US Air Force DevOps Engineer Sets Himself on Fire in Protest War in Gaza | Hacker News Reader

US Air Force DevOps Engineer Sets Himself on Fire in Protest War in Gaza

time.com

41 pointssecondary_op12 comments

Open articleView on HN

Observe how news media treat story like this.

https://time.com - first page, main story, no photos

https://www.reuters.com - no mention

https://apnews.com - first page, 2nd block in list, no photos

https://www.nytimes.com - second page, tiny block in list, no photos

https://www.washingtonpost.com - second page, tiny block, no photos

https://www.theguardian.com/world - no mention

https://www.aljazeera.com - first page, 1st block in list, first page, no photos

https://www.rt.com - first page, second block in list, no photos

https://nypost.com - first page, main story, uncensored photo

https://www.bbc.com - first page, 2nd block, no photo

https://www.newsweek.com - first page, main story, photos

https://thehill.com - second page, 2nd block, no photo

https://edition.cnn.com - first page, second block in list, no photos

Can't expect much. The post have already been flagged when I searched his name here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39507788

> “He is one of the most principled comrades I’ve ever known,” said Xylem, who worked with Bushnell to support San Antonio’s unhoused residents.

> “He’s always trying to think about how we can actually achieve liberation for all with a smile on his face,” said Errico.

https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1761944166693568609/phot...

Echos of famous Vietnam protest, one of the most iconic and tragic photos of all time that captured an entire era.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4...

Archived: http://web.archive.org/web/20240226053631/https://time.com/6...

> Bushnell, who was wearing fatigues on Sunday in Washington, was a DevOps engineer based in San Antonio, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bushnell-875897280

> I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” the airman repeated, in footage reviewed by TIME, as he walked toward the driveway of the Israeli embassy. “But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.

Video https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1761944158636331247

> One cop (white shirt, maybe security, it’s not clear) begins spraying him with a fire extinguisher, the cop with gun drawn remains stationary. White shirt yells “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!” More cops arrive, as do EMTs. 3 fire extinguishes are used.

It seems there was some police negligence. Why to draw a weapon on someone self-immolating, instead of helping put out the flames?

This reminds me of the 'burning monk' from the Vietnam war. Impressive. RIP: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4...

Not sure if that's "negligence" on the part of the officer. Non-facetiously, I'd expect that police officers are trained to draw their weapons on people who absolutely will not comply with police orders / commands. I believe we've stopped using "reasonable man" standards for police officers a long time ago, so it's not relevant what a reasonable person would believe was egregiously negligent.

Idiocy on the part of the officer, perhaps. Negligence on the part of the department training, perhaps. But I do believe it's customary and normal for police to draw weapons on non-compliant citizens, regardless of threat level.

I read the guy with the gun drawn was Israeli embassy security and not DC police. So not surprising.

Psychologically primed to do that in a crisis situation due to training + panic in the moment, probably

We live in fame or go down in flame, hey! Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!

amazing what working with kubernetes, "the cloud" and yaml will do to a person

Reply on news.ycombinator.com