Facts about the Charlottesville riot are not palatable to many, especially the association of the main accused 20-year-old Kentucky native James Alex Fields who is charged with one count of second-degree murder and three counts of malicious wounding was an Army veteran. The Department of Defense Manpower Data Center has listed Fields as having served on active duty for four months.
Fields is reported to have targeted counter protesters by driving his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of bystanders on a pedestrian mall that left one dead and 19 injured, five critically.
Records reveal that Fields served in the Army for less than four months, from August 18th to December 11th, 2015. Army spokesman Lt Col Jennifer Johnson has confirmed that James Alex Fields reported for basic military training in August of 2015, but he could not meet the training standards and was discharged in December of 2015. CNN International reported this news.
Other attacks
The background of an attacker or killer has a meaning as many of the men involved in mass killings and attacks were veterans. Wade Michael Page, who killed four Sikhs at a temple in Wisconsin in 2012, served from 1992 to 1998. Aaron Alexis, who killed 13 people at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013, was an aviation electrician’s mate from 2007 to 2011.
And in 2016, Army veteran Micah Johnson shot and killed six police officers in Houston, Texas. More than a third of the 43 worst mass killings in the U.S. since 1984 were carried out by military veterans. Fields who served more than 90 days technically qualifies as a veteran.
Army not responsible
Is the army responsible in any way for the mass killings as well as the acts of Fields at Charlottesville?
The fact is it would be wrong to pin any of these attacks on the army as all these killers were motivated by personal hatred of a community or a service. As an example, Micah Johnson was motivated by perceived discrimination by white police against blacks, and now Field was motivated by radical ideas of race and white superiority.
His teacher Derek Weimer confirmed that to the Herald leader that Fields was “pretty infatuated “with Hitler and Nazis and had a huge knowledge of German military history.
Last word
The line of thought of a few that army service has something to do with the mass killings doesn’t stand the test of reason. Michael Page who killed the Sikhs was a white supremacist while Johnson was a black militant. One can’t pin these killings on the army which are a part of personality disorder.
