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Teenager accused of murder....and Satanism

  
 
fuckbaked
22:30 / 21.10.05
I know very little about Satanism, but I don't think that murdering people who get in the way of your pot growing plans is something that ought to be attributed to Satanism.

Here are some quotes from one of the news articles on the murder:

"The teenager arrested in the slaying of a prominent defense attorney's wife once drew a pentagram on the ground at school and told other students he was reading from the book of Satan, according to former classmates."

"The suspect was described as a quiet student at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, where he stood out because of his attire.

"He was really gothic, always wore a long, dark jacket," said Kevin Etheridge, 16. "He'd hang out with a few kids, but he was pretty quiet, pretty much to himself."

"The San Francisco Chronicle, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, reported that investigators believe the killing was related to a scheme that involved using stolen credit card numbers to fund a marijuana-growing operation."

Another news article gives a bit more information, stating that the boy had ordered pot-growing supplies, thought they had been delivered to the house of the woman he'd murdered, and when he went to try to get them he got into a fight with her and killed her.

Yet another news article says that one of his classmates said "He told people the book that he was carrying and reading from was the book of Satan," Kingon said. "I'm not shocked he's been accused of something like this."

Ok, so I don't have any sympathy for the kid in question, because, well, I generally don't have any sympathy for murderers, but I'm concerned that the kid's being trashed in the papers for being a "Satanist".

One of the articles states that he'd done the pentagram and book thing when he was in middle school, which was a few years ago, since he's now 16 and a junior in high school. There's no evidence that he currently is a Satanist. It also bothers me that the newspapers are stating that he drew a pentagram as if pentagrams are synonymous with Satanism, which they most definitely aren't. The kid certainly could have belonged to some other religion which involves pentagrams, or he could have been trying to shock his classmates, which some people like to do, especially kids.

There's also the matter of having read the Book of Satan. If I were to read the Bible, it wouldn't automatically make me a Christian, just as reading the Book of Satan wouldn't automatically make me a Satanist. I think the assumption that being a Satanist would make someone likely to be a murdurer is bad enough, but to assume someone is a Satanist because of what they read also seems pretty fucked up.

My classmates taunted me for supposedly being a Satanist when I was in middle school because of the way I dressed. I'm not surprised that kids still do that (and obviously I know that reading the Book of Satan at school is going to make kids way more likely to do that), but I wish I could expect better from the newspapers.

Is killing people who you believe are interferring with your pot-growing operation actually a part of Satanism of which I am unaware, or are these news articles as intolerant as they seem to me to be? The information about how the teenaged murderer is supposedly a Satanist isn't in all the articles about the suspect, but it's being reported by major news sources.

Do we really need any more stigma against people for whom the pentagram is a religious symbol, even if they are Satanists? Do we need any more stigma against goth kids? You already know my answer to those questions.

(if the mods think this is not appropriate for the Switchboard, feel free to move it)
 
 
Char Aina
23:31 / 21.10.05
the satan shtick is rarely anything other than kids going all out to shock. i reckon this kid is no different.
satan is the ultimate rebel, isnt he?

if you are going to be unhinged enough to murder your friend over posessions(whatever they are) i dont think it matters what religion you are.
this wont stop there being some who condemn satanism as evil.

i think its about chritianity being the dominant religion in america and satanism having as its center a deity who performs the role of ultimate evil in that religion.
 
 
matthew.
01:56 / 24.10.05
My question is, do Satanists have any weight as a religion? It feels like shock value for late 20th century adults with nothing better to do than light candles and fuck like bunnies.

Sure, there's little evidence the kid is a Satanist. Sure, there's a litte evidence saying he drew a pentagram. You said that the pentagram is not equal to Satanism, but it's commonly associated with Satanism, and that's enough for the media.

And, by the way, since when has the media been responsible for giving accurate information. People hear what they want to hear.

I'll give you a related example. In my city, a young man aged 17, was killed in a shoot-out between two rival gangs of Somalian immigrants who have brought their gang from their past. This young man was an innocent bystander. In this city I live in, this has become the catalyst for an anti-gang movement, or rather, the catalyst for the increased intensity of the anti-gang movment. The city is now cracking down.

The papers, both of them, immediately started eulogizing this kid, who was completely innocent of the gang warfare. But I read between the lines...

It happened in an obviously and notoriously bad neighbourhood. It happened at three thirty in the morning (an hour and a half after the bars close, by law). This kid lived in an area very far from this incident. I read between the lines: what the fuck was this kid doing in this neighbourhood at that time of night?

But the media, who have an objective (sell papers) simply glossed over the details, making it harder for me to research the details of the crime, so I could make an informed judgment of the incident.

The papers called the kid a "nice guy", "well-liked by his peers". He played hockey at school and was planning on becoming a mechanic. He had a steady girlfriend and was all-around "undeserving of such an end". Seriously.

But wait. What if this kid was a douchebag? I'm sure he was a dick to somebody... But noooooo, since the media wants to promote fear in us, they twist the facts.

Tell me I'm wrong, but I don't think the newspaper writers and editors are all hagiographers.
 
 
*
03:15 / 24.10.05
Does Satanism have any value as a religion? Well, leaving aside the fact that probably the majority of self-described Satanists are in fact goth kids out for a shocker, there are a sizable minority of Satanists/Setians/Baphomet worshipers etc. who are quite serious about it, and insofar as they aren't harming anyone, probably deserve the same consideration that ought to be given any other religious group. There are also the assorted pagans who will inevitably be lumped in with Satanists in the eyes of popular culture, and this hits close enough to where I live for me to roll my eyes and think "oh gods, not again" every time something like this appears in the papers. But yeah, that's pretty much all I think of it, because it happens all the time, and somehow— maybe because I don't go out of my way to look spooooky and evil with extra e's and a y in there somewhere— people don't seem to mess with me much. This is not to say that if I were accused of murder tomorrow, may the gods forfend, the media might not publish photos of my altar and declare me an evil Satanist perpetrating a ritual killing, when anyone with half a brain can see it was self-defense... er. I think I've lost my point.
 
 
Axolotl
10:12 / 24.10.05
As a slight aside I noticed that the papers here in the UK were getting their knickers in a twist when someone pointed out that under the proposed religious hatred law making such comments about satanists could be prohibited.
 
 
matthew.
13:51 / 24.10.05
Now that's funny
 
  
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