Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton gunned down and killed five people at a City Council meeting and critically wounded the Mayor before police shot him to death on Thursday evening. Previously banned from council meetings for being disruptive, Thorton was apparently angry because of having received nearly 150 tickets for illegally parking vehicles used in his asphalt and paving business. He had disrupted council meetings numerous times to complain that he was being harassed by city officials. When he was banned from the council meetings, he sued in federal court alleging his First Amendment rights had been violated. His lawsuit was dismissed. Thornton apparently believed he was being singled out because of his race for these tickets. He sought redress by disrupting council meetings repeatedly. His brother, Gerald Thornton, repeatedly declined to say that his brother had done anything wrong. He said his brother felt his"constitutional protection was not guaranteed. The only way that I can put it in a context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people that were of the government that was putting torment and strife into his life, and he had spoke on it as best he could in the courts, and they denied him all access to the rights of protection, and therefore he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue."
I think I would lock his brother up on GP, because if he can't see the problem here, he sounds like he might be the next one to go shoot five or six people dead. I mean, the police shot his brother dead and he doesn't think he did anything wrong, s0 maybe he figures the cops should get taken out. The brother went to war because he was being tormented and his constiutional rights trampled on because he got some tickets? Brother man, why don't you PARK IN A DIFFERENT SPOT! Truly ridiculous and tragic. Meanwhile, five families have lost loved ones, while the sixth is fighting for his life, because you couldn't get a clue about where to park. I used to think this kind of lone wolf killing was not part of the black lexicon of self destruction. I guess I was wrong.
