Last week, in the aftermath of the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon which left 10 dead, including the shooter, and seven more wounded, many suddenly became aware that there is a group of people who believe that the shooting at Sandy Hook was a "hoax" fabricated by the government. Several reports have been made about Sheriff John Hanlin, whose department is leading this investigation, and a video he shared on his personal Facebook account. This has raised questions about whether or not the Sheriff is fit to lead this investigation, considering the incredible similarities between the two tragic events.
As Rob Cox stated in this article published by USAToday on Oct. 5, 2015: "The truth is that Roseburg has become a member of our club — one nobody would willingly join." This is true in more ways than just sharing a similar and unthinkable tragedy. They are now new members of the "Hoax Club," along with Sandy Hook, the Aurora, CO theatre shooting, the Boston Bombing, the WDBJ TV shooting, and a host of other shootings that have garnered national media attention. Hoax Theorists are even backdating their research to the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, as demonstrated in this painfully long diatribe featuring a graphic image of the two shooters after death. Nor does it stop there.
It may have taken more than a decade for Columbine to make it to the list for many of these Hoax Theorists, but nowadays it takes them only a few hours to determine and establish the shooting as a staged event by the government. The first "clue" is whether or not the event has made national news. The second is how media reports conflict with one another. The instant that footage of the event is made public, dozens of self-titled "Truthers" start compiling evidence to support their theory of why it is a staged government hoax. Thousands of subscribers to YouTube are taken in by these sometimes long-winded and vulgar reports, having already been convinced by other much more high-end videos propagating previous "hoaxes."
The most appalling belief of the Hoax Theorists is that victims either didn't exist or were crisis actors paid for by the government. Any family member, friend or associate that appears on national TV speaking about the event are also dubbed crisis actors. This has led to"hoax investigators" pulling out all stops in their mad dash to uncover the government conspiracy behind it. Their tactics continue to re-open wounds that are still healing among the survivors and their families.
Infamous Sandy Hook Hoax Theorist and investigator Wolfgang Halbig instigated the worst of these theories, and individual supporters have taken it upon themselves to spread their "truth" about these hoaxes by defaming anyone close to the event, harassing and "trolling" family members online, and stalking children and adults who bear any similarity to any of the people that lost their lives. These innocent targets will be forever connected to these events just for bearing a striking resemblance.
Those that believe these shootings only occur to serve a political agenda generally only look for a few insignificant things to determine whether they are staged. Those are:
1) The news media covers little else but the tragedy that occurred that day.
2) The perpetrator(s) dies before authorities can place him in custody.
3) Family members of victims appear on TV within 24-36 hours of the tragedy pushing for gun control.
4) The perpetrator(s) had a suspected a mental illness or was on SSRI medication.
Even though Hoax Theorists rely on the mainstream media to amass their initial information, they have a severe distrust of anything they report. They believe that the media has license to fake the news, continuing a conspiracy about Charles Jaco as supporting evidence, as well as lie to the public. In their attempt to counter any information released by the media, Hoax Theorists have devised a "Truth Bomb" campaign in which they go to YouTube channels owned by news media to dislike a video and leave comments telling everyone what they think. They believe they score "wins" when comments are disabled or the video pulled altogether.
In the years following each of these occurrences hundreds of videos, blogs and websites calling themselves the "Alternative Media" will continue to repeat these ideas for vulnerable minds to fall prey to. Each individual will form their own opinion on how the hoax was staged, and not all will believe the victims were crisis actors. Many traditional conspiracy theorists and newcomers have distanced themselves from Hoax Theorists completely, and some have also taken up the mantle in defense of those who are helpless against these attacks. Unfortunately the attackers far outnumber the defenders, and defenders are generally accused by this group of being "shills." We Stand With HONR amid a sea of lunacy that has turned the corner into the psychotic. Perpetrators of these crimes are called patsies, given no actual responsibility for the crime in these alternative reports. We have seen calls amongst these Hoax Theorists to stalk and photograph possible matches to Sandy Hook children, and for clandestine raids on graves in order to conduct their own medical examination to prove the bodies don't belong to the name on the tombstone. This has gone much, much too far in our eyes, and we are actively reaching out to the mainstream media in hopes that our plea is heard by the public.
The number of people that believe these events were devastating tragedies far outweighs the number of people that don't, and those people can have far more impact on this community than one might think. If you will support us in our mission, I invite you to fly this banner on your social media page or website. Together we can stop harassment of victims' families.
We call ourselves many things: Truthers, Anonymous, The Resistance, Killuminati, Awakened... We "see" things others do not. We know the connections of the powerful elite. We have some idea of how they control our politicians and thus our governments. We know we do not live in a truly democratic society, and that we are far from the Republic which was founded.
Throughout the years our population has grown, as have the number of sites reporting "Alternative News." YouTube blog channels that give their own accounting of the news are a dime a dozen. We have tended to discount some of what Mainstream Media reports, some of us even denouncing the MSM altogether. We have our chosen favorites from among the "Alternative" sources out there, and trust some more than others.
We don't fit in with "normal society" because we recognize that there is something inherently wrong with the world. We rage against the New World Order, Jesuit and Zionist dictators, and all manner of people who are "too stupid" to wake up and see what's going on around them. We rage against each other, too, for the same reason.
Our little world outside "The Matrix" is fraught with disagreements, petty battles, "doxing," and "Truth Bomb" trolling so ugly and vulgar that it should be criminal. What happened to the love in rEVOLution? I see so much hate in this community that I often wish I hadn't become "awakened." After seeing what I have seen, hearing what I have heard, I want to be reinserted into the "The Matrix."
The beautiful thing about free will is being able to have and express our own opinion. This is not a "right" given to us by the government, but a gift of life. The government cannot regulate what we say or how we say it without impeding on our free will, though we do have to be "Politically Correct" in certain circles. As much as we would like people to stop being atrocious toward others, we cannot force them to. Individual and group harassment will continue no matter what dissenters try to say or do to change their thought process until something else comes about.
We need a paradigm shift within this community, but I am at a loss as to how that can be done. It will take a lot more minds, and hearts, than just my own, +Honr Network, and those others who are willing to stand up for those who can't defend themselves from these attacks. It will require the collective effort of everyone who is "awake" but does not condone the abhorrent practices of "hoaxers" and "truth bombers" to derail those trains and get us back on track to the idealized goal of "freeing the minds" of others.
We are equal parts Atheist and Theist, but I hope we can find common moral ground on this issue. It won't happen this month, or probably even this year, but I am hopeful.
Before I wrap this up, I would like to introduce you to a concept from Judaism that you may not have heard of. There is no being called Satan in Judaism, the word in Hebrew merely means "adversary." Throughout human history our adversary has been "Evil," whether it's a real life dictator or a fictional character. In Judaism the belief is that every person has the capacity to do "good" or "evil," and there exists no outside spiritual influence to push someone toward one or the other. Having been given free will, it is up to us to overcome our innate capacity for evil (yetzer hara) and choose to do good (yetzer hatov). In Christianity, this idea is translated succinctly as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
When you go about your activities online, think on this as you see the comments posted on Mainstream Media channels. Think on it as you watch videos from "Truthers" denouncing the existence and deaths of individuals. Think on it as you watch people track down personal Facebook and Twitter pages to leave reprehensible comments, determined to expose them as frauds and charlatans. Would you, if placed in the other person's shoes (fake or not), be completely tolerant of the actions against you? After you've thought on it, come back and answer this question:
If I could, I would share this story with you face to face. We'd have the seating arranged in a circle, pass around a couple of nice fat blunts (it's ok if you don't partake), and talk it out civilly. I would do that because I think its important, extremely important, that Truth Seekers use all sources available to them when researching modern conspiracies.
I am not specifically speaking to any "Truthers" who have published material on this event, nor will I name names, but I am rather addressing their subscribers - of which I am one. I have run across a terrifying number of comments from people encouraging others not to trust the mainstream media at all. I know the Alphabet Soup branches have their pitfalls, but come on! You cannot get a full picture of a mountain if you are looking at only one slope!
Alternative media has been plagued with the same problems as the mainstream media. Both sensationalize stories, both have fabricated stories, and both can be infiltrated with "shills." Even if you do find something "hoax-y" about a story from the mainstream media, please don't take any claim of "proof" at face value. Scrutinize it. Give it time to foment, wait for more evidence, and watch for debunks.
I say this is extremely important because, if you're wrong, you are callously denying that A) a violent tragedy occurred, B) people died, C) family, friends and other survivors are emotionally and mentally affected. I defend my position based on that. I defend it because I firmly believe that the tendency of Truthers to now chase "hoax theories" has been detrimental to the movement and only discredits any progress made toward exposing 9/11 (and other conspiracies with equally better evidence) in the minds of the "general" public.
I don't usually spend my time on "hoax" theories of this type for those reasons. However, since I know that is not enough reason for far too many, I will outline below the event by reviewing several claims by various people in the Truther community and present the counter claims and evidence for them.
*Note: LIVE edits to this post took place on 9/17/15 and 10/2/15 to include additional information. More LIVE edits will take place as time goes on.
The Story
On the morning of August 26th Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a reporter and cameraman for WDBJ in Virginia, tragically lost their lives while doing a live TV broadcast. The shooter, identified as Vester L. Flanagan (henceforth called "the shooter"), was a former employee of the same media outlet and had known Ms. Parker when she worked as an intern. The shooter documented the event on cell phone video and posted it to social media. A 23-page manifesto was also received by ABC wherein he justified his actions by claiming discrimination for being a "gay black man" and wanting revenge for the Charleston church shooting. The ensuing police chase ended with the shooter reportedly shooting himself, and he later died in the hospital.
Suspicious Circumstances
Two things became the launching pad for the hoax theories:
1) The event took place on live TV
2) Media was blocked from the chase
Gun control hadn't even been brought up when the first hoax evidence was published. Oh, but it would be, which only proves that it was a hoax! No, it just means gun control is a hot topic. I will admit that these are suspicious circumstances, but only circumstantial.
Shooter Approach
The mainstream version is that Ms. Parker did not see or hear the shooter because she was focused on the interview. Likewise, Mr. Ward was going through his rehearsed steps of panning over the horizon before settling in on the interview.
If the news crew did hear anyone approaching, they very likely chose to ignore it just like any other reporter doing a live feed. It is "hard to believe" that they didn't hear anything, but we don't know exactly what they heard. Truthers may have scored a win when they pointed out that Ms. Parker did "see" the shooter, though. Unfortunately every single video showing Ms. Parker glancing at the shooter in slow motion only proves that she became distracted from her job for a second - or a "millisecond" as one hoax-supporting video states. While we might like to think that Alison should have seen the same things we would (knowing what we know), we simply cannot assume what she saw, comprehended, or thought.
The shooter approached from Ms. Parker's periphery. He was holding a cell phone and a gun. Based upon the shooter's video, I think it is safe to assume here, he is holding the cell phone near his face to see what he is filming, and the gun near his waist. He is also probably doing this to not raise their suspicions since many people like to watch and record reporters doing their job. Since the cell phone is the object held most prominently and nearest to eye level, if Ms. Parker saw the shooter holding anything during her brief glimpse it was most likely that and not the gun. The shooter not only used the device to record his crime, he used it as a distraction. Magicians do it all the time to take your eyes off of what's really going on.
Did Ms. Parker recognize the shooter? The skeptics believe she should have, but I don't think even they recognize everyone they know that walks up in their periphery at first glance. I know I don't, which is why the "double take" can sometimes be comical. In fact, a UCSanDiego study shows that two fixations, or glances, are best for facial recognition. Also, we can't forget the cell phone. If it was covering any portion of his face while he was approaching, then that might have been all the disguise he needed. The most logical conclusion to draw from this has been twisted as "proof" that the event was staged and even she has, postmortem, been accused of being a crisis actor playing a part.
The shooter, having been in the business, would have known the cues for initiating the live broadcast and waited until that time to approach the crew. He would have known the crew would not be paying attention to him after that point, and that a simple "cell phone disguise" would make him appear just like any other pedestrian. We cannot know what Ms. Parker and Mr. Ward saw and heard, and any report stating that "she had to have" seen the shooter and/or the gun is simply projecting what they think they would have done in the same situation and spreading conjecture. This is not evidence, and not even admissible as circumstantial.
The Gun
Based on the mainstream media reports, the shooter used a Glock. The exact model is not important considering that the gun is fake, at least according to several very knowledgeable people in the Truther community. This evidence is based on the muzzle flash, the lack of any visible shell casing being ejected, the fact that Ms. Parker ran away from her attacker after being shot instead of "dropping like a sack of potatoes," and a lack of blood spatter or pools in either the TV news feed or the shooter's own recording of the event.
I am no gun expert, so I looked for others that were. I found these two videos of live fire practice within a few minutes of beginning my own search to either support or refute the claim that handguns do not create a muzzle flash (orange fire burst) when fired.
In addition, +Resist The Tyranny™ has uploaded a two-parter to refute the claim that the gun used in this tragedy was a fake. In the first one he shows why it is possible to not see a shell casing in video. The second one covers all of the other points made by those claiming the gun is a fake.
Viewer Discretion Advised
A video uploaded by +Meta Tron should also be looked at. In this one the claim that there was no shell casing is reviewed. While I believe that these two videos debunk that claim, it should be noted that even guns firing blanks can discharge a shell.
Viewer Discretion Advised
NEWLY ADDED 10/2/2015
I've recently been catching up on YouTuber +Run2Christ's videos. He originally came out saying that the shooting was "STAGED" (props there, but he still calls it a "hoax" and "fake" in comments). On 9/6/2015 he uploaded a video saying he found 3 shell casings himself! Take a look:
NEWLY ADDED 10/2/2015
Then on 9/24/15, +Run2Christ uploaded this video reviewing the shell casings again. This video didn't have as many views as his previous videos did, and I wonder why...?
These videos are definitely worth a look, especially if you are not familiar with guns. I understand that other "experts" have stated otherwise, however if this is the criteria for a "fake gun" then you must also be prepared to claim that any shooting captured on camera where these "anomalies" also occurred used a fake gun. Are you ready to tell the world about so much "fake crime" running rampant?
NEWLY ADDED 10/2/2015
-No Blood!: +Meta Tron has uploaded two videos that examine blood evidence from this shooting. If you believe that there was no blood at the scene of the crime, you should probably examine these videos closely.
Viewer Discretion Advised
...And a short note from +Run2Christ on the railing photo for those that believe that it, too, was faked. Remember, this guy think it's all a hoax, too!
-She Ran!: There are dozens of videos and actual documented homicide cases where the victim ran from their attacker(s) after being shot/stabbed/beaten bloody. I would like anyone saying that a person shot PBR cannot run afterwards to call a city homicide department and ask them about cases where a victim ran. ...in high heels!: Utter crap. I have personally ran a block in 6-inch heels to catch a bus without tripping over myself. It's not always easy, but it can be done. If I were being shot at, you can sure as hell bet that I'm going to try to run for cover!
White Hand
There are claims that the shooter couldn't have been Mr. Flanagan because the hand in the shooter's video is white. I'm pretty pale, and that hand looks fairly off-white to me. If anything the skin is tanned or mixed-race. Mr. Flanagan was light-complexioned, and in different photos his skin could appear more white than black. I recommend a side-by-side comparison of pictures available, and it so happens that in the midst of my writing this someone else published this blog where he does that exact thing. These are all pictures of the same hand (credit: +Jerome Lamb).
Different Takes
There is a belief in the Truther community that two different takes were used for the footage: one for the cell phone and one for the TV station's live feed.
NEWLY ADDED 9/17/2015 -Different Shirt I had intended to include this "evidence" originally, but it just plain slipped my mind. Claims that footage from the shooter's camera and the TV News camera being from different "takes" took off here. Now, I don't know if the person who originally made this claim is color blind, or if they truly have no concept of photography and how lighting, resolution, and movement of the cameras can affect the color and contrast of the footage.
Below are three photographs that I can find that show the shooter's shirt. If you take a closer look, you can see in the frontal photographs of the shooter that he is wearing a dark (probably black) undershirt with a blue plaid (flannel?) shirt. You do not see blue covering his stomach or chest because his shirt was left unbuttoned, but you can see that his arms are covered with the blue material... unless you're color blind.
-Reaction This claim is based on an apparently different or lack of reaction by Ms. Parker after the first gun shot. As the following video explains, this is simply due to the time delay on the news footage. If the two videos are synchronized according to this time delay, you can actually see that the reactions are the same. The video goes further by showing that the audio is also identical.
Viewer Discretion Advised
NEWLY ADDED 9/17/2015
-Head Nod
In the next video, +Meta Tron investigates the claim of two different takes by taking a look at Ms. Parker's head nods just prior to the gun going off. If you take a look... wait, is that two head nods?!
Viewer Discretion Advised
The Floorboards
The cell phone footage clearly shows the long boards behind Ms. Parker are laid
parallel to the railing, however in an aerial photo of the investigation you can see only the short boards laying perpendicular. This has promulgated the theory that the aerial photos were doctored to hide evidence of the hoax. Either that or the actual shooting was filmed somewhere else. Or the boards were changed within just a few short minutes of the tragedy occurring.
This, unfortunately, was just a matter of perspective. I don't mean opinion-wise, I mean sight-wise. The reason you are seeing the boards that way is explained in the next video. Another individual has retracted his claim about the floorboards based on this evidence.
NEWLY ADDED 10/2/2015 Here is another one of +Run2Christ's videos with his assessment of the floorboards:
Crisis Actors
This claim is made based upon how the survivors show their grief in public interactions and TV interviews. There are many who seem to believe that a person must be blubbering with tears streaming down their face to be sufficiently grieving for the loss of a loved one. They contend that the stages of grief are clearly outlined, and these people are not following that order! Since they are displaying no emotion it must be faked grief.
Now, everyone reacts to the death of a loved one differently. Some people will go to their rooms and not come out for quite some time. Some will go through periods of almost manic emotion, while others will "bottle up" and may only grieve in private.
When asked about the patterns of grief after a death, Dr. George Bonanno states in this interview that "There are generally three outcome patterns: chronic grief, common grief, and resilience or absent grief." and "... the third type are those who don't show any disruption in their normal functioning. And that last pattern is very common, sometimes up to half the people will show that."
Considering that we don't have a platform to measure "enough grief," we assume that someone who falls into the last group who is trying to show private emotion for the benefit of the public is faking. I remember going to my grandmother's funeral several years ago. I made it through the viewing, through the procession, and up to the eulogy given by my step-mother before shedding a tear. After that I was bawling. I made it tearlessly through the wake and only cried in private thereafter. Did I not love my grandmother? I did and do, even though she wasn't related to me, and still miss her sandwiches and cookies.
-Alison Parker
Many people have both a personal and professional Facebook. This does not in and of itself prove anything. Someone might want to check the Workplace Romance and Fraternization policy at WDBJ before saying that any lack of photos of her together with Chris Hurst is proof they didn't have a relationship. Usually these policies require one of the individuals in the relationship to work in a different department, or to leave the company entirely. Keeping their relationship "on the down-low" would make perfect sense if they didn't want to decide on such a change yet.
-Chris Hurst
There's a rumor circulating that Mr. Hurst tweeted about his girlfriend's death three minutes before it happened. This inanity is from people looking at a screenshot of the Tweet taken by someone on the West Coast. Mr. Hurst lives on the East Coast, therefore at 6:34AM PDT it was 9:34AM EDT. If someone from my area looked at the actual Tweet it would say it was posted at 7:34AM (MDT).
A news anchor accidentally stumbled over Chris' last name before cutting to a report, calling him Chris "Hurt" before quickly correcting herself. Some have taken up this blatantly obvious "clue" and through an unhappy coincidence of the two looking similar, the idea that the two are one and the same took off. However, if you took this "evidence" to an expert - maybe a facial reconstruction artist? - you would be laughed at.
Hey guys, I've made photo scrapbooks for exes when I was with them. Photo albums and scrapbooking is not a dead art just because you don't know anyone that does it. The scrapbook is fake because they didn't put photos online? Can you prove the photos are photo shopped?
Another conspiracy circulating now is the "jealousy hit." This theory makes assumptions about Mr. Hurst's sexuality and relationship with another man. Playing off of the shooter being gay, it has been proposed that the shooter and Mr. Hurst were involved. I'm not going to delve into it, but the entire theory has no weight without statements from others in their lives. Supposition, all of it.
-Andy Parker
Mr. Parker was an actor, and that fact is not hidden from the public. This is the "smoking gun" that Mr. Parker is a crisis actor, apparently. /facepalm
Gun control is a controversial issue that is widely in the news now. Mr. Parker was very likely in favor of improved gun control measures before the shooting. Having your own daughter murdered on the job by someone with a grudge and apparent mental instability would only reinforce this opinion. He was given a national platform to express his opinion, and is called a "crisis actor" for his beliefs.
-Daniel Wulz
Though not a "crisis actor," Cpl. Daniel Wulz became involved in the conspiracy when some prying Truthers found photos of him and Ms. Parker. Having already decided Mr. Hurst a fake and a phony not worthy of the romantic attentions of someone who looks like Ms. Parker, these people deduced that Mr. Wulz is in fact the "real boyfriend" and his limelight was being stolen.
Cpl. Wulz bravely engaged the Truther community to contend these ideas and tell his side of the story. When that happened, many in the Truther community turned on him. He is now accused of being a part of the hoax, himself being a reporter for the military.
The actual truth is that Cpl. Wulz and Ms. Parker broke up in December 2014 and contact between them had become minimal. Cpl. Wulz has himself stated that he believed Ms. Parker to have been dating Mr. Hurst for six months. Some people still keep photos of past relationships, and some people take more time getting over past lovers.
What Next?
Was this a hoax? In the sense that it was scripted and filmed like a Charles Jaco war report, my opinion is no. That is not to say that it wasn't staged in another way, like influencing a mentally disturbed former employee to kill the daughter of a man who supports gun control. It still might be a stretch, but the so-called evidence for this "hoax" is so overt it is laughable. Still think it was staged? Then say it was "possibly staged" and not an outright "hoax." We know that there are ways this could have been staged covertly like 9/11, yet no one has touched on that.
There are others out there pointing out that these "anomalies" are not evidence of a hoax, which I've also used for reference. It is disappointing that these blogs and videos are not receiving the same amount of attention as those that support the hoax theory. The harassment of the survivors has already begun, and it will only get worse as Truthers try to convince the world that these events only occur to keep us enslaved. Claiming that people, whom we have never personally met, never really existed or died does not exactly provide a platform of trust to the general public.
I've seen people go rabid over reports of Internet bullying causing teenagers to commit suicide. The type of bullying and persecution that family, friends and survivors are subjected to by these Truthers in their pursuit of proving that they are all crisis actors is by and far worse than any teenage bullying and it must stop.
I will try to add to this post as more information comes in. If you are aware of any other "evidence" that should be added to this, please provide in the comments below.
