Connor Betts, Dayton mass murderer

[AlwaysComingHome]

Beard, anime fan & pronouns going by his social media profile (though waiting for better source than heavy.com)

I don't understand what you are trying to say? Or what this has to do with Feminism...

I don’t understand either. This is a grotesque example of male violence but the fact he may be a “woke bloke” with a beard has nothing to do with it surely.

You forgot metalhead.
Remember when heavy metal was the cause of everything bad?

I think the main relevance is that it doesn't matter whether you're extreme right wing or regard yourself as extreme left wing and support Bernie Saunders, Elizabeth Warren, Antifa and use the correct pronouns you can still hate and resent women. As if we didn't know.

He had a rape list

Depressing and horrible

I thought it was video games that caused all things bad?

On a serious note, a number of this shooter's high school peers have been pointing out he kept rape lists and hit lists and was known to be a danger to women back then, ie ten years ago. The American media have in some cases run with 'he was bullied at school'. His peers say no, he was the bully and vile and dangerous.

Violence towards women is known to be a common factor amongst many/most who go on to commit mass violence. That is a feminist point.

Could we perhaps follow the No Notoriety protocol?

It doesn't stop us talking about criminals or their motivations, just means we don't boost their personal fame by putting their names in thread titles or showing pics of their faces.

nonotoriety.com

NO NOTORIETY MEDIA PROTOCOL
To reduce rampage acts of mass violence due to media-inspired fame.

• Adhere to the journalistic principle to "Minimize Harm," keeping in mind the responsibility of balancing the public's need for information vs. potential harm.

• Recognize that the prospect of infamy serves as a motivating factor for other individuals to kill and inspires copycat crimes .

• Report the facts surrounding the mindset, demographic and motivational profile, without adding complimentary [sic, I think should be complementary] color to the individual or their actions, and downplay the individual's name and likeness, unless the alleged assailant is at large.

• Limit the name to once per piece as a reference point, never in the headlines and no photo above the fold. Refuse to broadcast/publish self-serving statements, photos, videos and/or manifestos made by the individual. After initial identification, limit the name and likeness of the individual in reporting, except when the alleged assailant is still at large and, in doing so, would aid in the assailant's capture.

• Elevate the names and likenesses of all the victims killed and/or injured to send the message their lives are more important than the killer's actions.

• Agree to promote data and analysis from experts in mental health, public safety, and other relevant professions to support further steps to help eliminate the motivation behind mass murder.

IT'S A MATTER OF PUBLIC SAFETY
No Name. No Photo. #NoNotoriety.

I think that it is fair enough to note his ideological beliefs, given that the other shooter on the same weekend was far right and lots of people are discussing that. Nobody is saying that giving your pronouns makes you a mass murderer, but it doesn't seem to inoculate you from it.

I like the no notoriety protocol, and agree that violence is a feminist issue.

PS I'm what many people seem to consider "far left" (as in, a social democrat). I am definitely not looking to smear "the left" as violent. I do think that the ideological beliefs of violent people are interesting and important though

Far left and far right are two cheeks of the same arse. The western world is often, for historic reasons, more comfortable calling out the far right. The particular ideology is not the common point between acts of mass violence though so I personally find it more productive to concentrate on what the two shooters (and Islamic terrorists etc) have in common than get bogged down in ideological views.

The media rarely seem interested in exploring such questions unfortunately.

Quote from the Heavy.com article:

The Neckbeard Deathcamp band wrote on Twitter, “I did not know Conner Betts personally, but the midwest grind scene isn’t large and we spend a lot of time pushing pornogrind out of Chicago DIY. For what it’s worth men who cape hard line “””””left””””” politics who still treat women like sh*t are not exactly a new invention.”

There is a picture of Betts wearing a dress and a balaclava, too.

He killed his own sister.

So yes, I would like to see this particular perpetrator’s beliefs and actions discussed in a feminist context.

IT'S A MATTER OF PUBLIC SAFETY
No Name. No Photo. #NoNotoriety.

I’m really not impressed his photo etc is here tbh

We should discuss Male violence of course, but this no notoriety thing has been much discussed since the Christchurch shooting so I’m not sure why anyone would continue to give these men what they want.

I have plenty of gun lovers here who are now telling me it’s video games to blame yet who intone “guns don’t kill people, people do”. Yeah, fucking no, asshole. Video games don’t kill people, people with guns do.

JessicaWakefieldSV you have a point about not glorifying these mass shooters and giving them notoriety but I find it troubling that gun lobbyists here (USA) mouth the same mantra and I have to ask myself why don’t they want these people to be known and seen? See, I think it’s important we know who they are because in the majority they are white males with extremist far right political agendas as are many clinging to their second amendment rights here. It’s a fine line to walk I agree though.

I think we could describe a person without the name and photo addition, as that’s why they do it often. It’s also painful for the families to see the murderer get more attention on his face, than their children, family or friend etc

I can tell you off the top of my head that the Christchurch shooter was a white male who espoused some white supremacist agenda.

Can't tell you off the top of my head what his name is, and wouldn't know what he looks like. It didn't stick because the coverage (that I saw) tended towards No Notoriety.

So No Notoriety doesn't stop us discussing the behaviour or the background. It just doesn't assist with turning the individuals into icons.

PerkingFaintly

Exactly the reason for the campaign not to publish more than necessary details.

The daily mail here was disgusting regarding the Christchurch shooting, they showed his footage on the homepage, it auto played.

I would certainly appreciate it if the motive of misogyny would get some press, along side the clear racist motivations for El Paso. Somehow when the motive is hatred of women this is seen as expected by the press rather than worth commenting on.

I agree with the No Notoriety position, however, if the murderer wasn't named specifically, it would have stopped all the people who went to school with him from realising who it was and countering the narrative with the truth about how he was the bully, not the bullied, who also kept a rape list. So I think it's important that his name is also in the media.

Yes, the No Notoriety recommendation is to mention the name, but if possible only once per article and not in the headline.

As you say, it's important that people who know him recognise him and add their information.

I thought the story was relevant to the feminist board because of his support for Antifa, who overlap considerably with the TRA movement, and the way he easily balanced wokeness over pronouns with a psychopathic hatred of women. Does anyone really think he’ll be the last?

He wasn't the first so no, I don't think he'll be the last.

As for No Notoriety I thought that was more about not emphasising the shooter/suicide bomber/bloke that drove a car into a crowd rather than not naming them at all.

So more emphasis on victims and experts, and just a simple factual statement of name rather than delving into details for the shooter.

"Pornogrind". Jesus wept, how much worse can this world get?

www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-04/el-paso-dayton-gilroy-mass-shooters-data

For two years, we’ve been studying the life histories of mass shooters in the United States for a project funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve built a database dating back to 1966 of every mass shooter who shot and killed four or more people in a public place, and every shooting incident at schools, workplaces, and places of worship since 1999. We’ve interviewed incarcerated perpetrators and their families, shooting survivors and first responders. We’ve read media and social media, manifestos, suicide notes, trial transcripts and medical records.

Our goal has been to find new, data-driven pathways for preventing such shootings. Although we haven’t found that mass shooters are all alike, our data do reveal four commonalities among the perpetrators of nearly all the mass shootings we studied.

You'll never guess which commonality they somehow managed to miss...

So is anime to blame for shooting now? Or is it still games? Or are we back to blaming music?