Mother of Maumee man accused of driving into crowd shocked

[brooklynite]

Source: Toledo Blade

It shocked Samantha Bloom that the 20-year-old Maumee man is now accused of plowing into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town — killing one person, hurting at least two dozen more and ratcheting up tension in a violent confrontation.

“I told him to be careful,” she said of her son’s participation at the rally. “(And) if they’re going to rally to make sure he’s doing it peacefully.”

...snip...

He had told her about the rally last week, but didn’t offer details about its nature, Ms. Bloom said.

“I thought it had something to do with [President] Trump,” she said.

Read more: http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2017/08/13/Mother-of-James-Alex-Fields-accused-of-driving-into-Charlottesville-crowd-shocked.html

[CanonRay]

1. It did have everything to do with President* Trump.

[JI7]

2. Lying asshole

[Leghorn21]

3. She appeared hyper-mellow to me. No reaction to speak of, really. ??? nt

[LiberalLoner]

14. Yup.

[SummerSnow]

27. Hmm, i don't know...

She made it appear that she had no clue her son had racist views. If you are a parent and you are not racist and your child tells you they were going to this rally, your response would not be, be careful'. Your response would be, why the hell are you going to that ?! and ' no, I forbid you to go'. Just my opinion, but I could be wrong.

[Leghorn21]

28. Maybe they just aren't close, who knows...but when they ask, didn't you know your

son had those views? she just sort of shrugged and replied, "we just moved here from Kentucky" - a word salady nonsensical response, seems to me.

Really, all we can do is try to get a feel from this video, and go, "I dunno, man"...

[american_ideals]

30. She knew he was a Trump supporter! This is simple.

Any Trump supporter involved enough to go to a rally has racist views. That's who Trump is.

So once Bloom knew her son was going to a trump rally, she knew he was a racist. Period.

[SunSeeker]

4. His mom defended Trump, insisting Trump is not a white supremacist.

Fields' mother, Samantha Bloom, told The Associated Press on Saturday night that she knew her son was attending a rally in Virginia but didn't know it was a white nationalist rally.

"I thought it had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist," Bloom told the AP.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charlottesville-rally-turns-deadly-one-killed-after-car-strikes-crowd-n792116


So a guy who calls Mexicans rapists, tried to ban all Muslims, and stoked the birther conspiracy against our first African American president, and hired the editor of an alt-right mouthpiece to be his White House advisor isn't a racist. Oy.

[Sunlei]

6. most people just watch a bit of news, probably fox and don't know fox is Republican propaganda TV.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Trump forced to agree TWICE to Fed injunction against his RACIST HOUSING in NYC. . . nt

[targetpractice]

19. In all fairness...

When watching her video, facial expressions... The statement... "
"I thought it [alt-right] had something to do with Trump. Trump's not a white supremacist" seemed more like a clueless question.

[radical noodle]

24. I got the impression

that she was seriously shocked by it. Lots of people don't follow politics or the news the way we do.

[Sunlei]

5. shes shocked, doesn't really know what happened yet. Sometimes Moms are last to know their kids,

are radicalized online.

[targetpractice]

20. I'm treading carefully here... She seemed sincerely shocked and clueless...

My mom was the last to understand I was gay at 26, when usually mom's are the first to know, last to be told.

[pablo_marmol]

33. "I'm treading carefully here...."

As people of integrity and intelligence always do.

[targetpractice]

35. Is this sarcasm? I can't tell anymore...

... which causes me to post less and less.

[pablo_marmol]

41. No --- not sarcasm at all.

Count me among team members who are damn sick of self-inflicted damage.

[NNadir]

25. There's an interesting book I've been leafing through, "Far from the Tree," in which the parents...

...of criminals explain that it's not always their fault.

One of the parents discussed is Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan, the mass murderer, who I looked into when I stumbled upon her TED talk. Reading on the case, it appears she did everything a decent mom should do, and still...still...

I think I would know if my children were racists, but I'm not going to judge this mother because her son is a racist murderer coddled and supported by the nominal criminal President of the United States.

Still if this mother believes that Trump is not a racist, well, that says something about her.

I note that the United States has had some awful Presidents before, and overcome them. We will overcome this racist nazi pig in the White House, and I feel it is more and more likely that he and his crime family will, in fact, die in prison.

[american_ideals]

31. Fault and knowing are different. She's claiming she didn't know.

I wouldn't be able to contradict her if she said it wasn't her fault.

But I know she's not right when she says she didn't know. She knew he was an engaged Trump supporter - sexist and racist basically by definition. She knew. Maybe not at fault, but she knew.

[NNadir]

32. She knew he was going to become a murderer?

She is obviously a racist herself, since she couldn't identify the orange asshole as a racist, which he clearly is. I'm not excusing her for that part.

But there are some racists who do not commit murder and do not condone murder. If every racist was also a murderer, our murder rate would be much higher than it is, since clearly there are at least 63 million racists in this country who voted for the orange Hitler wannabe.

[american_ideals]

34. Denied knowing he's a racist

She denied knowing he is a racist:

"I didn't know he was a white supremacist. I knew he was a Trump supporter."

She knew he was a racist.

Whether she was at fault for not knowing he would murder and stopping him is a totally different question. But it's one she wasn't answering.

She was saying she didn't know he was a racist. And that is clearly false - she knew.

[NNadir]

36. She probably doesn't know that SHE'S a racist. You are underestimating the power of denial. n/t.

[american_ideals]

39. You're right, but we shouldn't let her off the hook.

Trump supporter going to a rally means racist, full stop.
If she's lying to herself the media shouldn't let her lie to america.

[Sunlei]

42. She may not have known Republicans president hung around with his nazi "base" & emboldened them.

Many Republicans will have to face they voted in a white supremacist.

[Bengus81]

8. Trying to make sure her ass is safe and sound.........n/t

[DK504]

9. Who says parents are clueless to what

their children are into these days? The killer is 20 years old, what was so important in her life that she didn't have any idea who her murdering son had turned into.

[Lulu KC]

16. Not defending her, but

She could be somehow complicit and completely covering her own involvement or encouragement--no idea. But I will say as a mother of teenagers that it is literally impossible to know what they are doing online. Anyone who thinks they can be thorougly tracked is either an IT professional or living in a dream world or both. It is the biggest single challenge of parenting right now. If you install tracking things on their devices, you are forgetting how many other devices are available to them--as many as they have friends and then there is always the library, devices issued by school on which no parental control can be installed etc. Plus, if he's 20, he's actually a young adult.

[forgotmylogin]

17. May she find peace.

It's very likely her son told her he was going to "a protest" without specifying. Most of the current recent protests have been the peaceful anti-bad stuff kind.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. He did specify "alt-right" but she didn't know what that meant

She kept calling it "albright".

"I just know there was — he did mention it was ‘albright’? What is it? Al–?”

“Alt-right?” replied the reporter, interrupting Bloom mid-sentence.

“Albright,” said Bloom, still incorrectly pronouncing alt-right."

http://coed.com/2017/08/13/samantha-bloom-interview-photos-james-alex-fields-jr-mother-pictures-mom-ohio-charlottesville-suspect-trump-rally-video/

[Catmusicfan]

21. sound like she was playing dumb to look innocent.

I hate when people say that about most parents because everyone wants to push blame on them but in this case-- to me--sounds like a scam.

[LiberalLovinLug]

23. That is all true but what does it say about this son's early home education?

How he was raised. I doubt he was raised to respect minorities. Or those with a different political viewpoint. Knowing his parents were die in the wool Trumpsters. I can only imagine the language he grew up with in his house.

[radical noodle]

26. We have no idea who his father is

other than he's James Alex Fields, Sr. Maybe he's more responsible for this. Lots of people are involved in how kids turn out... uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and the families of friends in addition to parents.

Great families sometimes have kids that turn out badly. I went to school with an all American boy in a small town. His parents were nice people, owned a small grocery store, he was on the honor roll in school, played in the band, was on the golf team... he turned out to be a serial rapist and murderer in his 20s. We shouldn't blame parents unless we know they're deserving of that blame.

[Tanuki]

43. His father reportedly died before he was born. The mom has a different surname,

so perhaps there was a stepfather at some point? His high school teacher was concerned about his preoccupation with Nazi Germany, so I find it hard to believe that his mother had no clue. Also, he had an unusually brief (4 month) stint in the Army 2 years ago, so the details of that should be interesting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/james-alex-fields-charlottesville-driver-.amp.html
..."Mr. Fields’s father died before he was born, an aunt, Pam Fields, said in an interview on Sunday. Ms. Fields said she had not seen her nephew, whom she remembered as a “very quiet little boy,” more than five times in the past 10 years.

• A friend and former neighbor of Ms. Bloom’s in the condominium complex where she lived until last year remembered her son as a quiet teenager who “kept to himself a lot.”

“He had some trouble in school making friends,” said the friend, who requested anonymity because she said she feared for her safety. "She had struggled with him during his teen years but he came around towards the end of school,” she said, adding, “She was always trying to do the best for her son.”
.....

When Mr. Fields was a freshman, he wrote a report for another class that was “very much along the party lines of the neo-Nazi movement,” Mr. Weimer said.
.......
• Military records show that Mr. Fields entered the Army on Aug. 18, 2015, around the time his mother wrote on Facebookthat he had left for boot camp. Less than four months later, on Dec. 11, his period of active duty concluded. It was not immediately clear why he left the military."

[lostnfound]

37. Angry young men suck. Mothers struggle through teen years and may give up trying to understand.

I remember a male relative who was incomprehensible from age 15 to about age 26. Some seem so angry, rebellious, know-it-all, and unable to explain or understand any other emotion.

And the influences in their life may not be mother but online affinity groups.

And before we all blame the mom, BECAUSE SHE WAS THERE, what about the dad?

[geek tragedy]

10. she was right, it had everything to do with Tr*mp nt

[okwmember]

11. So when is Trump going to start demanding family

members and clergy of Christian terrorists start notifying the authorities that these people have been radicalized?

[gibraltar72]

12. So a

murderer is raised in a home that has a matriarch who is a Trump supporter. I'm shocked!

[Mc Mike]

13. Shocked. I see.

She never got a look at Junior's facebook page. Or dRUmpf's twitter feed.

[lark]

15. It was all about drumpf.

About creating violence and hurting anyone who isn't a true believer in the facist, racist and hate filled orange assface. His words were pure lies and totally disgusting in their vile promotion of hatred.

[paleotn]

22. Speaking of Nazis and being "shocked"

Samantha Bloom, you're just as much a racist fucking pig as your dough boy son.

[american_ideals]

29. Trump is a white nationalist. So her denial is false.

[MrScorpio]

38. Sorry, mom, but your nazi son is a murdering piece of shit...

And the latest example of bad parenting.

[yellowcanine]

40. I thought it had something to do with [President] Trump, she said.

Well she got one thing right.

[Lulu KC]

44. There is more here than meets the eye

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/346540-man-charged-with-charlottesville-murder-once-accused-of-beating-his