Why You Gotta Pick on the Amish, Man?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/02/ami...ing/index.html

Quote:

PARADISE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A 32-year-old truck driver walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, binding and shooting three girls execution-style before killing himself, police said.

Seven other girls were wounded in the attack, which police said appeared to be a revenge killing for an incident that occurred two decades ago.

"It would take a miracle for us to not lose more lives today," said Commissionerr Jeffrey Miller of the Pennsylvania State Police, adding two of the wounded were in "very dire critical condition" and on life support. (Read Miller's dramatic account)

The attack was the nation's third deadly school shooting in a week.

"It seems as though he wanted to attack young female victims, and this is close to his residence. That's the only reason we can figure that he went to the school," said Miller.

"It's a horrendous crime scene," he said. (Watch how the gunman got in and what he did -- 7:44 Video)

The shooting took place in Lancaster County, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia, at a school run by the Amish community with about 27 students in grades 1 through 8. One of the children died in the arms of a trooper, Miller said. (Watch police investigate shooting scene -- 1:00)

The wounded girls were taken to several hospitals in the central Pennsylvania area, some of them with gunshot wounds to the head. Most of the victims range in age from 6 to 13, he said. One of those killed was an aide who was older than 13.

The gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, drove a commercial milk truck, said Miller. He was not Amish, was not previously wanted by authorities and had no known criminal history.

The Bart, Pennsylvania, resident had three children, and left several notes for his family "along the lines of suicide notes," Miller said.

The notes were "rambling" and "didn't make much sense," Miller said.

Roberts' wife tried to call him when she found the notes, Miller said. He returned the call on his cell phone, told her he wouldn't be coming home and "that he was acting out to achieve revenge for something that happened 20 years ago."

"Shortly thereafter, the shooting commenced," he said.

Troopers were unable to contact him and were preparing to storm the schoolhouse when Roberts began shooting, Miller said.
Gunman let boys go

The commissioner said Roberts had worked a shift that ended about 3 a.m. Monday and taken his children to their bus stop before beginning his rampage.

Police said he had barricaded himself in the schoolhouse with two-by-four and two-by-six pieces of lumber, which he brought to the scene in a borrowed pickup truck. He did not respond to efforts by police to make contact with him.

Miller said that during the attack, Roberts apparently told students to line up in front of the blackboard. He began to tie his female captives' feet together. He let the 15 boys in the classroom leave.

Roberts was armed with a shotgun and an automatic handgun, Miller said.

Miller said Roberts also allowed an adult female who was pregnant to leave with three other adult females who had infant children with them.

The teacher who was released was able to alert authorities, Miller said.

"Apparently, there was some sort of an issue in his past that for some reason, he wanted to exact revenge against female victims. That's all I can tell you right now," Miller said.

Lancaster County's 911 Web site reported dozens of emergency vehicles -- including at least nine ambulances -- were dispatched to Bart Township shortly before 11 a.m. for a "medical emergency." The Lancaster County emergency communications Web site showed 20 incident calls listed to the normally quiet Bart Township at 10:48 a.m.

Shortly after the attack, men, women and girls in traditional Amish clothing gathered in small groups outside the country schoolhouse along a dirt road. Horse-drawn carriages could be seen in a nearby parking lot.

The school is one of about 150 that serve the Amish population of about 200,000, said Donald Kraybill, a sociology professor at nearby Elizabethtown College.

"They typically are one-room facilities operated by Amish parents," Kraybill said. "There usually are not any security concerns or security risks in the schools, so this is quite a shock."

Aaron Meyer, who owns a buggy company in the nearby village of Bird in Hand, said the largely rural Amish country had experienced nothing like the crime in the 25 years he has lived in the area.

"Many of these townships there have no police at all, because there's no crime," Meyer told CNN.

On Wednesday, a 53-year-old man entered a high school in Bailey, Colorado, where he held several female students hostage at gunpoint. He shot one girl before killing himself seconds after a SWAT team stormed the classroom.

A high school student near Madison, Wisconsin, is suspected of fatally gunning down his principal on Friday, after he was disciplined for carrying tobacco and being bullied.

WTF? Who the fuck has a vengeance on the AMISH? They're like....super quiet. They don't bother anybody. You never hear of rogue gangs of Amish guys pickin' on people or hazing passers-by with traumatic barn raisings and shit. WTF was wrong with this dude?!

Dude's not even Amish, and he would have to have been figgin 12 years old whenever he was "wronged".

People are just stupid.

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Originally Posted by Dubble

WTF? Who the fuck has a vengeance on the AMISH?

Beyond that, who the fuck needs revenge against young, Amish schoolgirls? Seems more likely he just lost his mind than there was any actual revenge reasoning.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Everyone seems to be a target these days, and it all seems to be happening almost everyday.... shooting in Montreal, then that high school in Colorado, then the Amish... I mean, come on! Don't we have anything better to do!?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Who doesn't have something against the Amish? Amish guys always talking down my car and saying how it can't stand up to their new 2007 buggy carts. I put a stop to that when I ran over 'Silver.' Let's see that horse give me the evil eye when we're playing chicken again.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Goddamnit, not again! Another goddamned psych guy takes some girls hostage and shoots some of them and then he kills himself. Can't these stupid fucks die right by killing themselves without killing anyone else?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Maybe he was raped by an amish woman? It's possible.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Avalokiteshvara

Maybe he was raped by an amish woman? It's possible.

Maybe. I guess we will find out when the police dig deeper into what happened and as to why.

Something about something that happened 20 years ago. Obviously it must have been pretty major to still have a grudge after all this time.

FELIPE NO

He probably got spurned by an Amish girl 20 years ago, and has held a grudge against that ever since. That would probably explain why he did what he did. Or maybe a donkey kicked him, I dunno.

And yeah, wtf is up with all these morons going around shooting people in school for? You're going to be a minor footnote in history, and no one's going to give a damn about you after a few days or weeks, other than people who were directly affected by this. I hope those idiots who killed those innocent people are frying in Hell right now.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Maybe he did it becuase the Amish are brutal cockblockers. If they just let the man do as he pleased they might not be gone today.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by J-Man

Maybe he did it becuase the Amish are brutal cockblockers. If they just let the man do as he pleased they might not be gone today.

Regardless of what I hope to be sarcasm, I don't see how murdering three girls is fitting revenge. They didn't even exist at the time of the "offense" committed by the Amish.
One could argue that the man wished to bring suffering upon whoever offended him, but--as is consistent with a murderer--it shows a lack of rationality on the part of the killer. Did not anyone notice his dislike of the Amish before?
I wish for more details.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This is horrible. But as the report says, the school being Amish might not be a part of it. A deranged grudge against 13-year old school girls - and this school was the closest he could find...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Those fuckers had it coming.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Several recent high-profile cases have brought attention to sexual abuse of children among the Amish in some of the smaller more isolated communities, which has been called, perhaps erroneously, "almost a plague in some communities." Bishops and preachers of Old Order groups settle conflicts and mete out punishment for sins (generally in the form of shunning), and sexual abuse may therefore be less often reported to law enforcement. Those who feel they are mistreated have little recourse and may be shunned for seeking outside help. Mary Byler was raped over a hundred times between the ages of 8 and 14 by her brothers; she had to leave the Amish community to have them prosecuted. David Yoder, who grew up in a conservative Swartzentruber Amish family, recalls one man who committed incest with his daughter and was punished with 90 days of shunning. Yoder's girlfriend was also repeatedly raped by her brother-in-law, who was ultimately shunned for two and a half months. Some groups have also been accused of tolerating severe physical abuse of children.

Depending on the guy's age at the time, maybe he was sexually abused or something.... who knows, but regardless, it is senseless to take revenge on innocent girls that where not even born at that time, the guy was a sicko, nothing more.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I heard an updated report this morning. Apparently he actually shot either 12 or 13 girls (I can't remember exactly), and five of them died - three yesterday and two more this morning.

This is the sickest thing I've heard in a long time. This just proves to me that there is no place on Earth that is safe anymore. What a horrible tragedy.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Looks like they may need some cops at thier schools too.

But regardless, it's probaly someone gone lunatic and wanted to do something with his life before he shot himself. Just anther attention seeker problay.

FELIPE NO

Seems the molesting theories arent too off. I just watched the story on CNN and apparently the gunman molested some kids years ago and he was "having dreams of molesting again"

... Still doesn't make any sense or justifies killing 5 girls.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'll be honest. I sympathize with the Amish community about now. I admire these people beyond understanding. All they do is quietly keep to themselves, living their own lives and trying to keep separated from the outside world.

While their crime is usually to be punished within their own community (there actually are minor crimes in the communities, but outside police involvement is RARELY called upon), I can't see why this man decided to fuck with the Amish.

I saw them on the news last night, pouring out of a field, crossing a wire fence to see what was going on. It broke my heart - they didn't ask for this.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I just have this feeling he hated the feelings and need of molesting people.... but at the same time he couldn't control them. As a result, I think he lashed out at the young girls thinking that they should not exist because it made him do those terrible things in the past.

I think its possible that he was looking for a scapegoat.... something to blame for what he was...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by AliceNWondrland

I heard an updated report this morning. Apparently he actually shot either 12 or 13 girls (I can't remember exactly), and five of them died - three yesterday and two more this morning.

This is the sickest thing I've heard in a long time. This just proves to me that there is no place on Earth that is safe anymore. What a horrible tragedy.

Goddammit, now that tears it. That is just disgusting. What is wrong with humanity these days? This planet is fucked. We're all going to hell.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Lizardcommando

Goddammit, now that tears it. That is just disgusting. What is wrong with humanity these days? This planet is fucked. We're all going to hell.

What he said.

Seriously, though, I'm not overly surprised this happened. There are crazy people out there.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

This is pretty disgusting. I guess the Amish were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think that if any other school were nearby he'd have gone there instead. Furthermore, the fact that these Amish schools seemingly have low security, it'd be easier to take his revenge there than some school more relevant to what was making him do this in the first place.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Here's a crazy question :

What exactly is an "Amish" person?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

They're the Pennsylvania Dutch.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Ultima

This is pretty disgusting. I guess the Amish were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think that if any other school were nearby he'd have gone there instead. Furthermore, the fact that these Amish schools seemingly have low security, it'd be easier to take his revenge there than some school more relevant to what was making him do this in the first place.

Yea, I don't think it was the fact that they were necessarily Amish. The report did say that the school was close to where he lived.

Granted, that doesn't make this any less sick, but I'm pretty content with ruling out the "Amish" factor in this tragedy.

This article has piqued my interest though, if the cops do delve deeper and find out what incident the gunman might have been referring to, it'd be nice if anyone following this story would be so kind as to enlighten the rest of us.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by CTV.CA

The man who shot several children at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania told his wife he had molested two young family members 20 years ago, state police said Tuesday.
And according to police, gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV wrote that he was having dreams of molesting again.

Police found evidence at the scene that seemed to suggest that Roberts had planned a sexual assault.
Along with three guns and ammunition, zip ties and a box of tools, police found two tubes of KY jelly, widely used as a sexual lubricant.

Just sick! Apperently the guy molested two family members 20 years ago and began to have dreams of doing it again. His suicide note also says that he is haunted by the death of his daughter who apperently only lived for 20 min after a premature birth.

Originally Posted by Suicide note:

"I don't know how you put up with me all those years. I am not worthy of you, you are the perfect wife you deserve so much better. We had so many good memories together as well as the tragedy with Elise. It changed my life forever I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptyness it seems like everytime we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't here to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

Reading this made my stomach twist....

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