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[Bumped to discuss resulting legal actions] Elementary school shooting in Connecticut. (Edit/Update - 26 reported killed, many of them children) (7 Viewers)
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When the blow came, it was absurd in its clumsiness. If you are in this room, the state governor acknowledged, it means that your child is dead.
The parents of Sandy Hook elementary school pupils, who had been waiting hours for news, knew they would walk out of that room as different people.
“I could feel the tension holding on to that hope, just like you’re holding this little flame, this flicker of hope,” recalls Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter Emilie was among the dead.
“And then with his words, that being snuffed out. It was like a big eruption of emotion and then like a vacuum because none of us had any hope any more. I have a really weird relationship with hope now.”
On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at home then entered Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition, he killed 20 children aged six and seven, and six adults. When Lanza heard the police closing in, he took his own life in a classroom.
Barack Obama was moved to tears by the tragedy and later described it as “the single darkest day of my presidency”.
Parker was the first parent to voice his grief in public after the massacre – a decision that led to a decade-long struggle against the rightwing provocateur Alex Jones, who propagated the lie that he was a “crisis actor” and the entire shooting was a hoax to justify gun restrictions. In that sense, Parker is a double survivor.
Sitting at home in his kitchen in Washington state, Parker speaks via Zoom for more than two hours, holding his composure even when his eyes glisten and his voice cracks. The 42-year-old has written a book, A Father’s Fight, in an effort to “express what I see as a void in the world because she’s not there any more”…….
The family moved from New Mexico to Newtown in January 2012 for Parker’s job as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit at Danbury hospital.
Emilie finished kindergarten at Sandy Hook then started first grade, though that was disrupted by the death of her grandfather; she missed her class photo but loved it all the same.
The community was preparing for Christmas on 14 December. Emilie had found what she called “the perfect box” to collect toys to donate to other kids.
Parker woke early and saw that Emilie was already up; she greeted him in Portuguese, which she had been learning from him (he had lived in Brazil for two years after high school).
“We were able to have our last conversation – obviously I didn’t realise that’s what it was. But it was cute opening the door and seeing her sitting on her bed. I don’t know what she was thinking about but she saw me and lit up and went: ‘Bom dia!’ [good morning] and she smiled.”
Parker was at work when he got a disturbing voicemail from a city official saying that all Newtown public schools had been locked down due to a reported shooting.
Then Alissa called, full of fear. At first Parker was told to remain at the hospital, where he might be needed, but he headed towards the school.
He parked behind a shop and sprinted half a mile, past satellite news vans and cameras, towards a small fire station. Alissa and other parents had gathered there, putting their name and their child’s name on a list, then waiting anxiously in a conference room.
Alissa told Parker it was confirmed that 20 children had been killed. A police officer had said no details or names would be shared until everyone was accounted for. She whispered quietly, so no one else could hear: “Robbie, is she dead?” He replied: “Of course not,” and held his wife tight.
He recalls: “I was in denial. I was scared too, and I couldn’t face it…….
Parker’s voice wobbles as he continues: “It’s hard to describe what it was like getting home and walking into the house. My brother came out when he saw the car pull up and, just [the] look on my face, he knew – we hadn’t said anything and so he came up and gave us a hug. Then you walked in this house that just that morning had so much excitement and love and warmth and it felt as cold and dark as a cave.”
Then they had to tell their younger daughters Madeline, who was four, and three-year-old Samantha, that their sister would not be coming home. Again, despite his medical training, Parker felt inadequate.
“I’ve broken the news to parents that their child had died but I’ve never broken news to a sibling that their sibling had died. I didn’t know how to do that and that bothered me because, again, I’m the one that’s supposed to know how to behave in these situations … So we did the best that we could.”…..
The media pressure kept building. The Parkers’ phone was ringing relentlessly and there were constant knocks on the door. Other family members were also under siege.
Worried that someone might say something erroneous or taken out of context, Parker came up with the idea of making a statement to the media. Alissa backed the idea but did not want to take part.
“The hope was, I’m going to give the media a bone to chew on so that they’ll leave us alone and we can focus on what we need to focus on. That was the intent and there’s all my reasons for feeling like that was the thing to do. I had no clue that was the worst thing I could have done.”
Parker planned to meet one reporter at the church. But when he arrived, there were dozens of cameras, reporters and news crews.
Suddenly, less than 24 hours after his daughter’s death, he found himself giving a press conference on live television. Trying to calm himself, he recalls, he let out a weird half-laugh and smile towards some family members supporting him.
He proceeded to deliver a beautiful tribute to Emilie. “I felt like it was a chance to let the world know who Emilie was and what we were missing and what she meant to all of us. I felt like it embodied who Emilie was and is for us and I was able to give it and I got through it and was done. It was one of the few times in my life where I was actually proud of myself in the moment for what had happened.”
But that momentary chuckle and smile before he spoke would haunt Parker for the next decade.
It was seized upon by the rightwing conspiracy theorist Jones, who did mocking impressions of Parker, switching from laughing to crying in an instant.
He repeatedly used the clip on his Infowars show to spread the pernicious falsehood that Parker and others were “crisis actors” and that the shooting never happened…..
Victims’ families were subjected to years of torment, threats and abuse by people who believed the lies told on Jones’s show.
One father said conspiracy theorists urinated on his seven-year-old son’s grave and threatened to dig up the coffin. A Facebook page honouring Emilie was inundated with hate.
Parker says: “You’re already overwhelmed emotionally from grief but it felt like the second wave of a tsunami coming and hitting us … Then you have people saying you’re a liar. They’re bashing Emilie’s name. They’re calling her horrible things. They’re saying a bunch of horrible things about me and then there are threats. In the weeks afterwards, they called my work, they emailed me, they wrote letters to my home. It’s all very encompassing and overwhelming. The biggest impact is that it robs your ability to grieve.
“You should have those moments right after your loved one dies to remember and cherish them because that’s as close as you’re going to be to them for ever. It’s a very sacred time and that got stolen from us.”………
www.theguardian.com
The parents of Sandy Hook elementary school pupils, who had been waiting hours for news, knew they would walk out of that room as different people.
“I could feel the tension holding on to that hope, just like you’re holding this little flame, this flicker of hope,” recalls Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter Emilie was among the dead.
“And then with his words, that being snuffed out. It was like a big eruption of emotion and then like a vacuum because none of us had any hope any more. I have a really weird relationship with hope now.”
On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at home then entered Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition, he killed 20 children aged six and seven, and six adults. When Lanza heard the police closing in, he took his own life in a classroom.
Barack Obama was moved to tears by the tragedy and later described it as “the single darkest day of my presidency”.
Parker was the first parent to voice his grief in public after the massacre – a decision that led to a decade-long struggle against the rightwing provocateur Alex Jones, who propagated the lie that he was a “crisis actor” and the entire shooting was a hoax to justify gun restrictions. In that sense, Parker is a double survivor.
Sitting at home in his kitchen in Washington state, Parker speaks via Zoom for more than two hours, holding his composure even when his eyes glisten and his voice cracks. The 42-year-old has written a book, A Father’s Fight, in an effort to “express what I see as a void in the world because she’s not there any more”…….
The family moved from New Mexico to Newtown in January 2012 for Parker’s job as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit at Danbury hospital.
Emilie finished kindergarten at Sandy Hook then started first grade, though that was disrupted by the death of her grandfather; she missed her class photo but loved it all the same.
The community was preparing for Christmas on 14 December. Emilie had found what she called “the perfect box” to collect toys to donate to other kids.
Parker woke early and saw that Emilie was already up; she greeted him in Portuguese, which she had been learning from him (he had lived in Brazil for two years after high school).
“We were able to have our last conversation – obviously I didn’t realise that’s what it was. But it was cute opening the door and seeing her sitting on her bed. I don’t know what she was thinking about but she saw me and lit up and went: ‘Bom dia!’ [good morning] and she smiled.”
Parker was at work when he got a disturbing voicemail from a city official saying that all Newtown public schools had been locked down due to a reported shooting.
Then Alissa called, full of fear. At first Parker was told to remain at the hospital, where he might be needed, but he headed towards the school.
He parked behind a shop and sprinted half a mile, past satellite news vans and cameras, towards a small fire station. Alissa and other parents had gathered there, putting their name and their child’s name on a list, then waiting anxiously in a conference room.
Alissa told Parker it was confirmed that 20 children had been killed. A police officer had said no details or names would be shared until everyone was accounted for. She whispered quietly, so no one else could hear: “Robbie, is she dead?” He replied: “Of course not,” and held his wife tight.
He recalls: “I was in denial. I was scared too, and I couldn’t face it…….
Parker’s voice wobbles as he continues: “It’s hard to describe what it was like getting home and walking into the house. My brother came out when he saw the car pull up and, just [the] look on my face, he knew – we hadn’t said anything and so he came up and gave us a hug. Then you walked in this house that just that morning had so much excitement and love and warmth and it felt as cold and dark as a cave.”
Then they had to tell their younger daughters Madeline, who was four, and three-year-old Samantha, that their sister would not be coming home. Again, despite his medical training, Parker felt inadequate.
“I’ve broken the news to parents that their child had died but I’ve never broken news to a sibling that their sibling had died. I didn’t know how to do that and that bothered me because, again, I’m the one that’s supposed to know how to behave in these situations … So we did the best that we could.”…..
The media pressure kept building. The Parkers’ phone was ringing relentlessly and there were constant knocks on the door. Other family members were also under siege.
Worried that someone might say something erroneous or taken out of context, Parker came up with the idea of making a statement to the media. Alissa backed the idea but did not want to take part.
“The hope was, I’m going to give the media a bone to chew on so that they’ll leave us alone and we can focus on what we need to focus on. That was the intent and there’s all my reasons for feeling like that was the thing to do. I had no clue that was the worst thing I could have done.”
Parker planned to meet one reporter at the church. But when he arrived, there were dozens of cameras, reporters and news crews.
Suddenly, less than 24 hours after his daughter’s death, he found himself giving a press conference on live television. Trying to calm himself, he recalls, he let out a weird half-laugh and smile towards some family members supporting him.
He proceeded to deliver a beautiful tribute to Emilie. “I felt like it was a chance to let the world know who Emilie was and what we were missing and what she meant to all of us. I felt like it embodied who Emilie was and is for us and I was able to give it and I got through it and was done. It was one of the few times in my life where I was actually proud of myself in the moment for what had happened.”
But that momentary chuckle and smile before he spoke would haunt Parker for the next decade.
It was seized upon by the rightwing conspiracy theorist Jones, who did mocking impressions of Parker, switching from laughing to crying in an instant.
He repeatedly used the clip on his Infowars show to spread the pernicious falsehood that Parker and others were “crisis actors” and that the shooting never happened…..
Victims’ families were subjected to years of torment, threats and abuse by people who believed the lies told on Jones’s show.
One father said conspiracy theorists urinated on his seven-year-old son’s grave and threatened to dig up the coffin. A Facebook page honouring Emilie was inundated with hate.
Parker says: “You’re already overwhelmed emotionally from grief but it felt like the second wave of a tsunami coming and hitting us … Then you have people saying you’re a liar. They’re bashing Emilie’s name. They’re calling her horrible things. They’re saying a bunch of horrible things about me and then there are threats. In the weeks afterwards, they called my work, they emailed me, they wrote letters to my home. It’s all very encompassing and overwhelming. The biggest impact is that it robs your ability to grieve.
“You should have those moments right after your loved one dies to remember and cherish them because that’s as close as you’re going to be to them for ever. It’s a very sacred time and that got stolen from us.”………
My six-year-old daughter was shot at Sandy Hook – and I faced a torrent of abuse
Robbie Parker and his family were devastated by the death of their beloved, inquisitive Emilie. Then rightwing provocateurs claimed he was a ‘crisis actor’ and the threats began
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Most things I worry about Never happen anyway
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I hope Hell is real so Alex Jones burns there for eternity.When the blow came, it was absurd in its clumsiness. If you are in this room, the state governor acknowledged, it means that your child is dead.
The parents of Sandy Hook elementary school pupils, who had been waiting hours for news, knew they would walk out of that room as different people.
“I could feel the tension holding on to that hope, just like you’re holding this little flame, this flicker of hope,” recalls Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter Emilie was among the dead.
“And then with his words, that being snuffed out. It was like a big eruption of emotion and then like a vacuum because none of us had any hope any more. I have a really weird relationship with hope now.”
On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at home then entered Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition, he killed 20 children aged six and seven, and six adults. When Lanza heard the police closing in, he took his own life in a classroom.
Barack Obama was moved to tears by the tragedy and later described it as “the single darkest day of my presidency”.
Parker was the first parent to voice his grief in public after the massacre – a decision that led to a decade-long struggle against the rightwing provocateur Alex Jones, who propagated the lie that he was a “crisis actor” and the entire shooting was a hoax to justify gun restrictions. In that sense, Parker is a double survivor.
Sitting at home in his kitchen in Washington state, Parker speaks via Zoom for more than two hours, holding his composure even when his eyes glisten and his voice cracks. The 42-year-old has written a book, A Father’s Fight, in an effort to “express what I see as a void in the world because she’s not there any more”…….
The family moved from New Mexico to Newtown in January 2012 for Parker’s job as a physician assistant in the neonatal intensive care unit at Danbury hospital.
Emilie finished kindergarten at Sandy Hook then started first grade, though that was disrupted by the death of her grandfather; she missed her class photo but loved it all the same.
The community was preparing for Christmas on 14 December. Emilie had found what she called “the perfect box” to collect toys to donate to other kids.
Parker woke early and saw that Emilie was already up; she greeted him in Portuguese, which she had been learning from him (he had lived in Brazil for two years after high school).
“We were able to have our last conversation – obviously I didn’t realise that’s what it was. But it was cute opening the door and seeing her sitting on her bed. I don’t know what she was thinking about but she saw me and lit up and went: ‘Bom dia!’ [good morning] and she smiled.”
Parker was at work when he got a disturbing voicemail from a city official saying that all Newtown public schools had been locked down due to a reported shooting.
Then Alissa called, full of fear. At first Parker was told to remain at the hospital, where he might be needed, but he headed towards the school.
He parked behind a shop and sprinted half a mile, past satellite news vans and cameras, towards a small fire station. Alissa and other parents had gathered there, putting their name and their child’s name on a list, then waiting anxiously in a conference room.
Alissa told Parker it was confirmed that 20 children had been killed. A police officer had said no details or names would be shared until everyone was accounted for. She whispered quietly, so no one else could hear: “Robbie, is she dead?” He replied: “Of course not,” and held his wife tight.
He recalls: “I was in denial. I was scared too, and I couldn’t face it…….
Parker’s voice wobbles as he continues: “It’s hard to describe what it was like getting home and walking into the house. My brother came out when he saw the car pull up and, just [the] look on my face, he knew – we hadn’t said anything and so he came up and gave us a hug. Then you walked in this house that just that morning had so much excitement and love and warmth and it felt as cold and dark as a cave.”
Then they had to tell their younger daughters Madeline, who was four, and three-year-old Samantha, that their sister would not be coming home. Again, despite his medical training, Parker felt inadequate.
“I’ve broken the news to parents that their child had died but I’ve never broken news to a sibling that their sibling had died. I didn’t know how to do that and that bothered me because, again, I’m the one that’s supposed to know how to behave in these situations … So we did the best that we could.”…..
The media pressure kept building. The Parkers’ phone was ringing relentlessly and there were constant knocks on the door. Other family members were also under siege.
Worried that someone might say something erroneous or taken out of context, Parker came up with the idea of making a statement to the media. Alissa backed the idea but did not want to take part.
“The hope was, I’m going to give the media a bone to chew on so that they’ll leave us alone and we can focus on what we need to focus on. That was the intent and there’s all my reasons for feeling like that was the thing to do. I had no clue that was the worst thing I could have done.”
Parker planned to meet one reporter at the church. But when he arrived, there were dozens of cameras, reporters and news crews.
Suddenly, less than 24 hours after his daughter’s death, he found himself giving a press conference on live television. Trying to calm himself, he recalls, he let out a weird half-laugh and smile towards some family members supporting him.
He proceeded to deliver a beautiful tribute to Emilie. “I felt like it was a chance to let the world know who Emilie was and what we were missing and what she meant to all of us. I felt like it embodied who Emilie was and is for us and I was able to give it and I got through it and was done. It was one of the few times in my life where I was actually proud of myself in the moment for what had happened.”
But that momentary chuckle and smile before he spoke would haunt Parker for the next decade.
It was seized upon by the rightwing conspiracy theorist Jones, who did mocking impressions of Parker, switching from laughing to crying in an instant.
He repeatedly used the clip on his Infowars show to spread the pernicious falsehood that Parker and others were “crisis actors” and that the shooting never happened…..
Victims’ families were subjected to years of torment, threats and abuse by people who believed the lies told on Jones’s show.
One father said conspiracy theorists urinated on his seven-year-old son’s grave and threatened to dig up the coffin. A Facebook page honouring Emilie was inundated with hate.
Parker says: “You’re already overwhelmed emotionally from grief but it felt like the second wave of a tsunami coming and hitting us … Then you have people saying you’re a liar. They’re bashing Emilie’s name. They’re calling her horrible things. They’re saying a bunch of horrible things about me and then there are threats. In the weeks afterwards, they called my work, they emailed me, they wrote letters to my home. It’s all very encompassing and overwhelming. The biggest impact is that it robs your ability to grieve.
“You should have those moments right after your loved one dies to remember and cherish them because that’s as close as you’re going to be to them for ever. It’s a very sacred time and that got stolen from us.”………
My six-year-old daughter was shot at Sandy Hook – and I faced a torrent of abuse
Robbie Parker and his family were devastated by the death of their beloved, inquisitive Emilie. Then rightwing provocateurs claimed he was a ‘crisis actor’ and the threats began
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hell is too good for someone like him..
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LOL i was searching for the thread- you beat me to it
I LOVE THIS
Here is THEIR press release- in TRUE ONION FASHION LOL
Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’
Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands. And let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of...
theonion.com"As for the vitamins and supplements, we are halting their sale immediately. Utilitarian logic dictates that if we can extend even one CEO’s life by 10 minutes, diluting these miracle elixirs for public consumption is an unethical waste. Instead, we plan to collect the entire stock of the InfoWars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal."
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I was just coming to post this and I’m glad to see that yall beat me to it.
apnews.com
Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones' Infowars at auction with help from Sandy Hook families
Families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims say the satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction.
apnews.com
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the funniest thing The Onion could do is start publishing real news stories
GW93
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Every now and then, the world gets something right.
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crazy part is, they could still publish their regular stories and still have more truth to them than what he was pushing..lol
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