Let's Get To the Bottom Of Things

Beyond The Immediate

A new week has begun and the work in Christchurch continues--as it will for weeks to come--for medical specialists and hospitals, for the bereaved families, for the supporting social services, and for the police.

Here are some of the questions which we would like to see answered:

1. Has  Brenton Tarrant acted as a lone wolf or was he part of a wider conspiracy to commit mass murder?

2. The mental state of the shooter?  This is of concern insofar as his Australian family seem shocked, implying that his actions were out of character.  But maybe they have not been a particularly close family in recent years. The family may have been out of touch with the perpetrator and were unaware of the increasingly bloodthirsty and murderous bent of Tarrant.

There will be numerous folk who have interacted with Tarrant in the past two years while he has lived (on and off) in New Zealand.  In the light of his crimes they will doubtless be re-assessing their interactions and conversations with him.  Was he mentally deranged?  Or, did he seem of sound mind?

3. Who and what were the most significant influencers of Tarrant that helped facilitate him coming to his peculiar world-view in which even children became his enemies, deserving death?

4. Apparently Tarrant sees Islamic people as less than human.  To him they are things, not actual human beings.  Why and how did this come about?  If it were not Islamic believers would there have been some other group he would have focused upon as deserving death?  Christians, Mormons, or Jehovah's Witnesses, for example? 

5. In broadcasting his crime upon the Net in real time, who was he trying to impress, and what was he seeking to achieve?  Was he seeking fame and/or infamy?

6. If New Zealand were just a stage upon which he would make a point, what was the message and who were the intended audiences?