Crisis Actors: Sandy Hook and Parkland
Modern America has a frightening trend of tragedy every few weeks or so, and with these events comes the irrational trying to rationalize. A growing conspiracy that accompanies these tragedies is that of crisis actors. Crisis actors are traditionally used as supplements to training drills, usually acting as a victim to train emergency personnel, such as fire fighters and police officers, to help train them for real life scenarios.
The main theory surrounding crisis actors are that they are there to supplement a tragedy that never really happened, offering fake testimonies to the news, replicating distraught faces to add to the realism of the scenario, and so on. They are used to “explain away” tragedies that happen.
This theory of fake actors notably jumped in popularity following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took place on December 14, 2012. The image of a hysterical woman, captioned in large white font, asked the question, “Is this the same girl at all three massacres? Awaken the mind.” In the image, three photos of a brown-haired woman crying are there, one from the Aurora shooting in 2012, another from the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, and a third from the Sandy Hook tragedy (in 2015, the picture would experience another addition from a woman after the shooting in Roseburg). Soon after the popularity of the image, the photo itself was debunked, all of the different women being identified. Yet, the impact of it still remains as one of the first popular crisis actor conspiracy theory to hit major headlines.
However, the crisis actor conspiracy has still managed to stay in the news following the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. The main focus of this crisis actor conspiracy is David Hogg, a student at Parkland who was present on the day of the shooting. Hogg, upon being interviewed, said that “speaking out was his way of grieving his lost friends.” At the same time, conspiracy theorists were quick to point to Hogg as being a crisis actor, with even Alex Jones perpetuating the myth. They said that Hogg attended high school in California and had a video of him speaking to a reporter there to perpetuate it. However, it was simply Hogg being interviewed in California on vacation after witnessing an altercation. As for the fake yearbook picture, the image was actually from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School – another student, cropped out of the photo, is literally wearing an MSD shirt above Hogg.
The main theory surrounding crisis actors are that they are there to supplement a tragedy that never really happened, offering fake testimonies to the news, replicating distraught faces to add to the realism of the scenario, and so on. They are used to “explain away” tragedies that happen.
This theory of fake actors notably jumped in popularity following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took place on December 14, 2012. The image of a hysterical woman, captioned in large white font, asked the question, “Is this the same girl at all three massacres? Awaken the mind.” In the image, three photos of a brown-haired woman crying are there, one from the Aurora shooting in 2012, another from the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, and a third from the Sandy Hook tragedy (in 2015, the picture would experience another addition from a woman after the shooting in Roseburg). Soon after the popularity of the image, the photo itself was debunked, all of the different women being identified. Yet, the impact of it still remains as one of the first popular crisis actor conspiracy theory to hit major headlines.
However, the crisis actor conspiracy has still managed to stay in the news following the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. The main focus of this crisis actor conspiracy is David Hogg, a student at Parkland who was present on the day of the shooting. Hogg, upon being interviewed, said that “speaking out was his way of grieving his lost friends.” At the same time, conspiracy theorists were quick to point to Hogg as being a crisis actor, with even Alex Jones perpetuating the myth. They said that Hogg attended high school in California and had a video of him speaking to a reporter there to perpetuate it. However, it was simply Hogg being interviewed in California on vacation after witnessing an altercation. As for the fake yearbook picture, the image was actually from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School – another student, cropped out of the photo, is literally wearing an MSD shirt above Hogg.
Works Cited
DeGeurin, Mack. “We Met With Crisis Actor Conspiracy Theorists and the Victims They Baselessly Attack.” Motherboard, 12 Apr. 2018, motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxxew/rise-of-the-crisis-actor-conspiracy-theory.
“FACT CHECK: Crisis Actors Uncovered?” Snopes.com, 28 May 2017, www.snopes.com/fact-check/same-girl-crying-now-oregon/.
“FACT CHECK: Did David Hogg Attend a California High School?” Snopes.com, 26 Mar. 2018, www.snopes.com/fact-check/david-hogg-attend-california-high-school/.
Koebler, Jason. “Where the 'Crisis Actor' Conspiracy Theory Comes From.” Motherboard, 22 Feb. 2018, motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pammy8/what-is-a-crisis-actor-conspiracy-theory-explanation-parkland-shooting-sandy-hook.
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