Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart.com
Big Government
20 Jul 2012
Falsely accused James Michael Holmes.
Breitbart News spoke to James Michael Holmes, the Tea Party member falsely identified this morning by ABC News’ Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America as the possible suspect in the mass shooting early this morning at a screening of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. He is a 52-year-old Hispanic conservative who joined the Tea Party after becoming disillusioned with the Republican party.
“It was freaky,” said Holmes, describing his reaction when ABC News speculated that he was the culprit who entered a crowded theater and opened fire on dozens of innocent men, women, and children. He disconnected his telephone and says that he is worried about members of his family who might be contacted by the media.
ABC News has since corrected its initial report, but tried to share the blame with “social media” and “members of the public” at first:
An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect.
Now the correction has been updated, with ABC News and Brian Ross taking full responsibility, and apologizing…
The article continues, with videos, at Big Government.
Update: New Information Emerges on Colorado Shooting Suspect
…Trace Gallagher reports that the suspect, James Holmes, dropped out of the University of Colorado about a month ago, where he was studying neuroscience. Holmes previously earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Riverside. It’s unclear whether his education would have given him experience with chemicals or explosives.
The suspect was also carrying four firearms — a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and two handguns — despite having no concealed weapons permits, no hunting or fishing licenses, and no ties to the military…
Also, Tragedies Like The Colorado Shooting Are A Poor Justification For Gun Control – Say Anything
Isolated tragedies should not obscure the fact that as gun ownership in America has gone up crime has gone down.
Perfection, as always: Steyn: Media play double standard in coverage of Aurora shooting versus Ft Hood shooting
Update 2: James Holmes Facebook mistaken identity: Why social media won’t tell us the Batman shooter’s motive at Slate
The Internet has trained us to assume that the intimate details of people’s lives must be out there on the Web somewhere, just waiting for us to enter the right Google search term or trawl the right social media platform.
News of the massacre at the Batman screening in Aurora, Colorado this morning sent a thousand journalists (and “citizen journalists”) to their browsers, racing to be the first to uncover the telling detail about the suspect. Would James Holmes turn out, like Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner, to have confessed in an online gaming forum to “hav(ing) aggression 24/7?” Might he have penned online political screeds, like Norway shooter Anders Behring Breivik?
Maybe. But if so, they weren’t forthcoming Friday morning. Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff writes of spending all morning scouring Facebook, Twitter, even MySpace for clues and coming up with absolutely nothing. “I cannot get over what an online ghost Holmes appears to be,” Ulanoff wrote.
At least Ulanoff came up with nothing. Others came up with something worse—misinformation and mistaken identity….
H/T Jim Treacher
Suspect James Holmes
Suspect was studying for Ph.D. in neuroscience
‘Reckless and False’ Tea party leader blasts media reporting after Batman shooting
…“We demand the media report responsibly,” [Jenny Beth] Martin said, adding, “It is irresponsible for any media outlet to suggest anyone was responsible for this tragedy other than those involved.”…
Update 3: Colorado Tea Party Member Smeared by ABC’s Brian Ross: “What kind of idiot makes that kind of statement?” at Jammie Wearing Fools where you may also read, ABC News’ Tea Party Apology Isn’t Good Enough
This is chilling: “This is someone who is engaged in predatory, thought provoking, very well planned out behavior”
…After arresting Holmes, police went to his residence. But they moved cautiously, and that may have saved some lives. Standing on top of an armored vehicle, a SWAT Team member held a camera at the end of a pole. He saw a sophisticated booby-trap set to kill anyone coming through the front door.
“There appear to be incendiary devices,” Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said. “There are chemical elements. There are all kinds of wires.”
Investigators now believe that Holmes used a timer to set off loud techno music at the apartment just before midnight. It was meant to spur a noise complaint to police. The ruse theoretically would have drawn them into the apartment building, detonating a firebomb and then drawing all available police and rescue units to the other side of town before the shooting at the theater started. That would have allowed him more time to kill more people and left a much smaller police response to the theater shootings…
Read the whole thing.
Update 4: Roger Ebert: Gun-Free Theater Proves Concealed Carry Doesn’t Work
…he pooh-poohed concealed carry laws by noting that no one in the theater shot back at the gunman. But Ebert misses an important point. The Cinemark theater chain has a “gun-free zone” policy…he didn’t bother to find out if anyone was or even could be armed in that theater…
Also, Why even look for a Tea Party connection?
Why look for a Tea Party connection? What violent crimes have been committed by Tea Party members, much less on behalf of or with the knowledge of Tea Party groups?
If there is a high profile act of violence, the Tea Party is the last place to which attention should be directed, as the list of false accusations of Tea Party involvment shows.
The most important list, of course, is the list of the victims of James Holmes…
