Iā€™m timid about this and might be late to a party where others already had this idea, so please, no haters.

I canā€™t get over how facile and stupid the identification of LM was at a McDoballs. This is someone who fell off the entire grid for three months??

Just askingā€¦ but couldnā€™t an organization trying to conceal its reach and inevitability track a fellaā€¦ and thenā€¦ force an identification?

I do not have any idea about detailsā€¦ itā€™s broad strokes. Could it be? How many other privacy lovers heard about these three months completely off the grid somehow and also wonderedā€¦ how?

Please pardon if this isnā€™t the appropriate place but the real theme is privacy. What if the watchers are always watching even when a person might believe they have made themself completely digitally invisible?

  • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
    264Ā·
    2 days ago

    I personally donā€™t think he did it. He could easily be a grifter trying to take credit for a very popular act. Thereā€™s no shortage of those. All youā€™d need to do:

    • Walk into a public place with a bag of somewhat incriminating items, but nothing thatā€™s linked to the actual crime scene.
    • Arouse enough suspicion to get the cops called on you. Being a white guy with black hair and a hoodie is not enough for someone to call the cops on you, I have no idea why people believe that was enough for a McDā€™s employee to call the cops.
    • Claim credit for the shooting to the cops.
    • Bonus points - Have a social media history praising similar actions.

    The altoona cops then forwarded this to the NYPD, who were desperate to pin this on someone, after they messed up and let the shooter slip through their fingers. Out of the all the tips, this was the best one theyā€™d gotten so far, so theyā€™re running with it now.

    This also explains why Luigiā€™s taking credit for some, but not all of the claims the police made (especially about the money he was supposedly carrying).

    • wowwoweowza@lemmy.worldOP
      1Ā·
      13 hours ago

      Soā€¦ someone who happens to look like the the person captured on the videos has the wherewithal to craft the manifesto and fabricate the 3D printed gun parts, and also wants toā€¦ do this so that he can become famous or gum up the machinery of justice? Seriously, Iā€™m not tracking.

      • Scirocco@lemm.ee
        7Ā·
        1 day ago

        My sincerest wish is that he waits until most of the way through a trial before providing an incontrovertible alibi.

        Whether he is playing role as a body double for some someone else, or just a grifter, I hope it happens.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
        93Ā·
        1 day ago
        • He couldnā€™t possibly know theyā€™d go for that.
        • Grifters donā€™t always think things like this through.
        • A surprising # of people would probably willingly take the death penalty to get 15 minutes of fame, especially for an action as popular as this was.
        • wowwoweowza@lemmy.worldOP
          1Ā·
          13 hours ago

          Iā€™m pretty cynical and Iā€™m nowhere near this cynical.

          Is your interest in this ā€œthe guy in custody is an imposterā€ theory is because we want so much for the actual act-doer to still be out there? I confessā€¦ I like that world. But a ā€œheroā€ arising to assume the shooterā€™s identity feels even more fantastical than my original musing that covert agencies are trying to hide their existence by having a wage slave take credit for calling this in.