Saturday, January 24, 2009

Newsance... I call it... *update 28/1

First of all my condoleances to the victims of this atrocity in Belgium which has everybody here obviously shocked. I'm sure most have read or heard already, if not, just read on. The media, released and still is releasing many conflicting reports on it (even worse in international media) on the one hand I wonder how this is even possible with such a sensitive case, on the other hand, big news and emotions running wild, I don't know. The international media acted even dumber, can you blame translation errors for the most erroneous reports? I don't know. Notably the sensationalist English papers who threw sensitivity entirely out the window on more than one occasion.
To clarify let's sum up the latest version, which is still largely unconfirmed & might change:
The entire country is shook up by a horrible triple murder that took place yesterday morning. A 20 year old guy, Kim De Gelder (anagram: Ledger), media tagline: "a loner"..., face not painted white, eyes not blackened but just very pale and tired eyes (reports of this may have changed again! latest I heard: he didn't have make up on... but had it in its backpack, eh?! ;p), with ginger hair... killed 2 babies under 1 year old and a nursery attendent and wounded tens of other babies and toddlers, most of which are out of intensive care today. His motives still aren't clear, he is still not cooperating.
He got in through security of the Fairytales crèche in Dendermonde with the excuse that he wanted to ask something. He stormed up the stairs, went straight to the baby ward where he swung his knife around, cutting mostly in the head and throat areas... then went to the toddlers and did the same.
He threw away his knife near the scene and escaped by bicycle. Police mobilized even with helicopters and captured him a few kilometers further in Lebbeke (quite a feat if you know Belgian law enforcement's track record). According to an eye witness of the arrest: "They pulled him off his bike, there was a short struggle/no resistance and police pulled down his pants so he couldn't run away. They pulled up his shirt and he was wearing a bulletproof vest. In his bag a change of clothes, fake gun, another knife and an axe were visible." Two more knives were found at the scene of the crime.
During questioning, he was not cooperative the entire first day as well as today. He gave up at least 5 different names, repeated over and over again he did not know his real name. He was also laughing, constantly. He is still not cooperating. He had a job in a departement store, in the warehouse. Former collegues say he was a quiet guy, or was laughing, or was talking about his preference for strange movies. He quit his job two weeks ago.
His identity has been confirmed but not released. It's been said initially that the individual has no known psychiatric history (weird I said at first, and indeed, latest update: He was in depressions in high school and his folks tried to have him committed 2 years ago at age 18 cause he never spoke the psychologists and psychiatrists at the time didn't think it necessary, he was on ANTIDEPRESSIVES, wouldn't ya know it.) and did not have a crime record. He was also sober during the atrocity.
He had a note with him, with 3 (latest report: 2) other addresses which illustrated some preparation was done (along with the bulletproof vest). One was confirmed to be the Sunshine crèche. He had also written on the note that he planned to kill 75 people. His house has been searched and his computer confiscated.
The rescue workers were in tears, some of their own children at the scene, and had to switch to automatic pilot to even be able to help the many victims.
One eye witness who saw him flee on his bike was irritably smiling when talking on camera, I know some people smile when nervous but still, very wrong. He said "the eyes were blackened and dirty ginger hair."
Another witness who lived behind the crèche, but from quite a distance thought he saw the kids playing tag with the killer... and saw him ride his bike away in pure calmness.
30.000 people on facebook clicked their mouse to express their sympathy... On newspaper sites, the emotional reactions went in all directions, I stopped reading after five of them, not like I was expecting anything sensible there...
When I saw the image of "Lady Justice" in the background on a huge screen on flemish channel VTM, the thought came up - that along with other crimes for instance in Norway yesterday where a policeman shot his former girlfriend (who was according to initial reports a student teacher) and her new lover dead and then killed himself... on the parking lot of a school - the balance had to be tipped from all the hope of the last days...
There are some obvious MK hints, though also counter arguments and I'm not a fan of confirmation bias. Lots of Ledger resonance with the name being an anagram, and the media hyping the Joker connections, the supposed did he or did he not wear white makeup (and why does the police now report there was some in his backpack but not on his face?!). etc. Many questions remain and I'll believe nothing until more is clear and yet after that, remember labels here are possible labels. Links: The Copycat Effect, Through the Looking Glass, Pseudoccult media and Elluminati.

In other newsance, Obama supports warrantless wiretapping. Boo. Finally back to normalcy...
Israel has admitted the use of white phosphorus during the Palestinian massacre, after denying despite photographic and video evidence. Nearly 1,300 Palestinians, the majority being civilians, died and nearly 500 were injured during the three-week offensive. Israel says that 13 of their soldiers were also killed. 13, 1300, do the math. There were protests today against the BBC because they won't air a commercial to financially support the victims in Gaza.

1 comment:

The Secret Sun said...

I hope Belgium has the wisdom to put that filthy little scumbag in general population and let jailhouse justice run its course...