The post in which I agree with Beeker
I’ve been thinking about writing about that nutjob, Pfc. Benjamin Colton Barnes who shot several people over the weekend, including a Park ranger. I remember the news reporting that he was an Iraq veteran with extensive survival skills and then they find his body a day later in a creek, apparently dead from hypothermia. I guess those survival skills were fairly limited since he didn’t know that laying in a creek would bring on some hypothermia. So you have wonder about the PTSD thing that the media likes to wave as a bloody shirt. According to an MSNBC piece, Barnes’ problems go back to before his Army career;
Growing up in Riverside County, Calif., he was sent to a community day school for expelled and troubled students as a teenager, the Press-Enterprise newspaper reported.
And the Army didn’t think much of his PTSD claims, either;
He was discharged from the Army in 2009 for drunken driving and illegal transportation of a private weapon.
In fact, the claims of PTSD seem to come from his ex-girlfriend’s order of protection, not from any doctor. It’s just something the media likes to grab onto to exonerate criminals from their own poor choices.
Anyway, Brandon Friedman, dicksmith’s predecessor at VetVoice, known to TAH old timers as Beeker, currently employed at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, contributed to the MSNBC piece and spoke the first true words I’ve seen from his mouth;
Even if Barnes did have PTSD, as his ex-girlfriend says, “having PTSD doesn’t signify a propensity to murder Americans,” Friedman said, adding that he was concerned that depictions of Barnes as a sufferer of PTSD could fuel public perceptions that all Lewis-McChord veterans are “dangerous psychos.”
“The stereotype of the crazy vet is something vets have had to deal with for years, and it’s simply not backed up with hard data,” he said.
Yeah, the media likes to point out the tens of thousands of veterans who suffer from PTSD are coming home – you’d think they’d want to point out that those thousands also don’t randomly shoot people.
Category: Veterans Issues
Well hell, Beeker finally makes sense for a change! Blind squirrel, nut, shit like that.
@1: You forgot “broke clock”. 😛
Before anyone throws a PTSD label on someone, look at the what the person was like before they went into the service. In this case, this guy was troubled before the Army and he merely lapsed into his pre-Army lifestyle.
In fact, the Army was probably the best place for a guy like this given his background, where supervision and regimented lifestyle served him well.
The other part of the equation that clearly is overlooked is his experience in the family court system. Is anyone running to microphone banks to indict the court system for driving a man to suicide?
Yet again, this is a case where a court and/or law enforcement system knows someone is mentally unstable and threatening violence, and yet is ignored by civil authorities. See also Jared Laughner, Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech shooter), Amy Bishop (University of Alabama shooter), etc. etc. Why are they blaming the Army when the court system knew for years this guy was suicidal and capable of violence?
I’m with you all the way, AP. Many veterans with serious behavioral or emotional problems had those problems when they entered service. This does nothing but taint the veterans who are emotionally scarred from their combat theatre experiences. Long ago it was Soldier’s Heart, then Shell Shock, Combat Fatigue, and, now, PTSD. It is a bloodless wound but knuckleheads such as Barnes do nothing to help the suffering heal.
White supremacist tattoos? The ODIN is a dead giveaway. The one around his navel looks familiar, like one of those norse tree runes. Not sure about the LA gang sign or the others.
Could be a very interesting toxicology report.
I’m still saying he was a graduate of Chino gladiator academy…..One reporter is now doing a walkback on the story followed by MessNBC, the Seattle Times and a local newspaper in Riverside, CA. The “Pride, ect” ink on the back of his neck tipped it off….
Drugs, alchol and piss poor behavior in life. The guy was a turd, the media loves to throw around the PTSD thing as an excuse. Hell, none of the guys from my Infantry company go on rampages and kill innocent people.
That walk back is a load of crap. They could have used any number of descriptions and gave any number of details from the custody battle paperwork but the reporter choose to call him an “Iraq War Veteran” accused of having PTSD because it fits best with his preconceived notions.
He could have just as easily, and accurately, called him a former felon convicted of weapons charges, described as being suicidal by his baby momma.
Exactly Bohica! If one looks at the earlier Seattle Times article, the reporters were asking for other veterans to step forward to help them refresh the “PTSD” in the public’s mind as well. Keep an eye out for such an article to appear too. I’m certain our bestest buddies eva from the local IVAW coffeehouse in Lakewood, will be more than happy to step forward with their “horror stories” even though none them were beyond the “wire” let alone oversea’s in a combat zone.
And like a dingleberry, I left out none of them have ever served the public in any capacity, be it soldier or volunteer firefighter….
The ink on his belly is a tat of a bridge in Riverside. The bulldogs are indicative of a Cali youth correctional facility crew, (I can’t remember that crews name )hence another reason I have speculated that he did time in Chino gladiator academy, the handcuffed ink tells me he felt he was innocent and unjustly busted by the “man”. As soon as I learn more about the rest of his ink, I’ll post it.
You’re right about the Riverside tat. The same seal is on the seal of the City of Riverside.
Still, getting ODIN inked on ones chest is suspect. Its one of those gray area, cryptic tattoos that may be supremacist related or not.
Oh, and it begins again. The shooter in Utah has also been fingered as a possible Iraq vet by a neighbor. No actual proof, just the neighbor’s, ex-husband’s word.
Yeah I agree with you Jonn. I think I commented the same on the other post(I was far from the only one let me say).
[…] like in the case of the veteran who the media said had extensive survival training and suffered from PTSD, there are no doctor reports of PTSD, only family members who’ve somehow diagnosed the PTSD. […]
Streetsweeper: every time I drive by that particular coffee house in Lakewood, I want to do a drive-by on that coffee house in Lakewood. And before someone calls the VA, my Commander or has my guns taken away that comment had nothing to do with PTSD.
[…] the fact that its been proven that Benjamin Colton Barnes, the veteran when he was the subject of a manhunt after he murdered a park ranger in Mount Rainier […]
[…] the fact that its been proven that Benjamin Colton Barnes, the veteran when he was the subject of a manhunt after he murdered a park ranger in Mount Rainier […]