All of these excerpts are from the same NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/us/ch ... lings.html
Here's the link to his Facebook page:Mr. Hicks’s Facebook page suggests that he has a strong interest in atheism and is contemptuous of religion; the page is filled with posts and cartoons mocking the intelligence of people who believe in the Bible. His anger appeared to be aimed primarily at Christians — in fact, in 2010 he decried as hypocritical opposition by Christians to a much-debated proposal for a mosque to be built near ground zero in Manhattan.
https://www.facebook.com/craig.hicks.967
To describe Mr. Hicks as merely an "atheist" does not do him justice. Mr. Hicks, (who describes himself as "an anti-theist") is a vociferous and fanatical anti-religious bigot. Most of his bile is directed at Christians, though he doesn't seem to think much of Muslims either....
(The most ironic bit of course, is a triple murderer calling other people "dangerous"....)
This gave me a chuckle:(Again from The Times Article):
So, in the view of the current Mrs. Hicks, since here husband supports the check list of Liberal Approved positions, he can't possibly be a bigot. (Even though his bigotry trumpets itself pridefully the moment you land on his Facebook page)Ms. Hicks insisted that her husband’s political views showed that he was not bigoted: She has emphasized that he supports same-sex marriage, abortion rights and racial equality.
“He often champions, on his Facebook page, for the rights of many individuals,” said Ms. Hicks, who said she had been married to Mr. Hicks for seven years. “That’s just one of the things I know about him, is everyone is equal.”[well except for religious believers I guess]
What amused me is the fact that she is such a shining example of the complete blindness that many Liberals (notice I said many not all) have towards bigotry amongst other Liberals, particularly if it involves bigotry towards people of Faith. (That's not bigotry you see, that's just "truth telling"...)
The former Mrs. Hicks has a somewhat less charitable view of him:
Mr. Hicks' clear cut and indisputable hatred and contempt for religious believers still does not mean that he targeted these three for killing because of their faith (if he did, it was probably for the fact that they were religious believers at all, not Muslims in particular...woe to the Jehovah's Witness who ever showed up at his door)Cynthia Hurley, who said she was married to Mr. Hicks years ago, said she had been unsettled by his enthusiasm for a 1993 film, “Falling Down,” which depicts a man violently lashing out at society. “That always freaked me out,” Ms. Hurley told The A.P. “He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all.”
If you follow the link to the NY Times article, you'll see there were numerous instances of intimidation and harassment that this guy engaged in...He couldn't possibly have known whether every person he confronted with his side arm or his shot gun, or whose car he had towed, was or was not a religious believer...
But of course he didn't shoot any of them either...
But I have to say that looking a little further into this guy's beliefs and behavior, I don't think you can completely rule out the possibility that these three were shot because of his hatred of religious believers in general, and that they specifically were targeted because their manner of dress made them easy to identify as such.
