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I haven't commented on the horrific cop killings in my hometown because really, what was there to say? A dog pissed on a carpet, someone called 9/11 because an argument escalated, and three cops were dead. It seemed to speak for itself, that Richard Poplawski was dangerously unstable and never should have been allowed to own a weapon, let alone an AK-47.
But then...
Harlan Ellison once commented that every time a mass murder or serial killing took place, the media would find a neighbor or co-worker to say something along the lines of "he was such a good Christian boy. Worked down at the plant, took three sugars in his coffee. Kept to himself. Sent half his paycheck home to his mama (wife/kids/parents in another country. I have no idea why he killed 147 people, cut off their privates, and sent them in a mailing tube to his senator, but he's a good Christian boy, he is." It's inevitable. I'm sure Ed Gein's neighbors thought he was such a nice, quiet guy, and I wasn't surprised at initial media reports that Richard Poplawski was just an ordinary joe.
Then the template changed. Poplawski wasn't an ordinary guy. He was a right-wing conspiracy theorist who posted on Neo Nazi web sites and stockpiled guns because "the Zionist media" had taken over. Just like the Knoxville shooter, who was out to kill as many liberals as possible and decided to start at a Unitarian church during a children's pageant, Poplawski had gone well beyond the fringe.
And just like Jim Adkisson's hatred of liberals and dependence on right-wing hatemongers for his ideas has basically been lost (and the Knoxville church shooting disappeared off the front pagers as soon as it became clear that no, this *wasn't* a nice safe conservative Christian church, but Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation that welcomed all comers, including Adkisson's abused former wife), so it's happening with Poplawski. There's been little mention in the national media of his Neo Nazi connections, or his best friend's bland comments about him hating the Zionist-controlled media, or how *of course* Poplawski was convinced the feds were going to take his precious guns. The fact that Poplawski was, to be blunt, an anti-Semitic gun nut who hated blacks and was about one step away from buying a truckload of fertilizer and blowing up the City-County Building as a way of igniting a Turner Diaries-style race war, is being buried.
I only hope that this doesn't mean we're headed for another spate of militias, domestic terrorism, and "citizen courts" over the next few years....
But then...
Harlan Ellison once commented that every time a mass murder or serial killing took place, the media would find a neighbor or co-worker to say something along the lines of "he was such a good Christian boy. Worked down at the plant, took three sugars in his coffee. Kept to himself. Sent half his paycheck home to his mama (wife/kids/parents in another country. I have no idea why he killed 147 people, cut off their privates, and sent them in a mailing tube to his senator, but he's a good Christian boy, he is." It's inevitable. I'm sure Ed Gein's neighbors thought he was such a nice, quiet guy, and I wasn't surprised at initial media reports that Richard Poplawski was just an ordinary joe.
Then the template changed. Poplawski wasn't an ordinary guy. He was a right-wing conspiracy theorist who posted on Neo Nazi web sites and stockpiled guns because "the Zionist media" had taken over. Just like the Knoxville shooter, who was out to kill as many liberals as possible and decided to start at a Unitarian church during a children's pageant, Poplawski had gone well beyond the fringe.
And just like Jim Adkisson's hatred of liberals and dependence on right-wing hatemongers for his ideas has basically been lost (and the Knoxville church shooting disappeared off the front pagers as soon as it became clear that no, this *wasn't* a nice safe conservative Christian church, but Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation that welcomed all comers, including Adkisson's abused former wife), so it's happening with Poplawski. There's been little mention in the national media of his Neo Nazi connections, or his best friend's bland comments about him hating the Zionist-controlled media, or how *of course* Poplawski was convinced the feds were going to take his precious guns. The fact that Poplawski was, to be blunt, an anti-Semitic gun nut who hated blacks and was about one step away from buying a truckload of fertilizer and blowing up the City-County Building as a way of igniting a Turner Diaries-style race war, is being buried.
I only hope that this doesn't mean we're headed for another spate of militias, domestic terrorism, and "citizen courts" over the next few years....
