Why do I feel sympathetic towards the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But there is no evidence from anyone around him that he didn't have empathy or that he had sociopathic traits - no evidence of fire setting or hurting people or animals. He wasn't a charmer, he wasn't odd.

No evidence??? He set a frickin' bomb off next to an 8 year old??? How the fuck you you have sympathy for that shit?? He is evil. Let him rot like his evil brother already has.

Exactly! His actions are evidence. He knowingly and will prior intent (allegedly, of course) dropped a bomb in the middle of a crowd and strolled off knowing the death and destruction he would cause. If that isn't sociopathic, I don't know what is. I am sorry that no one has come forward to tell you of his fire starting so that yo can check off a box that says sociopath.

You are missing the point. Those are after the fact. The post was about who he was BEFORE and what led up to this.

So...what you're saying, if I have empathy for people before I rape children, then it's ok? Cause like up until the day before I become I child rapist, I had empathy?

Also, I've known murderers who love their families. So, are they cool? They don't get punished because they show love?

Still missing the point...and making all kinds of assumptions that are flat out incorrect and dramatic.

1. I'm a separate poster, so I'm "still" not doing anything.

2. What assumption is incorrect?

You assumed (incorrectly), that it's okay, you assumed that murderers were cool, you assumed they shouldn't get punished. None of that was in the original post and you have entirely missed the point of the post as evidenced by going way off in a tangent in your response, adding in points unrelated to the post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does everyone feel about the Menendez brothers - Lyle and Eric shotgunned their parents in cold blood to get their hands on their parents' money? Think Eric was 19 and Lyle 21 at the time. They look whitish.

I think (and have long thought) there was probably something very very wrong in their home growing up. It does not excuse what they did, but children from a relatively normal home without major mental problems just do not murder their parents.

When I saw the photo of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev it made me sick to my stomach. I have nephews this age, and it was an inability to understand how this happens to a kid that seems so normal. Everything he did is unforgivable, but that does not mean it makes sense or it will not scare people (particularly parents) when they see a path that a child has chosen to walk down that is so disturbed. It is easier to accept if you can attribute it to mental illness.

I have a relative in DH's family that I think has mild anti-social personality disorder. Because he has a strong interest in self preservation, I think it is unlikely he would ever do anything truly awful, and he has never harmed anyone to my knowledge. But if he did there would NOT be a line of people reporting how normal and well liked he was.

Alright, one of you loonies who feel sympathy for evil mass murders and lament what could have been done to help them need to hook up with this PP so you can help her relative with a personality disorder before he becomes violent. What about you OP, why don't you invite this guy over and have him hang out with your boys so you can save him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote: I saw that man in the wheelchair with the flesh blown from his legs. That one spindly leg bone hanging down with no meat on it, and that gray shocked look on his face. I think of that sweet little boy who wanted peace, blown to bits and his sister's leg blown off. His momma with brain damage. Should I go on? The person who did this, chose to. And he look into the eyes of his victim as he dropped the bomb at their feet. He walked off knowing that they would be killed. He deserves no sympathy.

Can we politely agree that we have a slight difference of opinion and that's okay? As an echo of the teamwork we saw demonstrated in Boston, it'd be nice if this thread didn't dissolve into vitriol but a place for people to respectfully state their opinions. There is enough room here for all of our perspectives.

I have to say that when you are expressing sympathy for someone like this, it is probably better to just keep it to yourself, or tell your therapist. Not many people who live and breathe are going to be able to understand your point of view.

Well I don't have a therapist and the friends I've spoken about this with agree with me that calling him evil or insane is an easy answer, not the right answer, and that we are sorry for the lost potential of his life had just as we are sorry for the lost potential of the lives of all the victims. [Note: I am not calling him a victim of this crime] I am sorry for his soul that will have to carry the burden of this crime, and the suffering that will bring him.

Not sure about his soul, but hopefully his mortal form won't have to carry this burden for very long. There's gotta be a federal capital crime in there somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be flamed for this - I cannot help but feel a sadness and sorrow for this 19 year old young man. I do not - in any way - condone what he and his brother did! I am from Boston and have a boy the same age as the young boy that was killed. It is just that I see in his eyes a troubled young man. I hear the stories of how he was just another "normal" teenager, I hear the interviews with his poor father, I hear the description of how they are guarding him in the hospital. WHAT HAPPENS TO A YOUNG MAN TO GO FROM NORMAL TEENAGER TO TERRORIST?
It scares me - I have two boys who are bright and impressionable and sweet and my babies. Maybe it is because my DH is of Eastern European descent and I see similarities in these boys facial features to my own boys and my nephews. I want to reach out to him and get in his head and heart and understand what has damaged him. He was a little boy - not so long ago - how does this happen????

he isn't a terrorist. he is an alleged criminal.

"Alleged criminal" shut the fuck up, he is a terrorist. Put a bomb next to an 8 year old and just walked away. Yes, influenced by a crazy brother but old enough, educated enough and connected to the world enough to know that putting a bomb next to an 8 year old child is wrong. End of story.

He isn't a terrorist. He is an alleged criminal.

What separates our country from the ones you hate is the presumption of innocence and due process.

There is no indication at all that this was an act of terrorism. Did it terrorize some people? Sure. But it wasn't "terrorism."

The good news is he is entitled to a fair trial. Let's see what the charges are.

But you? You're a fucktard. Don't post anymore.

[Anonymous]

"Alleged criminal" shut the fuck up, he is a terrorist. Put a bomb next to an 8 year old and just walked away. Yes, influenced by a crazy brother but old enough, educated enough and connected to the world enough to know that putting a bomb next to an 8 year old child is wrong. End of story.

Everyone keeps stating this, but we still have no proof. Dzhokhar could have been the crazy one to influence his brother. Stop making assumptions about who and what influenced these two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He actually tweeted that there was no love in the city and for everyone to be safe after it happened, pretending he was looking out for his friends after the incident. HE DID IT. There is pure evil in the world. I'd rather spend my energies learning to keep our Nation safe from it than have any sympathy whatsoever towards this calculating monster. Enough people have died and been maimed.

Do you have a link that actually shows this?

His twitter account.

actually, I meant could you type out a digital link to the account...

[Anonymous]

We will never be a truly civilized species until we can figure out a way to solve our differences without physical violence. Lone individuals commit heinous acts as do organized governments. We're light years away from becoming a non-violent species. Normal immediate gut reaction to crimes like these is to condemn the perpetrators to Hell and damnation. However, when we do try to think past our anger, to try even for a minute to speculate why someone would do such a thing or what might have happened to them in their lives, we do get a little bit closer to becoming more civilized. I havent' heard one sympathetic poster say that Tsarnaev shouldn't be punished for his crimes. Just a little turning off the lizard part of their brains and wondering what happened to this person who was once a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He actually tweeted that there was no love in the city and for everyone to be safe after it happened, pretending he was looking out for his friends after the incident. HE DID IT. There is pure evil in the world. I'd rather spend my energies learning to keep our Nation safe from it than have any sympathy whatsoever towards this calculating monster. Enough people have died and been maimed.

Do you have a link that actually shows this?

His twitter account.

actually, I meant could you type out a digital link to the account...

Not the Pp you are responding to but here you go. https://twitter.com/j_tsar

[Anonymous]

I think most people are confused/dismayed by the portrait of this guy as a normal kid who suddenly did something heinous. A lot of other perpetrators of terrorist acts or violent crimes have a more predictable pattern: they became religious extremists, or they behaved oddly and had no friends (Loughner or Holmes), or they would charm people and then screw them over (Ted Bundy). None of those patterns seem to fit the bill here.

The whole thing has made me want to do some research on people who seem to just snap. Will it turn out, as some posters suggested, that there WERE warning signs? Do most people have the potential to do evil things? Do some people have the potential, and a precipitating act sets them off?

[Anonymous]

I feel sorry for him because (a) it is clear he was influenced by a supremely evil older sibling (b) he seems otherwise endearing and (c) he is so plain young. I think that his life would have ended up differently if he did not have a conniving shoplifting (per the internet) mother and total douchebag older brother. Just like some of the Manson family murderers would not have ended up in the same pathetic gruesome circumstance had they not ended up under the spell of Manson. Does that mean he doesn't deserve FULL punishment for what he has done? Obviously not. But I really can see that he could have ended up differently ... not so much his brother, who was apparently a girlfriend/wife beater and would have ended up dead or in prison no matter what else happened. So that does make me sad for him.

[Anonymous]

He isn't a terrorist. He is an alleged criminal.

What separates our country from the ones you hate is the presumption of innocence and due process.

There is no indication at all that this was an act of terrorism. Did it terrorize some people? Sure. But it wasn't "terrorism."

The good news is he is entitled to a fair trial. Let's see what the charges are.

But you? You're a fucktard. Don't post anymore.




FYI - he's a terrorist. ... And I actually feel sorry for him. But setting off bombs to kill or maim random quantities of people crossing or at the finish line of a public event = terrorist. So as to your "fucktard" comment, I would say it takes one to know one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also feel sadness for Dzhokhar. I also felt sadness for Lee Boyd Malvo, Dylan Klebold, Sam Manzie (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/08/nyregion/eddie-was-murdered-sam-s-doing-70-years-but-who-is-to-blame.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm), Seung-Hui Cho, and even Jeffrey Dahmer, who, as a child, had selective mutism and collected road kill and kept the bones of the dead animals displayed on poles in his backyard. There could not have been more obvious signs of a problem, and no one helped.

It saddens me that in so many of these tragic cases there were signs that people ignored and that help wasn't available for the mentally unstable who eventually became murderers. But sometimes even when family and friends try to get help for their loved ones, nothing is done (Sam Manzie being the best example of this I can think of in recent history).

It's not to say that I can't understand the outrage that some feel when hearing people express sympathy for the perpetrators. It just that I feel it is somewhat necessary to feel sadness for them, because the ability to realize that we may not know the whole picture, and that we are so very fortunate that it wasn't our son or nephew doing the killing - that perspective is what keeps us human and it's what will hopefully help us spot the next one before it's too late.

Bleeding heart drivel, makes me want to hurl. Wake.up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are confused/dismayed by the portrait of this guy as a normal kid who suddenly did something heinous. A lot of other perpetrators of terrorist acts or violent crimes have a more predictable pattern: they became religious extremists, or they behaved oddly and had no friends (Loughner or Holmes), or they would charm people and then screw them over (Ted Bundy). None of those patterns seem to fit the bill here.

The whole thing has made me want to do some research on people who seem to just snap. Will it turn out, as some posters suggested, that there WERE warning signs? Do most people have the potential to do evil things? Do some people have the potential, and a precipitating act sets them off?

I think this is a correct assessment. I also do not think anyone expressing confusion at the feelings they experienced when they saw this man or read his background is saying that his youth, race, or background give him an excuse for what he did. It is inexcusable and the full force of the law will come down on him.

I am intrigued (not sure if that is the right word) by the reference by Governor Deval in WaPo that when they were narrowing down the suspects, suspect No. 2 (Dzhokhar) had a reaction to the explosion that made him a clear suspect. I read that to be that he somehow reacted with pleasure to the horror that he had unleashed, which is horrifying in and of itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will never be a truly civilized species until we can figure out a way to solve our differences without physical violence. Lone individuals commit heinous acts as do organized governments. We're light years away from becoming a non-violent species. Normal immediate gut reaction to crimes like these is to condemn the perpetrators to Hell and damnation. However, when we do try to think past our anger, to try even for a minute to speculate why someone would do such a thing or what might have happened to them in their lives, we do get a little bit closer to becoming more civilized. I havent' heard one sympathetic poster say that Tsarnaev shouldn't be punished for his crimes. Just a little turning off the lizard part of their brains and wondering what happened to this person who was once a child.

I would say not to judge people too harshly until you have walked a mile in their shoes. But when they blew up innocent people, they lost me. However, maybe step into the shoes of those affected by this horrible crime and then you can see why most people choose to condem the perpetrators to hell. If these men had bombed a shelter full of puppies, you all would not be talking about having sympathy for them. You would be wanting to have revenge in the most bloody way possible.

[Anonymous]

There is a site set up for donations for Jeff Bauman, the man who's legs got blown off.

http://www.gofundme.com/BucksforBauman