Judge STARTS the hearing with calling shooter's family victims

[csziggy]

No link - just now live.

[McCamy Taylor]

1. Good lord.

Are they trying to provoke riots?

[Fawke Em]

13. No. They're trying to prevent them.

The family isn't accused of any crime at this point and they don't want vigilante justice befalling them.

Judges frequently try to keep the calm between the families of victims and the family of the accused to prevent that very thing. He was threading a needle.

[chalmers]

2. Link here

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-live-charleston-shooter-appears-in-court/

[moondust]

3. The same family that gave him the gun?

[csziggy]

10. Today they have been saying that he bought the gun himself

While he has drug charges pending, he has not been covicted. Too bad, if they'd locked him up for drugs, he wouldn't have been loose to become a murderer.

[peacebird]

27. Trying to protect daddy-dear from 10 yrs in the slammer, uncle said that it was a gift for shooters

Bday, from his parents...

[Yo_Mama]

33. I saw a report which quoted cops as saying he bought the gun legally.

Don't assume the media is right. This report may not be right, but it is more likely to be correct than the first one.

He may have gotten the money for it as a present for his birthday.

I am sure it will all come out in time.

[csziggy]

40. Apparently he has not been convicted of a felony

So would legally be permitted to purchase a gun.

[Yo_Mama]

42. Yes, the drug arrest thing was very recent - courts don't work that quickly.

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-drugs-was-dylann-roof-suboxone-powerful-narcotic-found-charleston-shooter-1973919

We'll never understand this.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. oh FUCK.

[notadmblnd]

5. Do you think what those people are saying to him is getting to him?

[csziggy]

8. I know he reacted to the woman who was in the room

When she said they welcomed him in and then when she forgave him and told him to accept Jesus. He raised his eyes and opened them wider than I've seen them in any video or photo.

While I am not a believer, that may be one way for this murderer to come to some sort of mental balance. Religion has let a lot of delusional people pretend to be normal.

[MoonRiver]

6. Seriously. Did he HAVE to do this? They are not victims. They helped create a monster!

[Fawke Em]

11. You don't know that.

I'm not excusing him, but, honestly, at this point we don't know his relationship with his parents, if they are racists, if they simply couldn't control him - we know nothing.

Spew all you want about him, but, for right now, we don't have any knowledge of his family.

Geesch.

[MoonRiver]

12. I do know they gave a disturbed person money to buy a gun.

Don't know for sure if they are racists, but I can cite the oldest maxim in education: apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

[Fawke Em]

15. Yes - but the fact is that you don't KNOW any of that.

You assume they knowingly gave him money for a gun and that they're racists.

This may be true, but you don't know it at this point.

[MoonRiver]

16. I'm giving you my very well educated opinion.

[still_one]

30. not to pile on you, but statements from his associates said he was planning this for 6 months

constantly made racists statements, but probably the most telling is when one of his uncles came out yesterday and said he would pull the switch himself:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2185590/dylann-roofs-uncle-says-he-would-pull-switch-himself-if-nephew-executed/

That sure implies a lot about his family and friends

[nolabear]

17. Don't let hate create hate. It's not good for you.

Not preaching to you, just hoping that love will win over hate.

[MoonRiver]

20. Who's hating?

[Glassunion]

19. I think you are confusing the Victims' families with the accused.

The judge was giving an opportunity to the family members of those who were murdered to speak. Not the shooter's parents.

[MoonRiver]

22. I did not say he gave the shooter's family a chance to speak.

It would be nice if people read posts before responding.

[Yo_Mama]

35. You have NO evidence for that. None.

Please rethink. This guy is 21. All sorts of bigotry are out there - if you look for it, you will find people who are into that sort of thing.

I have known wonderful families who have had children who, as adults, took a wrong turning. Children are as likely to rebel against their parent's teachings as to conform to them.

This is about David Duke's family, who don't seem to have had racist views at all. David Duke met some other freak when he was seventeen and got into the clan stuff that way.
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-21/news/vw-212_1_david-duke/3

[Yo_Mama]

43. And here is testimony to show that you are wrong

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/roof-family-expresses-remorse-as-nation-cries-over-charleston-massacre/ar-AAbRAdH?ocid=mailsignout

During their time in Rosewood, Roof's mother reunited with a childhood friend, Linda Brown, who also had a son. Dylann Roof and Brown's son, Caleb, went to the same school and became friends. They often would stay with Roof's mother after the school day ended.

Roof's mother was always kind to Caleb Brown, who is of mixed race, Linda Brown said.

"Although I have not seen them in several years, I can only imagine the pain and the heartache that this monstrous act has caused a woman I knew to be a kind and devoted mother," Brown told The State newspaper. "As a parent, my heart goes out to her. As her friend, I want others to be able to know that whatever Dylann became as a teenager that led him to do this monstrous, heinous act, it was not nurtured by his mother.

[uponit7771]

7. omg .... the hurt can be felt through the screen

[Joanie Baloney]

9. So emotional

One after another....forgiving the shooter. OMG

And now people are singing and gathering in front of the AME church.

Can this be the thing that turns us around?? Please say yes.

[nolabear]

18. Let us hope so. And work toward it.

[mnhtnbb]

14. Talk about a good 'old boy.

That is seriously out of line.

Yes, we raised a kid who plans to murder people for 6 months and then
goes in to a church and joins a Bible lesson and then proceeds to murder
the same people because of the color of their skin.

Really? His family is a victim? His family created the monster.

[Glassunion]

21. He called the victims' family members... Not the shooters.

[mnhtnbb]

23. Oh, no, he made a big point of naming Roof's family members victims, too.

[Glassunion]

25. No shit! I missed that.

[mnhtnbb]

26. Yes. Right at the start of the hearing.

[mythology]

34. You have no idea how he got to be the way he is.

My dad became his dad, an abusive bastard and did the best he could to make me like him. I made a conscious decision to not do that.

Where as my stepdad is one of the hardest working people I know and his daughter is one of the laziest.

Not everybody comes out the way their parents would like.

But also it's easy to sit back and say that they should have done x or y, but we don't hold that the family of a person who commits suicide are responsible. Why be so quick to assume it's different here?

[4139]

28. Hate is learned behavior; taught by family, friends and in the schools he attended from K to 12...

He was taught to hate and the teachers of hate ain't victims

[bluestateguy]

29. Their negligent parenting is criminal

nt

[lostnfound]

31. It was absurd. And he described as the "other side". That really bothered me.

I feel awful for his family, to the extent that they are not the incubator that created his crazy racism. But for the judge to start with that, it was simply bizarre!! And to refer to it as the victims on the other side. The judge obviously has entrenched bias himself.

Can anyone imagine the outrage of a judge uttered those same words about the family of a Muslim terrorist?? The judge would have been lynched for it.

[lostnfound]

32. His words:

Charleston is a very strong community we have big hearts we are very loving community and we're going to reach out to everyone , all victims, and we will touch them all. We have victims, nine of them. But we also have victims on the other side.
There are victims on this young man's side of the family. Nobody would've ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they have been thrown into.

We must find it in our hearts at some time in the future, not only to help those who are victims, but to also help his family as well.

Unbelievable.

[WinkyDink]

38. 46% of the above words ARE ABOUT THE KILLER'S FAMILY---71% if you begin with "We have victims...."

About the dead:
"We have victims, nine of them." "not only to help those who are victims,..."

About the killer's family:
"But we also have victims on the other side.
There are victims on this young man's side of the family. Nobody would've ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they have been thrown into."
"but to also help his family as well."

I GUESS THE DEAD DON'T HAVE FAMILY MEMBERS.

[csziggy]

41. Thank you for the quote

I was yelling at the TV by the time he got to where you broke for a paragraph so I didn't hear all of that.

The part I found objectionable was that he STARTED with the murderer's family.

On the other hand, as forgiving as the good Christians of the AME churches are, they should shower the murderer's family with loving forgiveness and Christian charity. If the family is truly innocent of any input into the murderous depravity of their son they can accept it with the same love. If they are as racist as their murdering scion, maybe they will learn something from the people whose friends and relatives welcomed him only to be killed by him.

[olddots]

36. I want American justice to be served

Not Confederacy justice to be served. .This case will be another test bed for civil war number two.

[WinkyDink]

37. They should not be mentioned AT ALL. FGS, we aren't trying a minor child here.

[City Lights]

39. Wha?

indeed! My gawd!