John Earnest's parents sound very decent. What went wrong?

Mevater

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 1:31 am

Earnest’s parents said Monday that they are shocked and saddened that “he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.”

Earnest’s parents said they raised him and his five siblings in a family, faith and community that rejected hate.

“Our son’s actions were informed by people we do not know, and ideas we do not hold,” the parents said in a statement, which didn’t include their names.

“How our son was attracted to such darkness is a terrifying mystery to us, though we are confident that law enforcement will uncover many details of the path that he took to this evil and despicable act,” the statement said.

Earnest’s parents, who are cooperating with investigators, said their sadness “pales in comparison to the grief and anguish our son has caused for so many innocent people.”

Earll Pott, a family attorney who issued the statement, said the parents will not provide a legal defense for their son, who will likely be represented by a public defender. They asked for privacy.

About 100 congregants were worshipping when the gunman killed Lori Kaye, 60, and wounded the Shul’s rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein; 8-year-old Noya Dahan; and her uncle Almog Peretz.

Earnest made the dean’s list both semesters last year as a nursing student at California State University, San Marcos. In high school, he had stellar grades and swam on the varsity team.

His father, John A. Earnest, is a popular physics teacher at the public high school he attended in San Diego.

Owen Cruise, 20, saw the younger Earnest every day during senior year at Mt. Carmel High School, when they were in calculus and physics together. They were also members of the school’s amateur radio club.

Earnest was a nationally recognized pianist who brought audiences to their feet when he played at talent shows, Cruise said. He did a rendition of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and played Chopin and Beethoven.

“Crowds would be cheering his name,” Cruise said Monday. “Everybody loved him.”

Earnest showed no signs of harboring dark thoughts or racist views, Cruise said, adding that he had friends who were Jewish and black.

“He was very close to his dad,” Cruise said. “He always hung out in his classroom, came to see him at lunch. He always seemed like a nice guy. … He didn’t seem like the type of person who would go off the deep end.”

His father worked at the school for 31 years and volunteered to help students with exams and homework, said Cruise, who praises his former teacher for having a big impact on his life. On the morning of the shooting, the elder Earnest was hosting a study hour for the Advanced Placement exam and brought cookies, Cruise said.

Cruise, now a sophomore at the University of California, San Diego, said Earnest lived at home and saw his parents every day.

“They only raised him to be the best man he could be,” Cruise said.

Oscar Stewart, an Army combat veteran, rushed the shooter just before an off-duty Border Patrol agent opened fire, authorities said.

“This is an evil person whose religion is hate,” Stewart, 51, told KGTV in San Diego.

https://www.theyeshivaworld.co......html

POWAY, California—The parents of John Earnest, who allegedly opened fire on a synagogue Saturday, called their son evil on Monday.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue,” the family said in a statement released through an attorney. “But our sadness pales in comparison to the grief and anguish our son has caused for so many innocent people. He has killed and injured the faithful who were gathered in a sacred place on a sacred day. To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/.....-evil

amother

Mint

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 3:36 am

I don't understand your question.
You really think that parents are always responsible for their children's crimes?

Dont you know any loving, healthy parents that ended up with problem children?

Could be genetics, or bad outside influences, or mental disease, or bad luck.

amother

Rose

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 4:38 am

In general the chances of a child growing up in a normal stable environment and going on a shooting spree are a tiny bit smaller than a child that grew up dysfunctional.
This doesn't mean it wouldn't happen, but statistically 7 out of 10 child offenders come from broken homes.

We're not talking about otd here. This is a much more extreme action for a child to take.

WhatFor

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 5:43 am

Quote:

Earnest showed no signs of harboring dark thoughts or racist views, Cruise said, adding that he had friends who were Jewish and black.

Can we officially put to rest the tired "but I have (minority) friends" as some sort of indicator that a person isn't racist?

amother

Sapphire

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 5:49 am

Been wondering this since Columbine

FranticFrummie

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 5:59 am

The parents do sound like very decent people.

Every kid can find their own influences these days. Friends from school or work, internet, it's all out there.

Let the investigation decide, and give the parents a little space to grieve, too. We're all hurting right now, and this is not the time to go making assumptions.

Raisin

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 5:59 am

You should read the book We need to talk about Kevin. I feel bad for his parents and no reason to assume they are horrible people.

Also, think about the horrible abusive men who are charming to everyone else and hit and abuse their wives and children. Just because the shooter seemed like a nice guy to the general public, doesn't mean he was.

(iirc there is actually a strong correlation between someone being a mass shooter and being abusive to thier wives/girlfriends)

MitzadSheini

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 6:04 am

Children, like everyone else, have free will.

grace413

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 7:11 am

Raisin wrote:

You should read the book We need to talk about Kevin. I feel bad for his parents and no reason to assume they are horrible people.

Just a warning that this book gave me serious nightmares and left me feeling awful after I read it.

amother

Lime

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 7:42 am

Esav’s parents also seemed decent. Sometimes this happens even to the best parents.

amother

Lavender

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 7:59 am

Those who use the "Fishoff" approach in understanding very troubled and seriously acting out kids, who rebel against their parents teachings, feel they were traumatized, broken, destroyed, by someone or something while growing up, either parents or someone else.

They never explain kids who reject their parents teachings, as mental illness.

What broke this guy, who seemed to have everything going for him?

southernbubby

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 8:42 am

He found bad friends on Facebook and then went into an extremist hate group called 8chan. Parents don't always know how technology affects their children.

There is no internet connection in my neighborhood and I am beginning to understand why.

yo'ma

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 8:57 am

yo'ma wrote:

This thread is probably private, not open to the public, but can we be like other sites, specifically daily wire, and not post the name of the shooter?

From the other thread. Guess not Sad

. And this one is open to the public.

Last edited by yo'ma on Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:10 am; edited 1 time in total

Laiya

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 8:58 am

amother [ Lavender ] wrote:

I'm not familiar with Fishoff, but this is not about rejecting teachings, it's murder.

An interesting question is, Does someone need to be psychopathic, or at least, fundamentally lacking in core empathy, to commit any intentional violent crime? And if so, were the parents aware of this?

amother

Lavender

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:15 am

Laiya wrote:

How does parents' awareness change anything? Theyd have forced him to get often failing therapy and "change"?

southernbubby

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:32 am

amother [ Lavender ] wrote:

How does parents' awareness change anything? Theyd have forced him to get often failing therapy and "change"?

He obviously had access to a weapon of mass destruction. Was it in their home? Were they aware of it? How did he learn how to use it? He apparently lived in their home but they had no idea that he was so evil. They could have had the police remove any firearms that they didn't want in their home.

WhatFor

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:38 am

Does everyone here really believe that all Nazis weren't "decent" in the superficial sense described here? You think they weren't raised to get high grades, swim on the varsity team, play piano really well? Germans were very sophisticated and they still bought into an ideology of hate and white supremacism to commit a genocide.

The people in the news article seem to have this cartoonish notion of evil, like the perpetrator is going to have a disfigured face or always be a hated outcast. That's not how it works in real life. Successful people committed to a bad ideology do awful things. That's the danger of hateful ideologies.

Amarante

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:54 am

I don't think there is really much difference between any of the "mass" shooters = whether their targets are fellow high school students; co-workers; wives, children; other family members or random strangers being sniped at or theoretically those "targeted" because of race, religion, ethnicity or s*exual preference.

These killers are ALL CRAZY - just their targets and fixations and perceived "enemies/targets" are different.

Almost all of them come from families who fall within the range of "normal" who weren't abused or neglected. Many of the parents are just as baffled and the children weren't raised in overtly hateful families.

FWIW, this shooter seems to be an equal opportunity white nationalist as he claimed he took some action against a mosque and also claims he was inspired by the attacks on the Pittsburg synagogue and Queensland mosque.

Mevater

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:55 am

southernbubby wrote:

Was he definitely living at home? And even if he was, he was into this White Supremacist group, so Im sure he had like-minded buddies who could have helped him hide any signs of his plan.

Id like to know what the parents knew and didnt know about his connection to the White Supremacist group.

Im sure that at this very moment there are many "normal parents" living with the pain of children actively involved in hateful ideologies. The question is what are parents expected to report to authorities? And what can authorities do?

Ideally all hate groups should be scrutinized by the government, with arrests made as soon as plans are in the making. But Im not sure US laws support that.

southernbubby

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 10:09 am

Mevater wrote:

I read that he was living at home and his home was searched by police after the attack. it is possible that he was able to hide the rifle from his family but if they knew about it and didn't question it, then we can't totally say that they are blameless after all of the mass shootings done by supposedly nice people.