The Copycat Effect: Omar Seddique Mateen ups the massacre kills stakes
What do we know of Omar Seddique Mateen, 29, from reading the newspapers?
The Sun: Mateen is the “laughing gunman” who “slaughtered 50 clubbers”. He is an “IS maniac” who murdered 50 people at “gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida”.
We learn that Mateen shot an “armed doorman” on his way inside “America’s Bataclan”. He has driven his van 120 miles to Orlando from his home in St Lucie, Florida.
Over pages 4 and 5 of the report, readers are told the FBI “freed” Mateen three times. He was “not considered a threat”. Before he killed he called 911 and stated his allegiance to Islamic State.
We hear of Mateen’s father, also called Seddique Mateen, 59. The Sun says he “declared himself president of Afghanistan” on Facebook. His page, Provisional Government of Afghanistan. calls on Afghan soldiers to attack Pakistan. He says the massacre was “nothing to do with Islam”.
Daily Express: “Omar Mateen is an “Extremist” on the paper’s front page.
The Express says he was investigated twice not three times by the FBI. Whatever the real number, the fact is they missed him. Indeed, there are reports he worked as security guard for a company that protected – get this – federal buildings.
The Express then tells readers Orlando is known as “The City Beautiful” and is the “world’s theme parks capital”. It hosts the “25th Florida ilm Festival in April”. Does the Express have a deal with the Orlando tourism board?
Daily Mirror: Mateen is the “ISIS MANIAC”.
Inside Mateen is the “lone wolf”, although surely known wolf is more apt.
On page 7, the Mirror quotes Pat Robinson, a TV evangelist, who said, “I totally get the guy who did this…. I understand what drove him to such an act. This establishment was a lair of fornication… I think it’s a good thing it happened here.”
In “Voice of the Mirror”, the paper uses the world “Muslim” for the first time. The paper says Mateen is “not representative of Muslims”. All of them, no, of course not. The paper cites Mohammad Ali, “a convert to Islam”, saying he and Mateen represent the “best and worst of all religiously driven men”.
What does a boxer have to do with the mass murderer? The link is pathetic. The West was not at war with heavyweight boxers, even the charismatic and pretty ones. The paper treats its readers as idiots who can’t spot the difference between a sporting champion and mass murderer.
What the Mirror does note, as do all papers, is that it was was the worst massacre in modern US history.
He “nails it: “I wish that TV talking heads would quit calling this “officially the worst mass shooting in US history”. Will you people quit keeping a leaderboard? There are sick f***s watching you that take that as some sort of challenge as they update their .xls spreadsheets.”
It’s called The Copycat Effect
The Gun
First up, Barack Obama:
Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is, therefore, a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.
He did not mention Islam in his address. The man who would be his successor as US President, one Donald Trump, is unimpressed, tweeting:
Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn’t he should immediately resign in disgrace!
When Omar Mateen entered an Orlando, Florida, nightclub on Sunday to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in US history, he wielded a weapon that has been used in massacres from California to Connecticut: a military-inspired semi-automatic rifle.
Though so-called assault rifles account for a small fraction of the United States’ 30,000 annual gun deaths, they have been used in at least 10 mass shootings since 2011, according to a database compiled by Mother Jones magazine.
The AR-15 was developed from the US military’s M-16 rifle, used in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Unlike the military version, the AR-15 is not fully automatic, meaning users must pull the trigger each time they want to fire a shot. Like the military version, many AR-15s combine light weight with a relatively modest recoil.
An assault rifle is a fully automatic selective-fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine.
He didn’t use an assault rifle, then.
Posted: 13th, June 2016 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
