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Release of Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto Stalled by Legal Battles

Release of Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto Stalled by Legal Battles

“It’s incumbent on us to understand all the ins and outs of what drove Audrey Hale to do what she did”

The shooting at Covenant School in Nashville by Audrey Hale, a transgender artist, happened almost two months ago and the manifesto left behind by Hale still hasn’t been released.

One thing that’s holding up the process is an ongoing legal battle involving multiple parties.

FOX News reports:

Nashville school shooter manifesto: Police group sides with school in lawsuit over release

Officials at The Covenant School, the Nashville, Tennessee, Christian elementary school where a trans killer barged in on March 27 and gunned down three 9-year-olds and three adults, have filed to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the public disclosure of a manifesto the shooter left behind.

The National Police Association (NPA) and Tennessee-based private investigator Clara Brewer are suing city and county officials, demanding copies of Audrey Hale’s writings, which were recovered from the killer’s vehicle and home after the shooting.

A judge is expected to make a decision in June, according to the NPA. In addition to the manifesto, the NPA is also seeking copies of police communications related to the document.

The police group said The Covenant School is asking to protect floor plans of its facility and personnel information and that the NPA does not object. A judge has scheduled the next hearing for Thursday afternoon.

More than 60 Republicans in the Tennesee House are calling for releasing the manifesto and other documents, saying that they’re being asked to consider legislation based on the case without knowing all the details.

The New York Post reports:

66 Tennessee Republicans call for release of Audrey Hale’s manifesto: ‘Don’t understand the apprehension’

More than 60 members of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus have signed a letter calling for Metro Nashville Police to release the Covenant school shooter’s manifesto.

The writings of transgender killer Audrey Hale have become a focal point since the March 27 mass shooting, as the FBI has sought to keep them under wraps — prompting two lawsuits to compel their release.

A letter to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake sent Monday was signed by 66 caucus members and requests “the release of the perpetrator’s writings as well as relevant medical records and toxicology reports.”

Rep. Jeremy Faison, House Republican Caucus Chair, told The Post Wednesday his group doesn’t “understand the apprehension,” and pointed out legislators are being asked to consider new gun control legislation since the shooting without knowing the totality of Hale’s circumstances.

“It’s incumbent on us to understand all the ins and outs of what drove Audrey Hale to do what she did,” Faison told The Post by phone.

The fact that the manifesto has not yet been released makes the delay look political as if someone has something to hide. What is the problem?

People are not going to stop demanding its release, and the longer it takes, the more suspicious they will become.

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Comments

I’d guess is has scandalous grudge hallucinations about specific people by name, who don’t deserve public notoriety.

    CommoChief in reply to rhhardin. | May 18, 2023 at 7:57 pm

    Redact the PII but leave in the rest of the gibberish, then redact the floor plans/schematics and release it.

Nashville elected officials are generally very woke Dems. Their motives are predictably purely political. They don’t want the public to know what could be damaging to the victimhood of their central constituency.

    Gosport in reply to Q. | May 18, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    Fine. If they want to keep fighting the release then have them put their arguments in public along with their names.

    Sooner or later the leaks will start or the dam will flat out break. If you want any influence on the flow you better start releasing it while you can still control it.

    Edward in reply to Q. | May 18, 2023 at 9:55 pm

    Not to mention the story states the Bureau is opposing release (“wants to keep it under wraps”.)

It was said in one of the tweets, but had the shooter been named Billy Bob and drove a lifted pickup truck, the “manifesto” would have been out before the smell of gunpowder was gone.
It is a “tell”; if it is a white guy, it is in the headline. If it isn’t in the headline or the story, it is some protected class or another.

The goons at the FBI have probably already sterilized it and redacted anything that would make their Rat masters look bad.

Subotai Bahadur | May 18, 2023 at 8:32 pm

After this long it is obvious that the manifesto makes either Democrats or their Leftist supporters look bad. Deservedly so. So it will be hidden as long as possible.

Subotai Bahadur

I understand the concern about the maps.
I also understand concern about any accusations about people targeted in the shooting (or other potentially slanderous accusations). (More so than the maps.)

So, redact the info. Unless it’s so interspersed it becomes unreadable. In which case, still redact and release.

    Crawford in reply to GWB. | May 18, 2023 at 9:24 pm

    Building plans are available from the local government, and depending on secrecy for security is the same as having no security at all.

      GWB in reply to Crawford. | May 19, 2023 at 9:35 am

      A lot of information is not available on building plans, such as location of security controls, cameras, which doors are locked during the school day, etc.

      Secrecy is not the only part of a good security plan, but it certainly plays a part. After a gross breach of said security, though, any of that secrecy bit should be re-evaluated and changed.

      I can understand their position. But I don’t think that aspect should be allowed to keep the writings out of the hands of the public.

      GWB in reply to Crawford. | May 19, 2023 at 9:52 am

      “It’s incumbent on us to understand all the ins and outs of what drove Audrey Hale to do what she did”
      No, I think this is actually wrong. We know why she did it. She wanted to kill a bunch of people because she couldn’t deal with the anger in her heart. We know she was mentally ill. Unless there is some massive revelation in there that says otherwise (like she was paid by AntiFa to do this or something equally upending) I don’t think the manifesto is all that relevant to policy or law enforcement. It seems to mostly be relevant to nailing down a narrative for political purposes – to both sides.

      I do think they should release it, redacted for the concerns mentioned above. But it’s not something I really want to get my hands on. I know enough about what happened and why to be able to see my way to where and what the response needs to be.

        GWB in reply to GWB. | May 19, 2023 at 9:53 am

        I don’t know why this ended up as a reply to Crawford. It was intended to be a stand-alone comment.

      GWB in reply to Crawford. | May 19, 2023 at 10:23 am

      Hmmm, I’d like to have the person(s) who downvoted a couple of my posts actually say why.

I did not know that the Covenant shooter took a detour from the school to
the cathedral in order to shoot out the stained glass figure of Adam
https://t.co/TDTcR7FAAt pic.twitter.com/g6QK5quXfX

— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 18, 2023
————————————-
Seems like a Hate Crime to me.

— Tired of being politically correct (@USBornNRaised) May 18, 2023
————————————–
Merrick Garland declared the Buffalo shooting a hate crime in 3 weeks. This shooting has disappeared. Nothing from the DOJ. Nothing from the media.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 18, 2023

‘Safety and security’ is total and complete BS. They had no objection to the police body camera, which showed them going in and through the whole building.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven that both the school and the government want it kept under wraps.

This feels to me like the tranifesto is a long rant of trans propaganda with the troon’s spewing all the left’s favorite BS about ‘oppression’, and them specifically targeting Christians.

But for the school to try and demand it not be released tells me that the most likely scenario is that the troon says the molested her when she was young and that messed her up.

    murkyv in reply to Olinser. | May 19, 2023 at 1:57 am

    She probably really “liked” Rachel Maddow a whole lot on social media

    GWB in reply to Olinser. | May 19, 2023 at 9:42 am

    ‘Safety and security’ is total and complete BS. They had no objection to the police body camera, which showed them going in and through the whole building.
    There is a huge difference between police body cam footage and what might be detailed maps showing camera locations, maybe where panic alarm buttons are located, or (as an exaggerated case) when the security patrol passes each point. From a public interest point of view, these things have no value if disclosed. (And, they should be able to be redacted.)

    I tend to agree with you on the other item – there’s specific accusations in there. And the problem with disclosing those is they can essentially be seen as defamation, since there’s no way to investigate any accusations made, and it can’t be adjudicated in a court since the accuser is dead. Redact those portions carefully.

    n.n in reply to Olinser. | May 19, 2023 at 10:04 am

    Casting couches, friends with “benefits”, open relationships, unrequited rape, underage rape/rape… rape, the ethical/religious sanction of abortion, dreams of Herr Mengele, and trans/homosexual grooming in schools, Scouts, churches, etc. Oh, and albinophobia celebrated with pride in parades under the Rainbow banner.

Anything which doesn’t blame only guns is bad. They are worried that releasing it will distract from banning guns.

Clearly, the terrorist’s “manifesto” isn’t being released because its contents are brimming with “trans” narcissism, pure craziness, spite and victimhood-posturing that would reflect poorly upon tranny narcissists, at-large, and, upon the vile Dumb-o-crats who lionize, enable and otherwise celebrate trannies’ malignant narcissism, obnoxious misogyny and evil child-grooming/indoctrination.

“If this alleged transgender killer was a so-called white supremacist instead of a gender confused individual… the manifesto in question would have been in public hands within two hours after the murders!”

Move by the left flank; always advance the narrative. Move by the left flank; ignore if it contradicts the narrative. Move by the left flank; pick a target, freeze it, attack to advance the narrative. Move by the left flank; bribe, de-platform, imprison, or even murder to advance the narrative. Move by the left flank.

The right: Derp. bUt, BuT LeFtIstS aRe ThE tRuE RaCiStS! Derp.

Giving these murderers more publicity encourages more murderers.

Please, LI, do NOT use the photo or the name of the murderer (shooter, knifer, etc). Take away their infamy.

    n.n in reply to cbt. | May 19, 2023 at 10:11 am

    It encourages individual assessments, and discourages DEI (i.e. color blocs) assessments, and, hopefully, the performance of human rites and abortive intentions.

E Howard Hunt | May 19, 2023 at 10:14 am

Perhaps the manifesto has all the earmarks of Russian disinformation.

Hormone blockers Testosterone

End of story

Roofs make you cray cray

This makes it seem the Nashville PD is being obtuse. But they’re not — they are under direct orders from the Department of Justice (specifically the DoJ’s Community Relations Service) not to release the so-called manifesto. I doubt the NPD cares one way or the other what is written. But the Democrats have every reason not to show the public.

Large police departments are practically dependent on federal funding and they take all “requests” as oversight, which they essentially are going back to the days of Obama/Holder.

One question I haven’t seen asked is does this manifesto possibly implicate someone else? Could that be the reason for the foot dragging on the release?

    NotCoach in reply to NotCoach. | May 19, 2023 at 12:16 pm

    I just thought of another reason they might be afraid to release this: Trans regret.

    George S in reply to NotCoach. | May 19, 2023 at 12:49 pm

    Probably not. The story that the Biden DoJ is sticking to is that “white supremacy” is the gravest terrorist threat against the republic. Problem is: there is a dearth of white supremacists out there. On the other hand, Antifa and BLM are organized and funded, but they are called “ideas” when the actual idea is white supremacy.

    Now that we have a motivated terrorist attack (and that manifesto most likely spells out that motive) that implicates one protected group, the DoJ does not want it made public because then the hypocrisy of going after imaginary terrorists will destroy their narrative and show where the actual threat originates.

2smartforlibs | May 19, 2023 at 12:41 pm

In case you forgot the CO theater shooter. A hack reported all about his postings as soon as he found them. The problem was it was the wrong guy. Yet here were waiting.

Like other papers in possession of all levels of the government, there seems to be no end to the excuses why the manifesto remains hidden. The whole concept of redactions and document withholding is antithetical to a democratic republic. Secrecy is a poison.