“I will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza]. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the man apparently said before setting himself alight and repeatedly shouting “Free Palestine!”
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Law enforcement also drew a gun on the burning man during the incident, according to a report by Task and Purpose.
When you’re a hammer…
I read that and was like “of fucking course they did.” Honestly the next paragraph makes it even worse, IMO.
Authorities were heard asking the man – “May I help you, sir?” – at first but as soon as he was engulfed in flames they started yelling at him to get down on the ground. They even drew their guns on the burning man before someone pushed them to get fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire.
Threats of physical violence are the only tool they have in their toolbox. THE ONLY tool.
Threats of physical violence are the only tool they have in their toolbox. THE ONLY tool.
And actual gun violence. They’re the sniwflakiest and wimpiest of the all, bringing an AK-47 to a civilised discussion and feeling “threatened”.
This would be hilarious if it was satire, but this ain’t the onion.
No, but I’m sure you can get shot by police if you have an onion - that’s basically a biological weapon to assault delicate cop eyes.
You can not make this shit up. Jesus fucking Christ what a world.
It was actually the Israeli security guard, not the police.
It’s a bit of a beleaguered point, but it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc. and virtually no coverage in the larger papers like the NYT, sure the press agencies like Reuters and the AP will cover it and then redistributors like your source will publish this, but little thought among the media class/commentariet will be given to the man who decided there was so little hope of being able to do anything through legal/electoral means to stop a genocide that he could no longer stand idly by and had to do something to protest the sheer inhumanity of what’s going on. Barely anyone probably still remembers the person who did the same thing and died in 2022 on earth day protesting inaction on climate change/destruction, that story was absolutely buried. I don’t support any kind of self harm, but doing something as drastic as this requires a pretty compelling reason, most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing, but the same importance was not extended to that person in 2022 and will almost definitely not be extended to this person now. I may end up being wrong, but I expect this to be out of the news cycle/discourse in days at most.
I was listening to BBC World Report this morning. They made quick mention of it along with some other things happening in the conflict, then went on to introduce their “expert” who would illuminate the situation.
Their so called expert was an employee of some Israeli institute of security or whatever, and he talked on for ages with minimal push-back about how the israeli army is doing everything by the book and how “Gaza is safe for civilians, and if it’s not it’s the fault of Hamas”.
That was all the coverage they did.
What a fucking joke.
If anyone would like a bit of an overview about the conflict I found Shaun’s Palestine video interesting (and infuriating). I also thought Shattered Dreams of Peace by Frontline was informative on the further background
(putting it here because the parent is about misinformation and lies)
but it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc.
ABC News - Active-duty airman sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy, Air Force confirms
Fox News - US service member sets himself on fire outside Israeli Embassy in DC
and virtually no coverage in the larger papers like the NYT
“gee why did he set himself on fire? must just be something people do”
it’s laughable how US media attributes self-immolation in Tibet to what must be CPC oppression, but self-immolation in the US must just be a cute little coincidence due to poor mental health
you managed so thoroughly to miss the point I was making, I’m impressed
You made an objective point, then a subjective one.
The objective one: “it’s very telling that this will assuredly get almost no coverage on big news networks like abc, cbs, fox, etc.” They addressed the objective one with their links.
The subjective one cannot be addressed yet, as it’s so soon after the event. You will probably end up correct that this event will not visibly persist, but you can’t know for sure, time will tell.
fact check! deboonked!
Don’t confuse people whose whole narrative is build on some conspiracy of media suppression with facts.
I guess skipping the term “Lügenpresse” to avoid the obvious link was deemed enough progress to keep that same 100 years old tactic alive…
They said almost no and virtually no coverege. It’s not anti-semitic to point out that western media is heavily skewed towards Israel. You’re completely delusional if you think that’s not the case.
Obviously there were going to be articles about the man who set himself on fire just as there was for the person who did it in 2022 due to the climate crisis. The point is the attention the media places on WHY it happens that is being ignored or heavily downplayed.
Few people will remember him, but if any are spurred into action by his act, then it won’t be a completely wasteful loss of life.
Yeah, I’ve seen some discourse that things like this when done by an individual as opposed to a group effort like the Tibetan monks are primarily to take their own life and the message is secondary/additional, but I would like to think that on some level something positive will come out of someone doing something as drastic and sad as this. Dying or taking your own life is not something positive or to be glorified, but when someone feels so hopeless to the point that they turn to this, I hope it’s at least a wake up call for some people to take this seriously and not just ignore/tune out one of the biggest genocides in recent history.
most people remember Tibetan monks doing the same thing
Out of political selfimmolations there were 7 Tibetan cases, but dozens of others including many Americans. I wonder why “most people” remember particularly those. Would it be that US media wasn’t fair to report not only this one here?
It was on a cover of a rage against the machine album.
Lmao that’s what i was talking about, the one on this album cover wasn’t even Tibetan, he was Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese buddhist monk, selfimmolating in Saigon in 1963 as protest against US-backed South Vietnam government persecuting buddhists.
So why people like you think he was Tibetan if not for media misleading you? This was literally the most famous of public selfimmolation and the one that started it all for in XX century.
Yes, my first thought was, “Crikey! Has anyone in the united states self -immolated, before?!”
It’s a horrific way to call attention to a cause. I’m sure after his best possible recovery, his military unit will rally to prosecute to add to his anguish.
:-(
@Maeve i
He died. It’s actually not as uncommon as you’d think.Quite a few US Americans in this list of political self immolations.
Honestly, the megacorps will only allow this on main TV when pushing regulation against protesting.
Like, "think of how many innocent
moneyslives we would save if we shoot protesters’.I get so tired of this talking point. New York times, Washington Post, and even Fox news each have an article (or multiple) on this event.
OMG THEY HAVE AN ARTICLE OMG THAT WAS TOTALLY MY POINT, I QUITE LITERALLY TALKED ABOUT REDISTRIBUTING THINGS FROM PRESS AGENCIES JFC, HOW CAN YOU READ WHAT I WROTE AND GET TO THIS, IS THERE ANYTHING RESIDING IN BETWEEN YOUR EARS ???
This post smells like mad.
God, an unironic “you mad bro” go back to reddit lmao
as he was engulfed in flames they started yelling at him to get down on the ground. They even drew their guns on the burning man before someone pushed them to get fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire.
Stop killing yourself or I’ll shoot you! lmao
They would shoot at the fire, not the person, duh.
This is the 2nd one. The only reason we’re even hearing about this is because he had to foresight to live stream it and also an independent journalist was there with a camera
Looks like he was an anarchist comrade.
Anyone who still visits reddit, how [deleted] is this story over there?
Edit: I’ve created a torrent for the video if anyone wants to help seed. His sacrifice in bringing attention to the US-sponsored genocide in Palestine must not be forgotten.
Using the word “genocide” bans you in r/politics now
r/washingtondc locked the post
r/politics mods are horrific. In the mod log (at the bottom of the screen) you can see they delete posts just because of different opinions.
censored video: https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1761944158636331247
catbox archived: https://files.catbox.moe/khy3kv.mp4
Couldn’t find uncensored version. Uncensored below
He specifically livestreamed the video and sent links to the livestream and archive to various journalists and anarchist press so that the video would be shared and viewed. Its a disservice for it to be censored and weird that person also watermarked it with their @
Uncensored version: (GRAPHIC VIDEO WARNING) https://x.com/v4p4l/status/1761995206465888567?s=46&t=xtlq_1V7eXJ31HI_SLdE9g It will likely be removed soon so download while you can if you think it deserves to be archived.
Twitter is terrible so heres an upload on archive.org that has a torrent and driect download https://archive.org/download/rpreplay-final-1708967255
Because it is censored, more people will see it and more people will get the message so I disagree with you but I see your point.
literally the entire point behind this act is it being explicitly graphic, sharing the uncensored version quite literally goes against that. It’s almost as bad as censoring the message from the get go, except now we’re actively disrespecting his intention.
I think the graphic nature can be shared while also censoring the gore. It’s not like it changes the events in any way.
you can also do what this post and basically every article did, and then post a single frame of the video. No blurring needed, no graphic content explicitly posted.
I’ve created a torrent for the video if anyone wants to help seed.
I’ve created a torrent for the video if anyone wants to help seed. His sacrifice in bringing attention to the US-sponsored genocide in Palestine must not be forgotten.
Noticed that the MSM is barely touching the story or if they are, with little contextual detail. Am I the only one who has noticed this?
I’m not able to connect to it.
Just leave it open, it’ll find peers eventually.
Link doesn’t work.
A rare hero. Not what I expected from the US.
The systems of control didn’t work on him.
He was too innocent for this world. I don’t know what to say other than I promise I will never forget him and that I’ll try to spread his message and do everything I can to help free Palestine.
He is the fiery monk of our time. I watched the video below and I will admit after the second “Free Palestine” and the screaming started, I had to turn the sound off until he fell and I suspected the screaming stopped.
He is braver and has more strength than anyone on the Israeli side. I won’t forget that this hero couldn’t stay silent in the face of genocide.
I wish there was another option for him.
We failed to be organized enough.
He’s like the third guy to do this in a year, big money doesn’t want you to know about it
The uncensored video is here as well: https://theworldwatch.com/videos/1616102/shock-us-air-force-airman-sets-himself-on-fire-to-protest-israeli-palestine-war/
The comments on the video are actually more horrifying than the video itself. How can a human watch another human suffer like this and be happy/laugh about it? They’re wishing that others would do the same just because they think differently from them? Do we even have any hope left in humanity anymore?
Holy shit you weren’t kidding. Those comments are horrifying.
Those are the people making America great again!
There are many people that consider themselves left-wing that excuse their government support of genocide. I have no idea how…
Unfortunately no 😔
I try not to let myself get affected by crazy anonymous comments on the internet. I definitely avoid thinking that they’re any kind of majority. I figure that those comments come from a minority of people who are either really messed up, have an ulterior motive, or whatever variety of atypical motivation. If nothing else, it’s better for my mental health to think this way.
I’m gonna need to do it your way for sure. Sounds much healthier
This guy is very brave, but everyone taking about the embassy security drawing weapons when they arrive. Of course they would. They don’t know what was planned, if it was a suicide bombing gone wrong, our whatever else. I’m not pro cop but I don’t understand why people are surprised by this. They are security
Sure, maybe if they drew their weapons immediately, before his act. That’d make sense. They wouldn’t know what he was gonna do.
The trouble is, based on the reporting we have, they drew their guns after he lit himself on fire, not before:
as soon as he was engulfed in flames they started yelling at him to get down on the ground. They even drew their guns on the burning man before someone pushed them to get fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire.
I’m thinking by the time the guy was engulfed in flames he was a little too preoccupied to do much else.
Can you imagine facing a living bonfire, and your first thought is “I should draw my gun and tell them to get down on the ground”? There’s genuinely no excuse for that level of inhumanity.
If your job is to secure the embassy/ site/ scene you work down a list. They clearly followed the list.
We now know that he was no risk, but they couldn’t.
They aren’t equipped with fire extinguishers (aside from the guy who got one), so are you assuming they should jump on him? Smother a fuel fire with their bodies? Does that secure the site? No. It’s also not realistic.
Seems like securing the site then 1 person getting a fire extinguisher is a completely responsible response.
He’d already fallen down and stopped screaming when they drew on him. What threat would he pose that a gun was going to solve at that time? Before you say bomb, think carefully about what a gun was going to do in that circumstance.
No, this was an example (once again) that “try to kill anything you don’t immediately understand” is the default condition of our law enforcement. Last week’s example was an acorn, and a very, very lucky handcuffed man in the back of a police cruiser.
This is not the acorn thing at all. They are trained to secure the embassy and they did that.
Thank you for ignoring everything else I wrote.
I ignored it because it’s irrelevant. You’re applying a subjective value assessment to professionals following training. It’s ugly, but it’s not meant to be “nice” or compassionate. They are there to protect the embassy
I ignored it because it’s irrelevant.
You ignored the context and circumstances because they’re irrelevant?
Your answer to every comment has consistently been (paraphrasing): “trust the cops, they know what they’re doing”, irrespective of any surrounding facts that might suggest otherwise, or any past history that would suggest that law enforcement doesn’t deserve that level of blind trust.
Given that, there’s little point in further discussion.
I just want to know what they were going to prevent with guns, given he was immobilized and not even screaming anymore in addition to being engulfed in flames. You seem to have all the answers, so I’m sure there must be something dangerous he could have done at that point which could have been stopped by a gun - please just tell me what it was.
What, exactly, would a gun do if he was a suicide bomber?
Shoot the suicide bomber before a bigger boom. What if there was another person? Another thing? We can’t know, they can’t know. We know now, due to hindsight.
They are security. They secure scenes. They aren’t paramedics.
I am not making pro cop statements here, but all the comments about “ohhh the cop arrived to a dangerous scene with a weapon drawn!” Is like saying “the garbage man picked up the garbage bin when he drove past my house!” Duh!
He’s on fire! Shooting him wouldn’t stop a bigger boom!
I’ll give the cops this: they probably were not trained on what to do if someone lights themselves on fire. They just fell back on basic training.
Well yeah I’m not surprised that cops are not there to protect average people and provide them safety, they’re there to protect private property.
The embassy security secures the embassy. Whodathunk
Secures the embassy from a man caught on fire (very capable!) and is outside its fence. Could you imagine what would’ve happened if they weren’t there? Yeah, still no threat to the embassy :)
You know that now due to hindsight
Real footage of security cops hard at work:
I see one seeming to be getting medical equipment while one secures the scene. seems very professional.
Did you want to find another screenshot?
I’m not being pro cop here, I’m being anti assuming cops will be helpful buddies when you do things near an embassy. in an era of mass shooters and all sorts of public violence it’s no surprise that agents of the state be state agents
Someone had to yell “fire extinguisher not guns!” for them to even consider doing anything other than raise guns at a burning man.
I’m being anti assuming cops will be helpful buddies when you do things near an embassy.
That is the point I make. Never trust cops. They will rarely ever be helpful.
And as I’ve argued/miscommunicated with folks a few times here: they aren’t expected to be so. They aren’t there to help. They are there to secure the embassy
Aaron Bushnell, the greatest American since John Brown
Free Palestinians from Hamas
Hamas and Israel are two sides of the same coin. Hamas knew exactly what the demented Israeli government would do, and they knew it would bring sympathy to their cause. Israel walked into the trap because they are also consumed with ethnic hatred. There is plenty of evidence that Israel even supported Hamas just to get them an excuse for a genocide.
The Netanyahu government, yes.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the government. There are mobs preventing aid from getting in, and almost half the country supports what’s happening in Gaza.
True. And it’s also true that some Palestinians are allied with the Hamas terrorists. Also unfortunate. The victims are Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
🤡
Free yourself from propaganda
I’m free. That’s why I am able to see that Hamas are terrorists.
claims to be a free thinker
Parrots the most common opinion in western society
claims others are brainwashed instead
Interesting
Hamas is not Palestine as Israel is not all Jews.
Hamas is a cancer that must go for peace to have a chance
Y’all say shit like this but when I say Israel is a cancer that must go for peace to have a chance y’all get mad.
The people fighting to defend Palestinians from their imminent ethnic cleansing are a “cancer”, but the same is not said for the occupying nation committing the cleansing.
Interesting!
hamas are NOT defending the palestinian people
oh, okay random Internet person, whatever you say 👍👍