I agree with Columbine, it reminds me of it, I was reading about it earlier.
There was an article I was reading about how Columbine basically created a "paradigm" for mass shootings.
How School Shootings Spread
"Then came Columbine. The sociologist Ralph Larkin argues that Harris and Klebold laid down the “cultural script” for the next generation of shooters. They had a Web site. They made home movies starring themselves as hit men. They wrote lengthy manifestos. They recorded their “basement tapes.” Their motivations were spelled out with grandiose specificity: Harris said he wanted to “kick-start a revolution.” Larkin looked at the twelve major school shootings in the United States in the eight years after Columbine, and he found that in eight of those subsequent cases the shooters made explicit reference to Harris and Klebold. Of the eleven school shootings outside the United States between 1999 and 2007, Larkin says six were plainly versions of Columbine; of the eleven cases of thwarted shootings in the same period, Larkin says all were Columbine-inspired."
That almost makes me wonder whether Kam and Bryer were trying to create a new "paradigm," whether consciously or unconsciously, given the hints the RCMP dropped about the contents of the videos -- the militia content, the desire for notoriety, and the exhorting others to commit violence. Because there hasn't been another case quite like this one.
Hopefully they didn't succeed in creating a new paradigm....
I am just surprised there weren't any notes or videos left to explain anything, nor any sign of planning. But there might be and RCMP is just not saying to avoid copycats.
Wouldn't be surprised TBH.
I think it is an older man in front of Bryer at the store when he has his cowboy hat.
I was talking about the other surveillance images (someone else posted it).
I do think it says something that no former classmate, or former friend, or neighbor, or party-goer, or online gamer, or anybody at all came up with any disturbing incident about Kam. Does that mean nothing ever happened? Of course not. But you do have to assume that if he was snorting Ritalin off a replica Nazi knife at a party we would have heard about it.
Just because he wasn't outwardly acting weird, doesn't mean he didn't have dark and violent thoughts and didn't share those things with Bryer. It also doesn't mean he wasn't the more dominant one in their friendship. It just means he kept it more hidden from the outside world. He wouldn't have been "inseparable" best friends for 14 years with someone who openly praised Hitler and posted things like "guns don't kill people, it's mostly the bullets," if he didn't relate to that on some level.
I don't get people saying that. I'm not trying to argue, but something was wrong with Kam, regardless of the fact he acted it publicly or not. You don't just follow a friend in a killing trip like that.
Unless they bought a gun for defence, got drunk and kill L and C, then from there thought lost for lost, let's try to escape. But how likely is it? Very unlikely, IMO.
So Kam and Bryer decided to kill together. I don't think there is one person in my life, not my mother, not my best friend, not the hottest guy on earth, who wouldn't freak me out, make my skin wanna crawl away from me and make me call the police to stop them if they mention killing someone, just for fun. Or he was suicidal and wanted to take Bryer with him so he treated him with a few killing (this is so upsetting to even write) to convince him to leave this earth with him. But to get to that kind of conversation, something must be wrong with you. JMO
Yes definitely.... but I don’t think Kam going on a human shooting spree came out of the blue. The desire and/or capability had to have been lurking inside him for quite some time. We have no idea if anything went on behind closed doors and he just hid it well otherwise. MOO
Exactly.
That surveillance photo really helped solidify that Kam was the financier for the majority of this trip. I think he paid for just about everything. Bryer almost looks like he's standing their with "dad" at checkout while Kam pays. I don't necessarily think they had a "daddy" (for lack of a better word) kind of relationship dynamic. I think love aside, Bryer had an idealistic hold over Kam. Bryer clearly did not have a lot of power in terms of physical possessions and money like Kam but I believe there was some mental power. Perhaps this is what balanced their relationship? The codependency. I don't know why, but I get this impression Kam was easily manipulated and could even be a total pushover. Like you could tell him to do something or ask him to do something and he would do it on command. I think Kam wanted someone to want him or need him rather. I bet it absolutely destroyed him to let people down too. I think there was an incredible amount of loneliness between the two of them. (But then as we've all said, that seems to be the way they wanted it or they simply didn't know any different?) Perhaps Kam just wanted someone to depend on him, like it gave him purpose? He probably enjoyed being the caretaker, yet I sense lots of people took advantage of his kindness or shyness throughout his life. Bryer was the mouthpiece and Kam was physical support, Bryer's rock as I referred to him the other day. But then as you've said, Kam did have a great deal of control in this relationship and I totally agree.
Yes but if Kam actually had been to northern BC and the Yukon several times (and I hope that information is confirmed at some point because it tells us a lot), that indicates it was probably
his plan to begin with. Not that Bryer recruited him into his militia or whatever. The militia was probably something they both came up with. Just because Kam was more quiet about it, doesn't mean it wasn't his idea too.
If it had been a different type of plan, like for example, shooting up some public venue in Port Alberni, then I would say maybe Bryer could have been the leader. But the fact that this was a plan that was
entirely contingent on Kam's role -- as I said, Kam could have done this whole thing by himself if he wanted to, whereas Bryer couldn't -- indicates to me that he had a lot of, possibly the majority of, input into the planning and wasn't just blindly going along with it.
I do agree with you that Bryer was more of the "hype man" as you said earlier, which is probably why he seems to be doing most of the talking on the videos from the descriptions. But your description of Kam as a "caretaker" -- if that was the case, who knows -- indicates a more dominant role by definition. And I think the assisted suicide thing was probably an extension of that role.
Also the fact that they made this whole "militia" thing indicates to me that they were both looking for some kind of purpose and to feel like they could depend on each other. I think that whole thing went both ways.
However, I wonder if he had a lack of self esteem or confidence which made it easy to keep him under foot? Makes me wonder if his power in the relationship was ever fully realized? Doesn't Kam give you the vibe like if you met him at a bar or somewhere in public he would be deer in the headlights and you'd have to carry the conversation for awhile until he gets comfortable and then he opens up and suddenly is a fountain of conversation?
From the descriptions from people who knew them and witnesses, they were both like that before all this. Which is not an uncommon personality type for both spree killers and thrill killers.