Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Another tragic day in A-merry-ca.
As painful as this next subject is to blog about, I can't shy away from it. And if any of you reading this lost a loved one or a friend in that tragic work place shooting today, you might not want to read any more.I was ready to write post about Negroes in A-merry-ca and when we started killing people after losing our jobs. (You Negroes know you don't care about getting fired). It is, after all, just a job. We are used to getting f&*%%d over in the work place. White folks, on the other hand, not so much. If you fire a white man you damn well better have a good reason, because it is not something he takes lightly. The term going postal has always somewhat of an "oxymoronic" feel to it. All those black folks working at the post office, and I guarantee you that you will never see one of them taking out their co-workers because of a perceived slight or injustice surrounding the workplace.
Then I saw this tragic story in Connecticut, and I thought to myself, wow. Omar Thornton totally shattered all the stereotypes that I bought into when it comes to workplace shootings.
Anyway, I read an article today that made me think that it was not just about him losing his job, but why he lost it. The author (who is black) was lamenting the loss of self control by the younger black generation when they suffer the sting of racism."Thornton shot a number of people, and as of this writing, it's not known how many because what once stood at seven killed just rose to nine killed, so we don't know how many were injured in some kind of way. Here's the exact quote from the Hartford Courant regarding Omar Thornton's possible motive for the shooting at Hartford Distributors:
Joanne Hannah, who lives in the Enfield neighborhood where Thornton lived until about a month ago, said her daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for eight years. Thornton, who is black, had complained about being racially harassed at work. Thornton brought his complaints to his superiors, who did nothing about it, she said her daughter told her.A New Trend: blacks who kill over racism
It seems there's a new and to this blogger, disturbing "small" trend of late where black men are as likely to commit workplace shootings as any white male.
The last person that comes to mind was was porn star Stephen Hill in Van Nuys, California, who, in June, went off and killed one person and stabbed another at the Ultima DVD office. Hill was black, and like Thornton, was about to be fired from his job. In Hill's case, he was called a "wacky guy" and no one mentioned racism. But then, no one who was close to him was interviewed at the time.
This is disturbing because I and my generation (I turn 48 tomorrow) was raised to be hardened and to expect racism, to point it out, but to not react violently to it.
Because racism is a mental illness, people who are racist are to be treated with pity and avoided. That's the way I'm conditioned to think.
Frankly, you just didn't hear of someone black who would open fire and kill anyone over racism. We were instructed that it was a sickness that's "just part of the deal" and something you needed to overcome to be successful.
This small trend says nothing good about the overall mental strength of the next generation of black men. If one who's black and make [sp] expects to be successful in America, reacting violently to racism can't be considered an option." [Article]
Hmmm. OK. Of course one should not react violently to anything. That is not how civilized human beings should act. Right people?I saw on CNN tonight that Thornton suffered a lot of racial taunts at work, and when he was told that he would be let go he snapped. "I killed the five racist that were bothering me" he allegedly said.
"Holliday said Thornton had been complaining to relatives that in the several years he worked at Hartford Distributors he was confronted with blatant racism.
PICTURES: Hartford Distributors Shooting
Holliday said, "He had some instances of racism at the company. They were hanging nooses in the bathroom and writing stuff like that. They were singling him out because he was the only black person there in that area."
Thornton's family said he had taken pictures of the threats and said they believe he just snapped Tuesday morning.
They said they expressed condolences to the families of the victims, but they said they were mourning, too."
"This all could have been avoided," Holliday said. "He went to the Union a couple of times with issues concerning what was going on, and it was not dealt with appropriately." [Article]
He is not alone, others have killed in the work place with underlying racial motives, but the scope of this carnage and tragedy today was incomprehensible. And let's not forget the families of those poor souls who lost their lives, they did not deserve this, and neither does our country.Finally, I have to leave you with an other tragic story: I am talking about the one in Northern Louisiana where six children lost their lives after drowning while their family members watched.
Black people, this is not funny anymore; please teach your children how to swim. Schools offer swimming lessons, they can learn at the local Y, and there are various city programs geared to teaching swimming to young children. I can't imagine the horror of watching your own child drown and not being able to do anything about it.
"The two families had come to the area for a cookout, and the teenagers waded into the shallows, about 10 feet from the bank, said Cindy Chadwick, a public information officer for the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Department. About 10 minutes later, the teenagers began coming back to shore when one boy slipped on the slick riverbed and fell into deep water.“All of sudden, there was nothing underneath him,” Ms. Chadwick said.
The teenagers went to help, but neither they nor the other family members knew how to swim. There was one life jacket on hand, which they threw into the river.
“Family members saw them go in and screamed for help,” Mr. Sanders said. “There were some other citizens along the beach area that came to the rescue.”
The fire department was called around 6:30 p.m., Mr. Sanders said. Dive teams came shortly afterward to recover the bodies of the victims, a search that took hours. " [Article]
Sad, just sad.
Conn. Gunman: 'I Wish I Could Have Killed More People'
Girlfriend of Connecticut Gunman Who Killed 9: Racial Harassment 'Would Make Somebody Go Crazy'
After hunting down and killing coworkers that he thought were racist, the gunman at the Connecticut beer distributorship called 911 and calmly explained that he was done shooting but wished he had murdered more.
"You probably want to know the reason for this," Omar Thornton said in a relaxed tone."This place is a racist place. They treat me bad over here and all the other black employees bad over here too."
"So I took it into my own hands and handled the problem," he said. "I wish I could've got more of the people."
"I'm not going to kill nobody else though," said Thornton. "I'm calmed down."
Thornton refused to tell the operator where in the building he was located, "These cops are going to kill me," he said.
"When they find me that's when everything's going to be over," said Thornton.
Before abruptly ending the four minute call, Thornton told the operator that he was the only black driver at the company and claimed that he had been treated badly since he was hired. Thornton also admitted to the operator that he was armed but that he only had one gun left because he left the second in the warehouse.
A recording of Thornton's 911 call was made just hours after the CEO of Hartford Distributors today dismissed claims that racial harassment at the company drove Thornton to brutally gun down eight of his co-workers at the company's Connecticut warehouse Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters at an afternoon news conference, CEO Ross Hollander read prepared remarks about each of the victims, recalling his memories of their character. Hollander said that Thornton, who killed himself, had been "embraced" at the company until a company investigation revealed that he had been stealing and reselling beer.
"As for the claims that Omar's actions were the result of racial insensitivity, I can state to you unequivocally that no claim has ever been brought to the attention of our company," Hollander said, adding that no complaint had ever been filed with neither the company nor the government.
Hollander called the shooting an "inexplicable act," and spokesman James Battaglio noted that of 69 dockworkers at the warehouse, four were African Americans, nine Hispanic and one Asian.
Earlier today on "Good Morning America," Thornton's girlfriend described a far different workplace, saying she heard evidence of enough racial harassment the man had allegedly suffered at work to drive someone "crazy."
"He said every day when he'd come in, there'd be new stuff on the [bathroom] wall," Kristi Hannah said. "One was a hangman with a noose around his neck and underneath it said, 'Kill the n-word.'"
Hannah, who said she was gunman Omar Thornton's girlfriend for nine years, said he showed her cell phone pictures of the racial slurs written in the bathroom.
"I know what I seen on that wall and that picture and that would make somebody go crazy," she said. "If they keep doing it to somebody over and over and over and over and over. And I know that was happening to him because no one just wakes up one day and does that."
911 Calls Detail Hartford Shooting
Hannah's comments came in stark contrast to those made on panicked 911 calls during the 45 minute rampage which were released Wednesday.
More Photos
"Someone got shot, I got shot," Steven Hollander, the vice president of Hartford Distributors, told a 911 operator as he hid in his office. "We need the cops."
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO STEVE HOLLANDER'S 911 CALL
Hollander told the operator he knew the gunman.
"His name is Omar Thornton. He's a black guy, and get the cops here right away, I'm bleeding all over the place," Hollander said. "We need cops right away."
Hollander is believed to be one of the first of Thornton's victims and one of the few to survive after being shot. He was treated at a Hartford hospital for a gunshot wound to his neck.
Thornton opened fire right after meeting with Hollander, 50, who had given him a choice either to be fired or quit. Thornton had been trailed by a private investigator hired by the company after he was suspected of stealing alcohol from the distributor, police said.
In the 911 call, Hollander described a scene of complete chaos.
"There are people running all over the place," he said. "He's running, he's shooting at someone else, he's still shooting. He's still running after people, he's not leaving."
"Oh, s***, he's still shooting, I hear guns out there," Hollander said. "He's in the parking lot shooting people, he's carrying a red lunch bag."
"Today, just now, before he started shooting," Hollander said. "He's chasing people in the parking lot."When the 911 operator asked Hollander if the gunman had worked at the distributor, Hollander said, "Yeah, 'til I just fired him."
One woman told emergency dispatchers she was hiding in a storage closet, crying for help and repeating "Oh my God, Oh my God."
Thornton passed over several people during the rampage inside and around the distributor, according to Manchester Police Lt. Chris Davis, who said Wednesday authorities believe the first few victims were likely targeted.
Davis declined to specify who the first of Thornton's victims were, but said that many of those who were killed were "executives" or "higher level" employees. All of those who were shot were 49 or older.
>via:http://abcnews.go.com/US/connecticut-shooters-girlfriend-talks-alleged-racial-harassment/story?id=11330589&page=1