The real-life version of the crime that played out on the casino’s security cameras last month was as daring as anything dreamed up by Hollywood. But it would have made for a poor movie, as it was neither sexy nor sophisticated. And it presented little physical risk to the thief inside the Bellagio — one of many major casinos that tell unarmed security staff to stand down during armed robberies to avoid violence in a crowd.
To casino security experts, it also shows how casinos are vulnerable to theft at a time when other gambling crimes are rising in the poor economy.
Layoffs have affected many departments of the big casinos, including security and surveillance. Less security, experts say, may have motivated the Dec. 14 incident when an armed thief grabbed about $1.5 million in chips off a craps game in the predawn hours and got away on a motorcycle parked just outside. Moreover, Nevada law doesn’t require a guard by each entrance as they are in many other states or countries with casinos that refuse entrance to children and, in some cases, check IDs.
That’s why casino security consultant Willy Allison says the major Strip casinos, for all their high-tech bells and whistles to track crime, “have the worst casino security in the world.”
“You’ve got a better chance of walking into a hooker at the entrance of some of these casinos than a security officer,” said Allison, who organizes the annual World Game Protection Conference in Las Vegas.
That's from Liz Benston's chilling article in today's Sun about the shortcomings of casino security on The Strip. And remember, we are still most likely the most visited place on earth with over 37 million visitors per year. And Las Vegas Boulevard is the #1 attraction here. As it's been said many times before, we are such an attractive target for prospective terrorists that we can't afford to ignore this.
The video on top is from last month's infamous Bellagio robbery. Thankfully, no one was injured then... But what could have happened if someone with far more sinister motives had attacked? Or if someone with serious mental issues had just lashed out? Or if the robber had just decided to turn violent? Do we really want to see any of these scenarios approach real life?
[F]or the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit of trying to delegitimize their political opponents. Not just arguing against their opponents, but doing everything possible to turn them into enemies of the country and cast them out beyond the pale. Instead of “soft on defense,” one routinely hears the words “treason” and “traitor.” The President isn't a big-government liberal—he's a socialist who wants to impose tyranny. He's also, according to a minority of Republicans, including elected officials, an impostor. Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress.
This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.) And it has gone almost entirely uncriticized by Republican leaders. Partisan media encourages it, while the mainstream media finds it titillating and airs it, often without comment, so that the gradual effect is to desensitize even people to whom the rhetoric is repellent. We’ve all grown so used to it over the past couple of years that it took the shock of an assassination attempt to show us the ugliness to which our politics has sunk.
Again, I am reminded of what happenedlast year. A number of Harry Reid and Nevada Democratic events were on The Strip, including the November 2 victory party at Aria. At one point, some "tea party" group was looking to have an election night party there as well.
At some points, it seemed Nevada was precariously close to violent explosion as the Senate campaign was heating up. Even though the vast majority of Nevadans knew better and behaved better, there were always a few on the fringe who lashed out. Have we learned from the bitter campaign of last year and the horrific Arizona tragedy of last week? And are Clark County law enforcement and Strip casinos prepared to fend off someone intent on wreaking violent havoc on Las Vegas?
I’m not going to suggest that such correlations necessarily mean that self-described Tea Party supporters are more violent, or prone to commit or support violent acts against the government. But when there’s enough smoke, reasonable people might be forgiven thinking there is a fire somewhere.
Add to this, the influence of Fox News and similar media outlets, who have undertaken a deliberate campaign of mis-information designed to fan the flames of Tea Party mistrust - because it makes for great ratings, and even greater revenues for them, while their pundits enjoy even brisker book sales and public appearance ticket receipts. It isn’t ideology that drives that train - it’s money. [...]
I’ll tell you what the real tragedy of all this could be. That come a year from now, and nothing has changed. We’ll have ‘moved on’ to the next crisis. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of moving on before having made a good faith and BIPARTISAN attempt to fix what’s wrong.
Even with all the security in the world enveloping The Las Vegas Strip, we may still be in danger... Because of our own hot heads. Again, we must rethink how we do "politics" these days. Without a doubt, there are also issues of gun safety, mental health care, law enforcement, and much more that must be addressed at the local, state, and national levels, all of us "ordinary people" can do something about this... Now.
Steve Sebelius adds much needed sense to the debate raging on cable and on the net.
[N]either Angle nor Palin pulled the trigger on Saturday. Neither Angle nor Palin told Loughner to do what he did.
I wonder if perhaps people such as Angle and Palin — and anybody else who uses the rhetoric of violence in a political context — may want to consider that there are people out there who aren’t quite sane. That these people may interpret that language far more literally than the rest of us, and even act on it, with deadly results. This is especially true in a political and economic environment where desperation is high, reason is scarce and hatred is plentiful.
Following the shooting, the sheriff of Pima County, Clarence Dupnik, blamed the vitriol in the political arena for the tragedy, saying his state (with its anti-illegal immigration law) had become ground zero for that vitriol. “That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences,” he said.
Indeed, our free speech does have consequences. And while those consequences should never be cause for us to circumscribe our rights, they should at least give us pause before we exercise them. This is America, after all, a democratic republic, where we settle our disputes with ballots, not bullets. Or at least, where we should.
You know, Rachel Maddow has a point. This wasn't really "unimaginable". It's been happening all over the country...
So might the next horrifying American massacre happen here in Nevada? At UNR? Near an Elko mine? At a casino on Las Vegas Boulevard? At a brothel in Pahrump? Perhaps so.
On July 7, 1995, Senate Bill 299 was signed into law, and soon afterward, thousands of Nevada residents took advantage of the law that allowed them to carry a handgun concealed upon them. A steady stream of Nevadans have been obtaining carry of concealed weapon permits ever since. In 1999, Assembly Bill 166 made legal concealed carry possible in more public places.
Registration
Clark County requires registration of handguns only. All other counties have no registration of any guns.
Background Check
All Nevada counties implement the national background check through the Nevada Highway Patrol. By state law, any private party may access Nevada's background check system for the purpose of checking the background of a potential gun purchaser. Currently, the check costs $25.
Open Carry
In Nevada, you may carry a loaded or unloaded firearm on your person without a permit so long as the firearm is fully exposed (known as "open carry"). An example of open carry is when a handgun is carried in an "outside the pants" hip holster. Full or partial concealment (such as a purse, jacket, etc.) is considered concealed carry.
And here's what's been happening.
With more guns sold and registered per capita than anywhere in the U.S., Nevada is a gun state - always has been.
It also is the gun-death state. According to the Center for Disease Control, since 2000, Nevada has led the nation with an average of 26 gun-related deaths per 100,000 people.
War-torn Iraq averaged 32 gun deaths per 100,000 people last year, according to the same study.
At least once a year, an accidental gun death here makes national headlines.
And here's the frightening reality of how incredibly easy it is for some mentally disturbed person or deranged sociopath to obtain lethal firearms in Nevada.
According to the latest scorecard by the National Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Nevada fails miserably when it comes to curbing illegal firearm trafficking, conducting background checks, promoting child safety, banning assault weapons, and keeping guns out of public places.
Nevada received only 11 points out of a possible 100. [...]
While there is no state law requiring a waiting period for first-time handgun buyers, [Gun store owner Bob] Irwin says Clark County has a 3-day restriction.
Yet anyone can buy a handgun or assault weapon on the spot at a Nevada gun show — no questions asked.
“I can’t believe that’s allowed. It’s putting people at risk,” said Maria Outcalt with Domestic Violence Prevention.
It’s that easy access that has Outcalt convinced that stronger gun control laws would help curb violence.
While our gun laws are not nearly as lax as Arizona's, they're certainly "forgiving" enough for someone who otherwise shouldn't be carrying guns to access them.
Yes, yes, I've heard that famous clause: "Guns don't kill. People do." But you know what? When mentally disturbed people can access extremely lethal "weapons of mass distruction" so easily at the neighborhood gun store or local gun show, that's a serious problem.
Nevada's mental health director says this state ranks near the bottom of per person spending on services. And it's just about to get worse with deep budget cuts.
Jared Loughner's mindset and motives before the Tucson shooting are now under scrutiny. Those who know him these past years paint a picture of a mentally disturbed young man, describing his as ranting, destructive and threatening. Fellow students feared he might bring a gun to the school. [...]
[Las Vegas/Clark County] Metro police say there are around 6,000 cases of mental health detainments every year. Those detainments last up to 72 hours and then the state may get involved if there's and issue.
State mental health services face a 14 percent cut and program eliminations this year which is in addition to cuts they have suffered in previous years. UMC's Emergency Chief Dale Carrison spoke to the I-Team last fall about the backlog.
"We've medically cleared them. Now, there's a big line, and if southern Nevada adult mental health for some reason can't turn the patients over, than it builds up."
Nevada's budget cuts this year are likely to include mental health court. It's a program designed to get convicted mental ill people into treatment programs so jail is not their only option.
Back in December, then Governor-elect Brian Sandoval didn't wince as news was leaking of severe budget cuts in the pipeline. And if that wasn't bad enough, The Nevada View reported just last week my new State Senator, Michael Roberson (R-Henderson), hinted at the renewed "tea party" effort to push a "cuts only" budget agenda that would gut the very mental health resources that can possibly prevent another mentally unstable person from taking to violence here in Clark County, as Jared Lee Loughner did in Tucson last week.
Sure, Loughner's homicidal outburst might have been affected by anti-government rhetoric and political diatribes on the Internet or on the airwaves. But we're missing the point if that's all we focus on.
Arizona has implemented dramatic cuts in mental health services in the last few years, as have states across the nation. And if the national healthcare reform bill is repealed, as government-shrinking crusaders are promising, more mental health services will be lost.
Loughner was able to buy a gun — the gun authorities said he used to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others at a supermarket — despite numerous interactions with authorities suggesting he was unstable. If you're surprised, you shouldn't be. Many in this country have worked hard to make it easier to get guns than mental health services, even after the Virginia Tech massacre of 2006, in which 32 people were killed by a young man who was mentally ill.
Now let me pause here to clarify something, because the last thing I want to do is make the stigma surrounding mental illness worse than it is, or to suggest that you ought to pick up the phone and call authorities every time you see someone who acts a little peculiar.
The vast majority of people with mental illness aren't dangerous. But a small minority will become violent, especially those with severe symptoms that go untreated. Ironically, one reason so many don't seek help is because of the stigma, along with the fact that this country has never given mental health treatment the priority it deserves. If you doubt that, just take a look at recent reports on the military's disinclination to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injury in soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
What the Arizona tragedy ought to spark is not a hysterical conversation about politics, but an honest conversation on the need for earlier diagnosis and better education about mental illness. Since the first signs of delusional behavior often emerge in the late teens and early 20s, teachers and staff at high schools and colleges should be trained to recognize the signs of mental disorders and intervene effectively.
I know from experience that it isn't always easy to convince someone to seek help or to predict the behavior of someone who has severe mental disorders. But although mental illness can't be cured, it can often be treated and managed in a way that relieves suffering for those afflicted, as well as for their families, and helps prevent tragedy.
While California's own mental health resources have been strained due to budget cuts there, they at least have something. Both Arizona and Nevada have next to nothing. Strangely enough, it's far easier here to buy a gun than to get help. This is nothing short of frightening.
As usual, Desert Beacon sheds more light on this pressing issue.
The consequences may be not always be nationally tragic, but for families and individuals trapped by the debilitation of mental diseases the results are always tragic. And not always addressed -- as demonstrated by this commentary from a nurse: "Having spent many years of my life working in a locked psychiatric unit as a nurse, I can attest that the majority of our schizophrenic clients, though sometimes frightening, especially to those not familiar with the illness, were not dangerous. However, clients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia will sometimes act on their paranoid delusions. I have personally seen how difficult our mental health system can be to navigate. Family members would call me and beg for help, but help is available only under a very special set of circumstances. Sometimes people will seek treatment voluntarily, however, in order to commit a person involuntarily they have to meet certain criteria, either DTS (danger to self), DTO (danger to others) or GD(gravely disabled). The greater problem is that now it is very difficult to obtain any type of outpatient treatment, as insurance generally will not pay for it, or pay only a very small amount. Most people simply cannot afford any more to pay for mental health treatment."
We know that Loughner appears to have some traits associated with mental illness, including confused and distorted thought patterns, implying his receptivity to conspiracy theories, both internally and externally derived. We may infer that he acted on these, which adds another layer to the overall diagnosis. Those who had contact with him at Pima Community College report that he was removed from a math class by a counselor and a police officer, was suspended, and later agreed to withdraw from school in October. [WaPo]
What help he might have sought, or what assistance might have been sought for him, have yet to be revealed publicly. However, it's clear that obtaining mental health services is at least as difficult as the nurse-commenter referenced above. Google "state mental health budget cuts" and you'll get at least 22,200,000 results. Mental health advocates in Texas are worried about the impact of decreased funding, [KHOU] advocates in Mississippi are worried as well, they may be facing cuts of 15%. [LaurelLdr] Mental health budgets have been slashed in Oklahoma. [KRMG] At the top of the list of NAMI's Ten States Hurt by the Mental Health Budget cuts, is Arizona. Nevada stands 7th on that listing. [...]
Before anyone in Nevada is tempted to pass judgment on Arizona's situation in terms of mental and behavioral health services, we should note that in 2006 Nevada received a "D" grade from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the same "D" grade three years later in 2009. In health promotion and measurement terms (evidence based practices, emergency room waiting time, quantity of psychiatric beds) Nevada got an "F." Nevada got a 45% "D" for financing, Medicaid reimbursements to providers to evidence based providers, and more; another "D" for measures such as consumer and family access to essential information from the state, promotion of consumer run programs, and family/peer education and support. There was another "F" for state support of activities requiring collaboration among state mental health agencies and other state agencies and systems. Among the "urgent needs" suggested by the NAMI: (1) restore inpatient staffing levels; (2) increased support for case management, medications, and therapy; and (3) increased resources for supportive housing options.
Interestingly enough, this week's news was supposed to be dominated by upcoming Congressional debate over repealing health care reform... The very same health care reform legislation that included efforts to improve mental health care.
The law signed by President Obama last week expands parity to a much wider pool, making it possible for millions more people to get the same coverage for substance abuse and illnesses like bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia as they would for, say, diabetes or cancer. There are no exact figures, but the mentally ill are more likely to be uninsured than the general population, advocates and researchers say.
“A lot of this still has to play out in terms of how parity works,” said Michael J. Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, an advocacy group. But the new law “can change the mental health system in America and really give families and individuals an opportunity to get a level of access to care we could only fantasize about before this became law,” he said.
Parity means that deductibles, co-payments and limits on the number of visits or days of coverage must be no more restrictive for coverage of mental illnesses and substance abuse than for coverage of medical and surgical treatments. If a plan provides for out-of-network medical benefits, it must provide out-of-network mental health benefits.
Under the new health law, employees of companies with 50 or fewer workers, whose employers were not required to comply with the existing parity law, would receive equal mental health benefits if their employers opt for the state-run exchange plans, available in 2014.
Health care reform also means expanded coverage for mental health care in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Considering what just happened last weekend, perhaps House Republican leaders need to do more than just postpone their planned vote on repealing health care reform. Since repeal is unlikely and the reform legislation now looks more necessary than ever before, perhaps repeal needs to be permanently shelved. Instead, wouldn't it be refreshing to see Congress actually address the pressing issues of today by examining why it's easier to obtain a gun than to access mental health care? And wouldn't it be encouraging to see Governor Sandoval and The Nevada Legislature also address these pressing issues by looking at our own budget and our own problems in taking care of our fellow Nevadans?
As I talked about early this morning, last year's Senate campaign often brought out the worst in us. We saw brawls break out at "candidate forums", people's lives threatened, and an overall climate of unfettered rage and unprecedented fear plague our state. It was frightening...
But even amidst all of that, there were glimmers of hope. I saw the best of us shine through as I talked with my friends, my family, and my neighbors, even as the campaign blabber on TV often devolved to outright insanity.
One of my all time favorite videos of last year, if not my #1 favorite, was City of Reno Sustainability Administrator and Nevada System of Higher Education Regent Jason Geddes discussing what he does and how he viewed Senator Reid and his legislative agenda.
He just told it like it was, without resorting to histrionics or inflammatory language. And as I've said before, good policy always puts a big smile on my face.
[L]et's face it, it's much easier to believe the stereotypes of Nevadans than to take the time to really get to know us. It's easy to look at the numbers, but it's harder to look at the stories behind the numbers.
I actually did that. I met the kids who confronted Sharron Angle at Rancho High School over her race-baiting ads. I met my typically Republican neighbors in Henderson who voted early for Harry Reid. I met people who drove many miles to Dina Titus' campaign office because they believed she was "the real deal". I met folks pissed off at everyone and everyone, because they felt "overwhelmed" by all the negative campaign ads. I met volunteers who tuned out the political insanity as they were collecting food for the hungry, keeping community centers open, making parks and trails accessible to all the neighbors to use, and keeping the local libraries running with new and interesting knowledge just around the corner. [...]
Over the years, many authors have come to "investigate" Nevada and uncover all our "deep, dark secrets". We've been called everything from "The New American Dream" to the most evil, corrupt hellhole on the planet. However, you showed me that reality is quite different from any fairy tale or horror story shared by outsiders. You showed me that Nevada can be rough, but the people can be awfully tough.
There were many people, Democrats, Republicans, Nonpartisans, and others, here in Nevada who reaffirmed my faith in our country and our democracy. I will never forget that. Despite the efforts of some to rip our communities apart, there were so many Nevadans I met who just did what they knew to be best for our state and our country. And even when we disagreed, I was able to discuss issues with my friends, family, and neighbors respectfully.
I was thinking about this as Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough, CA), someone who survived the horror of Jonestown in 1978, went on CNN to remind us what politics and public service are all about.
Maybe we need to listen to them. Maybe we need to listen to what Gabby tried to tell us. Right before Saturday's "Congress on Your Corner", Giffords did this.
The night before she and 19 others were shot at an event in Tucson, Arizona, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) wrote a warm email to Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, where she told the Republican "we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down."
Giffords remains in the hospital in critical condition after being shot in the head Saturday.
According to cn|2 Politics, which obtained the email, Giffords sent the message to congratulate Grayson for his recent appointment as director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics.
"After you get settled, I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation," Giffords wrote. "I am one of only 12 Dems left in a GOP district (the only woman) and think that we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down."
Giffords and Grayson met in 2005, when they were part of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute's Rodel Fellowship. In her email, Giffords promised to visit Grayson, and told him she thought his new job was "truly an incredible opportunity that will lead to wonderful things." Grayson told cn|2 Politics that he and Giffords spoke often about divisiveness in politics.
"That is something she and I have been quite passionate about -- to run for office in the right way and for the right reasons," Grayson said. "I think Gabby was really sincere in that email ... And I am going to to redouble my efforts."
I don't need to repeat what I've already said about this whole matter. When we've become so desensitized to violence and averse to honest policy discussion, there's a problem. We can't operate representative democracy like warfare. It only leads to bloodshed like we saw in Arizona on Saturday.
We all need to put aside our hostilities and have a serious conversation on how to move forward as a country without violence, with mutual respect, with a renewed focus on discussing policy rationally, and without fearing what happens when we seek common ground.
In my readings last night, I found myself combing through Dave Neiwert's archives. If you haven't done so already, bookmark him. He's tracked the radical right for years, and he's been warning us for some time of what might happen if we continue to let the extremist hate speech escalate. Last month, he caught Glenn Beck uttering this nonsense...
Nonsense that now feels creepy for some reason. I wonder why.
Now he's predicting IMMINENT VIOLENT REVOLUTION led by those evil progressive radicals who hate the Republic inside the Obama administration. In case he didn't notice, the actual dynamic in Washington these days is actually just a wee bit different, since it's become manifestly clear that President Obama is anything BUT a radical revolutionary. But hey, nothing ever deters the intrepid Beck in the pursuit of his apocalyptic conspiracy theories.
Well, let's be clear: Beck has been warning about this dire imminent threat for quite awhile now. You'll recall he predicted last spring that eeevil progressives were planning a 'summer of rage' filled with violence, death and chaos.
Yeah, that really panned out, eh? Instead we got Byron Williams. Hmmmm.
This theory really is just a warmed-over version of the IMMINENT DIRE THREAT Beck has been shouting at us about since he signed onto Fox. It's become repetitive but more intensified, a manifestation of Beck's steadily creeping paranoia.
After all, he's been theorizing that Obama's band of administration radicals are planning a "global redistribution of the wealth" for a long time -- often flavored with black-helicopter militia theories about a "New World Order". He's been predicting George Soros would try to kill him, and warning that the eeeevil Left is plotting to frame the Tea Partiers for an act of domestic terrorist violence, adding that if right-wing violence does break out, it will have been provoked by Obama and the liberals.
More recently, there have been such similarly credible theories that the European Union Parliament building was intended to resemble the Tower of Babel, and that the evil Holocaust survivor George Soros is plotting to take over the world.
This is yet another reason why I was not all that surprised when my dad called me Saturday morning and told me that a Congresswoman in Arizona, along with dozens more, were shot. Sadly, this was bound to happen.
From a moral viewpoint Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is the victim of demagogues such as Glenn Beck and his allies at Fox News and in the Tea Party Movement. This is not about legal liability but abour moral culpability. This is about a nation that has lost its moral compass.
Some of us progressive writers have been warning about this dangerous trend for several years. This includes my colleagues Fred Clarkson, David Neiwert, Sara Robinson, John Amato, Adele Stan, and others. We blame right-wing demagogues like Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter and a culture that tolerates their vicious targeting of scapegoats.
Now the shootings have created a new word floating across cyberspace: "becking." To be "becked" is to be held up as such an evil and destructive person that someone, somewhere, will interpret it as a call to eliminate that problem through violence.
Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik couldn't have been any clearer in explaining how the escalating culture of "violent politics" paved the way for Jared Lee Loughner to commit his heinous crime.
“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” [...]
“We need to do some soul searching … It’s the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business. People tend to pooh-pooh this business about the vitriol that inflames American public opinion by the people who make a living off of that. That may be free speech but it’s not without consequences.”
And while Loughner's exact motives for Saturday's massacre are still unclear, the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has tracked extreme right and hate groups for decades, has unearthed some frightening clues.
At one point, Loughner refers disparagingly to “currency that’s not backed by gold or silver.” The idea that silver and gold are the only “constitutional” money is widespread in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement that produced so much violence in the 1990s. It’s linked to the core Patriot theory that the Federal Reserve is actually a private corporation run for the benefit of unnamed international bankers. So-called Patriots say paper money — what they refer to with a sneer as “Federal Reserve notes” — is not lawful.
At another, Loughner makes extraordinarily obscure comments about language and grammar, suggesting that the government engages in “mind control on the people by controlling grammar.” That’s not the kind of idea that’s very common out there, even on the Internet. In fact, I think it’s pretty clear that Loughner is taking ideas from Patriot conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller of Milwaukee. Miller claims that the government uses grammar to “enslave” Americans and offers up his truly weird “Truth-language” as an antidote. For example, he says that if you add colons and hyphens to your name in a certain way, you are no longer taxable. Miller may be mad as a hatter, but he has a real following on the right.
Loughner talks about how you “can’t trust the government” and someone burns a U.S. flag in one of his videos. Although certain right-wing websites are already using that (and his listing of The Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books) to claim that Loughner was a “left-winger,” that does not strike me as true. The main enemy of the Patriot movement is certainly the federal government. And so-called Patriots have certainly engaged in acts like burning the flag.
Finally, I think Loughner’s reading list, although it included children’s books and a few classics, had an underlying theme — the individual versus the totalitarian state. Certainly, that’s the explicit central theme of Ayn Rand’s We the Living and Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm, among others. I would argue that that’s the way Loughlin seems to be reading The Communist Manifesto and Hitler’s Mein Kampf — as variants of a kind of generalized “smash the state” attitude.
Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, which does similar work to that of Hatewatch, points out in a post earlier today that Loughner also makes a reference to a “second American constitution.” As Chip notes, that is commonly understood to refer to the Reconstruction amendments that freed the slaves and gave them citizenship, among other things. Chip says that “raises the question of a possible racist and anti-immigrant tie” in the Arizona shooting.
OK, so Loughner may have been dabbling in some looney tunes nonsense, possibly even including a known white supremacist hate group. What does this have to do with Glenn Beck... Or Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle for that matter? Well, it comes back to the teabaggers. The "tea party" is a sort of umbrella classification of a number of far right organizations and politicians, but there is definitely strong evidence to show that leading "tea party" figures are trying to legitimize the same extreme ideology of the extreme right that influenced past terrorists, like Timothy McVeigh.
And worse, as Glenn Beck warns of supposed "conspiracies of the left" to bring about "imminent violent revolution", and as Sarah Palin tells her followers, "never retreat, instead RELOAD!", and as Sharron Angle suggests "Second Amendment Remedies" to take care of "enemies in our own system... in the walls of Congress"...
Far too many media pundits and politicians in DC have been far too willing to simply dismiss this as "politics as usual". This is NOT "politics as usual". This is an ever escalating culture of political violence that must stop!
Again, I had feared something like this would eventually happen. Last year, I feared Harry Reid would be the victim. I had seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the teabaggers' unplugged, unfiltered, and unfettered irrational hatred of Harry Reid... As well as President Barack Obama, for that matter. While "Tea Party, Inc." consultants in California were just focusing on building enough opposition to win an election, the opposition among many teabaggers ran far deeper.
I saw it for myself last March in Searchlight. Thankfully, I observed no violent acts there. But without a doubt, the same overheated rhetoric seen there has also encouraged violence throughout the country in the last two years. And even in the course of the last year, I myself was hearing people saying things as vile as hoping for Harry Reid's death. Some friends of mine were nearly run over by a "tea party"/Sharron Angle fan in a white truck.
But that wasn’t the only violent incident. Before the event began, about 50 Harry Reid supporters lined the sidewalk facing Haulapai with supportive signs. We were getting dozens of honks, thumbs up and waving. A few sour faces drove past, but one bitter Angle supporter in particular took her distaste for Harry Reid too far. She ran her white Toyota truck (NV license plate SCL-006 ) on to the sidewalk, nearly hitting me, a man to my left (who was disabled and had a brace on his right foot) and two women to my right. Several people chased after her and took pictures of her license plate.
Apparently the woman confronted some people in our group after parking her car because she was upset we took pictures of her license plate. I did not see her come near our group because I was consoling the women to my right who were on the verge of tears. People who were across the street were coming over to see if we were okay, and to verify if they saw what they thought they saw: a woman in a white truck (covered in “Angle for Senate”, “Dump Reid” “Don’t Tread on Me” “Nobama” stickers) drive her car onto the sidewalk and try to hit us. She in fact did.
Tire marks on the sidewalk:
Ironically, the driver (who turns out, is a school teacher) was escorted out of the forum by police just minutes before “the fight” broke out for being disruptive.
Sharron Angle has called for an armed revolt against the United Stated government should she lose this election. She has called forHarry Reid to be killed. The leader of the Republican Tea Party, Sarah Palin (who has endorsed Angle and gave the Angle campaign money via Sarah PAC) repeatedly instructs people not to “retreat” but to “reload” when faced with adversity.
The behavior we saw tonight was the result these violent provocations. I have a feeling the worst is yet to come.
Yes, that was the night of the fateful "forum" at Faith Lutheran High School in Summerlin. And yes, this actually happened BEFORE a male Sharron Angle fan started punching a female Harry Reid supporter inside!
Even while I was confident a majority of Nevadans would reject this extremism, I was also afraid of how an enraged, radicalized minority would react.
And again, this has been happening throughout the country. Andrew Sullivan reminded us again yesterday of the violent hate speech that had often been limited to fringe extremists, but has now been popularized by "tea party" icon Sarah Palin.
The point here is not that there is any connection between this random post and political violence. The point is the worldview Palin holds. It is zero-sum. It expresses itself in clear and stark violent imagery. It is constantly about attack, conflict, combat, "enemy territory", "Big Guns", battle. This rhetorical background is so deeply part of the narrative we barely notice it any more. But it is not truly the language of politics; it's the language of war.
Just look again at this ad that ran against Giffords last November. And ponder a moment:
If you are not disturbed by what it proclaims as the essence of true conservatism - a sun-glass-wearing soldier with a machine gun in his open crotch - you should be.
And again, there's a strong possibility that the revolting rants of the "Patriot Movement" fringes of the "tea party", backed up by the radicalized messaging pushed by the likes of Beck and Palin, are encouraging mentally disturbed people like Jared Lee Loughner to resort to violence.
In a series of videos, he gave a rambling account of obsessions and paranoias that appeared to be troubling him with increasing intensity up to the catastrophe. They included references to conscious dreaming, or "conscience dreaming" as he called it, a process of directing one's own dreams that he is thought to have practised. Another was a belief in the gold and silver standard of currency – a favourite topic of the rightwing of American politics that is regularly propounded by the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck.
The tone of Loughner's rantings is almost exclusively conservative and anti-government, with echoes of the populist campaigning of the Tea Party movement. "Don't trust the government listener!" he said in one video, accusing Washington of mind control and brainwashing.
The US constitution, the bible of the Tea Parties, features heavily, as does the suggestion that the federal government is acting against the text. "You don't have to accept the federalist laws. Read the United States of America constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws."
There is also a strong streak of implicit violence in the postings.
He linked to his favourite video, America: Your Last Memory in a Terrorist Country, which shows a ghostly figure burning the US flag in the desert to a heavy metal song that repeatedly chants "Let the bodies hit the floor!"
He referred to people calling him a terrorist and wrote "a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon."
So are all teabaggers terrorists? No, far from it. Are Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Sharron Angle guilty of murder? No, and I would never accuse them of that. But has the tone of the "tea party" become so enraged that it's encouraged violence? There is increasing evidence to show just that. And has the message of the "tea party" turned so hateful that the mentally disturbed take it the wrong way and take images of "take Harry Reid out", "Obamanation", and cross hairs over Gabrielle Giffords' district as a more literal call to arms? I fear so.
Perhaps the notion that this act of violence was the result of a deranged mind will become popular in some circles. If this is the case then there are two problems to address. First, if this individual was, in fact, mentally incompetent to understand the consequences of his actions, when - where - and how did his family and community miss the signals that his mental health was deteriorating? Did they attempt to seek help for him? Where mental health services available? Affordable?
The second issue is, of course, who filled that fragile mind? Was he listening to hate radio broadcasts -- ones with fiery rhetoric replete with visions of doom and gloom for the republic? Was he watching broadcasts or reading inflammatory media which made violence an attractive option? There's a precedent for this. In April 2007 a man was arrested in California for stalking and harassing then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. [WaPo] In April 2010, Charles Alan Wilson, stalked and harassed Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) leaving messages saying "It only takes one piece of lead." His family was disturbed by the effect Glenn Beck's television show had on him. [HP] August 10, 2010, the California Highway Patrol arrested Byron Williams while he was wearing his body armor and threatening to take out the Tides Foundation, because, as his family explained, Beck had "opened his mind." [WaPo] [SFgate]
These weren't the first incidents. In April 2009 three police officers were assassinated in Pittsburgh by Ron Poplawski, who feared, "Obama would take away his gun rights." [NDN] In July 2008, Jim Adkisson of Powell, TN, killed 2 and wounded 7 in his attack on a Knoxville church. Adkisson explained: "He felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets," the affidavit said. "Because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement ... he would then target those that had voted them into office." [CNN] In June 2009, white supremacist and former resident of Butler's Hayden Lake, ID compound walked into the U.S. Holocaust Museum and killed the African American guard who opened the door for him. [CNN] It only took a very few individuals to bring down the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. [wik] There's an older song about all this:
"You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!" [link, credits]
Christina Greene, 9,who was born in Maryland on 9/11. She was featured in a book called "Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11". A neighbor took her to the event, thinking the girl would enjoy it. We're told the neighbor was also shot.
Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, was recently engaged to be married, was Giffords' director of community outreach. He graduated from University High School in 1998 where he was active in student government. A vigil was held tonight by his friends who described him as "caring," "motivated," "a free spirit," and "a man who understood how to live life"
U.S. District Judge John Roll, 63, earned his law degree from UA in 1972. Roll was nominated to the federal bench in 1991, and has been the chief judge of the district of Arizona since 2006.
Dorwin Stoddard, 76, was a church volunteer. When the shooting started, Dorwin tried to protect his wife by laying on top of her when the shooting started. She was wounded in the attack.
Others killed:
Dorthy Morris, 76
Phyllis Scheck, 79
These people come from various walks of life, and were at that suburban Tucson strip mall yesterday for various reasons.
There was federal judge John Roll, known for his dedication to his country, his state of Arizona, and the law.
And there was Gabe Zimmerman, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' director of community outreach. Two other Giffords aides were also injured by yesterday's attack, but are expected to recover.
Gabe Zimmerman was chatting with constituents in the line to speak with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when the first shots rang out.
Zimmerman, one of five staffers and two interns at the "Congress on Your Corner" event, was killed by a gunman who opened fire on Giffords before spraying the crowd with bullets.
Two other Giffords staffers, district director Ron Barber and community-outreach worker Pam Simon, also were injured in the shooting, but are expected to recover. All three were part of a loyal core of Giffords staffers who have been with the congresswoman since she first went to Washington, D.C., Giffords' spokesman C.J. Karamargin said.
As director of community outreach, Zimmerman had organized the event.
"He was asking them what they needed," said Mark Kimble, a speech writer standing a few feet away.
Zimmerman, a 30-year-old social worker with a master's degree, brought compassion to his job.
"Gabe was a master at dealing with people," Karamargin said. "He truly cared about helping people. There were no politics involved in this." [...]
Michael McNulty, a Tucson attorney who chaired Giffords' campaigns since she first ran for the state House, said Zimmerman was "as close to a purely good human being as I've ever known. He worked tirelessly to solve people's problems."
The 9-year-old girl who died is Christina Green, says her uncle Greg Segalini. A neighbor was going to Saturday's event and invited Christina along because she thought she would enjoy it.
"The next thing you know this happened. How do you prepare for something like this. My little niece got killed-took one on the chest and she is dead," Segalini said outside the girl's house.
Christina had just been elected to the student council at her school. The event, held outside a Safeway supermarket north of Tucson, was an opportunity for constituents to meet Giffords and talk about any concerns they had related to the federal government.
Christina was involved in many activities, from ballet to baseball, Segalini said.
"She was real special and real sweet," Segalini said.
But even amidst the unfettered evil and hate that was brutally unleashed yesterday, there were also a fewcourageous American heroes.
Daniel Hernandez Jr., a 20-year-old University of Arizona student who’d been working as an intern for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for only five days, is being credited with saving her life after she was shot on Saturday.
Hernandez, who confirmed that he is gay in an interview with Instant Tea on Sunday morning, is a member of theCity of Tucson Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. “She’s been a great ally to the LGBT community,” Hernandez said of Giffords during the brief interview across a bad connection.
According to the Arizona Republic, Hernandez was standing about 30 feet from Giffords during the “Congress on Your Corner” event outside a Safeway store near Tucson. When the gunshots began, Hernandez ran toward them and began checking the pulses of people who’d been hit. When Hernandez got to Giffords, he used his hand to apply pressure to the entry wound on her forehead. He pulled her into his lap and held her upright so she wouldn’t choke on her blood.
Daniel Hernandez is shown with Giffords in this image from his Facebook page.
Hernandez used his hand to apply pressure to the wound until someone brought clean smocks from the meat department of the grocery store. He stayed with Giffords until paramedics arrived, then climbed into an ambulance with her. On the way to the hospital, he squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.
He waited at the hospital while she went into surgery. He needed to tell police what had happened. He overheard people walking by talking about how Giffords had died. He also heard this on NPR. Later, he learned she had lived.
"I was ecstatic," he said. "She was one of the people I've looked up to. Knowing she was alive and still fighting was good news. She's definitely a fighter, whether for her own life, or standing up for people in southern Arizona."
The fact that Hernandez was nearby and able to react quickly probably saved Giffords' life, said state Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson, and a hospital physician. He talked to Hernandez at the hospital after the shooting.
Eight hours after the shooting, Hernandez stood with Giffords' friends and staff and told them what had happened. The tall, strong 20-year-old said, "Of course you're afraid, you just kind of have to do what you can."
They hugged and thanked him. Later, he sat with his mom and sisters and told them about his friends and the staffers who had died that day.
"You just have to be calm and collected," he said. "You do no good to anyone if you have a breakdown. . . . It was probably not the best idea to run toward the gunshots, but people needed help."
Sometimes it takes a few people, people like the victims of this senseless tragedy, along with the heroes who saved lives yesterday, to remind me of the veracity of something President Bill Clinton once said, that there isn't anything wrong about our country that can't be fixed by what's right about our country.
What happened yesterday harmed real people. And these people were keen on helping other people. This should not have happened to them.
A 9 year old girl who was already excited about serving the community was lost. A 30 year old guy who was just engaged was lost, right as he was organizing yet another community event for Southern Arizonans to discuss their problems, issues, and concerns with their local member of Congress. A local church volunteer laid down his life so that his wife's could be spared. And a highly respected judge, a judge who just wanted to stop at the local Safeway to say hello to his Congresswoman, was lost.
I'm still trying to make sense of all of this.
We can't forget these people and the stories they've told. And we shouldn't forget those like Daniel Hernandez and Dorwin Stoddard, people who put themselves at risk (which proved to be fatal for Stoddard) to save others. Even as I wonder how our country and our political system can move forward after this gruesome show of brutality, I am reminded of the compassion, the caring, and the spirit of service of our people. This is what still makes America great, and we can't ever forget that.
