American kills German Student!
 

An American shot a 17 years old exchange student from Hamburg, because he thought the boy is a burglar.

The incident happened in Missoula/Montana. The young German was guest student of the "Big High School" there.

The American Society suffers from cancer. The name of this cancer is "Trigger-Happiness".

finnbow how would you translate "Schiesswütigkeit"?

Indeed it does. However, unless 20 people get gunned down at one time, it doesn't make the news here.

Depressing. Very very depressing.

I remember when my son was a guest of a German Family on a school-sponsored trip. I can't imagine what it would have been like for him to not come home. I hope that our obsession with violence does not result in our cancer being given a giant radiation treatment.

Regards,

D-Ray

Very sad indeed, Chris, and not the first time something almost exactly like this has happened.

I want to offer an alternative one-word explanation for this sort of "American Tragedy". It's paranoia.

Chris, you've said that, despite everything, you still like America. I wish you'd tell me why because I'm having a great deal of trouble with my own feelings for the place I was born.

John

Sorry to hear this Chris. We have a sickness eating at society here, it's name is the NRA and it's demon spawn, A.L.E.C.
Condolences to the family and friends of this young man.:(

http://missoulian.com/news/local/mis...a4bcf887a.html

This happened in Missoula. Amazingly, something nearly identical occurred in Billings.

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and...a4bcf887a.html

There's a real good chance of neither shooter being prosecuted. Paranoia, embodied in our Castle Doctrine laws, seems to be a reason enough to kill someone.

No words that could possibly comfort, Chris.

Today is a bad day for my deep affection for the United States. Some hours ago I heard about this insane racism issue in the NBA.

John my affection is hard to explain. It is a bit like love to a woman or a man. If you can explain it like a scientific experiment it is no real love.

A collegue and friend of my father - both physicians - was married with an American woman. Her name was Marge. Both families (together seven children) spent a lot of time together and I loved Marge. She died suffering from cancer when she was 39 and I eleven years old.

My affection to this wonderful woman was the start of an affection to your country that lasts till now. I spent countless time of my life with American TV shows, American movies, American literature (I think some 300 books in my library are written by Americans), American Art like Warhol, Hopper, Copley - but the most influence had the Genius Frank Zappa (there are of course a lot of other American musicians, also classical like Copland as well).

Frank Zappa is my Godfather, my Guru since I was 17. But his lyrics told me a lot of the dark side of America, the evil reality. One of the best examples for that is "Trouble Every Day" describing the Watts Riots. Unforgettable is that a lot of American soldiers lost their life in order to free Germany from Nazi tyranny.

I fear that this post does not make much logical sense - like most of emotional issues - but I try to express that America gave me such a lot that my deep gratitude is in a way something like love.

Since I am member of this forum I know much more what I assumed for many years, that America is a suffering, sick ailing helpless Giant and that the American Society is divided in two parts that are irreconcilable which makes the situation (almost?) hopeless. So I understand your sentiments John. You are so close to all that miseries your society is suffering from that you can't see the positive things anymore. Your country is partly so indescribable beautiful and in this country live so many indescribable wonderful people.

My best American friend is the Afro-American AK member Don. Once he told me a precious sentence, and now I want to tell it to you John, remember this sentence when you think there are only evil stupid politically intolerant people around you:

"Never forget that some people have nothing else to do than to try to make others feel and or seem small in their eyes and you just can't give them that satisfaction."

Well said Chris.

It appears that the kid was in somebody's garage at midnight.

Thats not the same as walking home from the corner store with Ice Tea and skittles at 7PM.

I'd need to hear some more details before I rush to judgement.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/upd...a4bcf887a.html

Thanks for your thoughtful response, Chris. I agree with much of what you say, especially regarding some of the great contributions of some Americans to the arts and to social commentary. Many of the people you mentioned are heroes of mine too.

What disturbs me is that all those people are gone and there are none to take their place here. Instead we get "art" from the "Fast & Furious" movies and rap and our social commentary from talk radio. America is no longer the source for anything positive in the world.

And sadly, the sentence you quoted, "Never forget that some people have nothing else to do than to try to make others feel and or seem small in their eyes and you just can't give them that satisfaction."

Speaks to me of America's attitude toward the rest of the world and our leaders' attitude toward us.

John

If you found someone in your garage would your first reaction to be to shoot them?

John

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."


Elanor Roosevelt

Chris;

Welcome to our nightmare.

Dave

I'm thinking that locking the door between the house and the garage and a call to 911 would suffice.

The conservative death wish makes some people want to kill others. Give them half a reason, and they'll do it.

That's what I was thinking. Reserving any physical harm by gun, knife, truncheon or whatever for when or if he should attempt to kick in the door.

However, we really don't know all the specifics.

Although, I am assuming that if the homeowner possessed a weapon prior to entering the garage, he knew someone was in there. Therefore, I would agree that I would wait inside the house with weapon ready and wait until law enforcement arrives. And, even at that point, I would have not fired or struck until I was certain the intruder was a clear threat. But, I would not have proceeded into the garage.

Dave

I recently told me nieces son, a 20 year old college student;

"......This is nothing new. Private militia have been around as long as I can remember. Some of them live for the day they have an excuse to live out their Ramboesque fantasy of taking on the government in a gun fight. They've spent huge amounts of time, energy and money, planning, prepping and dreaming about it for years. The instant they think they can pull it off and have public support, the shit will hit the fan. ANY EXCUSE, Tyler. Think about that."

This was in reference to the militia folks gathering at the Bundy Ranch.

Dave

Yeah, but................ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informe...f-the-militias

John

Terrible sad and stupid occurrence but from what I just read the shooter been charged.

I wounder being unable to find an image of Diren and him being of Turkish ancestry if racism or profiling might be an issue? We would assume a problem with language and cultural differences at the least.



Barney

I don't think there's any question among right minded Americans that our democratized gun carnage is (y'know I was gonna say "crazy" but it's not "crazy" which implies out of one's control to a large extent, so instead I'm gonna say) despicable.

You may have seen my favorite example here already, but I'll say it again. Within six months of their single mass school shooting, the Dunblane incident in 1997, the British people through their governmental process, outlawed all handguns and most other firearms outside of long barreled non-automatic hunting rifles and shotguns. The result? The gun homicide rate in the US is now 40 times the rate in the UK.

This shooting. Well...the SCOTUS has already decided we all have the right to defend our property with lethal force. And the courts have decided that even if the incident turns out to not have been a situation that actually required lethal force, that if the shooter simply mistakenly thought it required lethal force, it's still justified.

Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall was wrong when he said: "What this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar."

What this five-cent cigar really needs is a good country.

Somehow conservatives believe that unlimited access to firearms for everyone solves more problems than it causes. They think such senseless shootings are a fair price to pay for their "freedom." Though I've been a gun owner for nearly 50 years, I still don't get it.

I've had two incidents where I was awakened by a noise in my garage.

The first was when a garage door spring broke.

The second was when a bicycle rack that I had hung a bike on came down from the wall, along with the bike.

Both times it was a big crash and I had no idea what it was.

Both times I went out to investigate and both times I took a gun with me just in case.

Neither time was I looking to shoot anybody, just figured it wouldn't hurt to have a gun.

However, in either case, if I had been reasonably sure there was someone in my garage I wouldn't have gone out there.

I probably would have called the Police.



On the other hand back in the days when I had my two teenaged boys I was often awakened by the sound of one or both of them coming in late on a non school night and making as much noise as a bull in a china shop. I was so used to it then, I would just go back to sleep.

Totally agree.

Something is going on there thou. finn posted two articles almost the same. Maybe locally they are having a rash of crime/home invasions.

Fixed that for you. ;)

Tons of assumption in this thread.

As a reminder, Dan, this thread is also about Diren who was killed by one of your fellow citizens.

Thanks for putting a face to this!


Barney

He loved to play soccer and his school class will start a charity game in Hamburg in order to support his family.

Be sure to pass along to others, not all Americans are paranoid gun nuts who shoot first and question later.

We have good police departments that if allowed to do their jobs are more then capable. But we have a small group who live in a fantasy of the noble Wild Wild West and being independent.

Just going on the facts from the little news I have read so far.

Barney

It would be totally stupid if I would generalize and accuse all American citizens. I think I know how to discriminate. Most Americans are for sure civilized people who deserve respect.

I know, John. It has gotten worse, but the principle is the same. A bunch of assholes that want to overthrow the government with little more than a vague (and very delusional) idea of what they would replace it with. The difference today is that there wasn't the nutcase, far right media machine there is today. It has grown into a beast, both in the cable news and internet.
Even the local FM rock station jocks were beginning to talk about the Bundy crowd as "patriots" and all that crap, until the "the negro" incident.

You and I both know what this shit is.

Dave

Man, you said a mouthful there. But, not so small, unfortunately.

Dave

Well I'm certainly no right wing gun nut.

I think George Zimmerman is guilty of murder and should be rotting in prison right now.

And once I hear all the facts of this case I may feel the same way about this shooter.

But I still want to know what that kid was doing in someone elses garage at midnight.

All the talk of overthrowing the government stems from the days around 1776, and yes Dave they at first replaced the Crown with a Confedearcy and we all know what a cluster f*** that proved to be. It is beginning to look like the second effort is only marginally better. Then we got the BOR and the only two amendments that are "honored" today are the First and Second amd it is not ccertain that they have been interpreted correctly.

Three words I am nauseated past reason hearing, "conservative", "patriot", and "liberal", the last as used as a Red State Conservative perjorative.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

I laugh because the GOPers would not recognize a real conservative if one bit them on the arse. I would suggest he get a rabies shot first.:)

Not enough Americans. If enough Americans were civilized people who deserve respect, we wouldn't have this bullshit going on in this country. Our gun homicide rate would not be 40 fucking times the rate in the UK if enough Americans were civilized people.