Breivik who is he

Mass murderer Anders Breivik claimed that he had been abused for being placed in near-isolation since he was jailed. Published On 22 Jul But he does not define who we are — we do. A ceremony on Utoya is scheduled to take place later in the afternoon. Norwegian mass murderer flashes racist sign as he pleads for improvement in prison conditions. Now he was all for having his picture taken.

He looked into the camera and thrust out his chest. His hands were clasped at one hip while he held his body taut in a classic bodybuilding pose, to make his muscles bulge as much as possible.

For a moment, the policemen were nonplussed. In another setting, another crime, it might have been ridiculous, but here. In many ways, I find it repellent to write about Anders Behring Breivik. Every time his name appears in public, he gets what he wants, and becomes who he wants, while those whom he murdered, at whose expense he asserted himself, lost not only their lives but also their names—we remember his name, but they have become numbers.

I believe this perspective is essential. I do not believe that Breivik himself has anything to teach us. I believe that his life is a coincidence of unfortunate circumstances, and what he did was such an anomaly that it makes no sense even to guard ourselves against it.

We know that he grew up with a father who was not there for him, and with a mother who, without being aware of it, neglected him in ways that destroyed him so completely that, really, he had no chance.

She had been abused as a child, and her narcissistic traits were reflected in her son. Nonetheless, the world is full of difficult childhoods—some people succumb, while others prevail, but no one murders sixty-nine people, one after another, single-handedly.

The world is also full of people with narcissistic tendencies—I am one of them—and it is full of people who cannot empathize with others. Until his moment of decision, Breivik appears to have been an ordinary person, the kind you might meet anywhere.

He had a difficult upbringing, to be sure, but that is more common than one might think; he had yet to find his place in life, he was not who he wanted to be, but that is also a relatively common experience.

His great inner conflicts were something that he kept secret, even from himself. It was only when he carried out a terrorist attack that he stood out. When I read about him, I can follow him up to that point, my empathy stretches that far, but it goes no further.

What does it take to kill another person? Or, to put it another way, what is it that prevents us from killing? It is one of the most difficult things you can bring someone to do. Releasing bombs over a populated area is one thing, but killing those same people at close range, face to face, is another.

What makes the difference? It is the face, the eyes, their light. After the Second World War, the U. Instead, they train with masked targets that appear human, but are not. This dehumanization process is what is at work on the battlefield; soldiers see masks, images, not people. He has, I guess, what you would call a target on him. I am not thinking of child protective services or of schools or of any civic authority, not even the police; rather, I am thinking of the bonds among people, the presence of the other in ourselves, and the responsiveness around which every community and culture is built, which reveals itself in the commandment we see in the faces of others: do not kill.

Even in the military, where killing is not only socially acceptable but something that soldiers are encouraged to perform, the inner resistance to killing another is so strong that it must be broken down systematically.

This still means that, under certain circumstances, conscience, shame, and the insight that other human lives are inviolable can be set aside. Mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court on Wednesday he suffered degrading conditions in prison, including microwaved meals that were "worse than waterboarding", as he argued the Norwegian state had violated his human rights.

A "ginger extremist" convicted of plotting to kill Britain's Prince Charles so his red-haired son Harry might become king was on Tuesday was sentenced to indefinite detention. Crazy for Norway's Mass Murderer. She calls him by his first name, sends him letters every week, promises to wait for him. It could be any love story but Victoria's heart belongs to a mass murderer: Anders Behring Breivik.

Four years after Anders Behring Breivik's rampage, the Norwegian island of Utoya will return to life this weekend as it hosts its first Labour youth camp since the carnage. Mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik now renounces violence, his lawyer said on Tuesday, the same day Norway commemorated the third anniversary of the massacre in which he killed 77 people.

The other obvious case is that of Brenton Tarrant, the Australian far-right terrorist who live-streamed an attack in which he killed 51 Muslim worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch , New Zealand, in March But although Tarrant claimed to have been inspired by Breivik, investigators found that he had started his planning some time before he read Breivik's manifesto. Tarrant's own manifesto is very different from Breivik's, including in its politics, he added.

US Coast Guard officer Christopher Hasson , who was sentenced to 13 years in prison last year on weapons and drugs charges, consulted Breivik's manifesto for tips on amassing weapons, according to another of the papers published by C-REX. Prosecutors alleged that he was a White nationalist who was plotting an attack. Rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik arrives in court on April 16, for the start of his trial. The Counter Extremism Project CEP , an NGO that combats extremist groups, said in a statement Thursday that survivors of Breivik's attacks had voiced concern regarding his "status as an inspirational figure among far-right extremists.

According to Ravndal, research indicates that within Norway the far right has not gained much appeal overall since the attacks and has been unable to turn out supporters in any numbers on the streets.

Shooting spree. On that quiet summer day in , Breivik drove a van packed with a homemade fertilizer bomb into Oslo and parked it outside a government office. A few minutes later, it exploded, killing eight people, injuring many more and damaging several buildings.

Firefighters work at the site of the explosion near government buildings in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on July 22, Breivik, meanwhile, had set off by car on the mile trip to Utoya Island, where a Labour Party summer youth camp was taking place.

Posing as a police officer who was checking on security following the Oslo attack, he caught a ferry to the island and carried out a shooting spree in which 69 people died -- most of them teenagers. Many others were seriously wounded. During his trial , Breivik boasted of being an ultranationalist who killed his victims to fight multiculturalism in Norway, saying he acted out of "necessity" to prevent the "Islamization" of the country under the ruling center-left Labour Party.

A court ruling meant his testimony was not televised , denying him a chance to broadcast his views to a wide audience. But Breivik believed his writings would inspire right-wing terrorists to follow in his footsteps.