The suspect, Daniel Frisello. ABC News
Daniel Frisello has been arrested for sending white powder to Donald Trump Jr and several other people. ABC News. Frisello was tracked down by a prank company called shipyourenemiesglitter.com. Frisello had attempted to use the company to send a glitter bomb letter to Donald Trump Jr., but the company refused. Trump Jr.'s wife, Vanessa Trump, was briefly hospitalized as a precaution, but the substance was ultimately determined to be cornstarch. In addition to Trump Jr., four other people were targeted in these attacks including an US Attorney for Los Angeles, a Stanford Law professor, Senator Debbie Stabenow and congressional candidate Antonio Sabato Jr.
My Comment:
I was conflicted about reporting this arrest. On the one hand I am glad he is gone and I hope his quick arrest deters others. But I also worry that reporting about him will cause others to attempt what he did or perhaps even go further and mail something actually dangerous. We seem to have a streak of these kinds of attacks, with the incident at Fort Myer being the most recent and dangerous. The last thing we need is more copycats.
Social media posts reveal that Frisello was a far left loon. The man was obsessed with Donald Trump and his family, but oddly, he seemed to like Ivanka Trump. He also seemed to be defending pedophiles since he targeted a Democratic Senator (Stabenow) for comments she made condemning Larry Nassar and the US attorney that charged Mark Salling, an actor who killed himself after being charged with child pornography charges. That seems to suggest something but I will leave that as an exercise for the readers.
I don't know how much we can say about Frisello's political beliefs though. They seem odd even for a far leftist. He doesn't seem like a typical far left person and seems sympathetic to some people on the right, like Ivanka Trump. Perhaps he is mentally ill or just an eccentric. And generally speaking, a pure partisan would not attack someone like Debbie Stabenow. This was probably ideologically motivated but it might just be his ideology.
He may have been inspired to do this by the 24/7/365 negative coverage of Trump and his family. That constant coverage probably allowed Frisello to focus on him and his family and I doubt he would have done this to Trump Jr if the media was more fair to him. Then again, Frisello seems like he's crazy so who knows what he would have done? Even Obama had a few of these kinds of attacks and the media loved him. Perhaps it isn't negative coverage but any coverage at all that attracts these kinds of people.
It's pretty clear that Frisello was a total loser. He had a job but he lived at home with his parents and was obsessed with children's television and celebrities. He seems like the kind of person that would send threats to people. He may be mentally ill as well, but without further information it's tough to say.
I was also surprised that something like shipyourenemiesglitter.com is allowed to exist. It seems like something that is explicitly for harassing people. In theory it could be used as a harmless prank but it seems much more likely to be used to annoy and harass people. It is good that they helped this investigation and refused to send glitter bombs to the Trump family, but it seems like this is a service that nobody really needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment