Philly Mass Shooter: And The Spin Begins

When I posted about this shooting the other day, some of you predicted that the media would try and spin the story away from the murderer being a BLM loving tranny and paint him, instead, as some sort of conservative. And, voila, NBC News is reporting that "Philadelphia shooting suspect isn't trans, officials say, but speculation continues." The story also follows Jim Treacher's law of journalism: “When Republicans screw up, that’s the story. When Democrats screw up, the Republicans’ reaction is the story.” That is literally the lede to the story:

    Less than 24 hours after Monday’s mass shooting in Philadelphia, in which a gunman dressed in a ski mask and body armor killed five people and injured two children, right-wing pockets of social media were exploding with speculation about the suspect’s gender identity. 

    Among those fueling the speculation was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has been repeatedly criticized for amplifying conspiracy theories and anti-LGBTQ sentiments. On Tuesday, Greene tweeted a link to an article by the right-wing media outlet The Post Millennial that includes an image from the suspect’s Facebook page that appears to show him wearing women’s clothing and jewelry.

    “Another trans shooter,” Greene declared in the tweet, which had been viewed more than 853,000 times as of Wednesday night. 

And it goes on to castigate other conservative politicians and pundits before, near the bottom of the article, it finally addresses why officials say the shooter was not a tranny. And that reason is because officials do not want the shooter to be reported as a tranny:

    While he acknowledged the social media images that appear to show Carriker wearing women’s clothing and jewelry, Asa Khalif, a member of the LGBTQ advisory committee for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, condemned the “violent” language coming from the “conservative press” about Carriker’s gender identity and shared what the district attorney’s office knows firsthand about Carriker’s gender identity.

    “The suspect has not identified themselves as trans. They have only identified themselves as male,” Khalif said at Wednesday’s news conference. “But the language spewed out by the conservative press is violent and is dangerous, and it’s targeting trans women of color. It’s rallying the community to be violent, and we’re better than that.” 

Other news outlets are also pushing the same narrative:

• "Officials say accused Philadelphia shooter Kimbrady Carricker is not transgender, despite online photos"--Fox News.
• "Marjorie Taylor Greene leads far-right voices falsely claiming Philadelphia shooter is trans"--The Independent. 
• "Republicans Are Already Blaming Trans People for the Philadelphia Shooting"--The New Republic.

The New Republic is perhaps the most dishonest of the lot, stating:

Before police had even officially identified Carriker, the far right seized on a few pictures posted on his now-deleted Facebook account that show him wearing a stereotypically feminine outfit, with his hair in long braids. Despite there being no other evidence, Republicans are now claiming Carriker was transgender and are blaming the LGBTQ community, and trans people specifically, for the violence.

I have not seen anyone on the right blaming the LGBTQ community, generally, for the violence. Noting that the shooter was trans (or gay as some of his neighbors and his grandmother claim (see below)) is not tantamount to blaming the whole group. Only leftists think in such absolutes. Rather, as I see it, there are two reasons that conservatives are pointing out the inconvenient facts about the shooter: (1) to counter the constant messaging from the left that mass shootings are committed by white men belonging to the far right, and (2) because we have had two other such shootings recently, including one where the shooter left a manifesto outlining her reasoning which still has not been made public, and after tranny groups were publicly calling for a day of vengeance. 

    And what about the New Republic's claim there is no evidence other than the shooter's social media posts (as if that isn't enough)? From The New York Post: "Philadelphia mass shooting suspect Kimbrady Carriker was ‘weird’ and dressed as woman for years: neighbors." 

The man charged with killing five in a mass shooting in Philadelphia was known to his family and neighbors for dressing as a woman, but while they described him to The Post as “weird,” none felt he was capable of violence.

And, from one of his neighbors:

    “He never bothered anyone. We knew he was different, we see him dressed as a woman a few times but he never caused a problem,” said Bernard Mason, 53.

    “We thought he was gay. We never saw him with anyone. We saw him dressed as a woman. That’s his thing. I have no problems with that.”

 And from another neighbor:

    “He was a good guy but something made his rubber band pop,” the man said, adding: “You just don’t start dressing like a woman out of nowhere.”

    The neighbor described Carriker as going “undercover” when he dressed in women’s outfits.

    “He would do it randomly,” he said. “He was weird, to tell you the truth, but he was a nice guy.”

And:

    Another neighbor, Gary Jones, said he’d only seen him dressing up once, adding: “I don’t think it’s an everyday thing.”

    “I just thought he was a regular guy. Yeah, I saw him in regular clothes and one time in female clothes — cross-dressing,” said the retired bus driver, 69. 

    Carriker’s grandmother, who wouldn’t divulge her name, said she saw him dress in female clothing once — and he never did it again in front of her because she didn’t approve.

    “He knew I disapproved of it … He dressed as a man when he came to me, when he was around me,” she said.

    “He did it one time and that was it.”

     “He was no trans. He was just gay,” she continued. “That’s my perspective.”

 And even the Independent conceded that, "[i]n an interview with The Independent, Mr Carriker’s grandmother said her grandson was gay and sometimes enjoyed cross-dressing but had not undergone any gender transition surgery or treatment." Is the Independent suggesting that only people who have undergone surgery or treatment are "really" or "truly" transgender?