Random Mumblings

I knew him as Anton. He was a great friend from when I was at DeVry. A few years back we went our separate ways, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t any less of a friend. He was found shot on the Morning of Nov 13, and died later in the hospital. It was a very sad day, the world lost a great man.

This morning, I saw a link from a mutual friend of ours to this http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/11/14/breaking-facebook-posting-reports-murder-at-occupysavannah/ As I was reading this, I couldn’t believe what passes off as journalism these days. I think what was more surprising was the amount of comments from people who had no fucking clue as to what really happened. All they saw was what Mike Flynn posted, and a screenshot from the Occupy Savannah page. I mean, reading ANY news article from a reputable news source (e.g, local Savannah news stations) would show give a bigger picture than what this asshole here was trying to paint.

If you clicked on the link, you would see that he claimed that the Occupy Savannah Facebook page announced the murder of an activist at the #Occupy camp. I don’t know if he made a grammatical error, or is just plain stupid. I’m sure he meant from, not at. If he said that Anton was from the camp, it would imply that he supported the cause. By using the word at, he’s saying that he was murdered within the confines of the camp, which is lie. As Savannah natives have pointed out in the comments, he was murdered several miles away from the camp, so saying from the camp doesn’t not mean that he was leaving the camp. He was no where near it.

After posting a screen shot of a memorial post stating some sort of informal memorial services at the #Occupy camp, he asks some rather silly questions. I’ll post those questions and provide some responses.

Ha #OccupySavannah contacted law enforcement?

I’m going to say no. They did not contact law enforcement as this crime occurred a great distance away from the camp. Unless they had a psychic amongst them (I’m fairly certain they didn’t), they had no clue that he was murdered until after the story was aired on the six o’clock news.

Are there any suspects?

As far as I know, no there aren’t any suspects as of yet. That’s coming from my reading of very limited number of news articles pertaining to this subject. But what do I know? I would think that someone who claims to be an Editor-in-Chief would know a little thing or two about fact checking. Maybe I should add Editor-in-Chief to my list of job titles for rootmytoaster.org (It would go nicely with CEO, webmaster, postmaster, and Chief of Awesome).

Do we know the motive of the killers?

Again, fact checking would help answer this. You made your post one day after the shooting. News outlets had posted the day prior that it was probably a robbery. Since you like to jump to conclusions, one might say it was a robbery.

Have the #Occupy sites simply devolved into a ‘Lord of the Flies’ situation. And, why is the media covering up the crime wave that has befallen the #Occupy movement?

They haven’t hit Lord of the Flies status yet. Once some fat kid’s head is posted on a pike, then you’ll have your answer. The media isn’t covering up the supposed crime waves, they’re just not covering it. There’s a difference. I looked back and saw that you (or someone else on your site) had a running tally of crimes committed at #Occupy camps. Now how many of those crimes have you falsely attributed to #Occupy, such as this one?

Now I really have to quote this, because I love irony. I will temper my thoughts in the wake of this tragedy. But it bears repeating that earnest, well-intentioned, but misguided youth like Mr. Brazell have been cynically exploited by the progressive-industrial machine for political gain. They have been lured into situations that are increasingly dominated by criminals and predators.

First of all, if you had done any fact checking, you would know he is not a youth. Unless you’re really old, 34 is not youthful. I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to bother doing any fact checking as to how old you are. Judging by your picture, I’m going to guess you’re early to mid 40s. With this in mind, 34 is hardly youthful. That part wasn’t ironic, it was just stupidity on your part. Here’s the ironic part, you’re claiming that this was for political gain. Do you know whose? Yours, your political gain. If his death had actually occurred withing the confines of Occupy Savannah, your suspicions that these new age hippies are nothing but hoodlums and criminals is true. This would further YOUR cause.

The problem is, he didn’t die at Occupy Savanna, he wasn’t even shot there. He was on the other side of town shot in a robbery, that was most likely caused by a criminal or predator that was severely affected by a rise in poverty due to the large difference between the incomes of the average person and the extremely wealthy. This causes him to go out and rob, possibly at gunpoint, innocent people in an attempt to increase his wealth. See what I did there? I’ll give you a hint, I’m saying it’s conservatives that cause him to die due to their fiscal policy, not liberals causing lawlessness.

In closing, yes, another person has died. Politicians and the media are not accomplices in this tragedy, as you want to point out. Once again, you seem to be implying that #Occupy had anything to do with his murder. This was a random act of violence. This had nothing to do with the 1% or the 99%. It only had to do with at least two people on a street corner. One walked away, the other, sadly, did not.

Now if any news comes out stating that he was killed due to his affiliation with Occupy Savannah, I will gladly retract my statements and issue you an apology, Mr. Flynn. But until then, you’re an asshole and you need to stop twisting shit to further your own agenda. Stop being a douche and check you facts before you start in with hate speech.

To everyone who posted comments condemning #Occupy for Anton’s death, FUCK YOU. You’re doing the same bullshit that Asshole #1 was doing, putting blame where it doesn’t belong. Sure, there have been problems at other #Occupy camps, but this wasn’t one of them. You assholes need to not blindly follow something just because it reinforces your opinion without finding out if that something is a lie. Your posts are bad and you should feel bad.

Rest in peace, Anton. If you see him, say Hi to my dad for me.