They draped one officer’s body in a swastika and a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me†flag that has been adopted as a symbol of the Tea Party. On the other, they pinned a note warning of “the beginning of the revolution,†a phrase they also shouted, the police said.
They promptly crossed the street to a Walmart, where Mr. Miller fired a single shot and continued shouting about revolution to terrified shoppers. One man at the checkout area who was carrying a handgun tried to stop Mr. Miller, but did not notice that Ms. Miller was working in concert with her husband; she shot the man dead. The couple proceeded to maraud through the store until the police trapped them at the back. There, Ms. Miller fatally shot her husband before shooting herself in the head.
So the other victim beside the cops was not a random woman shopper but a man with a concealed weapon. I am sincerely sorry he died, but all those weenies law-abiding good-guy citizens who imagine that if there only had been someone at hand with a gun, etc., might want to reflect on this.
Amid the pandemonium, Joseph Wilcox, 31, who had been in the checkout line, approached Mr. Miller brandishing a weapon, the police said. Ms. Miller pulled a pistol out of her purse and fatally shot him in the midsection, the police said.
Other tidbits — It appears the pair really did spend time with the Cliven Bundy militia. The woman shooter actually quit her job at Hobby Lobby (of course) to head toward the ranch. There’s some indication the Bundy militia found the two shooters a little fringe-y even for them, and persuaded the pair to go back to Las Vegas.
According to documents found in their apartment, the pair had planned to take over a courthouse and execute pubic officials.
They’d been talking about the evils of the government and their own desire for violence against it as fast as they could flap their lips.
In only a few months in the modest apartment building where they lived here, they made little secret of their distaste for government and their desire to foment revolution.
Their posts on Facebook sometimes threatened violence, and last month, Mr. Miller used the website to ask people to send him “a rifle to help stand against tyranny.†Neighbors said Mr. Miller talked incessantly to anyone who would listen about the evils of welfare or President Obama.
No one reported this. See also “How much does right-wing rhetoric contribute to right-wing terrorism?”
There’s some indication the Bundy militia found the two shooters a little fringe-y even for them, and persuade the pair to go back to Las Vegas.
I bet those indications were discovered in retrospect. Sorta like Peter denying he ever knew Jesus. When the shit hits the fan everybody runs for cover. The cowardly Bundy militia doesn’t want to wear the results of their own cause. When you think about it how can a group dedicated to an armed conflict with the police or government authority in whatever form it presents itself suddenly claim that one of their own isn’t part of their cause when they act out in the expression of that cause. Yep, just like Peter claiming he never knew Jesus when asked about his association with him. Nope, I never knew him!
Yeah, the Bundy crowd was just a show to parade their guns and tell the world what they’d like to do.. but of course they’d never do it.. It was just a show, folks! You didn’t really think we were serious, did you?
The most frightening thing about this incident is the realization of the depth of this anti government movement. I think its mostly a bunch of keyboard commandos, but there are some crazy agents just waiting for a catalyst.
I never thought a black sheriff could have such loopy effect on the town folk. Blazing saddle syndrome ?
A college student with a can of mace, waited for the shooter at the college to reload, and then took him down with the spray.
Smart.
A good guy with a gun pulled out his weapon, ‘brandished it,’ and the bad guy’s bad wife beat him to the draw by pulling out her gun out of her purse, and killing him.
Foolish.
How long did this “revolution” last?
Not even 15 minutes.
But three other people died, besides the two killers, because the two killers were steeped in the hateful rhetoric and epistemic closure of our Reich-Wingers, via FOX, Rush, Drudge, and several Op-ed pages.
And, of course, easy access to guns, thanks to the NRA and the sycophantic cowards in Congress.
Tea Party — Cliven Bundy — Hobby Lobby. Wow, those two mass-murdering thugs were a Fox News trifecta.
No one reported this.
This seems noteworthy for another reason. If you “stand against tyranny” and no one even cares, are you really sure you’re being tyrannized?
I want to connect a few dots on the Vegas shooter, the Georgia courthouse shooter and an older incident that was averted, the Hutaree militia. The Vegas shooters were white supremacists and they may have been too crazy for the Tea Party at the Bundy ranch. How? The leadership of the Bundy army knew that they wanted a shooting war with FEDERAL cops, be it BLM or whoever, but FEDS. IMO, they wanted casualties on both sides, TP victims to motivate reinforcements, and FEDs in body bags, so the cops would not back off. They wanted a war that they could spin their direction – it’s about propaganda powerful enough to topple the government.
I know, I’m taking the long way around the barn. The Vegas shooters were opposed to ALL authority – shooting local cops was just as good (to them) but it would have been counterproductive as propaganda, which is why we are hearing cricket chirps from the TP, rather than a vigorous defense. BTW, I’m seeing this as a defining line of demarcation among the revolutionaries – violent opposition to ALL authority or only federal authority?
The second shooter is the Georgia courthouse shooter, from Friday. He’s dead and never got anyone else. He shot a local cop in the leg. He was armed to the teeth, plus gas mask, bulletproof vest, etc, Re motive, he was a gun nut more than anything, about to lose his right to own guns over a drug conviction. So far, no TP or militia connection. He died in a hailstorm of gunfire before he got in the courthouse. There ‘happened’ to be a SWAT team in the neighborhood. No less than 8 officers were firing on the courthouse shooter when he died. Some of the cops broke out second story windows to get a bead on him in a fight that may have lasted 3 minutes. It sure looks to me like the cops were waiting for him. I shed no tears – he was prepared to take hostages, but if my speculation is right, it was a public execution.
I followed up the Hutaree from 2010. They were the ‘christian’ militia who were infiltrated by the FBI and busted when they tried to buy the components for bombs. Their plan was to shoot a cop, and then bomb the funeral procession. Heroic and spiritual at the same time. Here’s the kicker I learned last week. All 7 members who were arrested in 2010 were acquitted in 2012. What that means, if I was a cop or prosecutor, is that if you KNOW they are planning something, intervention won’t get them off the street (though it will teach them to be cautious). On the other hand, if you can be there waiting when they try, you can take them out permanently. Granted, this is speculation, but is there a flaw in my reasoning?
Again, guesswork on my part, but the major groups are probably pretty well infiltrated, but the individual kooks that have been whipped into a frenzy are harder to monitor and more inclined to random, irrational violence against all authority. Is the rate of incidents accelerating or is it a fluke? In the last week, it’s entirely the unaffiliated fringe groups, as if the pressure is more than they can stand.
Barbara, what happened to the “How Much Does Right-Wing Rhetoric Contribute… ” article (or post)?