San Bernadino

[Griff]

As many as three gunmen believed to be wearing military-style gear opened fire Wednesday at a Southern California social services center "as if they were on a mission," killing at least 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others, authorities said.

Hours later, police hunting for the attackers riddled a black SUV with gunfire several miles away, and one person lay motionless in the street — dead or dying — with a gun nearby. Officers appeared to remove a second person from the vehicle.

No Lamplighter so somebody should put this up...

[sexobon]

USA TODAY @USATODAY 7 mins ago

Police Chief Burguan: Two suspects are dead at the scene. One male, one female. They were dressed in “assault-style clothing” #SanBernardino

Would a moderator please move these posts to The Gender Equality Checkpoint thread.

[Griff]

gunpersons... noted

[sexobon]

Looks like the fashion police got 'em.

I wonder how many will try using this incident to deprive women of their right to choose their own clothing.

[Pamela]

Why make any assumptions? We don't know HOW they IDENTIFIED! Maybe they weren't what they appeared!

[sexobon]

OMG, do you think they identified as Syrians?

[Undertoad]

Once again, this did not happen in a ghetto.

(RIP LL)

[xoxoxoBruce]

All the TV stations, all day long, droning on and on and on. All the facts they actually gave me could be covered in a 5 minute segment when they actually knew what the fuck was happening. They get some "spokesman" for some organization on the phone or a live feed, ask them 50 questions to which the answer is, "I don't have that information". The only information the "spokesman has, is shit everyone already knows.

They do the same thing here for an overturned truck on I-95, from the time their chopper gets there until the next scheduled news broadcast. So from 10 AM till noon the chopper circles the accident with the talking heads saying what they knew before the chopper got there and speculating for two hours about nothing but filler.

[Aliantha]

I think it's horrific that this just keeps happening. I think it's even worse that people seem to care less and less that it does. No one is even shocked anymore. It's like people just expect it to happen.

[lumberjim]

Will the desensitization of these shootings result in less shootings?

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, not expect it, it's everyone expects the dialog in the aftermath to be second verse, same as the first. The entire noise will be about guns and everyone will just pick up their script, repeat their part to the boredom of the rest of the country. Nothing happens in this country that's not political anymore.

Little Billy is learning to ride his bike. Dad takes the training wheels off and Billy skins his knee, just like it has happened for a couple hundred years.
Now suddenly Mother's Against Skinned Knees(MASK) gets air time on the news blaming Dad for taking the training wheels off to soon.
Then The Weavers For Stronger Cloth(TWFSC) blame the cheap imported fabric for failing to protect Billy's knee.

And it goes on and on until we just don't want to be from this planet anymore.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Will the desensitization of these shootings result in less shootings?

Not as long as people continue to make fashion statements with them: first it was hoodies, now it's "assault-style clothing", next time it might be Sunday-go-to-meeting (your maker) clothes. Clothes make the killer you know.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Will the desensitization of these shootings result in less shootings?

I think so.

These shooters and also the terrorists are looking for a reaction. They are super-trolls.

Ignore them and they will go away eventually. Unfortunately, they will try to escalate to get attention if we shrug when they do this.

To ignore them would require the cooperation of the media, but the media is all about not ignoring them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Assuming as long as the media covers it, public interest stoked.
If public interest wanes, and the media switches to cat videos, will it cause public interest to shrink further, or grow, fed by the internet conspiracists?

Would losing media coverage separate the terrorists from the attention whores? Will one, or both, escalate to more elaborate productions like OK City or 9-11?

Does driving a vehicle randomly spreading clouds of anthrax produce the same woody, as going through a crowd playing the sorting hat, live, die, die, live, die?

Is the future unwritten?

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Is the future unwritten?

And can we take sandwiches?


Sorry - way flippant for this thread. I was really sad to read about this. I had some american friends(of the family, via J's dad) who lived in San Bernadino in the 80s and early 90s. J and his Dad visited there several times, growing up, and when they were in the Uk weall hooked up - so despite never having been there myself, it's a place I feel warm about.