Jack Wieser and his Abnormal Interests

Hello to all! My name is Jack Wieser. I was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and attended Aquinas High School there. My family lives in a small town across the border from La Crosse, La Crescent, Minnesota. I am currently in my third year of college, where I study criminal justice and psychology at North Dakota State University. 

My love for all things law-related stems from watching crime shows with my mom at home. We both love to talk about interesting court cases and watch documentaries and shows on past and current cases. Like a good amount of other people, I enjoy learning about what we would call, "socially abnormal." When it comes to studying law in depth, you get to learn why some laws are worded in certain ways the occasionally crazy cases that set precedents for these laws, and why they are enforced. 

The reason why laws are worded a certain way is that they try to be specific so they can close off any loopholes defense attorneys will attempt to exploit to improve their defense chances. The laws also can be loosely worded for the individual courts to decide how to enforce these said laws.

The article I will focus on today is the press release that was sent out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following the attack in New Orleans. The FBI took the lead during the investigation of the aftermath of the attack. The attack of course made national news because it is a large-scale terror attack, we have not seen in the United States in some time. This report was the initial press release, so the data is not the full data, but it is a very informative report done by the FBI to release the information as soon as they had this information.

FBI Statement on the Attack in New Orleans — FBI

There are a few things about this article that stand out to me as a student studying law. First what stands out is the devastation this man had caused. My prayers and sympathy go to everyone who was a victim as well as their friends and families. He fully knew what he was doing and had several weapons at his disposal to use on the large crowds of people.

The second thing that stands out to me is had the police not responded in such a quick fashion, the devastation this man would have caused would have been even more massive. A sincere thank you needs to be addressed towards the New Orleans Police Department and the officers who selflessly ran toward the scene of the crime, especially the two officers who were injured in the crossfire.

One thing that always bothers me when I learn new facts or information regarding the criminal justice system, the media almost always seems to skew their information. These media outlets tend to do this most when they know they can get a rise out of their viewers and the general population. The overall amount of terror attacks in the United States has dropped significantly since 9/11. Even in the years before 9/11, the overall trend of terror attacks in the United States was declining overall.

Terrorist Attacks in the U.S. Between 1970 and 2013: Data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD)

- Jack Wieser