Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
As we know by now, Omar Thornton, a disgruntled worker at a beer distributorship in Connecticut, was fired for stealing beer and reselling it. His response: pulling out two guns and shooting his co-workers.
By the time he was done, eight were killed and several were injured. After speaking by phone to his mother and the police, he then committed suicide by turning the gun on himself.
In the wake of this tragedy, ugly allegations have surfaced, mostly from his girlfriend Kristi Hannah, that Thornton was the target of vicious and continuous racial harassment at the company. She claims that he was exposed to unfair race-based treatment, the frequent use of the N-word and a drawing of a noose on a bathroom wall.
Hannah believes that these situations caused him to lose his mind and eventually propelled him toward a "revenge killing spree!"
Since that time, these allegations have not been proven...as yet... if ever. It appears that Thornton never filed charges of racism with the company or any government agency, though he may have complained to his union.
The company has never had any formal charges filed against them for discrimination and a former black worker at the company said that he did not see any acts of discrimination against blacks. All that being said, it is certainly within the realm of possibility that Thornton may have experienced acts of discrimination by individuals there or even at the very least may have been subjected to institutional racism.
This would be nothing new as racism either conscious or unconscious remains a problem in America. As evidence of this we simply need to look at the resentment of President Barack Obama, some of it race-based by many Americans who are not even aware that their attitudes may be racist.
To be sure, no matter what kind of discrimination Thornton may or may not have encountered, there is absolutely no justification for his murderous rampage. I have never examined Omar Thornton but from the scant information on him, it is quite likely that he may fit the profile of other mass killers: lonely, emotionally fragile and sensitive, angry, stressed and feeling bullied.
I can only theorize that he may have perceived any behavior aimed against him(racist or not) as being racist, and instead of confronting it officially through a filing, sat on the anger and rage until he exploded. Whether the allegations of racism are true, false, or somewhere in between, it is quite clear that Thornton at some point became enraged, paranoid and delusional.
The chilling tape of him talking to police right after the shootings, where he calmly confessed to his murderous actions and even stated he wished he had killed many more, is proof that he lost his rationality, control and humanity. Simply he became emotionally unhinged.
Perhaps the cautionary tale here is that we should all personally extend a hand to those who have emotional issues, who feel bullied and powerless and who have inordinate anger issues. As for employers, they should be more aware of any negative work place situations whether racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and so on.
They should also make every effort to be more in touch and cognizant of emotionally troubled workers and provide them access to employee-assistance programs and proper conflict resolution venues. As for the gun companies, they along with the NRA should better address the sale of firearms to individuals who are emotionally unstable.