FBI Reportedly Won't Release Nashville Transgender Mass Killer's Full Manifesto, And That's Unacceptable: David Hookstead
The FBI will reportedly not show the public Audrey Hale's full unredacted manifesto, and if that turns out to be true, it's a shameful and disgusting decision.
Hale murdered six people, including three children, when she entered the Covenant School in Nashville in March and opened fire.
Several heroic Nashville police officers rushed inside, and her rampage came to an end when Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo gunned her down.
People have been waiting for Hale's manifesto to be made public, but so far, the FBI has shown zero interest in letting the public know what was in her sick and twisted mind.
It now sounds like the public might never get to see the full thing.
Is the FBI hiding Audrey Hale's manifesto?
The free flow of information is a pillar of any free society. It's something America prides itself on. Whether the information is good or bad, the public almost always has a right to see it. However, it shamefully appears that won't be the case when it comes to transgender mass killer Audrey Hale.
Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston told the New York Post she was informed the FBI will not release the manifesto in its entirety.
Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo killed Audrey Hale. (Credit: Nashville Police)
"What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned ... That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous," Johnston explained to the New York Post.
She further explained, "I personally don’t want to know the depths to which her psychosis reached … When I’m told by an MNPD high-ranking official that it keeps him up at night, I’m going to defer to that person in that agency that I don’t need to read that." Johnston did predict some small parts could come out but "the vast, overwhelming majority of it" is too dangerous for the public to see.
Why is the FBI not releasing Hale's writings?
The reality of the situation is it's very possible the writings will make the transgender community look very bad, and that will force people to answer some very uncomfortable questions.
Former cop and current adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Joseph Giacalone speculated as much to the New York Post.
"I think what the FBI is really concerned here with, and I think law enforcement, is that if there is something in there that is truly damaging for the transgender community, I think they are hesitant to do it because they are afraid of a violent backlash against that protected class of people," he explained.
He might be onto something, but more importantly than that, the FBI is spitting in the face of Americans everywhere by seemingly hiding Audrey Hale's writings.
She murdered innocent children and adults. By all appearances, Hale purposely targeted Christians for death and wrote things so violent and concerning the FBI will hide it from the public.
Police shot and killed Audrey Hale after she murdered six innocent people. (Credit: Screenshot/Twitter Video https://twitter.com/dhookstead/status/1640721182453297152)
Why? If she'd worn a MAGA hat and screamed "Trump 2024" during her rampage, her whole life story would already have been made public. Every word of the manifesto would be readily available online.
Instead, she was a biological woman living as a transgender male who slaughtered six innocent people. Now, the FBI is going out of its way to hide her thoughts. That's an unbelievably dangerous precedent, and it must end.
Release the manifesto in its entirety immediately.
Audrey Hale's sick and twisted writings have to be explored. People deserve to understand what they might be up against.
Did Hale call for the targeting of Christians? Did she call for the targeting of Christian schools? What about churches?
Were specific government policies cited for Audrey Hale's rampage? The answer to all these questions is we don't know because the FBI won't tell anyone. That's unacceptable in a free society. The FBI works for the people who foot the taxes in this country - not the other way around.
This can't be tolerated in a free society.
In a free society, people have the right to as much information as possible, no matter how dark it is. If difficult questions arise from her manifesto about the transgender community, then that will be dealt with. However, hiding her sick and disgusting thoughts doesn't help anyone. This is the United States of America. We don't live in communist China. Release the manifesto and release it immediately.
In a free society, access to information is critical. It's what separates the United States from authoritarian regimes.
In this country, the government isn't supposed to decide what the public can or can't handle. Yes, there's exceptions made for government and military secrets. But overall, it's not on the government to play the role of being our parent. It's on individuals to decide what they want to consume.
Audrey Hale murdered six people at the Covenant School in Nashville. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
It's not the government's role to dictate what the public can handle. That's on people to decide for themselves. Does the FBI really hate and trust the public so little that it doesn't believe the average citizen can handle the thoughts of a deranged transgender killer?
We either have the free flow of information in the United States of America, or the FBI is allowed to dictate what people are mature enough to see. Do you want to live in a country where the standard is the latter? I definitely don't, but it appears that's where we're trending when the FBI gets to decide whether or not Hale's thoughts are acceptable for public viewing.
If the FBI can hide Audrey Hale's manifesto and there's no recourse to stop the situation, what could the organization hide next? Is there any limit to what could be concealed? It's a slippery slope. The moment you grant the FBI the power to choose what the American public deserves to see or what protected class is above reproach and criticism, you've given a government organization power it will never give up.
Is that an idea anyone is comfortable with? You definitely shouldn't be.
There's no excuse to protect Audrey Hale.
Also, allow me to contrast and compare this situation to how the federal government handled dealing with Islamic terrorism. After thousands died on 9/11, the government flooded people with information about Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and anyone else who might be facilitating the deaths of innocent people.
The Bush administration and every administration that followed wanted people to understand what the people of America were up against. The government made it a point to educate people about the sick and twisted ideology of the terrorists we faced.
The media did the same. News companies heroically published videos showing the actions of terrorists and footage of American heroes fighting back. The idea is simple. You can't fight and beat an enemy you don't understand. The American public deserved to know why Osama Bin Laden hated the United States, and the Bush Administration - for whatever faults it might have had - didn't run cover for the terrorists.
Why won't the FBI release Audrey Hale's manifesto? (Credit: Nashville Police)
The terrorists were named, declared enemies of America, hunted down and killed. Information flowed freely and that was a good thing.
For some reason, America was able to destroy Al-Qaeda and ISIS without hiding much information, but Audrey Hale's manifesto is a bridge too far.
Are we supposed to believe ISIS execution videos and declarations of jihad are okay for public consumption but the unhinged writings of Audrey Hale or not? I reject that and I encourage you all to do the same.
The manifesto needs to come out, and it needs to come out right now. Anything less can't be tolerated. We either have a society with the free flow of information, whether a killer is part of a protected class or not, or we simply don't. The FBI's actions certainly seem to indicate we're living in the latter.