Terror on the 4th

 The first notices started popping up on Twitter mid-morning as I gathered my clubs to go to the driving range in Highland Park—active shooter at a 4^th of July parade.   It stopped me in my tracks and I ended up spending the day much like I did 21 years ago on 9/11, watching the news unfold, fielding phone calls from friends and exchanging messages with others.    As the perpetrator remained at large until early evening, much of the North Shore was shut down as a precaution. 

In certain respects, this was worse than 9/11 as I watched events unfold.  It was eerie to see news cameras pan around and all the sights were familiar.  I had just passed through the area the day before. And just like 9/11, I was glued to the news most of the day as 4^th of July activities got quashed.

By the end of the evening, three politicians—J.B. Pritzker, Tammy Duckworth and Lori Lightfoot all lined up to score political points, more or less reading the same talking points about “assault weapons,” even though Highland Park has the most comprehensive firearms restriction regimen in the country.  The ever Woke and politically compliant Cardinal Cupich dutifully parroted the message, which led me to consider whether we would have fewer of these instances if Cupich didn’t drive young people away from the Catholic faith.  This disgusting parade was followed by the eloquent Vice President’s appearance the next day, soothing the wounds of the mourning citizens of Highland Park to “seriously take this seriously.”   Pritzker’s and Lightfoot’s words of condolence drew ire from social media as their policies have created an environment in which 7 dead and 30 wounded in Chicago is just kind of an average weekend now.

But most troubling is a pattern that is emerging of mass killings with unexplained loose ends, and missed opportunities.  Robert Crimo had painted a disturbing image of a person holding a rifle on his mother’s wall.  After threatening to kill his family, police took away his knifes and a sword and yet he was still able to obtain a FOID card (which his father co-sponsored).  Most puzzling is that his father, while under investigation, has been blathering all over the press, explicitly saying he had no regrets for co-signing his FOID application, saying that he had had a conversation the night before the shooting in which they discussed mass shootings, and said his son had “good morals.”  Also, Crimo’s social media posts show him in Antifa-like garb, and there was an Antifa gathering in nearby Wilmette a few days before.

Another unexplained piece of this was a witness who stated that he saw a shooter on the ground in a “military style crouch,” a male with a backpack and that he “looked into his eyes.”  This seems at variance with the fact that Crimo was in a dress shooting from a rooftop.

Like Uvalde, there are lots of unanswered questions.  The Uvalde police inexplicable did not follow modern doctrine and training and permitted the shooter to carry on without interference.  The police actually blocked individuals from attacking the attacker.  We also don’t have answers as to where this kid got $5,000 or so to purchase two top of the line AR-15s, ammo and a vest.

The Uvalde, Highland Park and the Waukesha attacks purposefully focused on families and children.  In all three cases, the perpetrators had a pretty clear trail of disturbing behavior.

The question is how are these attacks linked.  Were they lone wolves?  Is this a manifestation of COVID lockdown madness? Are they part of some sort of network, even a loose one like Islamic terrorists that draw inspiration from others?   Or is something more sinister going on?  The unanswered questions leave open the latter possibilities.