Re: Did Al Sharpton's rhetoric contribute to the deaths of 2 NYPD Police officers?
Just because I'm really, REALLY sick of the hacks on both sides desperately trying to play the "This crazy belongs to you and I'll desperately try to imply he's just a standard [left/right]ist!" game...
In terms of Loughner
I wouldn't say this guy was a left-winger. I wouldn't say he could be classified as "ANY" wing in the classical sense. He's a lot like the lunatic that flew his plane into the IRS building some months back. He's a "bipartisan" whackjob...one who is as likely to spit on Reagan as he would to spit on Obama. From his youtube videos and other things that have came out with regards to his associations and comments, the guy has view points that fall in line with stereotypes of extreme conservatism, extreme liberalism, and extreme libertarianism. Its a mistake to really attempt to put this guy in either political camp. Even if he's "left wing" or "right wing" he's that in a similar sense that a 1 bedroom shack is as much a house as a mansion is. Its unfair to clearly label him as any common ideology, because none of it fits him well and the only reason to do such is to attempt and insult/degrade/implicate through passive correlation.
He had ONE friend that came out afterwords that claimed at one point he was a radical liberal, but acknowledged that his views and attitude had significantly changed since the time they were friends. Another friend came out and suggested he wasn't really someone you could tie to any particular political persuasion. He had plenty of things about him that when taken alone would cause the hacks on this board to scream "LEFT WING!" or "RIGHT WING" at the top of their lungs. Stop it. Stop being hacks. Stop desperately attempting to tie every ****ing lunatic fringe crazy to an ideology in this ridiculous attempt to act like no one notices your transparent hope to slander that entire side by making such a comparison. Stop it.
The Tea Party does not want people to die. Al Sharpton does not want people to die. Democrats do not want people to die. Republicans do not want people to die. Peoples "rhetoric" is not being done with a desire for people to be murdered. Stop this pathetic and repeated attempts to blame groups for crimes they in no way advocated for simply because some lunatic shares a random view point with them here or there.
The Loughner point isn't about whether or not he's left or right, tea party or not. It's more to the point that initially....regardless of the fact that in the end it was unabashedly false...people attempted to blame Sarah Palin and the Tea Party and suggested their "rhetoric" was responsible and contributed to the death. And
before anyone knew for certain this guy was or wasn't a fan of Palin or the tea party, people...RIGHTFULLY...on the right claimed that attacks on the tea party and attempts to place blame on them or Sarah Palin for such a thing was
ridiculous because Palin nor the Tea Party actively advocated for violence or crime and their statements or "rhetoric" in no way meant for crime to occur, and that the only person to "blame" was the shooter.
The exact same thing goes here as it relates to Sharpton.
As it relates to the
entirely separate protesters that had nothing to do with Sharpton, there's a more legitimate argument to be made as they at least are directly "inciting" that specific criminal act...and even then, we'd need to see some evidence that the killer actually heard and was in part motivated by said protests. But at least in that case the hypothetical makes some sense since they, unlike Sharpton, actively were advocating for illegal activity.