What We Know about Micah Xavier Johnson

[struggle4progress]

By Jeremy Stahl

... According a law enforcement source to the Los Angeles Times, he is a 25-year-old Dallas resident.

The Times also reported that Johnson had no known criminal record or ties to terror ...

The Times reported that Johnson has relatives in Mesquite, Texas, and that “<a>uthorities believe Johnson belonged to an informal gun club and took copious amounts of target practice, according to a law enforcement official.”

CNN and the Daily Beast reported that Johnson was a military veteran. The Daily Beast also reported that he attended a gym that offered martial arts and weapons classes ...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/08/what_we_know_about_reported_dallas_shooter_micah_xavier_johnson.html

[scscholar]

1. He had a biblical name

Interesting.

[whatthehey]

2. Well I have a more prominent Biblical name, so I'm not sure what that says...

[Igel]

5. Had a roommate named "Stephen."

Nice NT Xian-Greek name.

He was Jewish.

Then again, he was also an atheist.

We look for evidence to support what we want to believe and discount evidence that undermines what we want to believe.

[struggle4progress]

3. Dallas Shooting Was 'Well-Planned' and 'Thought Out,'

By DAVID CAPLAN
EMILY SHAPIRO
MORGAN WINSOR
Jul 8, 2016, 1:45 PM ET

... Johnson served as an Army reservist until April 2015, defense officials said. He was trained and served in the Army Reserve as a carpentry and masonry specialist, they said.

Johnson deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014, according to his service record. He had the rank of a private first class ...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-dallas-ambush-shooting-idd-army-reservist/story?id=40422456

[Igel]

6. Not much, so far, is it.

At least not much that makes us able to excuse him. Already saw one post saying he must have been mentally ill, so rhetoric doesn't matter.

Probably one of the people who'd gladly point out that we always hear of excuses for mass killers and racists. "Mentally unstable." Like that justifies the person--they're unstable and act on their beliefs, so they're still racist.

Or one of the people who claim that RW hate-filled rhetoric primes the mentally unstable to commit racist crimes, so it's the RW hateful media that's really at fault. In any event, it's perfectly clear what was happening in the mind of that Person Unlike Me.

But this guy, he was just mentally unstable, and who could possibly understand what was going through his mind.

I figure he felt outraged and humiliation. Feelings of humiliation are nasty and cause all kinds of reactions, very few of which lead to a pursuit of happiness or the general welfare.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Maybe the Army conditioned him to believe ...

that killing the enemy was acceptable.