No doubt. I read the whole manifesto. I agree with many of his points, just not his tactics. The man is intelligent, was incredibly depressed, and is now focused on a mission where he considers innocent people collateral damage. That's not a hero in my eyes. Had he only focused his intent on those that he deemed were destroying the system, I'd sing a different tune. That said, my empathy went out the window when he murdered the brother and his fiancee. When he attacked the two beat cops in Riverside, who had nothing to do with his issues, the heroism thing becomes pretty damned murky.
Where is the line? Are all cops 'evil'? Was this brother 'evil' before he was slighted? Are their other cats on the force that feel as he does, and were equally trapped? Are they, too, targets? That's the thing with wanton vigilantism. It's a slippery slope.
I love how some people here are using this man as an example of courage when it's clear that brother is in pain, and needed an ideal to focus on.
I love how people are appropriating his actions as some sort of new age militancy, when, in fact, he's out to cause as much pain as possible to the people that wrong him. This isn't about liberation or change. This guy wants to be a 'hero' again. That's the thing that he set his entire life toward.
Think about that for a second.
This isn't about him doing some great thing for the world. That's secondary. His motivation is to 'get back', and his destruction is indiscriminate at any moment he deems the whim to change it. Fuck anybody in his way.
That's not courageous to me.
I see a brother who grew up with a lot of white folks. Trusted them. Became his vision of an 'American hero'. Played football with them in college, loved them because he thought that he was accepted by them. He became the image that they approved of, ie, That big ass fucking dude that's bad as a mofo and is cool. Athlete. War Hero. Cop. This guy enjoyed adoration. He's smart, obviously, and capable.
When the tables were turned and the force betrayed him, and he lost his foundation, he lost everything. When KTLA interviewed his 'friend' from college, that white boy was backtracking like a muthafucka. This dude was caught up, unfortunately, and it's fucking sad. Everything that man said in his manifesto was on point. The betrayal was deep, and when you're alone and in a tailspin like that, the writing is on the wall.
I'm not saying that he wasn't a 'good guy'. I'm saying that he was a betrayed man with an ego. The same ego that drives a man to be as huge as he was, to be that GI JOE looking dude, is the same ego that's wanted his opinion heard in the manifesto. That wanted the celebrity shoutouts to hear his 'last thoughts'. That believes that his actions are important enough to affect NATIONAL change, no matter what the cost.
The same ego that decided that the BEST way to get back at one of the dudes that ended his career, was to assassinate his daughter and her fiancee. Fuck em, right?
Yeah, THAT's a brother who's on the same mission - who, by some of the members of this board - should be remembered in the same vein as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela, and the multitude of heroes as they bandy the word COURAGEOUS.
Yeah, this dude is on THAT level, right?
Because let me put this into perspective: Each of those people that I named wanted to affect change because it was important to them. They would be fine being invisible within that change as long as that change happened for the generations behind them. It wasn't ABOUT them.
But this brother, it's ALL about him. His anger. His need to be remembered. His need to leave a legacy.
The really fucked up thing i see is an intelligent, incredible brother who really needed a LITTLE bit of an intervention before he pulled that trigger. There was another way to do this. Nobody on this board can convince me otherwise, and I'm offended that anybody who doesn't co-sign the murder of innocents is considered some sort of weak, uncle tom, passive, system enabler.
I make ZERO excuses for the LAPD. I'm not a cop fan, although I understand that a GOOD cop is a GOOD thing. Unfortunately, there are too many BAD cops. This posting, however, isn't about the LAPD.
It's about the actions that this brother has taken, and the responses that I've seen on this board.
When the real truth is that none of the e-militants, the outspoken, the digital emboldened here will pick up arms tomorrow to aid in a GOTdamn thing. None of you will join in the chorus of cop-killing and family slaying.
Why not, I wonder?
Such is the legacy of your hero.
