I trust you are already aware that an insane person attempted to murder school board members in Florida. The media are trying to explain it by reporting that the man is an ex-convict. As I know dozens of ex-cons who, are leading productive lives as law-abiding citizens, it saddens me that their lives will be more difficult because of this media sensationalism. Given that the man complained repeatedly about taxes, it seems far more likely to me that this was a Second Amendment solution gone bad. We already have far too many examples of Republican politicians and pundits stirring up unstable followers to commit acts of senseless violence. This may well be another such case.
Bay District personnel director Tommye [sic] Lou Richardson says Rebecca Crowder-Duke was fired in February. The district hired her in September 2009 to teach students with special needs, but didn’t pass probation.
Richardson says Crowder-Duke had questioned her termination but never filed a lawsuit.
She couldn’t specify why the woman was fired.
Reporters were asked to leave the house where Crowder-Duke is believed to be living.
Clay Duke complained about his wife being fired by the district before shooting at close range. He exchanged gunfire with the district’s security chief before fatally shooting himself.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — The ex-convict who calmly held a school board at gunpoint and then began randomly firing had circled the date on a calendar found in his mobile home, evidence he had been planning the attack for some time, police said.
The shooting at the Bay District board meeting was not "a spur of the moment thing," Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten told The Associated Press. Police also found anti-government paraphernalia at Clay A. Duke’s home, but the chief didn’t provide details.
"He was obviously was not happy with our government," Van Etten said… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Atlanta Journal Constitution>
Here’s the video. It’s graphic, but bloodless, thank God.
Once again, I wish to state my opposition to those Republican politicians and pundits, such as Michelle Bachmann and Glen Beck, who continuously clamor for violence as a means to political ends. They may say, that they are speaking figuratively. However, context generally makes it clear that they are not. Even if it were, weak minded individuals in their base take it seriously.
The best think is about this all of his fourteen shots missed. Like Republican politicians and pundits, he was not a straight shooter.
6 Responses to “Second Amendment Solution Gone Bad”
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He’s the Cole Ford of school board shooters.
As you wrote TC, ex-convict is used to play on peoples biases. Plenty of awful people behind bars, many paroled too soon. But there are also many people in our burgeoning for profit prison industry who did minor offenses and got caught up in the worlds largest prison system.
Oso, most are just people who screwed up. Only 5-10% are dedicated criminals. High recidivism rates stem mostly from the obstacles to reintegration into society that the system maintains.
That one man that spoke up and said he was the one that signed the papers and to let the others go, sure was brave as was Ginger, who tried to do something about the situation. Thank God he was only using blanks, If Beck, Bachmann and the others of the 2nd Amendment gang keep this up, we’re going to see this happening more frequently unfortunately and it’ll be on their heads.
Lisa, that he was using blanks came out after I posted. Maybe he was a lefty. A righty would have used dum-dum rounds.
Tom, I think that Beck, Bachmann, Palin, Limbaugh know exactly what they are doing. They want violence and yet are cagey enough to phrase it so that when it happens they can say “Hey, I didn’t tell anyone to go shoot things up”. We are seeing a disturbing number of people who are now saying that they have been pushed into violent action by listening to Glenn beck. I have no idea what the answer is; I believe strongly in the freedom of speech, yet hate mongers must be held accountable and responsible for the results of their speech.
Bingo!