More details are coming out about Jacob Robida, the 18 year old who tried to kill 3 people in a gay bar in Massachusetts and then fled and was shot and killed by officers in Arkansas. Some of the details aren't surprising:
Robida's mother told police her son had come home after the attack around 1 a.m. with his head bleeding, then left again.
Police searched his room, finding the message, an apparently homemade poster with a Nazi swastika and anti-Semitic writings, as well as a makeshift coffin, Walsh said.
The significance of the coffin was unknown, he said.
A police report released Monday said investigators also found weapons, including 85 rounds of ammunition, a Samurai sword, one knife and two knife sheaths in Robida's room.
Mother of the year, clearly.
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For my obscure cultural reference today, I shall reveal a likely basis of the coffin/Naziism link:
http://camlad9.tripod.com/
Of course, it's probably not *this* group. However, there is a link between a few elements in the Satanist/goth/black metal/whatever scene and fascism. I don't know anything personally about this case, so I'm just making an educated speculation.
Note that most goth types, including all those I have ever met, find fascism extremely repugant and wouldn't have anything to do with the sort of ideology represented on that site. It's definitely a minority thing. I personally think it's an effort by fascists to glamorize themselves by association with ooooh so mysterious and alluring things like Satanism.
Google words for the fascism/Satanism link: Odinism, Combat 18, Francis Parker Yockey
Google words for other attempts by fascists to glamorize themselves via wacky mythology: Nazi UFO, Nazi anti-gravity, Vril flying disc. (There is no hard evidence that any of these craft ever existed, though circular flying machines were played with a bit.)
I've often wondered how much overlap there is between the most extreme fringe of Christian wingnuttery and fascist ideology of the... umm... less holy variety.
Mother of the year, clearly.
I don't think it is fair. I knew terrible people who had good and caring people, who somehow failed to control their children's actions and steer their mindsets in the right direction.
It's unfair to take on her, especially now.
Probably the least-thoughtful and least-supported assertion I've seen you make. If there's information out there about what kind of mother she was that justifies you attacking her as she mourns her dead son and his awful legacy, the link to the off-the-shelf AP article certainly didn't provide it.
The son was living in her house. His room was full of weapons and ammunition, a coffin, nazi regalia and anti-semitic statements written on the walls. And you think a sarcastic comment about her not being the mother of the year was out of line? For crying out loud.
Maybe she didn't look inside his room too often?
Just a thought.
How clueless do you have to be to not notice that your 18 year old son is into Naziism? He had a swastika tattoo and collected Nazi memorabilia. Helen Keller would have known there was a problem here.
Ed, I'd give the mother some slack. We have no idea what the home life was like. Besides, where was the father? It may well be that she knew that there was a problem, but did not know how to deal with it, and was cowed by his odd activities.
When I was a kid, growing up in the 1960s, my mother was not my disciplinarian--my father was. I recall full well my mother telling me "wait until your father comes home."
It is a mistake to be so judgemental towards the mother. Where was the father?
The father apparently wasn't there. I don't think that absolves her of responsibility for discipline or any other aspect of parenting. I know lots of single mothers, none of whom would be unaware that their child was a Nazi with a collection of weapons and violent tendencies.
Ed, I'm with you on this, 101% percent. Maybe part of this sad woman's grieving process ought to include plenty of personal soul-searching regarding whatever failings of hers as a mother contributed to her son's becoming a racist homophobic skinhead murderer. I know lots of hard-working single moms, and none of them are so ineffectual and useless that they wouldn't put their feet down at a bedroom full of Nazi regalia and deadly weapons. Just as Harris and Klebold's parents are culpable, so is this woman. I see too many people dismiss the very concept of personal responsibility with a hand wave. If you're a parent, you have responsibilities. Period. If your kid is living in your house, he's subject to your rules. If you're a slacker nonentity of a parent who can't be bothered to set rules, then you've got a disaster looming. One of your own making.
Ed Brayton | February 7, 2006 06:35 PM
Ed, I'm not talking about absolution. I am talking about not being so judgemental. Neither you nor I know the household situation. I suppose that the mother could have tried to kick him out of the house. Since he was, at this point 18 years old, it is unlikely that she could have gotten the state's DSS (Department of Social Services) to intervene, since he wasn't a juvenile. If she tried to evict him and he was wouldn't leave, I guess she could have arrested for trespass, but that is a minor offense, and, in a family situation, probably wouldn't have held up in court--if the prosecutor even wanted to bring a charge.
In point of fact, this case is not particularly dissimilar to the Columbine HS shootings a few years ago. In that case, the kids (and they were kids) were acting strangely. On the other hand, the kids were in intact families who ignored their strange acting. Where were the disciplinarians in those cases?
This is not a black-and-white issue. Unfortunately there are a myriad shades of gray in all familial relationships. And I repeat: in the Robida case, where was the father?
raj wrote:
And I would say the same thing in that case as well, and did at the time. It has nothing to do with whether a family is "intact" or not. I don't care what the family configuration is, if your child is stockpiling weapons in his room, collecting nazi regalia and writing anti-semitic statements and you haven't noticed and done something about it, you aren't going to win any awards for parent of the year. You aren't doing your job as a parent.
I have no idea, but I'll gladly give the father his share of responsibility here too. That doesn't change anything I've said.