As a movie obsessive, someone who has now seen the Dark Knight Rises three times, and craves every single piece of analysis known to mankind, this is my face of evil. Before July 20, I had no idea who James Holmes was. In truth, the information to follow almost humanized him to a painful degree. His Match.com profile stated interest in the TV shows Party Down and Arrested Development. He attended school in Riverside, CA. He is only one year older than me. The similarities are eerie.
And it is why for the first few days, I was paranoid. A man went into a theater and shot up the place. He called himself the Joker, sporting a gas mask and bright orange hair. It made me scared to visit a theater, if just because I was overly paranoid over the lesser issues that were the death threats sent to critics prior to the movie's release. This just seemed like a logical next step in my neurotic sense of progression.
Somehow this guy became fascinating to me as a result. I wanted to know his motive. I wanted to know why he turned into the crazed gunman that we saw last week. I didn't get that until Monday. However, I did spend a good chunk of my weekend constantly flipping through news channels and refreshing my browser for news. He had managed to stop the movie community from discussing the film, so I had to see why.
I saw a lot of stuff. I saw interviews with victims and family members. The more I heard, the more ridiculous it seemed. He didn't only shoot people in that theater. The bullets managed to ricochet into the next theater, taking a life or so. What was more unnerving is that this was the only photo I had to work with.
It seemed more eerie because I've seen pictures like this in my high school yearbook. I knew kids that looked like this. They were science nerds, but that didn't mean they ruined everyone else's lives. It just made the situation scary because things could have been different. I may have known this man in an alternate timeline to be charming and full of promise. Instead, I now have a small fear that someone my age will pull the next move.
I never understood the fascination with murderers until this case came up. I think it had a lot to do with the simple factor that I didn't understand motive. Also, he just seemed too similar to actually be that way. However, when I discovered that his mother wasn't at all surprised about this incident and simply stated that she knew it was him, it gave me some sense that there's some deeper context here.
The fact that his apartment was also rigged with explosives also seemed puzzling to me. I wasn't going to fight the case of mental illness. This felt like too logical of an experiment. He picked the big movie for the biggest possible crowd and attention, and did his thing. This seemed too planned for him to be insane. Those arguing that he is must acknowledge that this shouldn't justify him as being in control of his actions.
Then Monday came around and we saw this:
He was dozing off in the court and was very silent. I am satisfied to at least know that I have a more updated picture of the killer. However, the fact that I haven't heard him talk is more haunting. That is a big deal to hear someone's voice, as it adds something to the person and creates a full picture. He could be eloquent, or simply insane. I just want to hear it in his voice.
The trial came back and said that he was still a suspect and an arraignment was set for the following Monday. It's times like this that I felt odd about the government's judicial system. A man shoots 70 people, rigs his house with explosives, and hands himself over nonchalantly , and he is still just a suspect? I am really wondering how that can be.
I moved past fear into anger towards this guy. Everything that followed almost felt like we were fed false information about him. He didn't seem like the science student that we were told to believe. He was spitting on guards, being forced to wear a muzzle of sorts when transported. He showed signs of sleep deprivation and many claim he has schizophrenia. Research is being taken towards it, but nothing official has come forth just yet.
Sure, his house was safely defused and residents could move back in, but that also seems puzzling. Reports stated that it could have blown the entire building to shreds. This isn't a man who had no idea what he was doing. Even the fact that he purchased ammunition and weapons after failing an oral exam a few months ago seems peculiar. This feels like a revenge plot of some sort for failing school.
I won't get into the psychological end of this, but I still find the whole frenzy fascinating in something that feels lifted from Natural Born Killers. In a matter of time, everyone made an opinion about him. Many people on Twitter noted that he was sexy. They even photoshopped pictures with him. There was the negative side, but even Facebook fan pages got in on the action, and while they remain scarce, they existed.
I don't believe that I know everything involving this case just yet. I have kept up a routine of researching at various intervals throughout the day. Most of the times now, I am left with rehashes of old news or a more opinionated entry on the subject.
The most recent thing that I have discovered is his notebook that he sent to his school. It showed pictures and details of a shooting, though never specified the one he attended. It arrived at the school on Monday and information hasn't been made public just yet on what all was in it. However, it only furthers my question on why this guy is still a suspect.
Just recently, it was also revealed that he supposedly has amnesia. This guy is playing all of the cards. He is acting crazy, schizophrenic, and now complaining that he doesn't remember the events. He was a student of neuroscience, so that only adds to the mystery on if he is faking it. However, he wasn't faking shooting the theater or setting up bombs in his house or sending that notebook with violent imagery to the school. It is all there, and shows a mad man.
All mad men are insane. You have to be to take lives like that. The final frontier for me is whether or not he should be killed. This is what makes me sadder than any girl calling him attractive. He shot 70 and killed 12 of them. This is the biggest mass shooting since Columbine. The evidence clearly shows that he did it and there is little chance that it can get better.
However, I have read reports that some of the victims already have forgiven him, believing that he lost his soul. Others are going on the judgment that he is someone's son and therefore will hurt someone's feelings. It just reminds me that his mother clearly knew that her son was crazy all along and quickly complied with the authorities on the issue.
I am aware that he is someone's son. However, wasn't the 70 people he shot someone's children? They paid to see a movie. I believe that it would be miserable to keep this charade up. At some point you have to fess up for your actions. While I am hoping that we get a more fleshed out picture of this incident, I don't believe he should just live a life in jail. That would be a slap on the wrist. He doesn't deserve to be alive.
So he's playing the insanity card. What's the big deal? People say that he can be treated and rehabilitated. Why would you want to waste time on that? He's already left a bold statement and by doing so, you only run the risk of him doing it again. If he's lying about the insanity, that only gives him more time to do the next action.
I never understood why it had to be like this. Why can a man guilty of mass murdering live while the mass he killed are lying in the grave? They weren't insane. They were just in the wrong place. Just kill the man. It may scar his mother, but she already should be ashamed that her son did this. He won't go down in history as some scientific genius, but a murderer who took away people's enthusiasm for the Dark Knight Rises. That is a dick move, and one that deserves severe punishment.
I won't be writing weekly entries on the James Holmes events. I just found it fascinating all that happened since my previous entry detailing the arrests. It has made me realize many things, notably my personal politics and whether I believe people should be forgiven for terrible crimes. I'll give him this. If he can resurrect the 12 dead and fully heal the other 58, I will consider changing my ways. Until then, every action has an equal reaction. This needs to be reality. Accept the truth and let's get on with our lives.
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