Would-be assassin-turned-folk singer John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to kill then-President Ronald Regan in 1981, was scheduled to perform at the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut on March 30…
Dude was crazy. Did something horrible (regardless of the horrible person he directly targeted, and he did harm two other people). Was in supervision and treatment for decades.
Why the fuck should anyone care if he's trying to do something with what's left of his life? If he had gone to jail, I'd say he served his time, and that's the end of it.
He Was in supervised release at first, and hasn't caused any trouble since.
Fuck it, let the man have a life. If we can't give someone the chance to have changed after over thirty years, we're all fucked. I'm not the same man I was at 25. I'm not the same man I was at 40. Mind you, I didn't try to kill a president, but I was deep enough in the PTSD cycle that I'm kind of amazed I didn't try something that insane. Gods know that I did my own dance with self destructive shit, and that included chasing more trauma sometimes.
John did his time and just wants to make art and music. He lives close by to me and keeps getting booked and then cancelled at local venues. It’s lame.
Yeah if think about it he almost saved America, but like another person who I won't name the fucker Regan lived. Wonder what world be like if he had been successful?
Good. We imagine how our society would have less issues if we focused more on real rehabilitation and reintegration, and less on retribution and *heaping on more trauma.
For murderers, pedophiles, rapists, drunk drivers, snd repeat assaulters I think it should be more about "we're not reintegrating you back into society....at all. We're just going to put you into a room and make it so you're not a threat to society anymore"
And considering his was against the president, I'm surprised secret service didn't shoot him dead on the spot.
We would wear t-shirts with stylised image of his face, an image that would become part of pop culture and newer gens wouldn't even understand the full significance.
He genuinely is being blackballed on a systemic level from performing.
Blackballed isn’t even the right terminology because it refers to the entertainment industry colluding to keep someone out of work, what happens to people that book hinkley is more like the kind of abuse cops use on people that testify against them.
He’s spent decades getting well and there’s literally a conspiracy against him now.