In what authorities are calling "the work of a madman," a gunman went on a drive-by shooting rampage in a Santa Barbara student enclave that left at least seven people dead, including the attacker, and seven others wounded.The apparent attacker, Elliot Rodger, 22, made a video ("I will slaughter every single blonde slut I see") on Thursday, one day before the events occurred. The connection between video and events has not been confirmed, but the link seems to exist. I am posting it because so often the back-story on any given crime is submerged by the crime itself ... as if it were enough to report the crime and the story needed no further investigation.
The video is extremely disturbing, depicting as it does a young man who is lonely and sexually frustrated and blames the objects of his would-be affection for his predicament. In one sense, the video is a textbook case of why anyone might use the generic word "crazy" as a means of dismissing what is so horrific and inexplicable. But just because something is "crazy" doesn't mean it is not an honest part of the world in which anyone might live.
As I say, it's extremely disturbing.... disturbing enough so that Youtube has now removed it. It is still available within the Daily Mail's story.
And here is what appears to be a prequel Youtube video, also passed along in email.
A day after the event, police confirmed the name of the shooter, who also was said to have stabbed three roommates to death.
And there was the wracking sorrow of those left to cope:
Watching his "last" video i thought i saw a sense of entitlement and a lack of responsibility. Were he alive and going to trial i imagine an affluenza plea would be likely. His father was a director on the hit movie Hunger Games, he was given a BMW, etc. The questions that come to mind ramble around whether or not his parents felt that money was sufficient for an upbringing rather than time and interest? Did he perhaps have high functioning borderline personality disorder and money washed indicators for the diagnosis away? Yes, guns are too available and video games desensitizing, but when both parents work, or one is on a drive to success and the other is engaged in the social operations of that success, who raises the kid? I don't want to blame his parents and don't know them or what the kids homelike was like, but it's frustrating to see these things and not see some investigation into the creation of them.
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