The manifesto which was uploaded online goes into great detail on a number of subjects. Among other things, it is reported to mention the best choice of defense attorney after being arrested. The idea is to select an attorney who shares your right wing extremist views. Breivik has specificially asked for the same public defender who represented members of a neo-nazi organization in 2002, who were convicted for a much publicized racist murder.
Apparently, thought, Breivik hasn’t done his homework well enough. This attorney also happens to be an active member of the Labour Party.
Of course, if Breivik thinks that his choice of representation makes any fucking practical difference as to which cell wall he’ll spend the rest of his sorry life staring at, he truly is delusional. Still, just a hint of irony for you.
I would like to watch you ask the next robber victim, the next rape victim, the next random violence victim the same question. And I would applaud when you were punched thoroughly in the mouth for blaming the innocent victim.
Ferchissake, they were KIDS! Kids between 14 and 20, living in one of the safest backwaters of the world where shootings just don’t happen. If you can’t understand why such persons just panic and flee when they realize that it wasn’t a prank… Well, I wouldn’t assume that empathy was your strongest side
He’s a psycho. A political point could have been made with one small bomb, or the killing of a few people. Killing over eighty youths one by one over a long period of time goes way beyond anything necessary to make some twisted point. He made whatever point he thought could be made in the first minute. Explaining more requires him to have a further motive.
Norwegian police has confirmed that he had at least one pistol (he was a registered owner of a Glock) and one “automatic weapon”. The latter was most probably an (illegally aquired military) MP5 submachine gun or perhaps a G3 assault rifle, the two standard two-hand guns in the Norwegian army for many decades. One eyewitness who saw the man taking the boat out to the island reported on him carrying “a green weapon” which indicates a G3 (or AG3, which is the official designation of military issue G3s in Norway).
If he was using an MP5, he could have bought all his ammo legally, since both the Glock and the MP5 takes 9mm. If he was carrying a G3, he would have had to buy the rifle ammo illegally, but 7.62mm NATO ammo isn’t too hard to find here. Even on the illegal market
Just one more point for the “why didn’t they rush him” folks…even if, after the initial panic, it occurred to 50 individuals to rush him, how would they coordinate among themselves? Gathering in groups was lethal at that point.
I went downtown tonight, at three in the morning, to take look. Wanted it to be more real, I guess.
Torrential rain, and darkness were a suitable backdrop. The roadblocks are still up. Armed military are guarding the place.
That sent a chill down by spine. Armed guards. In Oslo. It really brought home the reality of what happened.
I didn’t see the bomb site, and never will. It will be cleaned up before they let the public back. I did see the broken and cracked windows several streets away. The clean-up had been ongoing for days, so the broken glass in the streets was gone. The candles and flowers and people were still there. Small pools of light at each roadblock, and an ocean of light on the main square nearby. And rain.
It’s still raining. All the blood will be gone.
The death toll is up to 93. One of the wounded couldn’t fight any more.
Septima, I was downtown today just as the prime minister was speaking at the memorial service. The rain had let up, the sun was out. Huge crowds were gathered by the cathedral, with a seemingly endless line of people laying down flowers.
For a second there I was thinking: A city of people capable of love is more powerful than one man with a gun and a bomb.
Then I’m back at home reading the news again, seeing the images again, reading about the still rising death toll, about the people still missing, and… fuck.
I’m so tired of feeling like shit now. I want the world get back into whack. Although it feels a bit like it never will.
he didn´t try to make a political point. he wanted to kill people he disliked, people he hated. his greatest hope for this seems to be starting a war. he is quite simply a hateful, evil, self-centered monster.
-oh and to the people wondering why he wasn´t rushed. has that happened before the Gabrielle Giffords shooting? This man was better armed, he was disguised as a police officer, and he was in quite open terrain. asking such questions genuinely indicates at best ignorance of both the case and of people, but possibly also worse things. and lots of other people her have said this better than I can. just back off.
Quoting from Breivik’s own manifesto (section 3.22):
[QUOTE= Breivik]
Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike.
[/QUOTE]
He seems to have viewed the attack as a marketing tool to increase the dissemination of his ideas. On one level it worked – a lot of people are reading his manifesto. On the other hand, the horror of what he’s done has rendered his ideas toxic throughout much of the world.
I just watched the press conference after the initial court hearing. Breivik apparently did a good job talking himself straight into a terrorism charge, and supported the DA’s demand for full isolation during detention. It was obvious that the judge had problems quoting Breivik’s statements in a neutral manner.
Verdict: 8 weeks detention with no press or media access, the first 4 weeks in full isolation
If *you *think that I should be beaten for saying something that you disagreed with, then *you *are the one who should be punching me in the mouth, not standing around waiting for someone else to start hitting me so that you can show approval of their doing what you failed to.
(which was much the point of what I originally posted – communal responsibility for social order)
I don’t think anyone except a few internet tough guys are blaming the victims for not rushing the gunman. Listening to the first-hand accounts from the teenagers on the island, they behaved as best as could be expected in the circumstances (one girl was talking about how she wanted to go out and lead more kids to safety, but someone else talked her into staying put and it probably saved her life). I know I certainly am not. It was an unbelievably bad situation to live through, and I’d never make it worse for the survivors by trying to make them feel like they didn’t do enough and that they made a bad situation worse.