Joker Returns

There is something in the wind. The Joker is back, in a couple violent situations. Are copycats going to be in the news?

Jeremy Putnam, 31, of Winchester, Virginia was arrested and charged with wearing a mask in public Friday, March 24, 2017, after he was spotted walking around dressed as the iconic comic book supervillain the Joker, police said.

Police in Winchester -- located about 75 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. -- said the Winchester Emergency Communications Center received "several calls" around 2 p.m. on Friday of a suspicious male wearing a black cape and carrying a sword walking around the city.

Jeremy Putman was charged with wearing a mask in public, a felony that could land him in jail for up to five years, the Winchester Police Department said in a statement.

A week previous, a Joker-obsessed student shoot up a school in France on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

He had posted a bizarre clown-masked video on his Facebook.

Killian Barbey opened fire at the Alexis de Tocqueville lycee (high school) in Grasse, near Cannes, wounding four. He was arrested after injuring headmaster Herve Pizzinat and three pupils, two named Julie, 16, and Akram, 17. The gunman was armed with two revolvers, a hunting rifle and fake grenades and is said to have been bullied. He is the son of far-right French politician Franck Barbey, who is a councillor for the Rally for France party.

Barbey's cover photo on Facebook is a picture of the Joker - the Batman villain - with the caption "give a man a mask and he'll become his true self."

And posted this image of himself too.

Late in March 2017, truly the Joker had returned.

Trollhättan Attack: Man in Darth Vader-Type Mask Kills Two

A masked man (in his 20s) with a sword has attacked the Kronan school cafe in Trollhättan, Sweden. One teacher and one young male student are dead. Several students are injured, with at least two originally taken to the hospital. Health officials initially said the two seriously injured students were 11 and 15 years old, but apparently one of those two has died.  

The suspect, who is 21 and from Trollhättan, was shot and received medical attention. He later died at the hospital.

The media is reporting the attacker wore a Star Wars mask. USA Today noted: "the perpetrator was wearing a Darth Vader-like mask from Star Wars and that students initially thought it was a Halloween joke. The attacker even posed for pictures with two students before going on a rampage."

At some point during the rampage, he posed for a picture taken by a female pupil who thought the incident was a Halloween stunt, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

The attacker was holding his weapon, which was covered in blood, but the pupil did not realize the blood was real, she said.

The weapon used was a katana. Historically, katana were one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (日本刀) that were used by the Samurai of feudal Japan.
Local police have confirmed that they are investigating reports that the suspect held far right beliefs.

Marty McFly: Silence, Earthling. My name is Darth Vader. I am an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan! ~ Back to the Future (1985), in which the time travel date of significance is October 21, 2015.

School attacks are rare in Sweden. This is the first since a shooting at a school in Kungalv near Gothenburg in 1961, which killed one person and injured six others.

"Columbine Goes International: After Littleton, the copycat effect involving school shootings went global." ~ The Copycat Effect, 2004.

Photo credit: EPA.

Kronan is Swedish for "king's crown," and the school uses a stylized crown as their symbol.

Troll sign credit

The name Trollhättan is translated as "troll's bonnet." The latter part "hätta" could also mean mountain top.

Trolls are generally associated, during our modern era, with Internet mischief makers and small beings. But traditionally, in Scandinava, trolls are ogres who are said to be man-sized to gigantic.

"Some traditions of 'wild men' tell of man-like beings that exceeded human beings in height, but at their greatest heights were not more than around 7 feet tall. We would identify them as Trolls and possible descendants of Neandertals. Descendants of both those distinctive and hairy near-men are known to have survived into recent times." ~ True Giants (Anomalist Books, 2010).