Man dies after setting himself on fire at Supreme Court plaza

[riversedge]

Source: CNN




By Jamie Crawford, Jessica Schneider and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

Updated 1:23 PM ET, Sat April 23, 2022
.

(CNN)A man who set himself on fire Friday on the plaza in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, has died, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.


The man was identified as Wynn Bruce of Boulder, Colorado, an MPD spokesperson said Saturday.
Bruce had been airlifted to a hospital in Washington, where he passed away, according to the department.

Supreme Court Police, US Capitol Police and the MPD had responded to the incident, which occurred Friday at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

No one else was injured in the incident, a Supreme Court spokesperson said Friday. .....................

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/23/politics/supreme-court-man-dies-fire/index.html

---

What a horrible way to die. May his family and friends find peace.


No motivation given.

[Hoyt]

1. Can't imagine the emotional pain. RIP.

[DanieRains]

42. Environmental Protester Said He Was Going To Torch Himself A Year Ago Because Climate Change Ignored

Wish the media could point this out....

The same billionaires that own oil stocks, own the media....

[Mz Pip]

2. Awful

I wonder what he was protesting. There must have been some reason he lit himself on fire.

[LeftInTX]

6. He was a photojournalist

I can think of a million things to protest the USSC

Voting rights
Gerrymandering
Reproductive rights

The list is endless

[wackadoo wabbit]

8. He was a climate activist. See my post #7, below.

Curious how not one mainstream media outlet has mentioned this little fact.

[SunSeeker]

39. Indeed. Thank you for posting. nt

[Skittles]

13. anyone who sets themselves on fire has mental health issues

I mean, come on, it's ridiculous.

[JohnSJ]

14. Exactly

[oldsoftie]

20. Really no other way to put it.

[DanieRains]

43. Doing Things That Guarantee Our Children's Future Will Be Horrible Is Okay Though?

Drill baby drill.

Drive baby drive.

Fly baby fly.

Cruise baby cruise.

Burn baby burn.

The Real Earth Plan.

[oldsoftie]

44. One has zero to do with the other.

If he wanted to protest he should go to China & India.

[oldsoftie]

45. Also, there is no real way to stop anything at this point anyway.

People grasp at electric vehicles, solar & wind power like that will solve everything. It won't & its not realistic. People in Teslas in LA already wait in lines to charge their cars. Too much of whats needed comes from CHINA. And we see what the EU is dealing with by chaining themselves to Russia for much of THEIR energy. China will gladly hold the rest of the world hostage for solar & battery materials. Meanwhile China & India keep building more coal power plants & keep putting more into he air than we do.
Most also refuse to accept nuclear power as a vital part of reducing greenhouse emissions. Etc Etc.
All that together adds up to a failure to reach any reasonable goals.
I hope for new inventions & discoveries because THATS what its going to take

[ck4829]

23. Government and media's response to climate change IS ridiculous

Especially when we had politicians shift from Denial: "Climate change isn't real" to Rationalization: "Climate change means we will have new sea lanes open up"

[Skittles]

47. people don't set themselves on fire because the governemnt is failing to deal with climate change

OK? IT IS A SUICIDE ATTEMPT.

[LeftInTX]

31. I don't feel this was the most effective method to deal with climate/environment

I don't think this will change anything.

I don't know if he was mentally ill, but I just don't see any good coming from this.

We can't get anything done in DC.

Will this change Manchin's mind?

[NullTuples]

32. You say that like it's a moral failing

Given everything that's gone to crap these last few years, some people have simply reached their moral limits.

That may not make them "crazy", only overwhelmed.

Perhaps they're seeing the world accurately and just couldn't block it out each day any more. It's a wonder any of us can, and do.

[llashram]

34. exactly, thank you

we just don't know what pushed this gentleman over the edge.

[llashram]

41. ++

[SunImp]

55. +1

[llashram]

33. so this monk

had mental health issues?
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/the-burning-monk-1963/
https://www.grunge.com/484621/the-real-reason-this-buddhist-monk-set-himself-on-fire/


In America today there is great depression among many who think rationally yet like this individual sees no other way to protest. Many such as I don't. There were many monks who set themselves on fire in protest during the Vietnam War. This monk probably saw many years of coming death and destruction in this country. He was subject to persecution as a Buddhist monk and he also was protesting the persecution of Roman Catholic President Diem against Buddhists. The political and religious reasons go back into Vietnam's history as a French colony.

So until we have a note explaining a reason for this gentleman setting himself on fire...Ukraine's death and destruction? Hate against the Left? Abortion? Republicans trying to overturn our government? Racism? Sexism? Climate change and coming environmental chaos and disaster? Don't judge so harshly. His self-immolation is sad. True. But I will continue to try to understand this decision outside the judgement of being mentally ill.

[Skittles]

48. YES

religious craziness

[llashram]

51. ---

[Make7]

3. Thích Quảng Đức - Saigon, 1963

Thích Quảng Đức (1897 – 11 June 1963; born Lâm Văn Túc) was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Quảng Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngô Đình Diệm, a staunch Roman Catholic. Photographs of his self-immolation circulated around the world, drawing attention to the policies of the Diệm government. John F. Kennedy said of one photograph, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk's death.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c

I can't avoid thinking about Vietnam when reading this news. Sadly, if Mr. Bruce was acting in protest, it is unlikely to have much of an impact. I hope he found peace at last.

[Bo Zarts]

24. Norman Morrison - Washington, DC, November 2, 1965

On the steps of the Pentagon, within view of the office window of Robert Strange McNamara - US Secretary of Defense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison

[llashram]

40. ++

[BigmanPigman]

4. Burning must be the most painful way to die.

Truly horrible.

[TygrBright]

5. Thousands of women burned as witches can testify to that. n/t

[24601]

53. Of the 20 people executed from the Salem Witch Trials, 19 were hanged and one was pressed to death

in the attempt to force him to enter a plea.

of the Salem 20, 14 were women and 6 were men, including one minister. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_of_the_Salem_witch_trials

When you widen the scope to those worldwide executed (I would argue the correct term is murdered) from before 323 BC (method unknown) through 2020 (Firing Squad in Somalia), the number appears to be under 150. While some were burned, that wasn't the exclusive method. Hanging and beheading were prominent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_for_witchcraft

[TygrBright]

54. Almost all "heresy" persecutions in Europe between 1517 and 1700 made use of witchcraft statutes...

...and resulted in thousands of burnings.

Germany had a particularly gruesome record of burnings, but Spain, the Low Countries, and France did plenty. One of the charges against Joan of Arc was witchcraft.

Male heretics were also burned, but their charges included witchcraft much less often.

Possibly the number of women burned "only" for a charge of witchcraft is relatively small, but thousands of women nevertheless experienced burning to death as witches (AND heretics, etc.)

The history of conflating "witchcraft" with "heresy" is an interesting and revolting one - male leaders of both Catholic and Protestant "Christian" churches deliberately connected the two as a way of increasing the horror factor of heresy sufficiently to justify grotesque torture and forms of execution as a terror tactic.

Any uppity woman who got wrongsides with the local religious authorities was vulnerable, in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

And yes, thousands did burn.

historically,
Bright

[24601]

59. OK, thanks for that information n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

58. That is *a* list of *some named* people executed for witchcraft, not a comprehensive one

The paragraph (it's Wikipedia, but it does give sources) which seems relevant is:

It has been estimated that tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and the American colonies over several hundred years. The exact number is unknown, but modern conservative scholars estimate around 40,000–50,000.[A] Scholar Carlo Ginzburg of the University of Bologna, in his work Night Battles, estimates the number between 3-4 million people. Common methods of execution for convicted witches were hanging, drowning and burning. Burning was often favored, particularly in Europe, as it was considered a more painful way to die.[5] Prosecutors in the American colonies generally preferred hanging in cases of witchcraft.[5]

[wackadoo wabbit]

7. No motivation given?! He was a climate activist!

He was a Shambhala Buddhist who was deeply concerned about climate change, and he'd posted/telegraphed a year before that he was planning on doing this on Earth Day 2022.

Here's the best article about him that I believe exists:

https://dennismichaellynch.com/news-alert-eery-social-media-post-surfaces-from-man-who-set-himself-on-fire-near-supreme-court/

To say that I'm disgusted by the way the mainstream media is covering this — or should I say, "failing to cover this" — is such an understatement that I can't even articulate it. It really is reprehensible.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Thank you for sharing this information, nearly killed altogether by corporate media. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[hay rick]

11. The media are afraid of real heroes and challenged by real life ambiguity.

In the absence of a "suicide note" they would have to investigate his life work and his religion. They so don't want to go there...

[Dial H For Hero]

12. How does burning one's self to death make one a "real hero"? Was this an act to which we should

aspire? Of all the ways to characterize his suicide, "tragic" comes to mind immediately.

"Heroic" does not.

[JohnSJ]

15. exactly.

[hay rick]

26. The Buddhist monk who set himself aflame in Saigon got worldwide attention.

His act was viewed as heroic and was another public relations nail in the coffin of America's involvement in Viet Nam.

Mr. Bruce may have retained his full rational faculties, not have suffered from depression or some form of mental illness, and acted in accordance with his Buddhist principles. Perhaps Mother Earth was his Viet Nam. An incurious media establishment appears disinclined to seek out and share more information.

[CTyankee]

29. I'm old enough to remember that monk's death. I was active in the antiwar movement in those early

days when we were called traitors, when we were peacefully protesting. At the time my marriage was falling apart and my activism was one of the things my then husband thought I was "overdoing." I had a little son then and I was damned if I was going to let the war machine against the Vietnamese people claim my son through the draft, then in existence.

[LeftInTX]

30. The setting is different. There were photos in Vietnam

There is so much horrific stuff in the world right now. Climate is just one of them. I don't know if the Supreme Court is the most effective setting.
The media will probably find out more. They need to verify their sources.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/03/27/149454729/protest-by-fire-why-some-tibetans-choose-self-immolation

[Dial H For Hero]

37. This (likely) won't.

The Vietnam War consumed the attention of the American people in the 60's and 70's. Climate change...not so much.

My guess is that this story will be covered for a couple of days, then fade away.

[alphafemale]

56. That was 1963?

It did nothing to stop the war.

Nothing.

Just as this man's senseless death will do....nothing.

It would be very irresponsible for the media to glorify a suicide.

They don't do that.

[intheflow]

18. +1

I saw “no motive given” and immediately searched his name. I figured he was one of the good guys because no one on the other side would be willing to risk their lives to make a point in a way that doesn’t harm others.

[Novara]

21. "no one on the other side would be willing ...

"... to risk their lives to make a point in a way that doesn’t harm others."

A-fucking-men.

[Wild blueberry]

36. Thank you

[Lunabell]

10. Mercifully this poor man died.

So sad. But, I think it's just too late for this planet at this point. 😕

[rampartc]

16. self immolation

mohammed bonazizi ignited the arab spring in tunisia. the arab spring featured several self immolations. 4 in algeria, 2 in egypt, 1 i mauritania

buddhist monk thich quang duc and several others protested diem's suppression of south vietnam's buddhists by catholic minorities (supported by catholic jfk)

also czechs in their 1968 anti soviet uprising, tibetans, and turkish kurds in the 1990s among others.

self immolation is a serious form of non violent protest, kids, don't try this at home.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Self-immolation is self-violent and it leaves a mess for nurses in hospitals or street cleaners

It is a serious disregard for reality to call it "non-violent" or to call it "heroic" as another poster did.

[LiberatedUSA]

25. I don't know how anyone could do it.

It is the most agonizing way to die with your only hope being you pass out as soon as possible.

[LeftInTX]

38. It's still ongoing in Tibet without much change or impact

Protests against China

It's a personal decision.
Everyone is entitled to free speech.
Unfortunately, I don't think his death will have an impact on climate change.

However, it is his decision and his decision alone and I respect that.

[twodogsbarking]

19. It is tragic. I'll stick with that. The mind is very complicated

and when you have to battle your own you are both the attacker and the attacked.
You are forced to try and fix a sick mind with the same sick mind.

[Collimator]

27. "Fix a sick mind with the same sick mind."

I once described it as having cut oneself very deeply and bleeding out. You see the blood; you know that you should do something to stop the bleeding. But you are so woozy and disoriented from blood loss that you can't act.

And I have to second the observation of others here that, aside from the horror of this man's desperate act, the real story is the media's unwillingness to address the man's motivation for doing what he did.

[ck4829]

22. ...

[dalton99a]

28. His FB post in 2020:

[IronLionZion]

46. There are more articles now on his climate activism

he's an American but I see the news is mostly reported in European media from a quick google search

[clementine613]

49. Another death that the Rethugs should be charged with.

Of course, it's not going to happen.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

50. I remember well the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc...

who self-immolated at a busy intersection in Saigon in 1963. A picture of him burning was all over the media.
That picture was horrifying. It haunts my dreams to this day.
Imagine the hundreds or even thousands of little kids who have seen the burning man…

I can appreciate Mr. Bruce’s dedication to a cause, and his determination to effect change.

But to do this??

I don’t see this act as something noble, or something to be admired or something that will change anything at all.
I do feel incredibly sad and sorry for this poor misguided man.
It was a tragic waist of a good man’s life.

[Emile]

52. Probably used a fossil fuel to set himself on fire.

[jfz9580m]

57. Tragic

He was a climate activist. RIP.