Os Cangaceiros
17th November 2011, 00:33
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Timothy_Brenton
Kind of a small incident in the grand scheme of things, but this story kind of interests me. I read about it first in "Fire to the Prisons". The perpetrator (Christopher Monfort) first firebombed a police maintenance station, then later drove up to a police crusier and opened fire, hitting two cops and killing one. He did this because he was outraged after seeing a graphic video of a teenage girl beaten in police custody. He had essentially declared war against the police.
It would be wrong to say that he was some dignified leftist or something, he was not "one of us". He was actually a Constitution fetishist and 'murikan patriot (much of the populist right-wing is far more "radical" than leftist sects in the USA). But I find it revealing in an article written in the aftermath of the shooting, in which the Seattle Times desperately tried to find evidence that he was a deranged psychopath (pathology being ascribed to anyone who violently challenges institutions is routine), the only thing they could come up with was that he was something of a loner and was a very vocal opponent of the Iraq War. He was just some guy with an interest in politics who was outraged by a very real injustice.
He has not apologized for his acts, either, and used his time in court to issue a screed against Seattle police.
Kind of a small incident in the grand scheme of things, but this story kind of interests me. I read about it first in "Fire to the Prisons". The perpetrator (Christopher Monfort) first firebombed a police maintenance station, then later drove up to a police crusier and opened fire, hitting two cops and killing one. He did this because he was outraged after seeing a graphic video of a teenage girl beaten in police custody. He had essentially declared war against the police.
It would be wrong to say that he was some dignified leftist or something, he was not "one of us". He was actually a Constitution fetishist and 'murikan patriot (much of the populist right-wing is far more "radical" than leftist sects in the USA). But I find it revealing in an article written in the aftermath of the shooting, in which the Seattle Times desperately tried to find evidence that he was a deranged psychopath (pathology being ascribed to anyone who violently challenges institutions is routine), the only thing they could come up with was that he was something of a loner and was a very vocal opponent of the Iraq War. He was just some guy with an interest in politics who was outraged by a very real injustice.
He has not apologized for his acts, either, and used his time in court to issue a screed against Seattle police.