Catholic League President Bill Donohue is asking Nashville police to produce the manifesto it said it found among transgender shooter Audrey Hale’s belongings.
“The local police said she was planning the attack ‘over a period of months,’ and that she had studied other mass murderers,” wrote Donohue Monday. “They emphasized that the attack was ‘calculated and planned.’ Importantly, they found a manifesto that laid bare her thinking.”
“The Nashville police said they would make public the manifesto as soon as their investigation was completed,” the Catholic leader stated. “They have not done so.”
The ruling class is increasingly becoming the enemy of the people. We need one standard of justice for everyone. And that means, among other things, that Audrey Hale’s manifesto must be made public in its entirety, and with dispatch. https://t.co/PUjEDsawpn pic.twitter.com/R0YmKkkqKF
— Catholic League (@CatholicLeague) April 24, 2023
As The Tennessee Star reported Tuesday, the Nashville Police Department denied the media outlet’s request for Hale’s manifesto because the case “remains open.”
Hale shot and killed three children and three adults on March 27 at the Covenant School, a Christian school, before she was shot and killed by police.
Donohue explained police have already stated the school, which she once attended, and the church, were targeted. Additionally, Police Chief John Drake said there is some indication Hale held some “resentment” for having attended the school.
“So where’s the manifesto?” Donohue asked. “Who’s holding it back? What’s driving this decision?”
The leader of the Catholic civil rights organization cited a report Thursday that Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) told The New York Post the FBI is stalling the release of Hale’s manifesto.
The manifesto “could maybe tell us a little bit about what’s going on inside of her head,” Burchett said. “I think that would answer a lot of questions.”
“Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston confirmed to The Post the FBI has already ruled the manifesto would not be released any time soon,” The Post reported.
“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,” Johnston said. “That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous.”
Former police officer and current adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Joseph Giacalone told The Post he believes 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 added.
“This smacks of politics. It stinks to high heaven,” Donohue wrote, adding:
We know that media outlets, such as NBC, have tried to evade any mention of the transgender status of the mass murderer. We know that Jordan Budd, who runs Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, has said, “It [the manifesto] should not be published.” We know that some transgender activists have threatened violence. Is this what the FBI is giving in to?
The public needs to know if Hale was “an anti-Christian bigot, as many sexually confused people are,” Donohue asserted. “Quite frankly, there is a violent element in transgender circles, and Christians need to know if others are also targeting them. Hale may have operated alone, but was she inspired by hate speech voiced by transgender activists?”
Donohue said Christians, especially Catholics, have cause to be concerned about “the top brass in the FBI,” observing the recent report of a leaked document that revealed the bureau was targeting Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass, labeling them as “radical traditional Catholics.”
“Given this situation, are we to believe that if a crazed Catholic were to blow up an abortion clinic, killing six people, and law enforcement found a manifesto detailing his motive, that the FBI would censor its release?” he asked. “Or would it be more likely to make it public?”
“We need one standard of justice for everyone,” Donohue concluded. “And that means, among other things, that Hale’s manifesto must be made public in its entirety, and with dispatch.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Audrey Hale” and Background Photo “The Covenant School Crime Scene” by Metro Nashville Police Department.
