A CHILL IN
THE DESERT
OFFICERS SEEN AS THE "ENEMY"
Photos of
slain Metro Police officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo are displayed
during a news conference at Metro headquarters
following the death
of the two officers and a citizen in Las Vegas
June 8, 2014 (Reuters / Steve Marcus)
TAGS: LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICERS EXECUTED, JARED AND
AMANDA MILLER
MURDER-SUICIDE
PACT, FAR RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS, MILITIA MOVEMENT,
SOVEREIGN
CITIZENS GROUPS, CLIVEN BUNDY RANCH STAND OFF,
DOMESTIC TERRORISTS, HOME GROWN TERRORISM
(Monday June 9, 2014 Las
Vegas, Nevada) It was a premeditated assassination. The two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department Officers were taking their lunch break at 11 o’clock yesterday
morning. They had just finished eating
and were talking when their two executioners approached. Witnesses say the Officers had no time to
react or respond although one of the mortally wounded Officers did return fire. Their fates were sealed in the blink of an
eye. Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor
Soldo, 31, were easy targets for the married couple who took their lives in a
chilling act derived from whatever madness possessed them. It was an act of diabolic cowardice as much
as it was the product of two cold blooded like minds who seem to have viewed
the Officers as representations of all they despised. It has been reported that the Revolutionary
War-era Gadsden flag, the yellow flag, which contains an image of a coiled
snake and the words "Don't tread on me," was draped over the fallen
Officers along with a swastika stamped manifesto. The killers removed the Officers firearms,
ammunition and badges before fleeing the scene.
After their fatal assault in
CiCi’s Pizza where the pair of LVMPD Officers had eaten lunch the murderous duo identified as Jared and Amanda Miller
raced across the parking lot of the large retail center, entered the Walmart
and shot and killed a civilian who was carrying a legally registered hand
gun. Joseph Wilcox, 31, attempted to
shoot Jared Miller. Wilcox may have fired shots, but he didn't know that the
shooter's wife was nearby and as she made her way behind Wilcox she shot and
killed him. Pandemonium ensued as customers fled from the busy Walmart and a
brief fire fight between responding LVMPD Officers and the Millers lasted a few
short minutes until the trapped couple died in an obvious murder/suicide
pact.
A NOT UNCOMMON PROFILE
As local law enforcement
authorities and FBI Agents scrambled to learn as much as possible about the
Millers late into last night, some of the details that have been released have
a familiar ring to them. Interviews with
neighbors claim that the Millers were not close to anyone in the community and
often appeared in public in costumes.
They were known to spout anti-government sentiments and Jared was known
for his beliefs in various conspiracy theories.
Law Enforcement Officials discovered a trove of white supremacist
paraphernalia including swastikas, “anti-tyranny” propaganda and a far right wing
manifesto in the couple's apartment during a search. The couple had boasted that they had
participated in the armed standoff at the Cliven Bundy ranch earlier this year,
a cause that drew anti-government zealots from across the country when the
Bureau of Land Management had sought to seize some of Bundy’s livestock that
had been grazing on federal land without payment for the last 20 years. At this point little is known of the
Miller’s association with that cause or affiliations with other ultra-right
wing groups.
What has been established thus
far about the Millers is that they had recently relocated to the Las Vegas
Valley from Lafayette, Indiana where Jared had a lengthy criminal record primarily
for drug related charges. Neighbors in
Las Vegas have said that the Millers often appeared to be “high” and were
suspected of using crystal methamphetamine although that has not been confirmed
by authorities here.
Even this soon after
yesterday’s tragedy some in the press have already pigeonholed the couple as
right wing misfits, hardcore white supremacists and anti-Obama haters. Such premature classifying is a hallmark of
today’s 24/7 hyper-paced news cycle where the need to fill air time and
headlines is typically fed rumor, innuendo and supposition in the absence of
facts. This widespread tactic allows for
an occluded lens through which the public perceives horrible events such as
this. With yesterday’s savage murders
coming so close on the heels of several other media inflated mass shootings it
is tempting to spout the same old rhetoric about guns and gun control, lapses
in mental health care and the litany of tattered and torn explanations offered
up for public consumption whenever such an event occurs. While convenient for the media, the spread of
inaccurate information often does more harm than good and helps perpetuate
“copycat” acts of violence. What often
gets lost in the shuffle are the basic facts.
In this case it was two individuals acting for reasons we can and will
never know because they took their motives with them when they died. Every act of mass shooting and murder is the
product of those indididual perpetrators psyches.
To assign blame to external forces and influences ignores the basic
variables in the equations. There is no
easy way, no reasonably effective method, and no additional laws to be passed,
amended or enhanced that will prevent similar crimes in the future.
A DIFFERENCE OF DISTINCTION
Each human life is of equal
value and each death by fire arm should be of equal concern and
consequence. What distinguishes
yesterday’s event from others in our very recent past is that there appears to
have been a “political” component motivating the Millers. In their social media trail they left signs
that they were acolytes of the most virulent strain of right wing politics
harkening back to the 1990’s when the “militia” movement crept out of shadows
in horrific ways. This is of course no
excuse for what the Millers perpetrated but it is in the mix as authorities and
average citizens, law abiding, responsible gun owners wrestle with the
underlying causation. This is a futile effort; there can be no clear
understanding of what the Millers did, why and to what end.
The two ambushed Officers
appear to have represented all the Millers despised about America today. Disenfranchised by circumstances, alienated
by their own behaviors, they sought acceptance in a “movement” that considers
no legal authority beyond the level of the County Sheriff. One can trace this thinking back to the
standoff at Ruby Ridge and the bungled assault at the Branch Dividians compound in
Waco Texas where federal agents killed scores of believers including children
in a ferocious conflagration. Timothy McVeigh,
the Oklahoma City bomber cited these events as his motive to retaliate against
what he saw as a tyrannical federal government.
There has long been a strain
of fierce libertarianism, anti-government radicals, extremists, and members of
the so called “sovereign citizens movement” quick to pick up the mantle of
“revolution” and government overthrow via armed conflict. To the rest of us this thinking is so alien
and idiotic that it is difficult to fathom just how deeply held their hatred is;
how can these people equate their beliefs and theories with reality? It is the frightening
prospect that some of these groups of well-armed dedicated groups have various
degrees of organizational structure and it is such allegiance with the like-minded
cells that sets them apart from the other perpetrators of mass shootings of
late. The Millers acted as a pair and
had long espoused the venomous hyperbole of the militia and sovereign citizens’
movement as well as white supremacy doctrine.
They are different in kind from the loner who suddenly erupts and goes
to a familiar location to kill as many victims as possible. Aside from some web sites in the darker
corners of the Internet the lone gunmen have no association with any wider
cause or movement beyond their own psychopathology.
THE HOME FRONT
Even before the Patriot Act
and Homeland Security Act of 2001 expanded the definition of domestic
terrorism, there have been home grown ideologues willing to commit acts of what has been
considered terrorism in the name of a variety of causes. Some previous acts of domestic terrorism have
targeted commercial interests such as the logging and mining industries that
experiencing acts against property by environmentalists of one kind or another.
Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber” was a domestic terrorist just as was Timothy
McVeigh. Some groups that have attained main stream, primarily left wing
liberal appeal, such as PETA and Greenpeace have often conducted operations
that interfered with ranching, fishing, and utility providers. For the most
part they have not employed lethal means towards achieving their stated ends. They have, at times, caused severe property
damage and operational disruption that has been monetarily costly but have not left any victims injured or killed.
The strain of domestic
terrorism that poses the most clear and present danger is the organized groups
as mentioned above. When armed men and
women seek to usurp the authority of the government at every level, for some,
at the most local level, the likelihood of others acting out in similarly aggressive,
murderous ways increases. There is
strength in numbers and while these zealots represent a miniscule segment of
the total population, they can inflict terrible damage where ever and whenever
they choose particularly when they band together or are drawn to a specific
cause such as that at the Cliven Bundy ranch in April. The “sovereign citizens” who flocked to the
Bundy ranch armed to the teeth seemed prepared to do battle, literally repel “by
any means necessary” federal agents from carrying out their official duties. The Millers were in attendance for some time
during the Bundy ranch crisis but it is unclear as yet how long they stayed there
and the terms by which they left.
EXTREMISTS ON BOTH SIDES
One need not look for too long
in the never ending wave of rhetoric in all forms of the media that appeals to
extremists be they on the Right or Left.
Some observers contend that the right wing hate filled conservative
juggernaut that includes Fox News, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah
Palin and others of their ilk are to blame for an emboldened sovereign citizens
movement. Yes, these voices blow the dog
whistle of divisive political warfare that finds huge audiences of like-minded
ears. Certainly the Left has its
hyperbolic blowhards lead by the likes of the buffoonish Chris Mathews and his
colleagues at MSNBC. They too stir the
pot attracting any segment of their “base” that feels somehow aggrieved and
insist on radical change immediately on issues ranging from homosexual rights
to much laxer immigration policy. Thus
far, however, there have not been people
on the Left act out violently.
Just as when a cold front
collides with a warm air mass, the Left and Right find themselves in a
seemingly intractable storm with guns being the lightening rod. Guns, per se, as in legally purchased and
responsibly owned and used, are not the issue.
They are an easy target for the Left and a constitutional issue to the
Right. Amid this tempest is enough
hypocrisy from both sides to go around.
In one of the odder rhetorical twists the role of government in our
personal, private lives is a shared rallying cry. The Right demands “small government”, all
their constitutional rights yet wants to control women’s reproductive
rights. They are pro-life until the
unborn fetus becomes an infant and may be born into circumstances that require
the Mom to seek some form of financial assistance from the government. The Left is decidedly pro-choice and wants
their constitutional rights protected forever seeking wider and wider
applications of constitutional law as it suits them. Those pro-choice “small government” types on
the Left conversely want increasingly rigid gun control legislation yet bristle
at the notion of government infringement on their rights. The contradictions in both camps are
abundantly clear.
THE GREATER OF TWO EVILS?
As of today there have been 73
school shootings across the country since the horrific massacre of 26 young
students and faculty at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton,
Connecticut. Depending whose statistics
one references an average of 58 people are shot every day in America with an
average death toll of 14 per day. Virtually
not a week passes that does not see a Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) fatally
shot or otherwise killed in the Line of Duty somewhere. The “execution” of Police Officers such as
that here yesterday was once far more common than it is today. In the 1960’s and 1970’s in some of the
biggest cities various civil rights groups, racial militants and self-described
mercenaries for all sorts of causes saw brutal ambushes on police Officers with
some
of the most notorious hitting NYPD during that time period. But the militia groups and sovereign citizen,
self-described “patriots” of today pose an even greater threat not only to
LEO’s but to all citizens.
The “well-armed militias” out
there actually see themselves as a new breed of patriot when all they are is a
rag tag collection of splinter groups some more organized than others but all
seeing a call to arms as a viable solution for what they see as our declining
profile in the world and insipient cultural and moral decay on our home turf. Ominously these groups are attracting more
and more from the “Warrior Generation” we created over the past 13 years. These
veterans are well trained; battle hardened and some feeling disenfranchised enough
to heed that call to arms domestically.
Juxtaposed within our violent culture
are the loners; the exact opposites of the new guard “patriots”. As we have too often seen of late, these
killers have been predominantly young white men from middle class means some
with diagnosed mental illness. They are
not driven by wider political causes and seek only to lash out against whatever
real or perceived offenses they’ve incurred throughout their lives. In every recent incident the shooter had
legally purchased the fire arms they used in their assaults. The point being that despite tighter
restrictions on gun ownership there is no way possible to end such murderous
attacks.
In the hue and cry that always
follows a mass shooting event such as that which occurred here yesterday the
prescriptive rhetoric espoused by the gun control advocates is to make it more
difficult for people to purchase fire arms, particularly, the “mental
ill”. While on its face it appears uncontroversial
enough, a measure that most can agree on when it comes to the legal sales of
guns. (Naturally there is no effective
means available to stop the illegal purchase and transport of guns into the
inner cities.)
The question to be asked about
enhanced background checks is how exactly will a potential gun buyer’s “mental
health” history, or lack thereof, be determined? This thorny question speaks directly to
matters of personal privacy and the Patients’ Bill of Rights as codified in the
HIPPA policies. Current databases
contain information on convicted felons but, as we all recognize, an individual
can fly under the radar forever if they have lived an unassuming, law abiding
life. It is only when an individual enters
the criminal justice system and is subjected to whatever mental health
screening particular jails and prisons utilize that they may or may not carry
with them the label of being mentally unfit to own a fire arm.
In the cases where an
individual has never demonstrated overt mental illness, never been evaluated
for the same, that the gapping gulf between who can and who cannot purchase a
gun is most prominent. To require mental
health providers to “report” to some agency or authority whenever they encounter
a patient they determine by whatever diagnostic tools they employ that they are
treating a patient who may pose a “danger to himself or others”, collides
forcefully with the doctor/patient confidentiality as it does with an
individual patients’ personal constitutional liberties regarding privacy. There seems no way to circumvent the array of
ethical and privacy concerns in an effort to “weed out” those who may in the
future commit a mass casualty attack, multiple murder via fire arm or any other
crime for that matter.
THE LATEST “NEW NORMAL”
When we were suddenly thrust
into a post-9/11/2001 world it became apparent that we as a nation had to enact
changes in some of the fundamental principles that define us. We learned we had
to forfeit a great deal of privacy as our cities became flooded by closed
circuit surveillance cameras as well as the awkward acknowledgment that our
smart phone or other cellular device could act as a tracking point for our
movements. We have learned that the
National Security Administration (NSA) has been collecting tremendous amounts
of “mega data” that can be analyzed and mined at their whim. The
Patriot Act that was so hastily drafted and enacted into law contains legislation
that, in some cases based on little to no hard evidence, we might be stopped by
Law Enforcement, have our car and house searched, and could even be an
unwitting ally to the Law Enforcement Community (LEC) in some version of a
sting operation. As a consequence we
have grown more suspicious of each other and created an increasingly divisive
element into our society. For some,
particularly those out on the extremist, militant wing of the far Right, this “New
Normal” is a call to arms and for some the cause of real raging paranoia which
are all volatile when mixed.
The bastard children bread by
that paranoia are those who do not recognize the legitimacy of our government
rather they perceive them as an active enemy; an enemy already plotting to drop
troopers from black helicopters into their communities and disarm them and,
perhaps even, imprison them. These folks
have plenty of ammunition to stoke their ire and confirm their very worst
nightmares. Talk radio is awash across
the country spewing hatred and inciting some to violence. Fox News is their TV network and their Nielsen
Ratings show they reach a wide audience.
Again, this are not causes just contributing factors. It is the rare individual or individuals who
even consider engaging in armed conflict against local, state or federal LEO’s.
There are no easy answers for
the illnesses infecting our society; no off-the-shelf solutions to inoculate people
from incendiary messaging at both extremes of the political divide. There are no feasible “macro” solutions so;
the solutions must originate at the micro level in places like our homes,
families, neighborhoods, schools, churches, and civic organizations. None among us can live in a state of hyper
alertness nor should we feel it necessary to do so. But parents have a
responsibility to teach their children well.
We all have a responsibility to each other in accordance with the “See
Something, Say Something” initiative promoted wit much success by the NYPD.
It is sad we find ourselves at
this murky juncture; at a clash of Left and Right that could escalate with even
the smallest provocation. As cold and
callous as it seems we have to accept this new normal. Gun control won’t help us, certainly no
politician is capable or willing to step into the breach and try to enact
change. The LEC is but a truly Thin Blue
Line separating order from anarchy, chaos from civility.
Let us all remember the two
LVMPD Officers assassinated here yesterday and hope that they did not sacrifice
their lives in vain. Bless them both and
condolences to their families. They can
perhaps someday after the worst of the grief has ebbed come to realize that
their husbands and fathers, sons and daughters, and their entire extended
families are now safely home and in the Presence of the Lord.
Copyright The
Brooding Cynyx 2014 © All Rights Reserved
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