And you thought Anthony Weiner had a ‘previous indiscretions’ problem…
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah teenager arrested last year in a Columbine-inspired plot to blow up his high school was eliminated in the race Tuesday for mayor of a small Utah city.
Results released by officials Tuesday evening showed 18-year-old Joshua Kyler Hoggan received less than 5 percent of the vote in the primary, preventing him from moving on as a general election candidate on the ballot in the Roy, Utah, mayoral race…
“People should trust me because I have proven one thing: That I am human,” Hoggan said in an email before the election to The Associated Press. “I have made mistakes, just like the rest of us. We’ve all made mistakes in our pasts, and I am no exception.”
Hoggan pleaded guilty in 2012 to possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Police said that Hoggan, then 16, and an older classmate at Roy High School spent months plotting an attack inspired by the 1999 Columbine shootings. Hoggan even visited with the Columbine principal about the shootings and security measures.
A classmate tipped authorities to the plot after receiving text messages from Hoggan, who bragged that he planned to steal a plane from a nearby airport. The boy had logged hundreds of hours on a flight simulator program to prepare. His classmate, Dallin Morgan, pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was given a 105-day jail sentence.
Ritchie, mayor since 2006, said Hoggan had every right to be on the ballot but he questions his motives and whether he’s truly rehabilitated. He said many in Roy are still shaken by Hoggan’s bombing plan and are perplexed why he’s in the race.
“I’m not so sure how sincere he is,” said Ritchie, who never met Hoggan. “I think he’s in it for the notoriety.”…
Apart from such roadblocks on the road to fortune, what’s on the agenda today?
c u n d gulag
Wanting to kill and blow sh*t up, and create chaos?
Sounds like a future Republican Congressman or Senator – maybe even POTUS.
NotMax
Suppose a quick rendition of “Climb Every Mountain” would be deemed in questionable taste.
JPL
Carlos Danger was a clue in the NYTimes crossword today. One of the answers in the puzzle (spoiler alert) was nonpc but it wasn’t the answer for the weiner clue.
Hoggan needs to become a born again Christian in order to compete with the big boys.
Randy P
The memory’s too fresh for the voters (although he did manage to get somebody to vote for him, apparently) and he’s too young. I’ll bet in another 5 years he could come in as a school reformer and win. Or make millions on the school privatization schtick.
BillinGlendaleCA
Nope it’s Utah, Mormon.
fka AWS
@JPL: How in nonpc a word?
Emma
An alternative definition for chutzpah?
NotMax
@Emma
Putzpah?
Baud
Kid’s a natural.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: He should change his name to Carlos Danger.
JPL
@fka AWS: The NYTimes has a blog for those who take their crosswords seriously. I’m sure they will have a lively discussion about non pc and the Carlos Danger clue.
cvstoner
The kid’s a sociopath. You’re never going to understand why he does what he does.
MikeJ
@fka AWS: “Inappropriate for the easily offended” was the clue.
I didn’t even see the Carlos Danger clue because I was doing downs to get the 15 char cross above it.
MikeJ
@cvstoner:
The kid was 16. All teenagers are mentally ill. He might really be a sociopath, but it’s a bit early to write him off forever.
Keith G
@cvstoner: Exactly!
Sorta like commenting on the life choices made by Charles Manson.
Maybe with a lotta time, a lotta counseling, the right drugs, and then his own desire to do so, this young man (older by then) can have a decent shot at a “normal-like life”. But I am not sure.
Patricia Kayden
@MikeJ: What would it take for you to write off a 16 year old forever? Thank goodness he was caught before he could carry out his plans.
debbie
He ought to get a job advising Anthony Wiener.
MikeJ
@Patricia Kayden: Membership in the Young Republicans? Nah, not even that. I don’t know that there’s anything that would cause me to completely write off a 16 year old.
RepubAnon
Maybe the National Rifle Association is hiring PR consultants? This guy sounds as though he has the proper outlook to succeed as an NRA representative.
Baud
@c u n d gulag:
Cruz/Hoggan 2016
jeffreyw
The boy has led an exemplary life, with notably rare exceptions.
cmorenc
What I’m wondering is: who among the citizenry of Roy, Utah are among the “less than five percent” but nevertheless nonnegligible portion who voted FOR Joshua Hoggan to become mayor of that fair city? The implication is that he had more votes than simply the one he cast for himself.
What were they possibly thinking?
raven
@jeffreyw: Dude at Milliken killed his family and now seems to be a great professor.
WereBear
This 16 year old grew up a bit… to still exhibit sociopathic behavior.
“My excuse is that I’m human.” Come on!
Has he made a real apology that explains his mindset at the time? Has he volunteered for the less fortunate? Has he gotten therapy on his own?
Not to mention the narcissistic move of running for mayor in a town he planned to blow up.
I’d think about writing this one off.
Betty Cracker
@Patricia Kayden: That’s an important question. I don’t know the answer.
Baud
@raven:
Professor of family planning?
sdhays
@MikeJ: The vast majority of teenagers aren’t “mentally ill” to the point of interviewing the principle of Columbine to find weak points in new security procedures in order to plot a massacre at their own school. Teenagers undergo a lot of changes in their brains and the rest of their bodies, and it can cause them to make questionable choices and engage in dangerous behavior. However, I think it’s rather offensive and unfair to bundle plotting to blow up your school as just another way of teenagers acting out. There’s something seriously wrong with this kid.
Suffern ACE
@cmorenc: they gave him the hanging chads.
There are going to be a non negligible number of people who don’t like where they live. There will also be any number who don’t actually know who is running and vote based on name recognition. “I heard of that guy” is not the same as “I remember that guy.” He got the “I heard of that guy” vote.
Suffern ACE
Idk the story of this case. I know he was a minor at the time. But in this day and age where minors are punished harshly as adults for petty theft and late light Facebook creepiness, isn’t it odd that the guy wasn’t thrown in jail until well into adulthood? Perhaps the jury or prosecutors weren’t convinced that this terrorist wannabe was worth the effort and was just a publicity seeker.
danielx
@cvstoner:
He’ll fit right in as a member of the Republican House Caucus.
Baud
To be fair, if the kid wasn’t wearing a hoodie, how dangerous could he really have been?
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ: Hey, MikeJ, I wanted to thank you for the heads-up about the cryptic crosswords Kickstarter a few weeks ago. I love good British-style cryptics (there are some fine US constructors too, of course) and am really looking forward to this.
kc
I’m perplexed that he’s not in prison.
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne: Facebook group that chats about cryptic puzzles:
facebook.com/groups/74989506065/
Paul in KY
@cvstoner: I would assume the kid himself had a reason. Would be interesting to know what he thought he would gain from his quixotic quest.
Conspiring to blow up a school & then running for office isn’t a recipe for success in chrunchiest Vermont, let alone Utah.
Paul in KY
@MikeJ: I think actually murdering people would cause me to write him/her off.
Paul in KY
@cmorenc: Other members of the Hoggan clan? This is Utah. One particular name can be shared by alot of folks.
Emma
@MikeJ: I was watching a Criminal Minds episode with a friend and one of the characters explained that all teenagers profile as sociopaths. Childless me was shocked. Mother-of-three sitting next to me was laughing herself silly and agreeing.
Mind you, I have a feeling that this one is the real thing.
Paul in KY
@kc: Me too.
Morbo
Welp, looks like the Egyptian police are moving in to break the largest Pro-Morsi sit in. It’s not going over very well.
handsmile
Violence is erupting throughout Egypt today in response to the crackdown by security forces, with dozens already killed including a British Sky News cameraman. A volatile situation since the military coup that overthrew Morsi last month has now been made much, much worse.
As ever, the Guardian’s Live Blog is essential for comprehensive information:
theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/14/egypt-clear-cairo-sitins-live
(imo, a front-page post on this would be warranted)
Hal
Flight simulation is exactly the same as flying a real plane.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@JPL: He’s in Utah, not Iowa. Wrong religion. He needs to find some dead people to baptize to regain credibility.
cvstoner
@MikeJ:
With much work, he might be salvageable as a screaming member of the Tea Party. Failing that, he might find a home in some militia somewhere, if he doesn’t go postal first.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@cvstoner: I disagree. I understand perfectly. He thought Heathers was a documentary instead of a black comedy. lol Seeing Winona Ryder plant a kiss on one of the Heathers’ lips and say “Heather, my love, there’s a new sheriff in town,” was one of the highlights of my teenage years. One of the funniest moments in a movie full of ’em.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@Emma: You were shocked? Really? I have no kids, but I remember my high school years. I knew some people who were already heavy stoners and full blown, but functioning, alcoholics, and that was the smart kids! Forget about drug testing the football and basketball teams. If they’d had mandatory testing for the chess club and other groupings of the best and brightest, my old HS would have been all over the news! Oh, can’t forget about the booze oranges I heard about from some of the marching band members. Orange, turkey injector needle, and Everclear. Hearing teenagers described as sociopaths is not a shock.
Origuy
Speaking of sociopaths, in Fountain, CO, neighbors of a girl with cerebral palsy want the ramp that her family built to her house removed because they think it degrades their property value.
reflectionephemeral
@kc: Indeed.
I rather suspect that Little Dallin was not a person of color.
gratuitous
@Baud: And I’m guessing that young Joshua is not, as Jesus’ General says, “unheartlandishly hued,” so he’s out and walking around, as is his older accomplice.
Now, if he’d been the right color and religion, the FBI would have helpfully set him up with fake explosives, transportation, and a high profile venue where they could swoop in and thwart the ersatz attack and trumpet their “accomplishment” to the high heavens.
Young Joshua? Well, let’s not write him off.
Ted & Hellen
Why couldn’t they just go ahead and elect him, looking forward, not back?
That would be best for the town.
Bryan Rasmussen
Any high school student in Utah who doesn’t want to blow up the school has no heart
johnny aquitard
@MikeJ:
Sorry. That line right there is a huge red flag that this is isn’t your typical confused and impulsive teen fuckup. This kid put significant effort into making his rampage fantasy a reality. It wasn’t just talk anymore.
You dissed a helluva lot of teens with your ‘all teenagers are mentally ill’. Some are really great kids, and some are struggling with responsibilities and situations that overmatch their judgement and coping skills, situations that would knock any well-adjusted adult for a loop.
These teens are not gathering weapons, spending months making plans and interviewing people to gather intel on how to better slaughter their classmates. Big difference there.
ranchandsyrup
Ugh. It’s not that you’re human. I didn’t think you were some other species or a robot. It is how you’re human. Tu quoque is not an election strategy.
Thlayli
@I Heart Breitbartbees:
Heather #3, played by Shannen Doherty.
SiubhanDuinne
@MattF: You may never see this response, but thank you! I’ve joined the FB group.
Jess Sane
If this guy’s name were Isa Kamal Hassan I doubt he would be free today.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@Thlayli: Thanks! I thought it was her, but it’s been a few years since I’ve watched it. Also, too: Back then, who didn’t want to be or be with Christian Slater or Winona Ryder?