A cross section of kill-to-injury ratios of major mass shootings suggests that if Adam Lanza acted alone in carrying out the Sandy Hook Elementary School carnage he was among the most accurate killers in modern history, exceeding even the lethal damage meted out by Al Capone’s machine gun-wielding henchmen in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Because James Tracy and I have been attacked as faculty members–I am now retired, while he is not–for speaking out about Sandy Hook, I would observe that this is a very messy case and that serious questions are being raised about it from a wide range of perspectives. It is clearly complex and controversial but also falls squarely within Dr. Tracy’s areas of professional competence, which include conspiracy theories and culture, malfeasance by the media and related issues. Tenure was created to protect faculty from the political consequences that might otherwise attend addressing complex and controversial matters of this very kind.
On the morning of December 18, 2012 administrators at New York City Public School 79 (the Horan School) in East Harlem conducted an entirely unannounced “active shooter drill.” The event, which took place just four days after the high profile Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown Connecticut, terrified the school’s 300 special needs adolescent and young adult students and the 100 teaching and counseling staff members. Ranging in age from 12 to 21, Horan’s largely Hispanic student body contends with an array of mental and emotional disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy.
After writing a series of articles documenting the discrepancies and outright lies in the official narrative of the Sandy Hook shooting, Professor James Tracy of Florida Atlantic University shot to international attention when the establishment media began covering his work. Now, Dr. Tracy is left trying to explain the misinterpretations, lies and soundbites that the mainstream media is using to discredit his work. Find out more in this week’s GRTV Feature Interview.
Photos and Commentary by Scott DeLarm
Edited by James F. Tracy
My partner and I became fed up with the mainstream media’s depiction of what took place in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. So on January 20 we traveled there from our home in Ottawa Canada in an effort to visit the sites and respectfully approach the locals.
I am writing to express support for Dr. Tracy’s right to express his views and pose his questions. Indeed, as an associate professor, he has a professional responsibility to do so. Sadly, voicing unpopular views is a responsibility that is largely neglected in the academy. And even if Dr. Tracy has made some misjudgments regarding the present case (about which I reserve judgment), at least he has demonstrated an uncommon degree of courage in voicing opinions that risk engendering personal troubles. We would be better off with more professors willing to do that, even if it occasionally causes discomfort. For sometimes troubling views are both true and important.
“Conspiracy theory” is a term that at once strikes fear and anxiety in the hearts of most every public figure, particularly journalists and academics. Since the 1960s the label has become a disciplinary device that has been overwhelmingly effective in defining certain events off limits to inquiry or debate. Especially in the United States raising legitimate questions about dubious official narratives destined to inform public opinion (and thereby public policy) is a major thought crime that must be cauterized from the public psyche at all costs.
Was the tragic January 10 shooting at Taft Union High School part of a drill that “went live”? This is the impression one gets when analyzing media reports of the incident, such as those from CNN correspondent Khung Lah.
Or, “Does Anderson Cooper Want James Tracy and/or His Family Members Harmed?”
It would seem so from the broadcast journalist’s January 11 performance on his CNN program. Once corporate news media have told us what “reality” is, no further questioning is allowed, especially from credentialed individuals such as “tenured professors.” One has to ask, “Is this journalism? Or the frustrated defense of a news presenter and an increasingly uncertain storyline?”
The producers of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° have invited me to appear on tonight’s broadcast to discuss this week’s controversy surrounding my articles on the Sandy Hook tragedy. Unfortunately, I am at present unable to accommodate this request. CNN has asked for a written statement from me to present in my absence. This statement, issued to a CNN representative late this afternoon, appears in its entirety below.
Link to January 11, 2013 Anderson Cooper 360° episode.