Shop owner shot, killed over rainbow flag outside clothing store near Lake Arrowhead
The suspect was later found and shot dead by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, officials said.
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I'm hoping they never release the killers identity to the public. Spreading around that hateful persons likeness and beliefs all over media and articles only empowers others to do the same thing. Leave them as a nameless pictureless murderer with no agenda or beliefs, just some bigoted murderer.
Others are empowered and emboldened to do the same thing regardless of whether this person's name makes it out. The right knows that they have a near monopoly on political violence so their agenda is to feed poison to the unstable so that they'll commit violence to make people fear to be themselves and supportive of others. I've heard about a shit-ton of abortion clinic bombings and murders, can't think of a single "crisis pregnancy center" issue.
Hell, when the Supreme Court got concerned about protesters they were absolutely fine with there being special guidelines for them. But for a person seeking an abortion? Nope, you'll get to have unstable "Christian" shitheads yelling in your face while they take pictures of you and your car to distribute to their network of terrorists.
I see what you're getting at, but the point of keeping this person anonymous is to lessen their ability to be used by people as a symbol or turn them into a martyr. It's far easier for bigots to say "remember Joe Johnson, we fight for him or whatever" and spin it their way than it is to say "remember that guy who shot the guy who hung up a flag? He's our man!"
Not tying a name to the criminal prevents them from being immortalized because they're not "Joe the defender" or whatever, they're "a murderer". There will still be bigots out there for sure, but leaving this person nameless gives them one less thing to latch on to.
Disturbed - Legion of Monsters
You made sure the world will remember the name
But didn't the thought even enter your mind?
You′d give a new legion of monsters
A reason to take your life
The song originally is about a school shooting, but the point is the same
You're absolutely not wrong. Sadly though, there's a world in which are both right and we're living in it. More than a few times school shooters have been copycats who likened themselves to the colombine shooters, or who literally wanted to be in the media and have people talking about them.
The amount of time and effort put into remembering the perpetrators of these heinous crimes is so much greater than the memories of those they killed. That's the part I'd like to change. I know it'll never happen, gotta get those views for the ad money, but I can hope.
