When they cover mass shootings, Fox News tends to downplay them, perhaps out of fear that the public may turn on one of the main reasons they happen so often: our nation’s plentiful and easily obtained number of guns. But on Wednesday they leaned hard into the latest tragedy, which one guest attempted — and not very well — to spin into a damning critique on…pandemic lockdowns and vaccinations.
This seems like a weird takeaway from the San Jose mass shooting.
Retired NYPD detective Pat Brosnan on Fox News: "Once covid starts to lift, these cowardly shooters will come out exactly in tandem with the number of vaccinations. You can be sure they probably got vaccinated." pic.twitter.com/XfZL4JgsBW
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 26, 2021
That morning, a public transit worker in San Jose opened fire in a rail yard, killing eight others and then himself. The shooter was later identified as one Sam Cassidy, an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), and though motives, as of this writing, remain unknown, his ex-wife told a CNN affiliate that he was known to speak angrily about his co-workers and that he resented his work.
Hours after the shooting, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner talked over the phone with retired NYPD officer Pat Brosnan, who had his own unique take on the shooting, and on shootings during the pandemic in general. For one thing, he didn’t blame the overabundance of firearms. He blamed what he saw as a lax handling of law enforcement.
“I think there would be more nuanced response in terms of opening a shooting – an active shooting – right next door to where there’s a load of armed professional shooters under law enforcement,” Brosnan told Faulkner. “But the rules have changed, you know? Crimes are no longer illegal. There’s no longer enforcement of lots of laws and there’s an empowerment of these active shooters.”
He then had a grim prediction, based on a questionable theory: that shootings decreased during the pandemic.
And you know, Harris, this is a time that I wish I was wrong with my prediction, which I mention to anybody who’d listen, that once Covid starts to lift, these cowardly shooters will come out exactly in tandem with the number of vaccinations. You can be sure they probably got vaccinated. They were just scared to come out. And they’re coming back, and you see the numbers don’t lie. The shootings are up dramatically – skyrocketing, actually – on active shootings throughout the United States as we’ve come through this pandemic. It’s really terrifying stuff.
There’s no hard evidence to support any of this, but maybe you don’t need evidence when you’re suggesting that mass shooters are just being “cowardly” because…they’re afraid of contracting a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease? And they wouldn’t have been cowards had they gone outside and shot a bunch of people and then themselves? The logic fogs one’s mind.
But then, Brosnan isn’t just any ordinary retired cop. He’s a retired cop who shot two Latino men in the back as they laid face-down on a floor, prompting a million dollar lawsuit, though he went unpunished and still collects pension.
Brosnan was a cop who murdered a Latino teen & another young Latino in 1995 by shooting them in the back as they lay face-down on the floor. NYC paid a $1+M settlement in a civil suit, but neither cop was punished. Brosnan still receives his pension.https://t.co/XMn7vDNfHW
— Mark Hughes (@markhughesfilms) May 26, 2021
He also apparently still goes on Fox News spreading nonsensical theories about gun violence.
(Via Mediaite)
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