San Bernardino

Well, there you have it.

 

Boston Marathon bombing it was in doubt for days, wasn't it?

 

The suspects were unknown until the surveillance videos were made public. That was on Thursday afternoon, three days after the bombing. The perps panicked, shot a campus cop, and staged a failed carjacking leading to the shootout Thursday night. Even after the bombing, the younger brother maintained his slacker/stoner persona with friends. The only known statement of Islamist intent was what the kid scrawled in the boat when he was hiding wounded before being shot. So the why came pretty quickly, but it took time to establish the who.

 

Yep.

 

Actually, that makes sense to me. Workplace spree shooting mixed with religiously-inspired terrorism mixed with previous fascination with firearms. An All-American witches' brew.

 

I am tripping over "workplace spree." He packed his car before he got to the party.

 

Workplace inspired as the spark, then. Otherwise, why choose the party as the site of the massacre? For pure jihadism, a drive into downtown LA would've been much more the thing.

 

The party's a known quantity. You know how many, you know how likely/unlikely it is they're armed, you know they're concentrated in one place.

 

Well, there could be all sorts of reasons you choose that venue. One, you KNOW there will be a crowd there. In fact, you know all the details -- when, where, what the room will be like, how to get there, etc. And the personal element can come into play as well -- perhaps if you're going to make a statement, there are people at work you wouldn't mind using to make it.

The thing is, speculation at this point is just that. Speculation.

 

You're too quick for me, Doc.

 

The "armed" part is a good point. If you've been invited to an office party, you're pretty certain there won't be armed guards there (unless it's a police party or a White House dinner or something).

 

Calling this workplace violence is such a flippant and insensitive way to downplay this tragedy and devalue the victims.