Let’s be clear: all evidence in the killing of 3 people, who happened to be Muslims, by Craig Stephen Hicks seems to point towards a long brewing fight over parking, especially since Hicks has a long history of fighting over parking. But, what does this guy actually look like?
(Raleigh N&O)  If his Facebook page is any indication, Craig Hicks doesn’t hate Muslims. An avowed atheist, his online posts instead depict a man who despises religion itself, but nevertheless seems to support an individual’s right to his own beliefs.
“I hate Islam just as much as christianity, but they have the right to worship in this country just as much as any others do,†the man now accused of killing three Muslim college students stated in one 2012 post over the proposed construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York.
In often publicly posted Facebook rants, Hicks was brazen about his disdain for all faiths. In one post regarding specific texts from the Quran, the Jewish Talmud and the Bible about battling nonbelievers, he wrote: “I wish they would exterminate each other!â€
But he was just as passionate about personal freedom and liberty – championing an individual’s right to worship or not worship, legal abortion and gay marriage and, perhaps most fervently, the right to own and bear arms. If he has a creed, it’s the Second Amendment.
Yeah, he was gun crazy. And also held lots of left wing points of view. He was also a big supporter of liberals, including Obama, Rachael Maddow, and others.
But, is it really a complicated view? Many in the N&O comments were very upset about noting he’s an atheist. Many Muslims I know, quite a few who attended the memorial for the slain victims, call it a hate crime. Perhaps it would be more understandable if it was, rather than being about parking.
At the end of the day, the simplest explanation usually wins. This isn’t about hate, about liberal values, nor about the 2nd Amendment. Nor being an atheist. Maybe his word view affected the ending, but, parking. We all have biases and viewpoints, but, they may be meaningless in an incident like this. We also shouldn’t forget what really matters: he’s accused of murdering 3 people in cold blood.
Liberals live (and die) by victim group. It messes up their world view when a perp and victim cannot be identified by a group. Liberals need labels and psychoanalysis to make senses of things. The rest of us just see “road rage”.
Yea, he was a great guy. All round liberal who wanted freedom for everyone and didn’t care about people being Muslim. Its just that they parked in his spot so he killed them, that’s all. He clearly didn’t profane their religious beliefs, but they crossed a line with the parking. Some how I can see Jeff doing that.
??? But but the radical right is always telling us the real liberals HATE guns
How could he be a liberal and a raving gun nut ?
Liberals are pro gun now ?
Guns make it very easy to kill other human beings that is why most murders here in the USA are caused by gunshot
I certainly don’t see him as a hippie he has that stupid mustache goatee that i see too often
As for parking being the cause he had many many parking space disputes in the end he killed muslims
Too many people who should not own guns do own guns
[…] Image Of Chapel Hill Shooter Is “Conflicting”. […]
“Too many people who should not own guns do own guns.” That’s correct, which is why you want as many people who should own guns, to own guns.
j,
So rather than keep guns out of the hands of lunatics, you propose to get more guns into the hands of non-lunatics.
No, what we say is that liberals do not like guns in Other People’s hands. In their own, they are more than happy to have them. Let me note some interesting things. 67% of firearms murders occurred in the country’s 50 largest metro areas. Those areas have a murder rate that is twice the rate for the nation. Obama won every single one of those cities in the metro areas except Salt Lake City and Jacksonville, Fl. He won New Orleans by 80-17. That city has a murder rate that is ten times the national average. He handily won Detroit, which has the second highest murder rate of 53 for every 100k, double the rate of any country in the world.
54% of the population in the 50 metro areas were responsible for 67% of gun murders. And that doesn’t even take into account all the non-fatal shootings.
A gun is a tool. Strange that so many in Liberal World choose to use a gun to kill, eh?
I never said he was. But, other than a fixation on guns, his views very much jibe with yours. However, all that, again, is incidental to what happened. It’s information that tells us about the person, not the reason for the murders.
As for parking being the cause he had many many parking space disputes in the end he killed muslims
True, but that in no way means he killed them for being Muslim.
On that, I agree. Just like some should not be driving. Many people are irresponsible. Case in point: at the firing range a jackass came in with a Desert Eagle, despite signs banning higher calibers. He got off one shot, employees came in, kicked him out, and banned him. Some people are assholes and refuse to follow rules, and take safety seriously. Same with autos. Some people can be too cavalier, fool around too much, etc.
I lived in Chapel Hill for over a decade, amused by the desperate premium on parking in a milieu that purported to oppose the American love affair with the automobile–an inapt metaphor better expressed as a marriage. I have long joked that I would retire to Chapel Hill and buy a tow truck.
Homicide over parking disputes is a disgusting but unsurprising event in the self-conflicted society that has agglomerated around universities.
Jeff,
I hate to tell you this, but in the criteria they have for limiting guns, you would fall into the exclusion zone. They would come for your stock pile.
Why does it even matter if this was some sort of hate crime? Mr Hicks has been charged with three counts of first degree murder, the punishment for which is either life in prison without parole, or the death penalty. Adding some kind of cockamamie hate crimes rider to this won’t change Mr Hicks’ sentence — assuming that he is convicted — one bit.
And, quite frankly, treating this as not being a hate crime means, inter alia, that we take the killing of Muslims just as seriously as we take the killing of anyone else. Isn’t equal treatment under the law supposed to be a goal?