sec. 241. Conspiracy against rights
STATUTE

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or
intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth,
Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any
right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of
the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same;
or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the
premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free
exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured -
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in
violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an
attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit
aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined
under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life,
or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Problem is providing proof of who is doing it.

[lunatica]

53. If they're doing it online in blogs and through email the proof is very easy to find

Yet the police tell him they can't do anything? I don't believe that. Call the FBI. How hard is it to do that?

[siligut]

56. Yes, theory vs reality

A couple of policemen have actually been convicted under this law. With luck he might be able to contact a helpful person in the FBI who could instruct him as to what would be useful. He could gather data/ISPs, keep a log of the incidents. He needs support, gang stalking can be intimidating.

Have you ever tried to get help from the FBI? My guess is that it isn't at all like we see on TV or in the movies.

[freshwest]

63. Thanks for that link.

[siligut]

71. Just read in an article on yahoo that he is going to contact the FBI

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gene-rosen-sandy-hook-conspiracy-155033813.html

“The quantity of the material is overwhelming,” Rosen said, adding that he's sought the advice of a retired state police officer and plans to alert the FBI

So, good

[freshwest]

72. I hope they can ferret out these creeps, especially the racist ones.

[Chorophyll]

9. These people are lower than parasites in dogshit.

Unbelievable.

[pink-o]

10. These people disgust and sicken me.

I really thought I could no longer be surprised by the new lows RW'ers set every day, but this goes beyond the pale. It's a tool used to frighten the troglodytes into their usual knee-jerk reaction: the Big Bad Govt staged a child massacre so they'd have an excuse to take our precious guns.

WTF?? These fear-mongerers have been using low-info neanderthals to manifest their agenda forever, but the heartbreaking deaths of children as the impetus just shows how sociopathic they are. Help for mental illness should start there, I think.

[abelenkpe]

12. The people harassing this poor guy are sick

The definition of gun nut. There is no one who illustrates better that there are many mentally unstable people out there armed to the teeth who truly need to be disarmed. I am sure we can pass regulations on guns that limit access to weapons by lunatics (like those willing to harrass this heroic man and believe in ridiculous conspiracy theories) while preserving the right to bear arms for the sane and responsible.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

55. I was a mod in the Gun Forum for three months many years ago

Some of the regulars assured me that I'd come over to their side, but I ended up thinking that they were pathetic scaredy-cats and in some cases, mentally ill.

When they said that yes, they knew that Bush was bad for the country but that their guns were more important, I knew there was something wrong with them.

[Ganja Ninja]

13. Two more reasons why these people shouldn't have access to guns.

Mean & Stupid.

[Patiod]

14. I assume they are harassing the families of the murdered kids, too

After all, they are front and center in perpetuating this "conspiracy".

I've seen these idiots going berserk because one of the families dressed one of their surviving children in the hand-me-down fancy dress of her murdered sister for a White House visit. The conspiracy loons posted pictures of each sister in the dress, claiming it was the same child. So they believe that these families actually didn't lose a child, and were bold enough to bring the child they had claimed to lose to the White House. Because all little blond girls in the same dress are the same kid.

A guy I know from high school posts "9/11 truther" nonsense and anti-vax bullshit on FB all the time, and was posting these pictures, too (hey - any conspiracy will do). I ripped him a new asshole, but I doubt it changed anything.

[freshwest]

64. I think they have harrassed the mother of the Jewish boy who made sure his coffin was open.

Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2013, 04:08 PM - Edit history (1)

She was adamant that she wanted to show people what the shooter did to him, to stop it from happening again. She and Rosen are both Jewish, a red flag to the Infowars crowd.

They believe Jews (although they say they are separate from Zionists, but most of them can't separate the two) are part of the 'global bankster cabal' seeking to promote homosexuality, socialism and kill whites. Note if going ot the links for the full stories, Rosen's information has been posted on a white supremacy website.

This is why the TOS mentions anti-semetism and racism in the paragraph on conspiracy theories. Infowars owner Alex Jones put out the idea the massacre was faked on the very morning it was reported and is listed among hate groups by the SPLC:

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/alex-jones

There is a thread on DU, I don't remember the title, but it says the mother's family is moving to live in town because it's too painful fto drive by the Lanza estate. Perhaps she's sparred online with some of these folks, too.

[ileus]

15. It takes 40 seconds to debunk the "crisis actors" BS.

What a bunch of fake fuck limp dicks.

[allan01]

22. re:This man helped save six children, is now getting harassed for it

i wonder who is paying the harrassors phone bills and why isnt mr rosen getting those phone # traced back. there is a number of internet reverse phone sites to trace those things . he should also get caller id and his phone blocked . truthers . not in my book. these were the same ppl who felt we didnt go to the moon, and same folk who said the titanic was switched with the olympic and other nonsense

[Demo_Chris]

23. unreal

[SemperEadem]

25. this should be treated as domestic terrorism

plain and simple. That's what it is.

[RKP5637]

32. Exactly!!! n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. Just unreal.

Assholes with nothing better to do. They should be charged criminally.

[cecilfirefox]

42. Unbelievable!! nt

[siligut]

43. Gang stalking has become a common menace

In 2009, the United States Department of Justice published statistics about stalking in a Special Report, “Stalking Victimization in the United States” (Pub # NCJ 224527). The number of stalking victims during the 12 month study period was in excess of 3,400,000.

The number of victims reporting between 3 and 10 stalkers was just over 400,000 or 11.5%. The number of victims reporting between 11 and 50 stalkers was in excess of 45,000, or 1.4 %. The number of victims who didn’t know how many stalkers they had was in excess of 220,000 or 6.5%. Combined, the number of victims who either didn’t know how many stalkers they had or who reported between 11 and 50 stalkers was in excess of 265,000, or 8%. It’s worth mentioning here that an estimated 50% of stalking victims do not report the crime, so we really don’t know how many victims of organized stalking are suffering in the United States.

With that many people suffering, it’s mystifying that most people (and this used to include me) have no idea that this crime is even happening, yet there are possibly over 500,000 victims currently in the United States alone.

http://www.overcomegroupstalking.com/

The site gives some practical suggestions.

[Tsiyu]

48. How many parents of the 20 slain are also enduring this?

I've read the gun-humpers claim all the parents were "crisis actors" as well.

Can you imagine how these grieving families must feel, being told by the gun-humpers that their children really didn't die?

That kind of harassment and delusion just shows you how sick and sociopathic gun-humpers really are.

They are cruel, selfish psychotics, and we should let them have as many guns as they want?

THAT will end well.

[Hamlette]

51. why do they think it didn't happen? Or happened differently? How do they think it happened?

I read some of the links in the op article but I'm afraid I still don't get it. I assume I know why they don't want it to have happened: gun control? But what is it that gives them any evidence? The report said something about initial reports? Was it just that the police got the name of the gunman mixed up with his brother?

[Wednesdays]

65. What is it that gives them any evidence?

Their imaginations.

If it doesn't fit their narrative, they just make shit up.

[Hamlette]

66. Thanks. I agree. I finally read and watched some of their shit

these people are bat shit crazy. I feel sorry for the FL university/college with the "nutty professor" what the hell do you do about someone like that? If they fire him, it feeds the conspiracy. If they let him stay, the school becomes a joke.

can we take guns away from people who are so unhinged they believe this shit?

[ReRe]

54. It's "psychological harassment"...

...or "Psychological terrorism." The state should step in and find the SOB's who are at the core of the bunch and make an example of them.

All he has to do to stop the calls is change his phone number and have it unlisted. And then never give it out, except to his kids, family members. I feel sorry for the old man. Wish his kids would do something, like come and take him away from the place for a while...like for 6 months. I think he was traumatized by Dec 14th and isn't even over it yet, and now this crap is happening. And I would advise him to not talk to the press anymore.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

57. It's scary how much influence the whack-a-doodle's have over so many

This is why freaks like Alex Jones should not be given any air time. They really are dangerous. Instead cable "news" channels go for the drama effect.

Our society is broken, and I don't know how to fix it.

[Odin2005]

61. Evil RW insanity!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

70. Jones was crafting the Newtown conspiracy

within minutes of the news breaking.

The rest of the lunatic media followed.

They are the reason Mr. Rosen is getting harrassed.

Because these guys like Jones and Limbaugh are inciting their followers. And their followers are the most mentally unstable and are the stupidest among us. They can be made to believe anything their gurus tell them to believe and they don't have the mental capacity to know truth from lies and manipulation. Jones, et al, know this and they manipulate the lunatics and the stupid for their own greed (and possibly for an agenda).

[smirkymonkey]

75. Poor guy. Talk about adding insult to injury.

These people are absolutely sick. I really cannot understand their mentality.

[AgingAmerican]

76. Ain't no cure for stupid

Every particularly egregious mass shooting is called a "Hoax".

Columbine Hoax

Virginia Tech Hoax

Aurora Theater Shooting Hoax

And now this one. This is how gun nuts live with it. They just pretend it is fake.

[the devil]

79. Scary stuff....

I went to all three pages you put in your post. Scary stuff. If anyone denies that mental illness is a big problem in America, they really need to see these websites, because you and I know that there are people who will believe what these people post.

The third one (Aurora) was really bad...whomever made this site was all over the place.

[AgingAmerican]

82. They are mentally ill republicans

Republican ideology + mental illness + High powered weapons = Mass shootings

[liberalmuse]

77. This is unacceptable. FUCK these people.

Let them take their crazy to their basements, but we cannot tolerate their slandering innocent people - even heroes. Right wingers have gone off the rails, and I've had enough!

[Liberal_in_LA]

78. kick in support of Gene Rosen

[RoccoR5955]

81. It was a hoax

Propagated by the NRA, so as to create more demand for assault guns.
Don't you know that already?

[flamingdem]

83. Can we create a card of support online and send it to him?

Anyone know how to do that?

[DianaForRussFeingold]

84. A Wonderful Idea!

My heart aches for that poor man!