https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alleged-neo-nazi-teen-charged-killing-virginia-couple2-n832421
What an unbelievable nightmare. From the mother’s email messages to her friends, it sounds like everything the parents did to get their daughter to break things off when they found out she was dating a virulent neo-Nazi was exactly the sort of thing that people here might have advised them to do. I’m sure they never imagined that he would do what he did.
The daughter is 16. Sixteen year olds do stupid things, but I wonder how this child is going to live with herself. I feel sorry for her.
What a horrible story. He was indoctrinating his girlfriend, and she actually came home and said to her parents, “do you know the Jews are partially responsible for WWII”. The had been trying for months to get their daughter to break it off with the young man. They thought they were successful, but then found him in the girl’s room in the early morning and he shot them and then himself. Just awful.
The teens lived 20+ miles apart. I’m curious to know what private school they both attended, especially since the parents had reached out to the principal/headmaster. It’s just a horrible situation.
I’ve been following this story because it’s just absolutely baffling and sickening. It disturbs me that a child raise by a mother like that could be taken in so quickly by a Nazi.
Yes, I know 16 year olds do stupid things. I was a 16 year old girl in love not all that long ago. I still can’t imagine how suave he must have been to get her in his hooks. I cannot imagine how she’s going to cope with this.
We need a crackdown on white hate groups. This violence is far too normalized.
First, I’m not sure a white heterosexual killing a white heterosexual is a hate crime. Did this fellow kill the parent because he was a new National Socialist, or because it was a parent that got in his way?
Violence is far too normalized in Chicago, and they aren’t National Socialists.
Apparently the family had moved into the Reston house in August. They had an open house party and invited all their neighbors. So sad.
I wonder if they had moved to get the girl a bit further away from the boy.
I doubt that anyone would say that the Nazi killing his girlfriend’s parents is a hate crime. We’re saying that Nazis are a hate group.
Who called this a hate crime?
He is a Nazi. Nazis are inherently violent. Their entire ideology preaches violence against various groups of humans. There should be a crackdown on violent groups- like Nazis.
We shouldn’t have hate laws at all because they infringe on free speech. Regular criminal laws, which punish actions and not thought, are more than adequate.
But is the Nazi connection a cause or a symptom? That is, was the killer a person who was influenced by the Neo-Nazi ideology – or was he a sociopath who sought out and was attracted to Nazism because of his innate antisocial attitudes and disordered thinkng pattern?
Seems like the motive behind the killing was rage over the parents’ attempts to force the daughter to break off the relationship. This unfortunately is not a unique event, nor something particularly tied to Nazism – see, for example, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/10028966/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/teen-captured-after-girls-parents-found-slain/ (I know that with a little bit of digging, I could find dozens of examples – it’s a horrible crime, but unfortunately one that fits a recurrent pattern.
No one has yet asked how a 17 year old unstable kid has possession of a firearm. I hope authorities find out how he got the gun and prosecute the gun supplier to the fullest extent (which isn’t much in VA).
How did his parents not notice he was out all night?
Younghoss, I put your comment through Google Translate, and it amounts to saying, in plain English, “Whatabout black on black crime??”
Not a very useful or relevant response.
And nobody called it a hate crime. I don’t think the family was Jewish. I assume that you would agree that Nazis (and neo-Nazis) are a violent hate group, though. In fact, if anything distinguishes them from garden-variety white supremacists, it’s their obsession with and advocacy of extreme violence to achieve their goals. That’s been their most salient characteristic for almost a century now, and nothing has changed.
Do people become violent killers because they’re Nazis, or do they become Nazis because they are violent killers? Probably some of both.
Until I started pondering this, I didn’t realize how much neo-Nazis have in common with ISIS. Both recruit disaffected young men online and inspire them to violence. Both are murderous cults that most people shun and abhor.
Hard to know whether the killer planned to shoot his girlfriend’s parents-- but he did have the gun right to hand, which suggests perhaps some pre-planning.
One of the most frightening articles I read in the past year was that of a neonazi boy’s father. And that echoed directly the despair parents feel of sudden Isis supporter teens. They don’t see anything then they realize that their kid is in the grip of a violent, hateful ideology - except the kid is certain the parents have been hoodwinked by the mainstream media and are just sheep. The change follows the same process: find a kid with a sadness/weakness, exploit the sadness/weakness through friendly chat rooms, give then a chance of belonging and play to whatever naive idealism they possess, first test is a video of violence, if they come back for more you’re good, give then more tests till they both feel they’re doing something great for their people (whoever that is) and totally enthralled by you. At that point they actually believe they’re doing GOOD, God’s will, and will so anything to “help” the cause.
We don’t know if that boy started as a sociopath or of neonazis pushed him into it - it’s certain they didn’t help and brainwashed him to kill.
Isis and NeoNazis have the same basic, “absolutist” ideology in that both consider they own absolute truth and everyone else must believe or die. Isis is specifically an apocalyptic death cult (they even have their own Koresh-like Q’uran). Their ideological power comes/came from the fact they had conquered a land that an end-of-days prophecy claimed would start the apocalypse, pitting the “believers” against “Rome”. Try to find the French film “Heaven can wait”, which is based on a composite of real girls and real situations, including real exchanges from the actual " de-brainwashing/recovery" group for teens.
The only difference between neonazis and Nazis is that neonazis don’t have the state apparatus to bring about systemic, mass violence against their groups of choice, magnified by all the inventions we were so proud of that they perverted (rational factories, trains and railroads, chemistry…) Isis had state apparatus but not the perversion of inventions for mass killings so their mass killings couldn’t reach industrial scale. They did attempt genocide against the yezidi though, so it was not a matter of intent, rather, of means.
The ideology has a different stated pretext but the brainwashing is exactly the same.
I do believe we have a duty to stop those who try to brainwash young people into murderous violence. Isis or neonazis are like thousands of organized Charles Manson’s. Don’t tell me that we wouldn’t have stopped Charles Manson.
Nazi and ISIS comparisons are interesting. The Nazi threat didn’t begin to lessen until after they suffered a total military defeat. As of yet, ISIS hasn’t suffered a similar military defeat.
Neonazis are proof this type of ideology is very, very hard to root out. They have to be out of means of communication and brainwashing power, watched, and taken seriously.
Very little detail so far on Nicholas or his family (and their beliefs) but there is a photo of him at a shooting range, so no stranger to weapons.
I suspect the alleged perp broke law(s) to get hold of the gun, and broke law(s) shooting people. He may have obtained the gun illegally.
Careful readers will understand my perspective that this crime may have nothing, or very little to do with this fellow’s being a believer in National Socialism. It may be nothing more than an angry boyfriend.
As far as what Donna calls “black on black crime”, obviously Donna missed my point.
In post 4, romani calls this alleged killer a Nazi. Then she says we need to crackdown on white hate groups. Then she says this violence is far too normalized. Then later in post 8, she says “I didn’t call this a hate crime”. My response to post 4 was to subtly suggest(or remind) people that more violent crimes are committed in CHicago than by white hate groups, yet that violence seems to be normalized. Careful readers will see that comparison refers to a feeling of normalized violence despite committing more crimes than the aforementioned hate group. The relevance, is comparing the normalization of violence, not the ancestry of the perp. Not many that I see, seem as outraged by the violence in Chicago. Not that I think one is ok but the other isn’t. I think both examples of violence are wrong.
I get that National Socialists want large central goverment contol over the population’s education, economy, energy, and such, and that they want whites in charge. I also understand many are willing to commit violence to see those ends achieved. I’m just not sure this fellow’s beliefs are germane.
@DonnaL, good translation in #12.