Pulse, Orlando, Florida - 1st Anniversary

Honor the dead and the survivors of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016. 

1. Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
2. Amanda L. Alvear, 25 years old
3. Oscar A. Aracena Montero, 26 years old
4. Rodolfo Ayala Ayala, 33 years old
5. Antonio Davon Brown, 29 years old
6. Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
7. Angel Candelario-Padro, 28 years old
8. Juan Chavez Martinez, 25 years old
9. Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
10. Cory James Connell, 21 years old
11. Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old
12. Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
13. Simón Adrian Carrillo Fernández, 31 years old
14. Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old
15. Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
16. Peter Ommy Gonzalez Cruz, 22 years old
17. Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
18. Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old
19. Frank Hernandez, 27 years old
20. Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
21. Javier Jorge Reyes, 40 years old
22. Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
23. Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
24. Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25 years old
25. Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32 years old
26. Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
27. Brenda Marquez McCool, 49 years old
28. Gilberto R. Silva Menendez, 25 years old
29. Kimberly Jean Morris, 37 years old
30. Akyra Monet Murray, 18 years old
31. Luis Omar Ocasio Capo, 20 years old
32. Geraldo A. Ortiz Jimenez, 25 years old
33. Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
34. Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
35. Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
36. Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
37. Jean Carlos Nieves Rodríguez, 27 years old
38. Xavier Emmanuel Serrano-Rosado, 35 years old
39. Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 years old
40. Yilmary Rodríguez Solivan, 24 years old
41. Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
42. Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
43. Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
44. Jonathan A. Camuy Vega, 24 years old
45. Juan Pablo Rivera Velázquez, 37 years old
46. Luis Sergio Vielma, 22 years old
47. Franky Jimmy DeJesus Velázquez, 50 years old
48. Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
49. Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old

Orlando, Fl

The homophobe and mass murderer Omar Mateen, 29, committed the worst mass shooting in American history yesterday, June 12th 2016, when he attacked the Pulse nightclub, a LGBT club in the heart of Orlando, armed with an AR-15-type assault rifle and other weapons, killing 49 people and wounding 53.

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Our thoughts at this time must go to the loved ones of the killed and to the wounded and their families. 

The Other Gunman

Before the Norwegian mass-murderer and terrorist A.B.B. turned up on the scene on July 22, 2011, I was telling you about a gunman in Malmö (Sweden´s third largest city) who seemed to chose his victims among the.large immigrant population of Malmö.

When I last reported about this now 40 y.o. serial-killer on December 21, 2010, (More Charges Brought Against Gunman) he was suspected of three murders and ten attempted murders stretching from 2003 until 2010.

The laborious and complicated investigation has now been concluded and the prosecutor now charges him of three murders and twelve attempted murders. A further two investigated suspicions of murders/attempted murder had to be dropped from the charges as the prosecutor believed he could not conclusively prove the gunman´s guilt in those cases.

The trial started on Monday at Malmö District Court and is expected to go on for two months.

The Malmö-gunman has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Sweden has strict regulations concerning weapons but somehow this xenophobe succeeded in procuring a licence in 2002 and started killing only six months after he got his permit. The gunman used a Glock pistol to commit his crimes but with different barrels in an attempt to make it more difficult for the police to trace the bullets to the same gun.

The Norwegian mass-murderer A.B.B. mentioned the Malmö-gunman and a group of German neo-Nazis as examples of "patriots" taking up arms to fight multiculturalism in Europe, but the two are not believed to be linked with each other.

Criminally Accountable

The Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. is criminally accountable and may be sentenced to prison, according to the conclusion of the second psychiatric evaluation that was today handed to the District Court of Oslo, Norway.

A.B.B. as photographed by Heiko Junge

Psychiatrists Terje Törrisen and Agnar Aspaas conclude in their report that A.B.B. was "not psychotic at the time of the act," 

The second psychiatric evaluation was ordered by the court after the results of the first report were heavily criticized and contested by independent psychiatrists and testimony from the team of psychiatrists and other medical personnel at the prison where A.B.B. is being kept until the trial commences.

A.B.B. is to be tried on charges of terror and murder after killing 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage in Oslo City Center and in a youth camp on the island of Utøya on 22 July, 2011.

If you should wish to read my earlier posts on this, please click A.B.B. in the "Labels" below.

A.B.B. Indicted For Terror and Murder

 Lise Aserud/AFP/Getty Images

"Norwegian prosecutors on Wednesday indicted (A.B.B.) on terror and murder charges for killing 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage on 22 July 2011 but said the confessed mass killer was unlikely to go to prison for the country's worst peacetime massacre.

Prosecutors said they considered the 33-year-old rightwing extremist to be psychotic and would seek a sentence of involuntary commitment to psychiatric care instead of imprisonment unless new information about his mental health emerged during the trial, due to start in April.

As expected, they charged him under a paragraph in Norway's anti-terror law that refers to violent acts intended to disrupt key government functions or spread fears in the population.

(A.B.B.) has confessed to the attacks but denies criminal guilt, portraying the victims as "traitors" for embracing immigration policies he claims will result in an Islamic colonisation of Norway."

Read the whole article on guardian.co.uk here.
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Please note that the question whether or not A.B.B. is indeed criminally insane is being reinvestigated by order of the Oslo District Court..

New Psych Eval For A.B.B.

The Oslo District Court today decided that a new psychological evaluation should be made of the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B and has appointed two psychiatrists to conduct the evaluation.

A.B.B. killed 77 people with a bombing in Oslo city center and by shooting on the island of Utøya on July 22, 2011.

The courts decision comes as no surprise since the earlier evaluation by two court appointed psychiatrists, that found A.B.B. is suffering from psychotic schizophrenia and therefore legally insane, has been heavily disputed among other psychiatrists and also undermined by the opinions reached by a team of psychiatrists and psychologists in Ila prison where A.B.B. is held in custody until the trial. See my earlier posts "Legally Insane" (url), "Sane Enough" (url) and "Sane or Insane?" (url).

According to one of the two trial judges, Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen, the decision was reached so as to "illuminate the matter in a broader way". She continues that whatever conclusion the new evaluation reaches it will be valuable for the courts to have the additional material when deciding the case.

It is uncertain whether or not A.B.B. will be willing to participate in the new examination, but according to expertise there is enough material of video and sound tapes from the police inquiry, the previous evaluation and the diatribes published on the Internet by A.B.B. for the evaluation to be conducted without him.

Sane or Insane?

Prosecutor Svein Holden, said in a letter to the Oslo district court today that three psychologists and one psychiatrist at Ila prison in Oslo, where the mass murderer A.B.B. is held in pretrial detention, informed him they have not observed any signs that he is neither psychotic or schizophrenic. The prison has not started medication of A.B.B. or  seen any need to move him to another facility. Neither have any signs of suicidal tendencies been noticed.

These findings contradict the report of the court appointed team of psychiatrists which found that A.B.B. was legally insane and suffering from psychotic schizophrenia, see "Legally Insane". These findings have earlier been disputed by the Swedish psychiatrist Johan Cullberg, see "Sane Enough".
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I guess we will have to wait and see how the courts rules on this issue, but the line between sanity and insanity is sometimes very, very thin.

...now I am logging into my SecondLife to go see a first life photo exhibition by cbreak.

"Sane Enough"

Today the Swedish psychiatrist Johan Cullberg published a dissenting analysis of A.B.B. after listening to the 36 hours of tapes from the interviews of the Norwegian psychiatric team, DN Debatt -Breivik är tillräckligt frisk för att straffas"

"The 36 hours of interviews with Anders Breivik Behring reveals no indication that he is suffering or has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. To absolve him from accountability and punishment due to mental disorder is offensive unprofessional and unimaginative (...) 

Instead his symptoms indicate a malignant narcissistic personality disorder, or mixed - his megalomaniac notions are closely connected with his elaborate opinions. The terrorist acts are fully consistent with these. This the (Norwegian) investigators do not at all discuss.

None of the interviews reveal anything that could not have been said or done by an extreme political or religious fanatic. Breivik´s "manifesto" is reportedly fully legible, it lacks the verbal lockups and stereotyped phrases that a work of a schizophrenic person would have demonstrated. Probably he would have been accepted by a radical political terror cell. If he suffered from schizophrenia, it would have been much more difficult - he would have had difficulty to hide the bizarre and fragmented world that is always associated with that diagnosis.

Many might wish that such evil ideas and actions like Breivik´s, or for that matter those of Hitler or Stalin, must by definition be "sick". But then you use the concept of disease in an evaluative purpose. It is important that one does not believe that behaviors that we abhor or fear, and precisely for that reason think is abnormal should be classified as sick. Then we narrow our view of capacity for evil in the mentally healthy human as well as broaden the concept of mental disease to an impermissible extent."

Johan Cullberg concludes, "(The Norwegian psychiatrists) have not understood that this is a well thought out philosophy with a fully coherent criminal action."

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The above was translated by Google Translate and corrected by me, I was too impatient to try to do it myself this time.

Cullberg raises the question I tried to raise a few days ago in my post Legally Insane, about where we draw the line between legal sanity and insanity. He does so from a similar starting point but with the added advantage of actually being a psychiatrist himself.

Legally Insane

This morning two court appointed psychiatrists delivered their findings to the Oslo district court in the case of the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B., who killed 77 people in July. 

In their report they have concluded that A.B.B.suffered from psychotic schizophrenia when he committed his crimes and that he is therefor legally insane. The psychiatric findings may mean A.B.B. cannot be sent to jail. 

The court will have the final decision on whether A.B.B. can be held responsible for the crimes, but it generally follows the recommendations of the experts. If the court upholds the conclusion A.B.B. will not be put on criminal trial but would instead face a court hearing to rule on his criminal insanity and the length of his commitment to a psychiatric institution.

It is reported that A.B.B. doesn't approve of the psychiatrists conclusions and that he "feels offended" by them.
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My first thought when I heard this news was that to those of us in the mainstream, the thoughts and actions of extremists must inevitably seem insane and bizarre. This in itself doesn't mean that extremists always are insane by definition, let alone criminally insane in a way that they should not be accountable for their actions.

The reality of an extremist is not the same as ours, neither are his remedies. But then again, I am not a psychiatrist...

"Hatred" revisited and concluded

On September 1st, 2011, I wrote a post named "Hatred". In that post I philosophize about different aspects of hatred that we encounter in real life and in SecondLife.

Afterwards I have been told that some people found my post objectionable because they read it as if I regarded the hate they had demonstrated in a certain instance as equivalent or similar to the hate shown by the Norwegian mass murderer A.B.B. According to their opinion I had not only done so against the people who had been active in the chat I had witnessed and referred to in my post, but to all members of that particular group, whether or not they had taken part in the chat or even if they were logged in to SecondLife at that time or not.

I was also told that I had no basis for my conclusions concerning what I had witnessed because I did not refer to what may or may not have happened in that particular group chat the day before or two hours earlier (when I had not been in-world) or what happened in it after I had logged out of SecondLife. I should have investigated more, they have told me.

The topic has also been elaborated on in some of the Scandinavian SecondLife blogs with the same objections aired.

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I have reread my original post several times and have been contemplating the objections I have received. After due thought and consideration I have reached the following conclusions.

To me hate is hate is hate is hate and will never be anything else but hate. 

Hate is usually defined as an intense dislike of something or some individual or group of people. In my assessment hate makes you blind to any redeeming qualities, it is relentless and poisons your soul and your outlook on the world around you. 

Of course there are different degrees of hating and the damages caused are of different magnitude. I have never said - and have never intended to say - that the haters in SecondLife are anywhere like A.B.B., except possibly by the fact that they allow hate to influence and guide their lives and actions. 

I take full responsibility for my words and actions. I see no need to retract anything whatsoever in the post I wrote. I cannot take away the experiences or hurt feelings that some people claim they have had, but I cannot be held accountable for the hurt feelings of those who deliberately misinterpret or distort my words to suit their own objectives or views.

Finally I would like to emphasize that I have never claimed to be an investigator or a reporter. What I write in this blog is my truth as I experience it and as I witness it. 

I have always chosen to write only about what I witness myself and have never ever relied on what others say has happened before or after or during. This blog is an account of my own experiences, actions and reactions and not a megaphone for anyone else.

Now I intend to go on with my lives without letting the haters affect or influence me anymore.

Defender - An Important Democratic Function

 

The renowned Norwegian lawyer Geir Lippestad has been appointed as public defender for Anders Behring Breivik. He has accepted the task, after due deliberation and discussions with his family and friends.

For accepting this appointment Lippestad has received scorn, contempt and even death threats from parts of the general public - and parts of the media as well - who do not seem to understand the important role of a defender in a democratic state and for the rule of law.

In every democratic legal system everyone who commits a crime is considered innocent - at least by the state if not the general public and the media - until proven guilty in a trial.

All democratic legal system also apply the adversary process of trial in which the prosecutor and the defendant (mostly trough his defense lawyer) compete to convince the court (or in some cases the judge or the jury) of the guilt or innocence of the defendant and what a suitable sentence should be according to law.

The prosecutor has the burden of proof, it is the defense lawyers task to see to it that the prosecutor fulfills his task and that the court before passing judgment is made aware of any facts or circumstances that are beneficial for the defendant.

Through this process we try to avoid condemning someone for a crime they have not committed and that we have convincing evidence - beyond a reasonable doubt - when we do find someone guilty of a crime and sentence them to serve an appropriate punishment.

It is always important that we bear in mind that the role of the defender is to defend the alleged criminal, not the crime.

Scandinavia in Mourning

As the dust is starting to settle after the horrific atrocities in Norway yesterday,. We are all more or less in a state of complete shock in the whole of Scandinavia.

Our hearts go out to our grieving brothers and sisters in Norway for the awful massacre that was perpetrated yesterday. We are all watching the news directly transmitted from the Norwegian television NRK and are all in tears and utter dismay.

As far as has been reported so far, this is what happened.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, an ethnic Norwegian and right wing extremist who is also a Christian fundamentalist and a islamophobic nationalist had a field day yesterday.

It all started with a bomb exploding outside a government building in central Oslo at 3.26 PM on Friday. The explosion killed at least seven people and seriously injured ten others. A tall blond man dressed as a policeman was seen close to the location.

The first reports of the massacre on the island of Utøya, outside Oslo, started coming around 18.25 PM on Friday.

The Norwegian Social Democratic Party´s youth organization was having it´s yearly summer camp on the island and had gathered 560 Norwegian and International youths.

Anders Behring Breivik, dressed in a police uniform, called on the youngsters to gather around him for news about the bombing in Oslo. As they did so he proceeded to start shooting them down, one by one. When the youngsters scattered all over the small island to take cover, and hide or attempting to swim away from the island, Anders Behring Breivik started to seek them out in their hiding places and shoot them execution style, one after the other.

He walked around seeking out his victims and shooting those he found in cold blood for approximately an hour and a half before he could be stopped.

Picture shows Anders Behring Breivik shooting at the beach (Photo by Marus Arnesen, NRK)

The death toll on the island is presently at 85 confirmed dead, but it is expected to increase as there are still many listed as missing.

Anders Behring Breivik was apprehended by The Norwegian Police´s Special Forces. He has been taken into custody and is now being questioned by the police on the events.

Our thoughts and love go out to the murdered and injured, their families and friends and to the whole Norwegian people at this time. This is the worst massacre that has happened in the Nordic countries in modern history and is an attack on democracies everywhere.

We will stand together, side by side, with our Norwegian brothers and sisters, to defend our common beliefs and against the aggression of the right wing extremists, the Christian fundamentalists and the islamophobes and xenophobes.

More Charges Brought Against Gunman

Photo courtesy of Scanpix

The 38 y.o man in Malmö, who has allegedly been shooting on immigrants, was earlier suspected of one murder and five attempted murders. At the new arraignment hearing today the prosecutor added suspicions of two more murders and an additional five attempted murders to the charges.

The District Court in Malmö found enough reason to keep the suspected gunman in custody during the further investigations, now for a total of three murders and ten attempted murders stretching from 2003 until this year.

Security was heavy outside the court due to repeated threats.

Sydsvenskan Also Agrees With Bock

Today the editor in chief and responsible publisher of Sydsvenskan Mr. Daniel Sandström rushes in to support me in the issue concerning the publication of name and image of the supected gunman in Malmö.

For the brilliant analysis and the complete article (in Swedish only) please go here Sydsvenskan.

In his analysis, which is titled "When the Exception Becomes the Norm", Mr Sandström - among many other wise things - says (roughly translated), "How should we interpret "public interest"? The rules on press ethics don´t specify this. But you should use the words in a responsible manner, so that they will not be synonymous with "what people are curious about" or, even worse, "gossip". "Public interest" is about what the citizens have a right to know, or "what is important and relevant to citizens" as that phrase reads in the press ethics. If the detained 38-year-old was released and is free from suspicion, no one can say that his name is of "significance and importance to the citizens". Thus, it is currently too early to draw conclusions about the public interest, and therefore the precautionary principle must apply."

Mr Sandström continues, "Basically it is inherent in all publishing to show "a responsible attitude for the journalistic duties." Today, when information is disseminated on the Internet and is increasingly out of control, many believe that the media's refusal to state name and image has to do with censorship. Others believe that it is pointless to disidentify.  

Wrong. The need for accountability does not decrease because others do not take responsibility. On the contrary, I would say. Right now, it is urgent to show that there are alternatives to a development that puts both journalistic ethics and personal integrity at stake."

No need to tell me, I already know Mr. Sandström never heard of The Much Honoured Bock McMillan, Laird of Southern Charm, but that´s really his loss!

The Tabloids Do It Again

Let me start by declaring firmly that I am a fervent supporter of the freedom of the press. I wholeheartedly believe that it is an essential and fundamental part of any democratic society. I am not going to propose any changes in the strong Swedish "Freedom of Press Act", which is one of our constitutional laws.

However I cannot help getting totally annoyed, irritated and filled with disgust when I see the gutter press again interfering with an ongoing police investigation.

The two largest tabloids in Sweden have today published the name and image of the man suspected to be the Malmö gunman thus to some extent sabotaging the investigation.

As usual both say this was done in the "public interest", which gets to be a lamer excuse everytime they use it but especially in this case where the suspect is a socially isolated and possibly mentaly disabled person.

The newspapers' editorial boards have become more or less like street courts. They seem falsely motivated by the belief that they are better investigators, prosecutors or judges than those hired by the judicial system. Meanwhile what they really are doing is muddying the waters and obstructing justice through their tampering with witnesses.

We need a press that takes it responsibilities seriously and understand that the freedom given to them must be tempered with some measure of common sense and good judgement.

Arrest made in the Malmö-shootings

Photo by Patrick Persson, Sydsvenskan

As I have told you in an earlier post, there is a gunman prowling the streets of Malmö at night shooting at immigrants. At least one victim han been killed and several have been seriously harmed.

A 38 y.o man has today been arrested at his home in central Malmö as a probable suspect for these hate-crimes. The arrested man denies all allegations.

Let us all hope that this reign of terror in Malmö can now be brought to an end.

For further updates in swedish please go to Sydsvenskan 

Pull Your Thumbs Out, Beatrice!

A gunman has been prowling the streets of Malmö, the third largest town in Sweden, at night lately and has been shooting at immigrants. At least 15-18 immigrants are believed to have been shot by this particular person.

The Attorney General of Sweden, Mrs. Beatice Ask, claims "she is following the situation closely" and that she is "concerned".

Today the Mayor of Malmö, Mr. Ilmar Reepalu, in an opinion piece in Sydsvenskan - "Malmö has had enough" - made an excellent analysis and summary of the situation and placed the responsibility firmly and squarely on Mrs. Asks shoulders. Mayor Reepalu  concludes, in his article, that the rule of law cannot make exceptions for certain towns.The people of Malmö have had enough now and must get their sence of security back.

In my opinion Mayor Reepalu makes a a brilliant analysis and a splendid summary of the situation. (Actually I am a bit surprised, because I never agreed with the bugger before...)

The Sweden Democrat Party, the xenophobic option in Swedish politics, has of course already drawn its premature and simplified conclusions. which most of us can completely ignore because they are not based on any analysis, but on their ingrained hatred and contempt for everyone and everything that is not like themselves and think as they do.

It is time to step ut to the plate, Mrs. Ask, and start taking some action. As my Ars always said; 
"Actions speak louder than words!"