A journalist and advocate who rose from homelessness and addiction to serve as a spokesperson for Philadelphia’s most vulnerable was shot and killed at his home early Monday, police said.

Josh Kruger, 39, was shot seven times at about 1:30 a.m. and collapsed in the street after seeking help, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Police believe the door to his Point Breeze home was unlocked or the shooter knew how to get in, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. No arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered, they said.

Authorities haven’t spoken publicly about the circumstances surrounding the killing.

89 points

Some of those who work forces,

Are the same who burn crosses.

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2 points
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We don’t know the cops did this.

No shortage of right-wing reactionaries, who aren’t cops, shooting people.

that said, the Philly PD don’t have the best reputation, e.g. blatantly trying to frame Mumia, etc.

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1 point

Work forces??

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19 points
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Police forces. Task forces… Etc.

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24 points

Influential people. It’s a Rage Against the Machine quote if you need the context.

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14 points

Is there any info linking police to the shooting?

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21 points

Hello again old friend

Not to my knowledge but it was still an idea worth posing given the polices history against the homeless population nation wide and would be an easy answer as to why there’s not been any breaks in the case.

Although I didn’t pose what I said as fact, I can’t help what people will assume of groups they’re already familiar with.

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-26 points
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Dude. The words you’re typing are grossly irrelevant to the story you’re commenting on. ___

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23 points

It is the city that bombed it’s own people

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20 points

when i first read this, i thought it was the journalist advocating for homless and lgbtq+ to be shot and killed

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4 points

Same, it took me a second

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78 points
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These comments are out of control. To be fair though, this AP article is garbage.

The likelihood of this having anything to do with the victim being a queer journalist in Philadelphia is practically zero. Here’s some excerpts from the local paper.

Detectives believe Kruger’s death may have been the result of a domestic dispute or may have been drug-related, according to three law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said police investigators recovered troubling text messages between Kruger and a former partner. Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.

In recent months, he’d written on social media about a variety of alarming incidents at his home.

In April, he posted that an ex-partner had broken into his home. “The door was locked, so he had somehow obtained a copy of my keys,” he wrote. He had allowed the man, whom he’d known for years “before his troubles,” to stay at his house briefly after being released from jail. He said he was able to deescalate the situation and the man eventually left, and he changed his locks.

In August, someone threw a rock through his home window, he said. Then, about two weeks ago, he wrote on Facebook that someone came to his house searching for their boyfriend — “a man I’ve never met once in my entire life.” The person called themselves “Lady Diabla, the She-Devil of the Streets” and threatened him, he wrote.

https://www.inquirer.com/crime/josh-kruger-killed-point-breeze-shooting-philadelphia-journalist-20231002.html

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2 points
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Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.

“Party and Play” (PnP) with meth is a thing and it’s as toxic and fucked up as you’d imagine.

If that was what was going on … I can’t say I’m remotely surprised what happened did.

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4 points

Why speculate? When I see threads like this, that is my one and only thought. It adds no value, muddies the water, and doesn’t rely on evidence.

Why speculate? I’m too autistic for this thread. I don’t speculate. I wait for evidence.

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1 point
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Deleted by creator
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22 points

The conspiracy theories are strong in this thread. Nobody wants to believe that random acts of violence can happen. There always has to be some deeper conspiracy to try and make sense of it, and to feel like there is some semblance of control in our lives.

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3 points
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even the the most generous and trusting reading of this would suggest that the US just selling unhinged people guns is possibly something that could be chalked up the cause of this murder. Permissive gun policies in this country and multiple court rulings that police don’t have to take protective measures seriously have degraded people’s ability to have control over their lives.

Even if there was no intent here, this “random act of violence” is the result of generations of failed policies.

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1 point

Selling more guns than people, just to the fully hinged individuals, would still make it really easy for the unhinged ones to steal one.

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5 points

Well, nothing that was written above makes it seem like this was random. This seems to have been very deliberate, but for reasons unrelated to their outreach work.

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3 points

Right. In a Philly at least, the vast majority of gun violence is targeted and personal. That’s why so much of it is mostly ignored.

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21 points

Bear in mind a lot of the commenters come from a civilised society, where a journalist getting shot is massive fucking news and implies something about his profession getting him killed

People just don’t get shot in modern countries

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1 point

People just don’t get shot in modern countries

Uhm… gonna have to refer you to waves hand to entire country

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2 points

Except for the fact that this very likely had nothing to do with the victim being a journalist.

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9 points

People just don’t get shot in modern countries

Man this is going to trigger the gun nonces…

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6 points

I think it’s part of their idea that everything wrong in the world comes from America, so if they topple the American capitalist system everything will be fixed.

Random acts of violence don’t fit this narrative, the fact that there will always be psychopaths by sheer fact of the genetic lottery doesn’t fit this narrative, and the downfall of left leaning public figures through no fault of their own or that of some secret cabal of the US government doesn’t fit this narrative.

The fact that bad shit will still need to be fixed and/or corrected for in a “post revolution” world just breaks their brains.

It’s Turner Diaries logic, “no see, once we get rid of them the world will be perfect!”

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0 points

You’re not making a very good point for what you think you’re arguing for. If anything, you’re just confirming 'murica is a shithole.

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0 points

yes to all, minus “genetic lottery”

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37 points

On his website, he described himself as a “militant bicyclist” and “a proponent of the singular they, the Oxford comma, and pre-Elon Twitter.“

[Emphasis mine] This is such an important issue to me. Contracts have been ruled upon because of the appearance or lack of the Oxford comma (a union got fucked because it wasn’t there). All his other traits are also admirable, but this is the unimportant-important thing that jumped out at me.

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22 points
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2 points

If by the fascists you’re referring to the criminals who murdered him, it’s too late. The victim was out there every day fighting to keep these criminals on the streets. We really do need to get tougher on crime, all over the West.

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2 points

Man, get over yourself, you are just spitting nonsense here.

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22 points

We should be more focused on people not making rash assumptions or accusations prior to all the facts of an event being known.

This has absolutely nothing to do with fascists. I can’t even imagine how you came to that conclusion. It’s being reported as likely being a domestic dispute.

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0 points

They will be caught.

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-6 points
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“They” are the ones in charge of catching each other, so not likely. Or they’ll find some black homeless person to take the blame and make it look like a robbery rather than a hate crime.

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7 points

That’s a rather conspiracy theory stance right there

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