It may have been over parking and not religion after all..

[Fumesucker]

Evidently the atheist murderer really did have a major bug up his ass over parking at the condo.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026219703

Chapel Hill killer called towing company so many times they banned him.

The man accused of shooting three Muslims at a Chapel Hill condominium had neighbors' cars removed so often that he was eventually banned from using the towing company, according to a driver who often tows vehicles from the complex.

"It was often more than the average person," Christopher Lafreniere, with Barnes Towing, said Thursday. "It actually got to the point that he was not allowed to call a car in. If he called, we wouldn’t go out."

Neighbors have said Craig Stephen Hicks, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, always appeared to be combative and angry about the parking situation at Finley Forest, where residents are allotted one reserved spot.

[CJCRANE]

1. Maybe it's both. A guy who hates the religious, and people parking in the wrong place.

Maybe seeing a religious person parking in the wrong place sent him over the edge.

[Goblinmonger]

2. So all those times calling in

And this is the first religious person that parked in a spot not their own?

[CJCRANE]

3. These particular religious people wore clothes that showed their religion

so it's possible.

Also, look at the media landscape we live in now. The stochastic propaganda has reached fever pitch.

[Goblinmonger]

10. You have nothing to support that this wasn't about parking

It is what he is saying. It's what the police are saying. I realize why so many have a hard-on to try and make this about his atheism, but we don't know that at this point.

Was he an atheist? Yes. Was he clearly unbalanced? Yes. Did he kill Muslims? Yes. Did he kill them because they were Muslims? We have nothing to support that assertion at this point.

[Fumesucker]

5. Imagine if a DUer were to murder a Republican over something unrelated to politics...

Someone with an extensive history here of saying how much they despised and hated the Republican party and conservatism.

How would something like that play out in the media?

[CJCRANE]

6. I prefer the facts whatever the case.

I've posted my speculations but I may be proved wrong. That's okay.

[Fumesucker]

7. I posted a fact, the murderer had a major obsession regarding parking

You came back with speculation and I followed up your speculation with some more speculation.

[CJCRANE]

8. It's also a fact that he hates relgion and religious people.

You think religion wasn't a factor. I think it might be.

We may find out at some point but criminals' motives are not necessarily something that are always clear cut or explained by them.

[Fumesucker]

9. I'm not sure he hates religious people

I "hate" conservatism, doesn't mean I hate my conservative neighbors most of whom are actually pretty good people.

[TM99]

12. Do you have underlying mental health problems

that might lead to you killing your conservative neighbors? Can you imagine yourself shooting them execution style in their home?

Your solipsism is showing. Just because you would not murder someone you hate over an inconsequential thing like a parking spot OR their political/religious views, does not mean that some one else would not.

Killings over parking spots are flash rages. They are heat of the point type murders. This man executed three people in their home with a single bullet to the head of each young person there.

I do not buy the 'parking spot' defense any more than I bought that Trayvon Martin was a threat to a gun toting, serial abuser/rager, racist Zimmerman.

[trotsky]

11. On what do you base the "fact" that he "hates" religious people?

I saw a link to something he had posted defending people's right to believe what they want.

Confusing and violent guy.

[Brettongarcia]

4. religious folks take over land

The promised parking land

[cbayer]

13. Until all the information is available, everything is just speculation.

We can take each new piece of information and twist it to support whatever we want this to be about.

I strongly support the position that this is a complex situation in which many factors came into play. None should be dismissed and none should be embraced at this point.

If islamophobia played a role, then I think we as a society need to deal with that. If there was an untreated psychiatric disorder, we need to deal with that. If the easy availability of guns, then that. And on and on.

Everyone, of course, wants to distance themselves from this guy. That's natural and the way pretty much everyone responds when someone that they share a label with does something heinous.

[Fumesucker]

14. It's not speculation that he had a phobia/obsession/whatever over parking

It's also not speculation that the murderer was an atheist who didn't like religion.

Actually I tend to sympathize with Muslims in America as something of an outsider myself, despite that I have zero desire to live in an Islamic society, they seem to tend entirely too much to theocracy or quasi-theocracy.

And then there was this post, one of the more despicable ones I've read on DU that didn't come from an immediately banned troll. Hard to paint thiis as other than someone hoping it's a hate crime so they can point the finger at a group they clearly hate.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6211732

[cbayer]

15. It is speculation that the murders were primarily due to those things

or to any thing in particular.

My daughter married a Muslim. It has been interesting, to say the least. If I were Muslim, I might want to live in a country where I wasn't overtly hated.

I've seen the post and support that it was hidden. Like this murderer represents no one but themselves, the member that posted that represents no one but themselves. Do you expect others to be responsible in some way.

[Fumesucker]

16. If I were an atheist I might want to live in a country where I was not overtly hated..

Notice I used the conditional "may" in the title of this OP, that means I'm not convinced, unlike that other poster who is quite sure.

I just see religion as one more thing that divides us as humans.

To quote a Tom Lehrer song from back in the late 50's early 60's, National Brotherhood week..

Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.

But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you.
It's only for a week, so have no fear.
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!

[cbayer]

18. Well, you could stay in the country you are and move to a different region,

because while I do not doubt the accuracy of what you report, it is not like that everywhere.

Religion does divide us, and the breech between theism and atheism is a very deep one that could be resolved, or at least improved. It is the anti's that are the problem, imo. Being against people merely because they see things differently than you do, particularly when there is not evidence that one position is "better" than the other, is the heart of prejudice.

I remember that song very well from my childhood. I wonder if he would include a line about atheists if he re-wrote it today. Also on the album was the Vatican Rag, which I thought was hilarious.

[hrmjustin]

17. Looks like more will come out.

[rug]

19. George Zimmerman was very, very concerned about burglaries.

Darryl Wilson was very, very concerned about shoplifting. Especially cigars.

Daniel Pantaleo was very, very concerned about selling loosies. Especially in Eltingville.

[cbayer]

20. Exactly. And like these, this will be complex and multifaceted.

It's a crazy soup and nothing should be dismissed or fully embraced.

[struggle4progress]

21. Vigilante Man

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I been hearin' his name all over the land ...

Rainy night down in the engine house
Sleepin just as still as a mouse
Man come along an he chased us out in the rain
Was that a vigilante man?

Stormy days we passed the time away
Sleepin in some good warm place
Man come along an we give him a little race
Was that a vigilante man?

Preacher Casey was just a workin man
An he said "Unite all you workin men"
Killed him in the river some strange man
Was that a vigilante man? ...

http://woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Vigilante_Man.htm