MicroWaveSep 27, 2023

‘Thwarted diabolical plot': Man arrested minutes before mass shooting at Northern Virginia church, police say

https://lemmy.world/post/5825367

‘Thwarted diabolical plot': Man arrested minutes before mass shooting at Northern Virginia church, police say - Lemmy.world

Investigators said they were able to stop the potential massacre at Park Valley Church in Haymarket thanks to someone who saw troubling posts on Instagram and called police Authorities arrested a man who they say was minutes away from carrying out a mass shooting at a church in Northern Virginia on Sunday morning. Rui Jiang, 35, was taken into custody with a loaded gun and extra ammo at Park Valley Church in Haymarket. Authorities said he was on a mission to kill. “This was a thwarted diabolical plot to kill churchgoers in Haymarket, Virginia … and local law enforcement stopped it,” Chief Kevin Davis of the Fairfax County Police Department said. “Minutes. Minutes. The congregation was making their way into the church. He was in the vestibule of the church about to enter,” Davis said. “So, minutes or seconds away.”

Show threadBleeping Lobster

“Quite frankly, we’ve just been thanking God. You know, God’s been so good to us, and he protected us,

Never fails to amaze me how someone can completely disregard the hard work and sacrifice of other human beings and instead praise an imaginary skyguy.

Sep 27, 2023 at 1:36pmWeb
Show threadFredselfishSep 27, 2023
Same imaginary skygod who put them in harms way to begin with. Never did understand.
Show threadtburkholSep 27, 2023

No, no: that’s the other skyguy. We’re like the kids in a bitter divorce, constantly bounced between a good parent and a bad parent, with no actual agency. Except to thank good skyguy, otherwise they might not protect us from bad skyguy next time.

Skyguy whims sometimes feel arbitrary and capricious, but there’s divine or diabolical intent, which means it’s way better than being lost to the randomness of chaotic but determinate natural forces. How terrifying would the world be if stuff just happened for no reason?

Show threadCylusthevirusSep 27, 2023
Watch out buddy, you're getting frighteningly close to actual empathy. Get any closer and you'll no longer be able to say you "can't understand religious people" for imaginary internet points and the approval of your peers.
Show threadPiecemakersSep 27, 2023
Um…
Show threadjayboneSep 29, 2023
I think you mean undergroundguy
Show threadgregorumSep 27, 2023
Snips knew better than to praise Skyguy… eventually
Show thread【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】Sep 27, 2023

Seriously. Not alert citizens. Not technology. Not good policework. Dog.

Unreal these morons.

Show threadCoolMattSep 27, 2023
Dog.
Show threadmars296Sep 27, 2023
Woof.
Show threadBananigansSep 27, 2023
But have you noticed what dog spelled backwards is?🤔
Show threadiamtrashman1312Sep 27, 2023
Not the person you’re responding to, but I’d thank any given dog before I thanked any given god, so why not
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023
Dogs like being praised and talking to imaginary friends is a sign of mental illness so I agree.
Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023
Imaginary friends? The understanding of religions here is stunningly low
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023
I grew up in a religious household and the more it was explained to me the less sense it made.
Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023
It doesn’t matter. These are just people living their lives. Trying to force a debate in this circumstance is really pointless. Again, what do you want them to say? Something like ‘thank science’? A lot of people grow in a religious setting. You’re not special for that. Beside, you can justify bad behaviours even without a religion, in this case the pointless hate for a couple of churchgoers is quite telling. I am quite sure they aren’t thinking about some Internet guy now, they’ll be probably grateful for what happened in that day. I’m done…
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023

I’m glad you’re done and got that out of your system.

Have a nice day.

Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023
This isn’t debate class…and in real life you wouldn’t be a pleasant person to meet with that arrogance of yours. Again, this kind of thing can only exist online.
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023

Really?

I was sure that I was in a debate class right now.

Didn’t you say you were done or are you just trying to pick a fight?

Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023
i’m tired of this stuff, you know, i left reddit partly because i have seen these comments for hundres of thousands times. Really. Your comments are the same i have seen before. Repetitive. The point is, your attitude wouldn’t work outside of this place. Enough with this altogether. Also the amount of politics i see here is not less than reddit, it’s stupid. I remember now why i never appreciated internet culture either. No picking fights, i need to get this out. I guess we change over time, i’m not one to enjoy these things after a while. And maybe this is exactly the feedback i needed.
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023

So why are you choosing me to unload your issues?

You’re replying to a pretty anti-religion thread yet I’m the only one you’re unloading on?

Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023

i am not choosing you, you chose to reply. But that is a valuable thing, unexpected feedback.

Anyway you can be anti-whatever you want but i stay neutra, which means that this place is a stupid way to spend my time.

Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023

You chose to jump into my conversation and are choosing to continue to engage after saying you’re done.

Now you’re acting like you’re some martyr because of it and I’m responding because it’s hilarious.

Show threadCaptainAnikiSep 29, 2023
Quite literally one of the dumbest exchanges I’ve read on this site and the user with SatansMaggotyCumFart is the one with sense and civility.
Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 29, 2023
Yeah, ‘civility’. Leaving this goodbye. This isn’t civility, this is just some stupid corner of the Internet. Meaningless.
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 29, 2023
What did you say to that other user to make them delete all their comments?
Show threadCaptainAnikiSep 29, 2023
No idea. I just blocked them. 🤷‍♂️
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 29, 2023
Oh, they deleted everything from their comment history which was kind of amusing.
Show threadCaptainAnikiSep 29, 2023
Just because you have a book written 2000 years ago by a bunch of xenophobic goat herders doesn’t make your imaginary friends any more legitimate than 4 year old Sally who’s parent’s won’t get her a cat.
Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 29, 2023
See, this generalisation is extremely poor. That is a life system, not a set of imaginary friends. Not that I am religious at all, but you’re wrong on almost anything you think. And yet you like to look at yourself as smarter that those people, which you are not, and neither am I. Again, your logic is exclusionary and doesn’t really work irl. You better talk to different people and interact with different cultures cause you’re isolating yourself.
Show threadryathalSep 27, 2023
The fact police received a report and acted in a timely manner to that report is actually pretty remarkable. Whether it’s divine intervention or statistical inevitability doesn’t really matter.
Show thread【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】Sep 27, 2023
It’s miraculous bit I wouldn’t call it a miracle.
Show threadDaisyifyoudoSep 27, 2023
Of course it matters! You don’t think it matters whether someone believes that this stemmed from real works actions or from magic???
Show threadNougatSep 27, 2023
Cops should have just said, "Oh, it's at a church? God's got it handled," and went back to speed traps.
Show threadComradeChairmanKGBSep 27, 2023
They let students handle it at schools
Show threadSatansMaggotyCumFartSep 28, 2023

Protect and serve*.

*Some terms and conditions apply.

Show threadgreavousSep 29, 2023
Operation student shield
Show threadTedescheSep 27, 2023
It’s a mistake to dismiss religious people as stupid, but they really make it hard sometimes.
Show threadPiecemakersSep 27, 2023
That’s an odd way to spell “natural reflex”, but it’s close.
Show threadCaptainAnikiSep 29, 2023
Why is it a mistake?
Show threadTedescheSep 29, 2023
Because they’re not stupid; or at least, that’s not why they’re religious. Sadly, religious indoctrination can affect even brilliant minds.
Show threadFlying SquidSep 27, 2023
I mean, it is a church. I think it’s stupid, but it’s not like it’s a car dealership. What do you think they’re going to say?
Show threadBleeping LobsterSep 27, 2023
Fair point!
Show threadNull User ObjectSep 27, 2023

Repoter: So, the police arrested a gunman moments away from shooting up your dealership. What are your thoughts?

Dealer: It was wild. Absolutely crazy… Almost as crazy as ThEse CraZy deAls We’vE GoT RigHt nOW. JUst cHeCk Out ThE PriCe oN ThiS '88 MaliBu. It’S CrAaaaZy!

Show threadAdamantRatPuncherSep 28, 2023
You need to talk to more people. All of you.
Show threadCylusthevirusSep 27, 2023
A bunch of people were almost murdered and THIS is what drives you to engage. Yikes.
Show threadbe_excellent_to_each_otherSep 27, 2023
Police don't have a particularly good track record at prevention, they are rather famous for showing up after the crime has happened. I think giving crediting a higher power for the miracle that they proactively stopped a shooter before the shooting started kinda fits.
Show threadCold_Brew_EnemaSep 27, 2023

Yep I can’t stand this. What about the little girl who dies of cancer? God didn’t feel like protecting her?

Fuck off

Show threadSanelessSep 27, 2023
Well, if he’s consistent with his behavior in the Bible, it’s not that he failed to protect her. He killed her himself
Show threadDelusionalSep 27, 2023
And if all those people were shot up, you can be damn sure they wouldn’t be saying it’s thanks to God. Mass of idiots.
Show threadNepentheSep 27, 2023

Since I feel the sudden urge to vent, I've never forgotten staying at this one homeless shelter several years ago.

We found out much later after the place was shut down that they'd actually been receiving more than adequate donations the entire time, but the staff was just taking it all home with them and telling us that there was no food to give. They could do one or sometimes two meals, but never much, never more, and not dependably from day to. They had none.

So obviously we believed them and since this was just...the position we were in, I was taking the money I was technically obligated to save for a house and using it to buy food for myself and anywhere from 1 to 4 of the other residents.

One of them was Gabriel, who came in with the clothes on his back and a guitar. Gabriel was religious, but one of the few who put the kindness part first and he was very sweet and tended to be walked on for it and to become depressed.

When he took his guitar around looking for gigs, I went with him for moral support. When one of those was a church, I sat in with the flock even though they make my skin crawl. When winter drew close, I bought him a pretty snazzy jacket and fed him almost daily for months. When he found out the fiance he doted on was banging his best friend while he himself was homeless, guess who was there to cry on immediately.

I don't regret any of those, to be very clear. I'd grudgingly do it again, because people matter more. But to think to check up on him some years after we parted and find him thanking god for looking after him during that time was a direct slap in the face. Over a decade later, it still stings.

Of course it would be god. Looking after each other is god personally stepping in to work through people in his mysterious ways. Out of all the acts I do, I'm only responsible for the bad ones.

Show threadfiat_luxSep 27, 2023
As a total stranger, thankyou for looking after Gabriel, even after being so mistreated yourself. You clearly have a lot of compassion and kindness to offer the world, even if it's not always respected by its recipients (although it sounds like Gabriel may not have had the skills or ability to fully comprehend it). I hope you're in a much better place and able to extend your kindness even further and without neglecting your own needs in the process.
Show threadBleeping LobsterSep 28, 2023
Wow. I can see how that would’ve stung. It just feels so irrational! And, there’s no need for them to drop their god schtick when acknowledging someone’s effort. He could’ve just as easily have said “I thank god for putting people who cared around me”
Show threadAstridWipenaughSep 27, 2023
Man, I know a woman who got COVID bad and got a double lung transplant. Not a word about any of her doctors or other care staff that kept her alive while on a ventilator for 6 month. Not even a mention once. But it was constant “look at the power of prayer” and “thank the good lord for my recovery” and shit like that.
Show threadCaptFeatherSep 28, 2023
Which is hilarious considering how many “good Christians” died for refusing the vaccine. Confirmation bias in action!
Show threadafraid_of_zombiesSep 29, 2023
Even when I was a theist I still made a point of thanking doctors and nurses. Everyone can get credit.
Show threadFurbagSep 28, 2023

God, when he fails to prevent all the other mass shootings that happened in places of worship:

“Lol that was part of my plan, too.”

Show threadRizzRustboltSep 28, 2023
“That’s not a plan! You’re just a jerk!” -Jerry
Show threadTechyDadSep 28, 2023
I inka dinka binka bonka understood this reference.
Show thread🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆Sep 29, 2023
“Why does God’s plan involve so many priests molesting alter boys?”
Show threadvivadanangSep 29, 2023
And needing 10% of my money?