President Barack Obama’s visit to Colorado to comfort the families of the “Dark Knight Massacre” victims included a promise from the POTUS that his administration would draw attention away from the shooter by not using his name.
Obama and White House press secretary Jay Carney visited an Aurora hospital to speak with the shooting victims and their families, promising afterwards that they wouldn’t use the shooter’s name in speeches and public discourse, so as to avoid drawing more attention to him and instead focusing on the victims and their families, reports Politico. Obama also had comforting words for the victims and their families, telling them, “Although the perpetrator of this evil act has received a lot of attention over the last couple of days, that attention will fade way.”
Obama’s opponent, Mitt Romney, was also speaking in somber, apolitical tones at a fundraiser in San Francisco yesterday. Instead of hammering on the president, he actually paid the incumbent a compliment over his handling of the Aurora shooting. “I know the president is in Colorado today before he’ll be here in San Francisco, he’s visiting with families of the victims, which is the right thing for the president to be doing on this day and we appreciate that,” Romney said.
Interestingly Obama met with Jordan Ghawi, the brother of aspiring sports journalist Jessica Ghawi, who was killed in the massacre. Since sitting down with the president, Jordan has posted several tweets regarding his meeting with the POTUS and his feelings amid the aftermath of the massacre, specifically regarding what has become a crusade to leave the shooter’s name unacknowledged (which we, too, have done for the purposes of this article):
Spoke with WH @PressSec and now have his word that he will not utter the name of the suspect who committed this act. #FocusOnVictims
— Jordan Ghawi (@JordanGhawi) July 22, 2012
Sat down with President Obama. He has been incredible. He too has agreed not to mention the shooter’s name.
— Jordan Ghawi (@JordanGhawi) July 22, 2012
The shooter has something to say and we empower him and those like him when we give him this attention.
— Jordan Ghawi (@JordanGhawi) July 23, 2012
Instead of the villain, focus on three heroes who died that night protecting the ones they love: John Blunk. Matt McQuinn, & Alex Teves.
— Jordan Ghawi (@JordanGhawi) July 23, 2012
Do you think that not using the “Dark Knight Massacre” shooter’s name empowers the victims and their families?
A short-sighted political move, showing a lack of understanding of the underlying problem: untreated mental illness. What needs to happen is a careful and public examination of James Holmes' life, the signs of metal illness that were almost certainly present but went ignored, the times when people could have intervened but chose not to because it was uncomfortable, the things that we can do for those around us to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future. Almost all of the shooters in situations like this had been dealing with mental illness for a long time before anyone got hurt or killed, and we need *more* discussion about them, their lives, their problems, and our failures in dealing with mental illness in those around us. More discussion, not less. That's the sort of response that will truly honor the victims, by taking this trajedy and turning in into an opportunity helping reduce the likelihood of similar incidents in the future and by helping the millions of others who deal with mental illness, but fall between the cracks and off of people's radar.
A short-sighted political move, showing a lack of understanding of the underlying problem: untreated mental illness. What needs to happen is a careful and public examination of James Holmes' life, the signs of mental illness that were almost certainly present but went ignored, the times when people could have intervened but chose not to because it was uncomfortable, the things that we can do for those around us to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.
Almost all of the shooters in situations like this had been dealing with mental illness for a long time before anyone got hurt or killed, and we need *more* discussion about them, their lives, their problems, and our failures in dealing with mental illness in those around us. More discussion, not less.
That's the sort of response that will truly honor the victims, by taking this trajedy and turning in into an opportunity helping reduce the likelihood of similar incidents in the future and by helping the millions of others who deal with mental illness, but fall between the cracks and off of people's radar.
A victim's brother asked him to do this. How could he say "no" to that?
Short-sighted? For decades, I have been incenced about this issue every time the media makes another of these losers into a media star. Everyone I can remember speaking to feels the same.
We can (and should, I agree) discuss the causes and psochosis *without using a criminal's proper name*. Subjects are anonymized in scientific studies all the time! We can call him "the Aurora shooter" or " the Aurora Patient" or "APPPCBHELGC – the Aurora Pathetic Psycho in Protective Custody Because he's Earned the Loathing of the General Population " or "prisoner #35042642" or "subject A" or whatever…
Getting your name smeared all over the press and drilled into the minds of the public is something that entertainers and politicians pay megabucks for. Why should we reward a murderer for his deed by giving this extremely valuable commodity to him for free?
From what I've read, the fame that comes from racking up a big body count is sometimes (often?) a factor in what drives these people to commit murder.
Complicity in a process that may contribute to /motivate murder is at best irresponsible – might even be considered criminal. Like a bartender who keeps serving alcohol to a person who can't stand up under his own power, and who still has the keys to his car.