Lone Wolf Attack
As 27 federal and local agencies investigate the mass shooting at an Oak Creek, Wisconsin Sikh gurdwara south of Milwaukee that left seven people dead including the shooter as a suspected domestic terrorism case, more limited details are emerging about the "hate rock" suspect, who appears to be part of a trend of distressed lone wolves.
Wade Michael Page, the alleged killer, according to multiple news sources was a 40 year old Army veteran with a hate symbol tattoo who received a demotion and a less than honorable discharge from the military in 1998 for "patterns of misconduct" according to CNN after six years of service, finishing up at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Disgruntled military veteran killers like Nidal Hassan (who was in the Army), Holocaust Museum shooter James von Brunn, Olympic and clinic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph as well as executed Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh and D.C. Sniper John Allen Muhammad (the latter two had accomplices), have led many to mechanistically conclude that military service is part of a profile of loner extremists.
The real story is far more complex, as it is more likely that a first responder or victim to a mass shooting will be a military veteran than the shooter. Irrespective of their military status, these kind of killers are often depressed, socially and psychologically itinerant adult males whose significant and defining life setbacks in career or relationships create a festering anger that explodes into violence against a symbolic target. These targeted locations and innocent people are the sincere focus of aggression in the contorted thinking of someone whose anger and belief system leads them to settle a score and reaffirm their self worth by achieving notoriety through violence. A violent act transforms them from losers to warriors for a cause that is bigger than they are, and they are hitting back, not only on behalf of themselves, but for others who faced similar unfairness from an uncaring society.
The three main categories of extremist aggressors are listed below, and usually one is the primary element with an offender, with at least one other playing a secondary supporting role:
. The Ideologically Motivated (Religious, Political or Hybrid)
. The Psychologically Dangerous (Sociopath or Cognitively Impaired)
. Personal Benefit or Revenge
A politically controversial, if not prescient 2009 DHS Report noted:
The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
Hate Rock and Hate Crime
Page according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was "part of the white power music scene since 2000, when he left his native Colorado on a motorcycle." SPLC further reports:
He attended white power concerts in Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Colorado. At various times, he said, he also played in the hate rock bands Youngland (2001-2003), Celtic Warrior, Radikahl, Max Resist, Intimidation One, Aggressive Force and Blue Eyed Devils. End Apathy, he said, included "Brent" on bass and "Ozzie" on drums; the men were former members of Definite Hate and another band, 13 Knots.
The SPLC also stated that in 2000 Page attempted to buy materials from the neo-Nazi National Alliance, that at the time, was among the nation's most prolific sellers of hate material and music. Page reportedly belonged to a group called End Apathy and conducted an interview on a hate rock website.
The National Alliance frequently sought to recruit active duty military and veterans, specifically targeting Fort Bragg in the late 1990s, where page had served. In 1995 a billboard outside the installation advertised the hate group, and in December 1995 two neo-Nazi soldiers from the Fort killed an African-American couple off base after getting drunk and listening to hate rock music.
According to the Sikh coalition there have been about 700 instances of violence or non-criminal discrimination against the community since 9/11 including homicides, assaults, and arson. Sikhism was established in what is now the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent about five centuries ago and its 27 million adherents constitute the fifth largest religious faith. Recently a bill was introduced to count anti-Sikh hate crime in federal hate crime statistics. About 4% of hate crimes take place at houses of worship, with 16% of anti-religion hate crimes occurring there. Over the last decade the FBI has reported less than one dozen hate homicides annually and reported hate crime are near fourteen year lows. At the same time, the number of hate groups nationally has risen each year over the last decade to over 1,000. The overwhelming majority of hate crimes overall are not committed by hard core hate mongers, but hard core hatemongers are believed to be responsible for about 33%-40% of hate motivated homicides.
We will find out more about the offender and motives behind this horrendous atrocity, which shocked the sensibilities of our pluralistic democracy. One thing is certain, lone wolves, have been and remain a significant domestic terror risk that is difficult to thwart. A combination of isolation, depression, anger and an enabling hateful belief system, as in the case of hate rock, often combine to produce acts of inexplicable violence against innocent people, except in the twisted minds of those who commit these crimes, and those who share their hatreds and frustrations.
Follow Brian Levin, J.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/proflevin
Jalees Rehman, M.D.: Wisconsin Shootings: Sympathy Is Not Enough
Jasminder Kaur: Sikh Americans: Feeling Alienated and Targeted In America
Sahaj Kohli: Sikhism, Identity and Where I Stand In Light Of the Wisconsin Shooting
Condition a human being into a functioning automaton. Then hope that they will naturally revert to their original mental state, when cut loose. A procedure that does not appear dependable. Which is probably why the military are now conditioning recruits to operate as an entity dedicated to preserving life, if at all possible. So that this training relates to real life in all situations and circumstances.
“The real story is far more complex”
The skills to police differ from those required to annihilate. The first places value on life, while the second devalues it.
“from losers to warriors”
Surely the true loser achieves nothing, even with that final act. While a warrior that declares war on life itself, seeks conflict that’s self defeating.
“One thing is certain”
We do not teach our young the skills necessary to question what is being presented to them. If information is correct, then why would anyone not wish them empowered to make that evaluation for themselves? If the data is not correct.Yet they are unable to establish that for themselves. Who bears that responsibility?
1.
The shaping of a society depends on a set of forces applied by the economically - first - and by the politically - second - ruling groups. Not by the average Mr Jones, you and me.
The american society is wonderful when taken at individual scale: the individual love for liberty, the respect for any individual - based not on his progeny or color, but on who he/she is -, the formidable work ethics, the earnest, warm and open attitude towards anybody.
But the same society includes deep paradoxes: the traditionally strict and puritan ethics of the protestant and baptist creeds at the base of american society has clashed in the recent decades with the distorted view of the world engineered by the great industry in order to manufacture a silent or active consent -, whereby it's ok to use and abuse any resource - natural or human, including our own body, now vilified and objectified like never before - in the name of profit, simplistically associating the profit with the general well-being of a society.
The puritan ethics of the hard work and self-reliability has been coupled with the requirements of the big industry to work ever more effectively, at the same time creating an incredibly stratified society where ever thicker barriers of suspicion, fear, egoism grow between individuals based on each one's census, profits and "stuff", fostered by the messages broadcasted
And this is the area that really needs to be further explored to,
1) Truly understand tragedies like the one that happened in Wisconsin, and
2) Prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.
Because the study social networks teaches us that we are not alone in our decision making. We are the products of the environments that we live in. Specifically, it has been suggested that those with suicidal tendencies, as an example, are usually on the periphery of a social network. So, they develop such thoughts because of limited social feedback.
The cure for preventing suicides in society, terrorism, and sociopathic behavior is relatively the same: We need to better understand social networks, to map them, in order to identify at risk individuals within network (those at the periphery of networks). Then, we relocate such individuals to be more near the center of the network in order to increase social feedback/the influence of the environment.
The answer, according to the study of social networks, is in increasing connection.
Part 1:
What happened in Wisconsin is indeed a tragedy. But to truly understand it, this type of article doesn’t ultimately help. Well, that’s not completely true. It is good to know the symptoms of a person in this type of situation. But unfortunately, what is missing, and further needed, is analysis which seeks to uncover why such a person acts this way.
And yes, perhaps this article sought to do that, but it does not really skim the surface. This is because it looks at the actions of an individual, yes, a troubled individual, and states various characteristics which other extremely troubled individuals, who have committed similar crimes, also share.
But the role of the environment that such a person is brought up in is largely absent here. And this is a severe shame. As the recent study of social networks has proven, our friends’ friends’ friends’ affect practically everything we do. They affect whether we are obese, prone to depression, what political parties we vote for, whether we exhibit altruistic tendencies, etc.
We dont call the suicide bombers out of the muslim world as lone wolf killers we view them as part of the bigger terror picture with Al Qaeda and such. We view Al Qaeda to be fostering the environment that makes these types of attacks common.
To look away from the bigger picture of the ultra far right movement is a very naive way to deal with this problem it is like we should look upon Muslim bombings as single attacks of a lone wolf killer when we would never be that naive in that case.
good people, very good people, sorry for their loss...
put the people under enough pressure and this is what you get,so stupid.,so sad.
whilst we put our brilliance on mars.
Wolves tend to hunt in packs. Raccoons do a hell of a lot of killing and usually do it solo.
How about we start referring to these alleged perpetrators as "Lone Raccoon Killers."
When third-rate press hacks romanticize criminals to sell newspapers or attract clicks, it is pathetic enough.
How about if all the J.D. types all agree not to follow suit?