“Shock value”
by digby
They’re all “just kidding.” Until they kill someone:
Parker Mustian, a 16-year-old former student at Cardinal Newman high school in Columbia, South Carolina was arrested by local law enforcement officers last month after he appeared in a pair of racist “public service announcements” that were circulated among students at his school.
Mustian is further alleged to have threatened to “shoot up” the Catholic school following his forced withdrawal from the institution last month.
“Howdy, I’m Parker Mustian and I hate black people,” the teen begins in the first clip. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people.”
Mustian proceeds to fire a weapon at what he claims are “a box of Jordans – the favorite pair of shoes for a black man.”
“I’m going to show you what I think of a black man,” Mustian says, unloading his weapon at the box of shoes.
“F*ck all n*ggers,” he says after firing.
A second video is even more graphic, with Mustian firing two weapons into the same shoe box.
“It seems that our n*gger hasn’t quite learned his lesson yet,” Mustian said. “It seems like he needs twenty-five rounds to the dome.”
Other videos and text messages allegedly sent by Mustian have yet to be published, but are reportedly in possession of law enforcement.
Mustian is the grandson of Richard Quinn, the prominent South Carolina political strategist whose empire recently collapsed as part of a multi-year corruption probe. That probe is ongoing. In fact, Quinn was arrested earlier this year and charged with eleven counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation.
Mustian is the son of prominent Columbia, S.C. attorney Ben Mustian, Quinn’s son-in-law.
The graphic videos were posted on social media over the weekend by Annabelle Robertson, a former Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s second congressional district. Robertson’s daughter is friends with several students who attend Cardinal Newman, and her “peer group” was reportedly sharing the threatening clips.
“This video landed on my daughter’s phone last night,” Robertson tweeted.
The videos were filmed back in May, according to reporter Sammy Fretwell of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.
Sources close to Mustian’s family tell us the young man is not a hateful person by nature, but was part of a group of boys who made videos purely for “shock value.”
“The idea was to see who could be the most outlandishly, ridiculously offensive,” the source told us. “They weren’t being serious.”
Recall that the Dayton’s shooter’s “Porngrind” band members insist they aren’t being serious when they sing about humiliating, killing and dismembering women. They say it’s all in good fun.
Or how about this guy:
“To be quite honest? I like to be offensive. It’s fun.”
This is a problem in our culture. I like non-conformity as much as the next guy, but this isn’t that. It’s gross intimidation and bullying that very easily crosses over into violence.
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