John Whitehead's Commentary
Commentary Revision: The Red Lake Massacre: A Search for Acceptance that Led to Death
CORRECTION: According to comments posted on a National Socialist Movement website at 11:41 p.m., on April 19, 2004, Jeff Weise reportedly considered himself a National Socialist because he wrote: "By the way, I'm being blamed for a threat on the school I attend because someone said they were going to shoot up the school on 4/20, Hitlers birthday, and just because I claim being a National Socialist, guess whom they've pinned." However, Jeff Schoep, the commander of the NSM, indicated in a recent email that the Native American Weise would have been precluded from membership in the National Socialist Movement since it is "a White people's Organization" only.
On Monday, March 20, 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise shot his grandfather and his grandfather's companion and then took two pistols and a shotgun to his high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. There, in a rampage that lasted a mere ten minutes, he killed nine people and wounded seven before shooting and killing himself. A news story that has been eclipsed by the Terri Schiavo media circus, what is being referred to as the Red Lake Massacre is the deadliest school shooting since 1999, when fifteen people were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
In fact, there are obvious similarities between this massacre and the one at Columbine High School six years ago. Weise, who wore a black trench coat and combat boots, had a troubled childhood. His father committed suicide in July 1997; two years later, his mother suffered a brain injury as a result of a car accident and Weise was sent to live with his grandparents. Students at Red Lake High School describe Weise as a loner and an outcast, just as Columbine students described killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Like Harris, Weise may have been on psychotropic drugs, which could have exacerbated his violent tendencies. And there is another chilling parallel between the shootings: As a Red Lake High student reported, Jeff Weise asked a classmate if he believed in God before shooting him--just as one of the Columbine killers did.
Perhaps one of the most disturbing parallels between this week's tragedy in Minnesota and that of Columbine is the killers' fascination with, and connection to, Nazism. Before the shooting, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been seen doing the Nazi salute, and their attack on April 20 was planned to coincide with Hitler's birthday. Interestingly, Jeff Weise reportedly claimed to belong to the National Socialist Movement neo-Nazi group about a year ago. Weise had posted over thirty messages on the group's website, expressing admiration for Hitler. "I guess I've always had a natural admiration for Hitler and his ideas, and his courage to take on larger nations," Weise wrote in March 2004.
According to the New York Times, in a Yahoo profile last updated in June 2004, Weise used the moniker verlassen4_20, combining Hitler's birthday (April 20) with a German word meaning "forsaken" or "abandoned." Weise wrote that his nickname was totenkopf, German for "death's head" or "skull," and he included a doctored picture of himself with monster teeth and empty eyes. Under "latest news," Weise said he was on antidepressants, seeing a therapist and had "a brand new pair of cuts on my wrists." His favorite quote, which he attributed to Hitler, was, "The law of existence requires uninterrupted killing ... so that the better may live."
But perhaps most troubling was the story of a shooting spree Weise posted on a site called Writer's Coven in December 2003. There he wrote of a character dressed all in black, a teacher with a Hitleresque moustache and complaints about how the shooting at Columbine High had led to increased security on campus.
On the National Socialist Movement's website, Weise also recounted his frustration with people who "pass pre-judgment on someone if they even so much as say something like 'I support what Hitler did.'" It appears that while he may have been a quiet outcast at school, he hoped to find acceptance within the neo-Nazi group.
Paul Viollis, author of the book Avoiding Violence in Our Schools, addresses the troubling trend of young people, such as Weise and the Columbine killers, finding such interest in the neo-Nazi movement. He describes it as "a way for someone not on the football team or in the popular clique to find an identity." Weise's behavior fits a pattern of "disaffected youth who struggle to fit in at homogenous schools ... then erupt in violence to seek attention, enact revenge and gain power over people who have taunted them."
Weise's postings on the neo-Nazi website appear to be the attempt of an outcast to belong to something larger. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center suggests that young people like Weise "feel extremely powerless, and they want to associate with the oppressor, not the oppressed." A report from the SPLC brings to light disturbing evidence that the growing neo-Nazi groups in the United States, especially the National Socialist Movement to which Weise reportedly claimed he belonged, capitalize on the feelings of troubled young people. Jeffrey Schoep, the 30-year-old leader of the National Socialist Movement, explicitly states that he has created a special group for 14- to 17-year-olds, which he calls the Viking Youth Corp. Although Schoep will not explain the group's efforts to recruit young people, he claims that "there are so many coming to us, we can barely keep up."
We now have a generation of young people who are in search of something, and they do not want to be taken lightly. This quest has led many to communities of submission, where the person is relieved of the burdens of individuality and freedom. This is a substitute for a new form of bondage, where an exclusive ideology injects meaning into an otherwise empty, troubled existence. As expressed in extremist groups, such as the neo-Nazis and various religious cults, violence is often the result.
In fact, our confused culture has spawned a new group of young, disaffected people who validate their existence by violence. Sadly, they are finding, as Milton writes in Paradise Lost, that "Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to light."
On Monday, March 20, 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise shot his grandfather and his grandfather's companion and then took two pistols and a shotgun to his high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. There, in a rampage that lasted a mere ten minutes, he killed nine people and wounded seven before shooting and killing himself. A news story that has been eclipsed by the Terri Schiavo media circus, what is being referred to as the Red Lake Massacre is the deadliest school shooting since 1999, when fifteen people were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
In fact, there are obvious similarities between this massacre and the one at Columbine High School six years ago. Weise, who wore a black trench coat and combat boots, had a troubled childhood. His father committed suicide in July 1997; two years later, his mother suffered a brain injury as a result of a car accident and Weise was sent to live with his grandparents. Students at Red Lake High School describe Weise as a loner and an outcast, just as Columbine students described killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Like Harris, Weise may have been on psychotropic drugs, which could have exacerbated his violent tendencies. And there is another chilling parallel between the shootings: As a Red Lake High student reported, Jeff Weise asked a classmate if he believed in God before shooting him--just as one of the Columbine killers did.
Perhaps one of the most disturbing parallels between this week's tragedy in Minnesota and that of Columbine is the killers' fascination with, and connection to, Nazism. Before the shooting, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been seen doing the Nazi salute, and their attack on April 20 was planned to coincide with Hitler's birthday. Interestingly, Jeff Weise reportedly claimed to belong to the National Socialist Movement neo-Nazi group about a year ago. Weise had posted over thirty messages on the group's website, expressing admiration for Hitler. "I guess I've always had a natural admiration for Hitler and his ideas, and his courage to take on larger nations," Weise wrote in March 2004.
According to the New York Times, in a Yahoo profile last updated in June 2004, Weise used the moniker verlassen4_20, combining Hitler's birthday (April 20) with a German word meaning "forsaken" or "abandoned." Weise wrote that his nickname was totenkopf, German for "death's head" or "skull," and he included a doctored picture of himself with monster teeth and empty eyes. Under "latest news," Weise said he was on antidepressants, seeing a therapist and had "a brand new pair of cuts on my wrists." His favorite quote, which he attributed to Hitler, was, "The law of existence requires uninterrupted killing ... so that the better may live."
But perhaps most troubling was the story of a shooting spree Weise posted on a site called Writer's Coven in December 2003. There he wrote of a character dressed all in black, a teacher with a Hitleresque moustache and complaints about how the shooting at Columbine High had led to increased security on campus.
On the National Socialist Movement's website, Weise also recounted his frustration with people who "pass pre-judgment on someone if they even so much as say something like 'I support what Hitler did.'" It appears that while he may have been a quiet outcast at school, he hoped to find acceptance within the neo-Nazi group.
Paul Viollis, author of the book Avoiding Violence in Our Schools, addresses the troubling trend of young people, such as Weise and the Columbine killers, finding such interest in the neo-Nazi movement. He describes it as "a way for someone not on the football team or in the popular clique to find an identity." Weise's behavior fits a pattern of "disaffected youth who struggle to fit in at homogenous schools ... then erupt in violence to seek attention, enact revenge and gain power over people who have taunted them."
Weise's postings on the neo-Nazi website appear to be the attempt of an outcast to belong to something larger. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center suggests that young people like Weise "feel extremely powerless, and they want to associate with the oppressor, not the oppressed." A report from the SPLC brings to light disturbing evidence that the growing neo-Nazi groups in the United States, especially the National Socialist Movement to which Weise reportedly claimed he belonged, capitalize on the feelings of troubled young people. Jeffrey Schoep, the 30-year-old leader of the National Socialist Movement, explicitly states that he has created a special group for 14- to 17-year-olds, which he calls the Viking Youth Corp. Although Schoep will not explain the group's efforts to recruit young people, he claims that "there are so many coming to us, we can barely keep up."
We now have a generation of young people who are in search of something, and they do not want to be taken lightly. This quest has led many to communities of submission, where the person is relieved of the burdens of individuality and freedom. This is a substitute for a new form of bondage, where an exclusive ideology injects meaning into an otherwise empty, troubled existence. As expressed in extremist groups, such as the neo-Nazis and various religious cults, violence is often the result.
In fact, our confused culture has spawned a new group of young, disaffected people who validate their existence by violence. Sadly, they are finding, as Milton writes in Paradise Lost, that "Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to light."
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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