Norway killer picked victims who had "leftist" look
Source: Reuters
The man who killed 77 people last summer to protest at Muslim immigration to Europe said on Monday he believed he could tell the ideology of his prospective massacre victims by looking at them, and tried to spare one who appeared "right-wing".
"Certain people look more leftist than others," Anders Behring Breivik said on the sixth day of a trial that has transfixed Norway, explaining how he picked off "Marxists" with his rifle and pistol while passing over a young man he thought looked conservative.
"This person ... appeared right-wing, that was his appearance. That's the reason I didn't fire any shots at him," said Breivik, 33, whose sanity or lack of it is a prime issue to be determined in the trial.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/norway-killer-picked-victims-had-leftist-look-104209452.html
Profiling at its deadly worst.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)Calluses on his knuckles?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)cindyperry2010
(846 posts)sad for those kids who suffered
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Diclotican
(5,095 posts)freshwest
Thank you
Diclotican
Platypus
(30 posts)It's probably worth keeping in mind that, to a Norwegian, "right wing" would include 90% of the US political spectrum.
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)Platypus
I wil put it to 95 percent of the US political spectrum - who is right of AP, our Labour Party, whow as hit hard by the attac by Breivik...
Diclotican
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)A goddamn shame.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)So many were so young.
I hope this man faces justice for his crimes.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)panopeagenerosa
(44 posts)as quickly as I could without crying it seems the women outnumber the men by at least 2 to 1, maybe as many as 3/4 were women.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)It also seems to be a rather unusually good-looking group of people, given a supposed random sample.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)I'm not sure if I can go through the whole thing, really depressing.
MidwestTransplant
(8,015 posts)his ideological brothers? Hmmm.
saras
(6,670 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)From the article:
"Breivik has had almost free rein to issue warnings against immigration and explain how he scoured the Internet for bomb-making recipes while writing a 1,500-page document declaring himself part of a secretive group that is Europe's answer to Al Qaeda - a group the police have said likely does not exist."
A 1,500 page document that, most likely, no one will actually read unless they are a part of this group that "likely does not exist". Consider all of the various right-wing militia groups, in America alone... there are many thousands of members and over a million sympathizers. I suspect that these movements and their members spread far and wide throughout Europe, where they will find some (fortunately, relatively few in comparison to the overall population) sympathizers and recruits. An interesting question to ask is why the police think this group does not likely exist.
Are they afraid of international humiliation? Perhaps some ranking members of the government or high powered citizens have been named as members. Far fetched? Not really, consider the American tea party. Here, we're crazy enough that they're out in the open, a public menace, a disturbing movement of far right wing voters and even power brokers. Other Countries have had centuries of practice with hiding things that embarrass them. Indeed, the Nazi party initially was considered a tiny group of lunatics who had no real influence or power.
Is this man insane? I don't know... was every individual member of the Nazi movement insane? Were the citizens who admired them insane? He seems cold, clinical, without remorse yet also without obvious emotional rage... it's as if the man's ideology (to him) gave him enough reason to slaughter over 70 people. There are many like him who are not as murderous.. but share many of the same views. We hear it from Limbaugh, Savage, Carr, on the radio. We see it in Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Sara Palin. The Koch brothers, their followers... the Tea Party. That's in America alone, world-wide there is a huge right wing base. Should they ever be effectively organized into an international movement... the possibilities are disturbing, to say the least.
I feel for the people of Norway... this is one instance in which I wish the death penalty was a viable solution. There can be no peace, no compromise with men such as Brevik. You fight them, you destroy them... or you pay the price, as the world paid for underestimating an evil madman known as Adolf Hitler, or Jozef Stalin, or Emperor Mao.
What happened here is beyond terrible, it is a grievous wound that may never fully heal. Yet if we don't remain vigilant in denouncing this wicked ideology, in confronting it at every turn and revealing it for the sickness it is... we will in time face far worse.
Do not write Brevik off as a simple madman. He is one of many like him and there is real reason for concern.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)This mentality over half a century ago, saw their lands devastated and populations destroyed, and changed their ways. Did they fight the war we have not yet begun to fight here?
I hope that the voices that egg these things on and the people who are buying into hate, will learn from this on this side of the Atlantic. We have not suffered as the peoples of Europe, including Norway, from having the Third Reich in our face, in our homes, destroying our society with guns and boots in the face, that we have to stand up. Perhaps 'the left' or 'liberals' are not certain how. Maybe Occupy is showing us the way.
Do we have to learn this the hard way? Is that really what it takes, blood and slaughter? Can we learn it is in the interest of the majority to protect the minority?
But more than that, to come to understand we are all part of one thing, that we are all just expressions, a variety of expression in human form, and to work together for a common aim?
I can't express that very well, but I tried. Thanks for your post, it was insightful.
davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)Purely speculation, but I suspect that our right wing movements have inspired ideologies that have again taken root in Europe and are more than ever a force to be reckoned with. The austerity measures coming into play around Europe, the huge debt crisis, the financial disasters. The Koch brothers, for example, are just a couple of right wing fanatics that we know about, I imagine there are quite a few, with nearly bottomless bank accounts and influence that spreads all over the world. That's not just in America either, there are similar people in every developed Nation. However, I suspect American financial influence plays a huge part in funding various militia, skinhead, Nazi and similar groups throughout the world.
The one percent and their minions are not going to go quietly into the night. I think part of the reason police forces have been so violently opposed to the occupy movements is because the money bags of the world are getting nervous.
One question I have asked myself... most of the Nations in Europe have long been considered by the right to be liberal strongholds. Is it possible that the international financial crisis we are still facing was deliberately brought about? In situations of severe debt, falling economic standards and living standards austerity measures historically come into play as do more conservative, more severe leaders.
All that said, I think it is inevitable that eventually we will have to learn the hard way again. History tends to repeat itself and the divide between the left and right is larger and more full of hate than ever.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)we aren't too far away from having armed right wingers gun us down... I'm sure they love the new SYG laws. Because we know how "threatened" the right wingers ALWAYS feel.
harmonicon
(12,008 posts)fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)Oh, I know it is already happening here, but on a smaller scale, at least with guns.