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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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Seems that Crooks may have been prematurely fingered.

There’s some DR Twitter speculation that the real culprit is Pittsburgh-based antifa street brawler Maxwell Yearick, who certainly does uncannily resemble the supposed photos of the shooter, but I’m gonna wait and see how things shake out before endorsing any of this speculation.

  1. That's a troll , @jewgazing on twitter There's also a photo going around of a guy in a gun youtuber t-shirt, supposedly of the shooter.

  2. people misidentify Crooks as the Yearick antifa guy. But the antifa guy is way too old.

  3. in a "simulation is totally fucking with us" cleanest shots of Crooks are from a Blackrock advert shot at his school.

Crooks has an ear that perfectly matches the shape of the dead guy's ear, and is young enough to match the corpse photo.

Couple odd details: crooks wears glasses, but shooter has no glasses.

  1. it looks like the secret service were observing and aiming at the guy before he took the shots. At least it seems so from the video.

They were on the roof of a maybe 1.5 story tall shed, the shooter was on what looks like a garage or story unit.

  1. extended video of the shooting by NTD. So the timeline is, first three aimed shots, Trump ducks, then 5-6 rapid shots (didn't count), one of which hits hydraulics on a backhoe? behind Trump which starts spraying oil. Muted shot at the end, probably from a sniper rifle that headshot the assassin.

Cca 5 seconds from the first shot by the assassin, to the final muted shot. Hard to say whether 4) is true because I feel had they had him in his sights, he'd have been killed 1-2 seconds after firing or presumably, before even firing.

it looks like the secret service were observing and aiming at the guy before he took the shots. At least it seems so from the video.

I wonder if they were just unsure. I don’t envy them, it would be a big scandal if they executed some random guy watching from a nearby roof.

Or a police officer

There's no way all the sniper teams wouldn't be on the same radio channel imo.

Also, the guy wasn't even dressed like a cop and tbh, anyone aiming a gun at a guy protected by counter-snipers is fair game and asking for a bullet. You just don't do this.

Coupled with the rooftop being unsecured and the counter-snipers apparently watching the sniper beforehand, it does smell like a setup. We'll hear about it, if the SS detail truly got 'do not shoot' orders from their bosses, that's gonna leak.

look at the picture. There wasn't even any other place than the assassin's rooftop where they could be looking. Since WW2, snipers hiding in trees are a lost art. Wehrmacht in France was pretty fond of that but I haven't heard of that since.

That's not what I'm saying. The secret service was there in limited capacity and relied on local law enforcement for much of the security (but not sniper teams), miscommunication regularly happens, especially when different departments are trying to cooperate.

We're talking about a split second decision here not watching the guy for a couple of minutes and deciding not to shoot until he shoots.

They can't possibly be as amateurish as not be clear on just precisely how many riflemen are doing security. Having to waste time in a crisis figuring out who's who -that'd be totally nonsensical in a crisis.

From what I've seen in a twitter thread by a guy who says he was SS, the counter-snipers are always just the secret service, local LE does perimeter security and is responsible for, among other things, people staying off rooftops with a view of the stage etc.

Reread what I wrote.

If you look at the other videos, up to a minute before they're looking in the direction of the shooter..

Of course, seeing as FBI is investigating it, the odds of ever hearing what really happened are low.

crooks wears glasses, but shooter has no glasses

Did the gun have a scope? If his prescription is mild he wouldn't need the glasses with a scope.

Or he could have been wearing contacts.

Haven't seen a good picture of the gun yet.

About the only thing that's clear that it was a semi-auto with a low recoil, so probably a .223, and he wasn't completely bad at shooting.

That video isn't of Matthew crooks though, but a troll?

Entirely plausible! All I’m saying is that until I see some real reporting corroborated by multiple sources, I’m going to avoid accepting any claims at face value.

EDIT: I’m now seeing multiple outlets reporting that the FBI themselves have named Crooks, so I now assume that identification is correct.