FBI identifies Trump rally shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks <--- Thread is about the perpetrator, the crime, and the motivation, not Trump

[essentialsaltes]

A third classmate, who asked not to be named, said that Crooks was very smart, took honors classes, and was shy. She said that he had a group of friends who were fairly conservative, some of whom would wear Trump hats.

Federal Election Commission records show that a donor listed as Thomas Crooks with the gunman’s street address gave $15 to Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned political action committee, on Inauguration Day in January 2021, when Crooks was 17.

A spokesperson for Progressive Turnout Project said in an email that the group had received the donation “in response to an email about tuning into the inauguration” and that “the email address associated with the contribution only made the one contribution and was unsubscribed from our lists 2 years ago.”

Crooks worked as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home less than a mile from his family’s home, according to Marcie Grimm, the center’s administrator.

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of his involvement as Thomas Matthew Crooks performed his job without concern and his background check was clean,” Grimm said in a statement.

“These stupid ranch packets in the kitchen — no one can ever open them,” said the colleague, who also went to high school with Crooks. “Earlier this week he was helping me with a bunch of sick old ladies (to) put ranch on their salads.”

 

[rjs330]

The rhetoric of the left is tame.

No it's not. And if you think so, once again you have no credibility. It's filled with hatred, venom and violence. Trump used a word that's has been used for decades, yet no one cares that it's been used by the left.

The left on the other hand has been calling Trump Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Saying he's responsible for the death of millions. Saying he's the biggest threat to democracy ever. The right has been called deplorables, calling him a racial arsonist and conservatives racists and a bunch of homomopohbe, transphobes, xenophobes and whatever else you can come up with. You've got leftiats.saying they are going to punch Trump.in the face every single day.

We had man threatening to kill Judge Kavenaugh. We've now had an attempt on Trumps life. We've had Republicans shot at a baseball.game.

We had riots, burned building and a bunch of dead people in 2020. We've had cops.assassinated.

We've had Senator Rand attacked by leftists and Scalise shot. We've had Democrats say abortion restrictions were a call to arms. And we've have had pregnancy caring centers attacked. I could go on. So take a back seat and stop with your hypocritical blaming.

 

[rjs330]

I think it's a real.possibility we had a troubled kid who decided to try and take out the "biggest probelm" in America in order to be famous. He may have figured he would die in the attempt but would be considered the savior of America by many.

And if watch the unhinged reaction by many on the left he would have been right if that was his goal.

But it's just speculation at this point.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

My own personal theory is that this guy was taken in by the right's "civil war" rhetoric. What act would be most likely to rile up MAGA enough to actually kick off something like that? Assassinating Trump seems a pretty good bet. It would take some conclusive social media posts to confirm that.

 

[Landon Caeli]

My own personal theory is that this guy was taken in by the right's "civil war" rhetoric. What act would be most likely to rile up MAGA enough to actually kick off something like that? Assassinating Trump seems a pretty good bet. It would take some conclusive social media posts to confirm that.

"Civil war" rhetoric? I know hundreds of conservatives, but not a single one who talks about a civil war.

 

[rjs330]

My own personal theory is that this guy was taken in by the right's "civil war" rhetoric. What act would be most likely to rile up MAGA enough to actually kick off something like that? Assassinating Trump seems a pretty good bet. It would take some conclusive social media posts to confirm that.

That's about the most preposterous thing I've heard.

Let me see if I understand this. He's a civil war supporter and so the rights guru, Trump, is the leader of Maga. So in order to cause civil war he decides to assassinate the leader of the movement. Is that right?

 

[Tinker Grey]

committee, on Inauguration Day in January 2021, when Crooks was 17.

According to the birthday given in post #2, he was 16.

 

[ozso]

"Why did you climb that mountain?"

"Because it was there"

I think Crooks went after Trump because Trump was there in his backyard. I think if it had been a Biden rally there, he would have done the same thing. I think he wanted to commit suicide via cop and become famous at the same time.

 

[Landon Caeli]

Crooks was an absolute, mega-nerd. How pathetic that such a twerp, on his own, was able to beat the most pristigious, highly trained law enforcement agency in the world.

What is going on.

...Why was there a ladder there? This is all too unlikely.

 

[ozso]

Fishy, fishy, very fishy.

 

[ozso]

"Why did you climb that mountain?"

"Because it was there"

I think Crooks went after Trump because Trump was there in his backyard. I think if it had been a Biden rally there, he would have done the same thing. I think he wanted to commit suicide via cop and become famous at the same time.

Then again, maybe he was put up to it.

 

[RDKirk]

That's about the most preposterous thing I've heard.

Let me see if I understand this. He's a civil war supporter and so the rights guru, Trump, is the leader of Maga. So in order to cause civil war he decides to assassinate the leader of the movement. Is that right?

I agree with that reason for it being a preposterous theory. If he's that far right, he'd more likely think Trump was the only person who could lead them to victory in a civil war.

 

[RDKirk]

Fishy, fishy, very fishy.

So, within a few minutes, that "officer" didn't get the word up the line.

 

[ozso]

So, within a few minutes, that "officer" didn't get the word up the line.

Yeah you'd think he'd say "there's a shooter" over the radio and the SS would've swarmed Trump before shots were fired.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Thomas Matthew Crooks belonged to a shooting club based in Clairton, Pa., nearly nine miles from his family home in Bethel Park. Attorney Robert S. Bootay III confirmed to The Times that Crooks, who was shot and killed by Secret Service agents Saturday, was a member of the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club.

Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh division, said in a news briefing Sunday that Crooks used an AR-style 556 rifle in the shooting that was legally purchased by his father, Matthew Crooks.

Rojek said authorities found a suspicious device in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ car, which was inspected by bomb technicians and rendered safe.

Rojek said there were no indications, at this time, that the shooter had mental health issues. His social media presence has not yet rendered clues about his ideology or motive.

Images of Crooks’ body reviewed by the Associated Press shows he appears to have been wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a popular YouTube channel with more than 11.6 million subscribers that regularly posts videos that show creator Matt Carriker firing off handguns and assault rifles at targets that include human mannequins and vehicles.

--

The rallygoer killed in the failed assassination attempt of former President Trump at a campaign event Saturday in Pennsylvania was identified by the FBI as Corey Comperatore, a retired firefighter who died protecting his family.


Comperatore was a girl dad, a firefighter and attended church every Sunday, [Governor] Shapiro said.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

That's about the most preposterous thing I've heard.

Let me see if I understand this. He's a civil war supporter and so the rights guru, Trump, is the leader of Maga. So in order to cause civil war he decides to assassinate the leader of the movement. Is that right?

Not anymore preposterous than blaming Biden or Democrats for the attempt and all the conspiracies around that. Maybe you just lack imagination.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Not an assertion, just for reference.

Far-right accelerationist terrorism​

since the late 2010s, international networks of neo-fascists, neo-Nazis, White nationalists, and White supremacists have increasingly used the term "accelerationism" to refer to right-wing extremistgoals, and have been known to refer to an "acceleration" of racial conflict through violent means such as assassinations, murders, terrorist attacks and eventual societal collapse, to achieve the building of a White ethnostate.[9][10][11] Far-right accelerationism has been widely considered as detrimental to public safety.[32] The inspiration for this distinct variation is occasionally cited as American Nazi Party and National Socialist Liberation Front member James Mason's newsletter Siege, where he argued for sabotage, mass killings, and assassinations of high-profile targets to destabilize and destroy the current society ... the accelerationist set sees modern society as irredeemable and believe it should be pushed to collapse so a fascist society built on ethnonationalism can take its place.

 

[essentialsaltes]

conspiracy theories flood the internet, creating dangerous ‘spiral’​

[The] claims typically came from random social media users — the writers casting aspersions or seeking to affix blame based on their place in the nation’s intensely polarized political landscape.

The conspiracies formed two now familiar camps — one blaming the “deep state” for what happened, the other claiming without evidence that the shooting was not what it seemed.

“Seemed staged,” one social media user wrote.

But even some elected officials joined with false claims. “Joe Biden sent the orders,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) wrote on X, the social media platform.

“What’s always interesting to me about moments like this is that digital sleuths, be they everyday people, be they politically motivated online trolls … we’re all looking in the same place for reliable true and correct information,” said Joan Donovan, a professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University and founder of the Critical Internet Studies Institute. “What’s hard, I think, for the everyday person, is what they’re really looking for is verified information that they can use.”

The hot takes on the internet create a ripe breeding ground for increased division and potential violence, Nisbet said.

“We see each other as enemies, not as fellow Americans,” Nisbet said. “If the other side is immoral, not human, is an existential threat to us and to our country, then it is morally OK to take violent action against them.”

One of the main drivers of political violence is perception — how violent each side thinks the other is, Nisbet said. [Producing a vicious cycle.]

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

"Civil war" rhetoric? I know hundreds of conservatives, but not a single one who talks about a civil war.

"The coming revolution will be bloodless... if the left allows it."

 

[RDKirk]

Yeah you'd think he'd say "there's a shooter" over the radio and the SS would've swarmed Trump before shots were fired.

As I mentioned later, the local police would know there were supposed to be Secret Service snipers on surrounding roofs, that was the jurisdiction of the Secret Service...so they would likely have been slow to respond to civilian reports of "guy with rifle on the roof." It was the rooftop Secret Service snipers who took Crooks out.