Clown x Waffle House: Atlanta Shooting

It appears the sync threads of "clowns" and "Waffle Houses" have merged. Now if we can only discover some of the names of those involved.

A gunman involved in a robbery reportedly wearing a golden "angry clown" mask shot a Waffle House patron in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, July 10, 2018.

A man was shot and several customers were robbed at a Waffle House location on Northside Drive near the intersection with 14th Street in Midtown at 6:00 am, Tuesday morning.

Witnesses say the suspect came into the restaurant and went into the restroom. He later emerged wearing an "angry clown" mask and proceeded to rob several patrons and employees at gunpoint.

The suspect then grabbed a cash register off of a counter and grabbed the keys to a vehicle of one of the robbery victims. As he was leaving, one of the robbery victims went to a window and the suspect fired a shot, striking the man in the neck. The victim was alert, conscious and breathing when officers arrived and was able to speak with them.

The suspect, only described as a black male wearing a dark-colored hoodie with tan pants, then fled the scene in the stolen white Mercury Grand Marquis which was later recovered in the area of 9th and Curran streets.

h/t Smiles.

2018: Georgia, Oregon and New York Self-Immolations

Self-immolations have been a form of political protest in modern times since a number of Buddhist monks (including the most famous case of Thích Quảng Đức) immolated themselves by fire in protest of the persecution of Buddhists under the administration of Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm in South Vietnam. The immolations spread through Asia and to America from 1963 to 1971.

In the third known high-profile fire suicide attempt of 2018, a man is fighting for his life at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital with burns to 85 to 90 percent of his body.

Georgia Veteran

A veteran who was fed up with treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs set himself on fire in protest outside of the Georgia State Capitol building (seen above) in downtown Atlanta on June 26, 2018.

The 58-year-old from Mableton, Georgia, who has not yet been identified, parked his car alongside the Capitol before walking toward the building, where he commenced self-immolation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“He was strapped with some homemade incendiary devices (and) firecrackers, and doused himself with some kind of flammable liquid,” Georgia State Patrol Captain Mark Perry told the Atlanta newspaper.

The Georgia immolation appears to follow the same pattern of the immolation of Charles Ingram, a 51-year-old Gulf War veteran, who grew increasing frustrated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In March 2016, shortly before his VA appointment, Ingram went to the clinic in Northfield, N.J., doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire. The clinic was closed at the time. He died.

Chloe Sagal

Exactly a week before, on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, a person lit themselves on fire in Lownsdale Square (see above), the park located across from the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland, Oregon.

The person entered the park, on crutches, and barely able to walk, wearing a red scarf around the neck. Then the individual sat down and began reading a statement about homelessness and mental health issues. The person died at the hospital.

The local media reported some confusion about the gender of the person. It turns out it was video developer Chloe Sagal, 31, who identified herself as trans.

Variety wrote:

Sagal was best known for her horror game “Homesick,” which follows the story of a woman searching for her friends inside the house where her family was murdered. She also made headlines in 2013 when she ran an Indiegogo campaign that was ostensibly for metal poisoning treatment. But, according to Eurogamer, the money was instead used for gender alteration surgery.

David Buckel

Another self-immolation of 2018 occurred on Saturday, April 14, 2018, when David Buckel, 60, a prominent green activist and lawyer for LGBT rights, died after setting himself on fire in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park protesting ecological destruction and global warming. The famed 60 year old attorney left behind a suicide note in which Buckel told of his intention of burning himself to death with "fossil fuel" in a bid to show how mankind was likewise killing itself. Buckel also worked as an urban gardener and ecologist with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, helping run what he called the largest composting program in the country to use only renewable sources of energy.

The New York Daily News headlined the story.

Other related immolation articles:

Burning Man 2017

Immolations 2017

Palace Self-Immolation 2015

Aurora Self-Immolation 2014

Colorado Self-Immolation 2014

D. C. Self-Immolation 2013: 1, 2, 3

h/t to Media Monarchy for GA news.

Friday's Swedish Terrorist Attack

You look at what’s happening. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris. We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing. So we’re going to keep our country safe. 

~ President Donald J. Trump, Melbourne, Florida, Saturday, February 18, 2017.

First there was the historical noting of the "Bowling Green Massacre," and then came the recalling of the "Atlanta Attack." Now there's a call for us to "look at what’s happening last night in Sweden." 

The list of "alternative reality" events grows.

Are we to consider that there is an alternative parallel universe where recent terrorist attacks have occurred in Bowling Green, Atlanta, and Sweden? What if those locations are now on the short list of potential targets of the future? What if a room of comedians and political cartoons are making all of this up? If 2016's word of the year was "surreal," what word can describe 2017?

The source of Trump’s remark is unclear and the attempts to explain it have already begun. But the working solution appears to be linked to Fox News' Carlson Turner airing an interview on Friday, February 17, 2017, with filmmaker Ami Horowitz, whose new documentary examines whether high crime rates in Sweden are related to its previous open-door policy on people fleeing war and persecution. No "real" Swedish terrorist attacks happened on Friday, although a President or someone on his staff watching Fox News seems to have thought so.

We have been down this road in the recent past.

U.K.'s The Guardian detailed the growing list of non-existent terrorist attacks issuing from the Trump administration, as partially quoted here:

Trump’s comments come after Kellyanne Conway, one of his senior advisers, was ridiculed for blaming two Iraqi refugees for a massacre that never happened.
At the start of February Conway cited the fictitious “Bowling Green massacre” in an interview backing the travel ban imposed on visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Two Iraqi men living in Bowling Green, Kentucky, were arrested in 2011 over a failed attempt to send money and weapons to al-Qaida in Iraq. They are currently serving life sentences for federal terrorism offences, but there was no massacre, nor were they accused of planning one.
On 29 January, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, referred three times to an attack in Atlanta – where a string of bombings were carried out in 1996 and 1997.
Later, in an email to ABC News, he wrote that he “clearly meant Orlando”.
Forty-nine people were killed and more injured in the attack at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the Floridian city in June. It was carried out by Omar Mateen, a US citizen born in New York to Afghan parents. Afghanistan is not on the list of countries under Trump’s travel ban.
Trump has repeatedly accused what he described as the “dishonest media” of producing “fake news”. He repeated the attack on Saturday stating: “When the media lies to people I will never ever let them get away with it.”
He added: “We are not going to let the fake news tell us what to do, how to live and what to believe,” he said. “We are free, independent people and we will make our own choices.”
After Trump’s remarks in Florida, the Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet posted a story about crime that really had occurred in Sweden on Friday. Non-fake news it ran included: “Due to harsh weather in northern parts of Sweden the road E10 was closed between Katterjakk and Riksgransen” and “a man died in hospital, after an accident in the workplace earlier that day”.
Source.

Sadly, Suffer The Little Children

Some sad, weird stories are crossing my desk, about kids, about deaths, about this time of year, and, of course, once again, from the Atlanta area. Maybe there's someone out there who can see some patterns or meaning in all of this horrible news.

First, something seemed to be in the wind about the Summer Solstice, more so than normal, this year. There was a rash of stories, seemingly causing some Satanic smoldering about the dates June 20-25. See  "Satanists & Solstice Slayings." Of course, there was a hint of bizarreness just before the 21st on "Friday the 13th at Waffle House." Earlier, in May, a "Man Robbed A Waffle House With A Pitchfork."

The three Waffle House incidents - the pitchfork robbery at a WH, the killing of an on-duty policeman working as a security guard at a WH, and a WH employee shooting and killing a customer - all happened at Atlanta-area Waffle Houses.

In a strange link to Atlanta and an old name game previously identified here (= Tecumseh), the William Tecumseh Sherman monument (above) at the Grand Army Plaza in New York City was in the news because it is losing its gold covering. Tecumseh also showed up in the news this week with a lightning fire in Tecumseh, Ontario; a horse being killed in a fire in Tecumseh, Oklahoma; and a shooting at the intersection of Gloster and Tecumseh streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to name but a few examples.

The Union general who burned Atlanta was named after the great Shawnee prophet Tecumseh.

When another human tragedy struck, late in June, it was no surprise that the Atlanta area was a focus again. A toddler had been found dead, and had apparently been left alone for hours in a hot car. The distraught father blamed himself and faced serious criminal charges.
But there is a bit of mystery here. What was the truth behind the incident?

Cobb County, Georgia, police imply there is more -- much more -- to the story.
"Much has changed about the circumstances leading up to the death of this 22-month-old [Cooper Harris, pictured at top] since it was first reported," Cobb County Police Sgt. Dana Pierce told CNN. He would not elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation, but his words made it clear this was not just another case of a young life left and lost to heat exposure in a hot car.
Shocking details in hot car death case
"I've been in law enforcement for 34 years. What I know about this case shocks my conscience as a police officer, a father and a grandfather," said Pierce.

 

Initially, Justin Ross Harris, 33, (pictured) told Cobb County police that he accidentally left his toddler son in his SUV on Wednesday. According to police, Harris told them he had forgotten to drop the child off at a daycare center, before going to work.
Harris initially told police he realized that he'd left the boy strapped in his car seat as he drove home Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators say patrol officers were in the area of the Akers Mill Square shopping center in the suburban Atlanta county when dispatchers received the calls from witnesses around 4:20 p.m.
"He kept saying, 'What have I done? What have I done?'" Dale Hamilton told CNN affiliate WSB-TV.
"Within moments of the first responders getting to the scene and doing their job and questions began to be asked about the moments that led up to their arrival at the scene, some of those answers were not making sense to the first responders," Pierce of Cobb County Police said.
On Thursday, Harris pleaded not guilty to felony murder and cruelty to children charges. He's being held without bond at the Cobb County Jail.
CNN spoke with the child's mother, Leanna Harris, on Friday. Harris says she's been advised not to discuss the case with the media.
"We have been in communication with the mother throughout the investigation. At this time, I'm not at liberty to discuss her involvement. That's a part of the case our detectives are working on," Pierce said....
According to the arrest warrant, the temperature reached 88 degrees in the area on Wednesday. Police said medical personnel believed the child had been in the SUV since 9 a.m., as Harris said.
But Pierce told CNN on Friday, "I cannot confirm that the child, as originally reported, was in the car at 9 a.m." ~ CNN

What's worse, there was another such death.

The [Atlanta-area] toddler's death was the second this week of a child in a hot car. On Monday, a 9-month-old girl died in Rockledge, Fla., after her father forgot to drop her off at her grandmother's house, leaving her in the back seat of his pickup truck for several hours as he worked at his job as a telephone solicitor for the Fraternal Order of Police.
As of Thursday, no charges had been filed against Steven Lillie, 31, of Cocoa, Fla. Rockledge Police say they still are investigating the death and allowing Lillie and his girlfriend, the child's mother, to grieve the loss.
"She's been in the car for hours, and I absolutely forgot about her," Lillie said during a 9-1-1 call Monday to police dispatchers. "She's not alive." USA Today.

Thus far, in 2014, the following incidents have occurred:

Incident #	Date	Location	Temperature	Name	Age
	June
13*	06/18/14	Cobb County, GA	91°	Cooper Harris	22 mo
12*	06/16/14	Rockledge, FL	91°	Anna  Lillie	9 mo
11*	06/12/14	Ardmore, OK	84°	Mason Ryan Wood	2 mo
10	06/10/14	Flint, TX	88°	Bella Lindstrom	4 yr
9	06/08/14	Sarasota, FL	85°	Alejandra Hernandez	2 yr
8	06/04/14	Dolgeville, NY	73°	Sophia Lea Marie Lyon	15 mo
	May
7	05/25/14	Florence, SC	86°	Jeremiah A. Kennedy	13 mo
6	05/25/14	Princeton, IL	84°	Logan Jacobs	5 yr
5	05/12/14	Clarkston, GA	87°	Julius Meh	2 yr
4	05/08/14	Hartsville, SC	93°	Sophia Goyeneche	13 mo
	April
3	04/29/14	Bakersfield, CA	87°	Fernando Velasquez	5 yr
2*	04/22/14	North Richland Hills, TX	84°	Aurora Hollingsworth	17 mo
1	04/16/14	San Jose, CA	80°	Giovanni Alonzo Hernandez	9 mo

For 2013, see the list here.

"Suffer the little children" seemed a fitting headline for this posting.

But Jesus said, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." ~ Matthew 19:14, English Revised Version, The Bible

Just to clarify, as pointed out by RC in a comment to me, the use of the word "suffer" in the biblical sense means to "allow" as in "allow the children to come to me."

What is the paradox is how the meaning has changed for people from Stephen King (see at bottom) to the self-styled Satanists.

Meanwhile, the BeforeItNews folks wanted to turn everyone's attention to Denver, Colorado, over the Solstice weekend. There was talk of the sacrifice of a human child there, due to the Summer Solstice.

It was also pointed out that around the time of the Summer Solstice in 2013, in Midwest City, Oklahoma,

a toddler was held hostage [on June 17th] at Walmart, the suspected criminal claimed he was part of a Satanic cult.
News9 reported Sammie Lamont Wallace grabbed the two-year-old child at knifepoint and began speaking about the Illuminati and a satanic cult. Police said they began to research the things Wallace said, and found out that the day of the incident linked to a day of human sacrifice.
Police shot and killed Wallace after he began to make attempts on the girl's life. According to the police report they found religious writings in a notebook to validate his actions. See a report that further explains the story here.

###

A school shooting, Stephen King, and Miss Sibley.

"Suffer the Little Children" is a February 1972 short story by Stephen King. 

As King developed the tale, it was one about a school shooting long before the modern era of such events.

The plot centers on a frightened third grade teacher, Miss Emily Sidley, who brings her deceased brother's gun to school. There she takes twelve of her students to a room and shoots each one dead. Soon, she is interrupted by another teacher, and stops before she can kill another student.

Miss Sidley is sent to a mental hospital after the murders, and eventually takes her own life.

In 1993, King wrote that the story had "no redeeming social merit whatever."

Later, Stephen King discussed the role of his book Rage (which also contains a school shooting) after the school shootings by Barry Loukaitis of February 2, 1996, in Moses Lake, Washington. Eventually King apologized for writing the book, saying he penned it during a troubling period in his life. He said he wished it never had been published. Finally in 1999, after Columbine, King told his publisher to pull it from publication and took it out-of-print. He told the Today Show’s Katie Couric: “I took a look at Rage and said to myself, if this book is acting as any sort of accelerate, if it’s having any effect on any of these kids at all, I don’t want anything to do with it, regardless of what may be the moral and legal rights and wrongs. Even talking about it makes me nervous.”

+++

H/T to Sibyl Hunter for some hints.
+++
For a followup, see Suffer The Little Children, Part II. 

Kroger Shooting

SM Smithfield recently left a comment tied to a January 27th school shooting near the Phoenix High School: "The Phoenix is the city symbol for Atlanta. And Lawrenceville is very much part of Atlanta."

Today, February 10, 2014, a new incident occurred in Lawrenceville:

Police are investigating a reported shooting inside a Gwinnett County Kroger, authorities said.
Witnesses told Channel 2 Gwinnett Bureau Chief Tony Thomas they heard gunshots inside the store on Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville.
Lawrenceville Police said two people have been transported to the hospital and two people have been taken into custody.
A police spokesman said there may have been an altercation before the shooting.
News Chopper 2 showed a large police presence and crime tape in the parking lot in front of the store entrance.
Kroger issued a statement on Monday afternoon.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families. No Kroger associates were injured. We are working closely with the Lawrenceville police department and providing information to assist with their investigation. Our store has been evacuated and will reopen at a later date." Source.

This appears to not be a shooting spree or mass shooting, but the result of a fight between two groups of people. Details will be forthcoming.