June 10, 2014
Notes

Las Vegas Cop Killers Jerad and Amanda Miller (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Amanda Miller facebook

Jerad Miller facebook

In the age of Facebook, we have yet another high profile rampage that comes with it’s own social media archive. There are a slew of photos of the couple from both of their sites that have populated innumerable news photo galleries over the past few days. I haven’t seen anyone put these two shots together, however. They both were posted to Amanda’s page and document respective 2013 Christmas presents.

Of course, the photos profile bitter, alienated Americans — in Jerad’s case, a sociopath, also — who have become obsessed with government, power, nihilism confused with liberty, retribution and, that common denominator, firearms. What’s notable about the Las Vegas tragedy, involving the coldblooded murder of two policeman, however, is how it was perpetrated by a couple.

I don’t propose to speculate too far, but as much as Jared was more prolific with the costumes and the videos and the posting, and was the one with the not-insignificant rap sheet, it feels like Amanda might have been the more hard-baked. One way we can surmise this is by the fact that she shot the civilian in the Walmart after they both gunned down the second police officer, then she was the one who killed Jared, then herself. Whereas Jared shows off the joke gift (the function of the present amplifying the state of his mental health and self-esteem), Amanda’s smug glance feels more meditated and deadly. The books together form a prescient narrative, too. In the first one, you have the method. In the second, you have the motive.

Perhaps the couple is an anomaly. Perhaps not, however. Maybe what we’re seeing is the emergence of the female far-right revolutionary and domestic terrorist. And partly, too, the success of the NRA’s own campaign for equal rights.

(photos: Amanda Miller/Facebook)

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Michael Shaw
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