Anybody remember Audrey Hale? That’s okay if you don’t, few do. The story of Audrey Hale is not only one of a killer, but one whose background is inconvenient for people who have the ability to make people disappear from public view.
It’s been 1 ½ years since Hale, a transgender-identifying woman, entered the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023 and proceeded to slaughter six people, including three children, and only now are we finding out about any possible motive. Hale had attended Covenant, a private Christian school, some years earlier.
I am not a big believer in “hate crimes” as a legal term, but the basic facts of the incident, transgender-identifying woman hunting down and killing Christian children, had on the surface all the hallmarks of hate.
However, within a day after the slaughter, Audrey Hale started to disappear from public consciousness. This disappearance was a deliberate act in two parts.
The first part dealt with suppressing Hale’s writings, Hale left a manifesto of sorts in her car, clearly with the intention of its being discovered. She communicated with a friend via Instagram before the killings that “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind.” However, federal and local law enforcement seized the material and refused to release its contents, initially citing that there was still an on-going investigation, the fear it would incite other violence, and later the reason given was due to a copyright claim by the parents (the government transferred the copyright to the materials to Hale’s family). No motive for her crimes was provided by law enforcement.
The contrast with a similar case is remarkable. In 2022 Payton Gendron, a white man, drove several hours to a supermarket in Buffalo and killed ten people, all black. Gendron left writings declaring his intent. By the evening of the shooting, local law enforcement had not only reviewed said material but announced to the public that it was “…racially motivated hate crime”. Needless to say, the story filled the media for weeks and Democrats made political bank on it.
Hale’s writings were finally released to the public September 2, 2024, not by the government, but rather by the Tennessee Star which had obtained her writings and other investigation documents from an unknown source. The editor-in-chief of the Star is still under the threat by I’Ashea Myles, the judge assigned to the case, of investigation by a special prosecutor.
Only the New York Post, a few local Tennessee outlets, and some conservative sites bothered to report on the release of Hale’s writings or their content. As Hillary Clinton might have said, it had become old news. Public attention is a fickle thing.
The second part dealt with what David Plouffe, part of the Obama brain trust, once called “stray voltage.” This is a deliberate method which creates controversy to spark attention, which in turn provokes conversation, and that conversation then embeds ideas into the public consciousness.
Three days after the shootings, a mob of several hundred demonstrators entered the Tennessee Capitol. Many of the demonstrators occupied the visitor galleries inside the House chamber, and working in concert with three Democratic legislators who had taken over the chamber’s well, yelled gun-control slogans and ground official business to a halt. That action, along with a larger gun-control demonstration outside and protesters wandering the Capitol, was all over the media.
Controversy, conversation, ideas. What was once a story about a transgender-identifying woman killing Christian children had, within 72 hours, become embedded in the public’s mind as a gun-control issue. Including the protesters outside, an estimated 1,000 people showed up at the Capitol on short notice. Nicely organized, from the protest itself to the narrative switcheroo.
Then there was more controversy. The Tennessee House voted to expel two of the three Democrats who had decided to take over the chamber’s floor. The two who were expelled were black, the one who escaped expulsion was white. All heck broke loose as the racial angle was exploited and inflamed by the Democrats with a visit from Kamala Harris and an invitation for the expelled legislators to come to the White House.
With that, the disappearance of Audrey Hale was complete, buried with a combination of information suppression and stray voltage.
So now after more than a year we can finally start to fill in aspects of Hale’s profile. The part of Hale’s writings that were published last week by the Tennessee Star does not paint a pretty picture. She had been planning the Covenant massacre for some time, was struggling with mental health issues and her gender identity, and was twice evaluated for commitment. You could see how a mentally-unstable, transgender-identifying woman killing children could create image problems.
So what are the larger implications of this story?
This is Information Warfare 101, where the Left understands that while they couldn’t erase the Covenant massacre from history, they could change the way in which it was told. Feed the news cycle with alternative narratives, delay or outright suppress inconvenient information, and wait until enough time passes. Switch topics, suppress, delay.
The story they were going to tell was going to be about racism, gun control… anything but the portrait of a crazed, transgender-identifying killer.
James Hodgkinson
The guy who has less notoriety than that dentist who shot a lion.
In normal times, a single attempt on the lives of a bunch of members of Congress would be the story of the century.
Hale’s writings were finally released to the public September 2, 2024, not by the government, but rather by the Tennessee Star…
Where was the Gee Ohh Peee? Rumor has it they run the government of Tennessee. Perhaps they could have motivated the release of this manifesto by I dunno… using their control of the state government to make it happen. Maybe they could have threatened the budgets of local agencies if they didn’t release it or even write a special law requiring the release. But as usual they were busy doing anything except their actual job.
What was once a story about a transgender-identifying woman killing Christian children had, within 72 hours, become embedded in the public’s mind as a gun-control issue.
Really? I suspect that far more of the public had managed to figure out what was going on than you assume, in the same way I did- by reading non-leftist news sources.
The two who were expelled were black, the one who escaped expulsion was white.
Why wasn’t the white one expelled also? I don’t blame people for being peeved about that. And either the Tennessee gop is too stupid for words or they deliberately did this exactly to generate a racial angle. I think I despise the GOP enough, but these morons continually strive to convince me that I don’t.
You could see how a mentally-unstable, transgender-identifying woman killing children could create image problems.
All the more reason for the Republican party to do something about that, in places where it can, like the states that have governments it controls.
This is Information Warfare 101, where the Left understands that while they couldn’t erase the Covenant massacre from history, they could change the way in which it was told.
Told to who? CNN routinely has ratings that lose to reruns of Alf. Leftist newspapers go out of business every week. And we’ve just watched the entirety of the regime media try and fail to squelch the stories about the cat-eating Haitians airdropped into Ohio.
The leftist control of the legacy media is an excuse for the GOP to do nothing, like how a child would use a story about a boogeyman in the closet to avoid going to bed.
The GOP needs to stop sniveling. But it won’t, which is why it’s being replaced.
In normal times, a single attempt on the lives of a bunch of members of Congress would be the story of the century.
True enough, but we don’t live in normal times.
I note Steve Scalise was almost killed. I occasionally get fundraising emails under his name, because of course I do. That’s what the GOP does- it spams people for money.
Has Scalise used his near death to fight against the leftist attempts to disarm the public? Has he told the demonrats he sees every day in Congress that their ravings almost got him killed? Has he made them pay any price at all for that?
Or does he smile along when they tell the public that Republicans are evil racist bigots who should be wiped out?
I don’t know, but I will assert this- whatever Scalise and the rest have done, it hasn’t been enough. The endless shrieking from the left has plainly inspired crazy people like Hodgkinson and Audrey Hale to be violent. The left needs to be made to own this. The GOP should be able to make that happen, considering that they have an actual congressman almost murdered because of it, and who is available to able to speak about it.
But of course the GOP is totally worthless and nothing will be done.
As fast the expulsion of the 3 Tennessee representatives I agree it was bad optics to expel the 2 who were black and not the on who was white. I don’t know the rules for the state House, perhaps they had to bring the expulsions as separate measures. It should have been all or nothing or at the very least if close then withdrawn
The reason the rep who was the decisive vote gave for not exploit the white rep was that unlike the other two,she didn’t use a bullhorn to incite the crowd to disrupt proceedings. An 8th grader could have looked at the optics and realized that all 3 had to vet the chop or none at all
Yes anyone reading the story about Hale could probably fill in the blanks quickly but so what? The issue was not information but the willingness to act on it. In a little over a week the issue became a racial one as the White House jumped in. Anybody rustle up a 1000 person counter demo demanding Hale’s writings be released? Nope because the left in all its forms decided to make the issue radioactive from, trans to race and double dog dared anyone to come after them and be branded a bigot.
Knowing the Republicans won’t do anything is just a given.. So who out there in civilian land wants to go on a hazardous mission? Be the forlorn hope? End up branded a bigot and end up on a FBI watch list? Not many, that’s why the Left does it, to intimidate
E
An 8th grader could have looked at the optics and realized that all 3 had to vet the chop or none at all.
Is the entirety of the Tennessee GOP smarter than an eighth grader? Nope. I have no particular disagreement with this paragraph but for Fs sake managing the optics is in many ways the most important aspect of a politician’s job. If these GOPes couldn’t understand or didn’t care about the optics of expelling the two black reps and not the white one, then they have no business at all having any sort of power over anything more important than the fry machine at their local McDonald’s. But it isn’t just that the optics are bad.
The reason the rep who was the decisive vote gave for not exploit the white rep was that unlike the other two,she didn’t use a bullhorn to incite the crowd to disrupt proceedings.
Oh okay. Is anyone stupid enough to think this makes sense? I hope not. This is utterly inexcusable. This rep was either friends with the white demonrat, an actual racist who wanted to expel those other two because they were black, a moron, or just wanted to sabotage the GOP. This person needs to be evicted from the legislature with great prejudice, asap.
The issue was not information but the willingness to act on it.
I would agree. Why did the GOP not act on the information? Why? I would presume that there were at least some people on the police force that wanted the insane manifesto released. Why did the gop do nothing to help them or shield them? Or, failing that, force the release. To be blunt, understanding the motivations of a mass murderer is very much in the public interest, to prevent future massacres. But the party of why nothing can be done- Mark Steyn quote there- was on the job, and nothing was done.
Anybody rustle up a 1000 person counter demo demanding Hale’s writings be released?
No, because the gop has spent decades teaching its potential supporters not to bother, because- again- nothing will be done. The left works its supporters into a frenzy, causing mass murders, while the gop strives to keep its supporters quiet, because reasons.
Knowing the Republicans won’t do anything is just a given..
Hence Trump- and hence why the GOP is going the way of Whigs. I don’t think a political party this incompetent can survive under the circumstances we face, nor should it.
Thanks for an excuse to vent.
Alan K Henderson
In normal times, a single attempt on the lives of a bunch of members of Congress would be the story of the century.
This attack has been pretty well memory holed even though it happened in the House chamber itself.
Of course this might have something to do with it.
The shooter in georgia has similar identity issues but the particular details are its ‘fine to kill christian children’
If Trump wins by the landslide some are predicting (not holding my breath because of the expected scale of Democrat cheating), perhaps there might be an opportunity to rebrand the GOP. Call it something else entirely, break from the past.; also an opportunity to shun the do-nothings. But I wouldn’t hold my breath, because (as noted here) “nothing can be done.”
The American political class disgusts me.