Thoughts On The Holocaust Memorial Museum Shooting
Posted By Patrick On June 11, 2009 @ 2:31 pm In Crime & Punishment, News | Comments Disabled
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Today James W. von Brunn will be charged for the murder of Stephen T. Johns, a 39 year old security guard that he shot when we walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum [1] with a rifle and opened fire. Johns was critically wounded before two other guards returned fire on the 88 year old von Brunn, a known White supremacist. Both men were transported to George Washington University Hospital Center where Johns later died [2]. von Brunn remains at GW Hospital in critical condition. von Brunn made his views known on the website holywesternempire.org, which has since been taken down. However I visited the latest snapshot [3] of the site on the Internet Archive [4] and I was disgusted. This man is clearly full of the hate and ignorance that the Holocaust Memorial is fighting as pointed out in today’s Washington Post editorial [5]. I fully agree- the Holocaust Memorial is a a place for us to remember and experience a dark time in our history, so that future generations will not forget what took place and hopefully will learn and grow to become a better society.
Everybody here at Metblogs would like to send our condolences and thoughts out to the family of Stephen T. Johns and I know I speak for everyone when I say what happened yesterday was tragic. Johns gave his life in order to protect the thousands of others in that building that walked away frightened but unharmed. The Museum is closed today in honor of Johns but I cannot wait for it to re-open so it can continue it’s mission and show that in the face of adversity the Museum will continue to serve it’s mission as a place of memorial but also education.
Before I end with some quick thoughts I encourage everyone to read Franco Beans short but thoughtful take on the events [6]…
On the Death Penalty…
One of the first reactions I got was a question from my co-worker (who’s from Massachusetts), “does Washington DC have the death penalty?”
I know where he was going with that, I checked and DC doesn’t have it [7]. I don’t know if I want to start thinking about whether or not he deserves to die- maybe things will sort themselves out before I have to think about such a complicated subject.
On More Irony…
Others have already pointed out the irony that a reading of Anne & Emmett [8], a play about a fictional conversation between Anne Frank [9] and Emmett Till [10], was scheduled to happen at the museum. Tonight happens to be the closing night of the Washington Jewish Music Festival [11]. A time of cultural celebration stands to end on a somber note.
On Police Jurisdiction…
Clinton Yates [12] made a comment [13] on Twitter on the number of law enforcement agencies involved in the ordeal. Wackenhut [14] provides security for the Holocaust Museum while DC Police [15] & Park Police [16] responded to the incident. FBI [17] also sent a unit in to aid in the investigation. So who’s in charge? The fight for jurisdiction sounds like a plotline from 24 [18] or a scene from any police flick [19].
On the Uber Coverage…
Wonkette [20] made a comment [21] that the Washington Post’s coverage of the shooting made it the most exciting thing to happen, “since the midnight launch of Windows 95.” True WP is all over this story with live blogs [22] and Twitter almost blew up [23] (I got the fail whale [24] during lunch) but that’s the kind of coverage we should expect now in the age of instant publishing/access to information. I will applaud The Post’s speedy reporting on the shooter’s neighbors impression of him [25]. The post had a story up [26] two hours after the incident showing that ol’ fashion reporting can still be done rather quickly.
Article printed from Washington D.C. Metblogs: http://dc.metblogs.com
URL to article: http://dc.metblogs.com/2009/06/11/thoughts-on-the-holocaust-memorial-museum-shooting/
URLs in this post:
[1] Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/
[2] Johns later died: http://dcist.com/2009/06/officer_stephen_tyrone_johns_died.php
[3] the latest snapshot: http://web.archive.org/web/20080212010705/http://www.holywesternempire.org/
[4] the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
[5] Washington Post editorial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061003340.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
[6] short but thoughtful take on the events: http://francobeans.com/2009/06/11/the-lighter-side-of-loss/
[7] DC doesn’t have it: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state
[8] Anne & Emmett: http://www.anneandemmett.com/
[9] Anne Frank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank
[10] Emmett Till: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
[11] Washington Jewish Music Festival: http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/music/wjmf/
[12] Clinton Yates: http://twitter.com/clintonyates
[13] comment: http://twitter.com/clintonyates/status/2106656515
[14] Wackenhut: http://www.g4s.com/usw
[15] DC Police: http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/site/default.asp
[16] Park Police: http://www.nps.gov/uspp/
[17] FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/
[18] 24: http://www.fox.com/24/
[19] police flick: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120768/
[20] Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/
[21] comment: http://wonkette.com/409080/follow-hot-death-coverage-washington-post-twitterblogs
[22] live blogs: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/sections/metro/
[23] Twitter almost blew up: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%22Holocaust%20Museum%22
[24] fail whale: http://failwhale.com/
[25] shooter’s neighbors impression of him: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061003495.html?hpid=topnews
[26] a story up: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2009/06/suspect_didnt_believe_holocaus.html
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