It’s worth considering, but security personnel do sometimes have hand signals as normal operating procedure for a litany of reasons, like not cluttering comms, not creating undesired noise (he was right next to Kirk who was speaking in public and taking questions), not competing with ambient noise, and being understood over distance without needing to again cause one of the aforementioned problems. Most security people are going to be formerly military or police, where such signals are commonly used (or at least taught, in the case of cops). It’s also part of the “operate” aesthetic that those piggies love.
While it narratively looks right to have a dude signal for the attack right next to the target, like Judas betraying Jesus by kissing him, I don’t think there’s really all that much reason for there to be signals down to a “fire now” from someone right next to Kirk when the event is highly public, has many uncontrolled cameras on it, Kirk mostly isn’t really moving during the presentation anyway (he was sitting down), and we don’t have reason to think that exact moment is an especially good time compared to 30 seconds earlier or later, plus the dude was not trying to conceal the gestures at all. It would be absurd for someone to blatantly produce a hand gesture that was covertly to tell the shooter to fire when he was so close to Kirk and therefore sure to be caught on camera like he was.
Overall, I think it’s extremely unlikely, though again it’s a question worth asking. I agree with the other commenter that being startled isn’t a strike against the theory, but there are too many other factors against it.
Having the sniper wait for a visual cue allows them to abort the mission at the last moment if they desire, without cluttering audio comms as you said.
And maybe they were waiting until he mentioned gun violence. Although I admit the only thing that would accomplish would be irony. It’s probably just an ironic coincidence.
That is true, but I don’t think it refutes anything that I said, because I never disagreed about the fact that it could be useful to give a signal aside from the fact that the timing does not need to be that precise in this case.
Unless by “last moment” you seriously mean a window of less than 5 seconds, it just makes much more sense to have him not be right there next to Kirk. He could still be far closer than the sniper without being like 6 feet away, and then he could much more easily avoid notice.
And waiting until he mentioned gun violence just isn’t compelling as a theory. Like yeah, I can’t disprove you, but that seems like such a goofy thing to stake the mission on and do we even know that he was specifically going to talk about gun violence at the event? Or was it just because of the direction of conversation he happened to go in? How much of a benefit does that really give versus revealing that this wasn’t a lone wolf because a plant somehow infiltrated Kirk’s security outfit? And again, that could have been done at a much greater distance with no loss in efficacy beside the delay of literally a few seconds of the sniper looking between plant and target.
Realistically, I don’t think there’s much that such a plant could accomplish that couldn’t be done by the sniper a) looking through the scope and b) being tapped into their comms, which presents a comparatively negligible risk even if you’ve got a guy on the inside to facilitate b. Again, Kirk’s plan was just to sit there and talk for an extended period of time, this doesn’t require Ocean’s 11 heist tactics, and being immediately caught like this guy was, if he was guilty (I am sure he isn’t), is such a huge risk for causing the whole operation to backfire as the conspiracy is uncovered.
Yeah, I guess so. If they were on the “stage” (behind the barriers) with Kirk then private security makes more sense. I was assuming they were mixed into the general audience when I first saw the video.
I’d be interested to see more angles just to confirm how close they were. It would be neat if a journalist could interview them too (not even out of suspicion, just in a “tell us what it was like” way) and confirm that they worked for Kirk. If they immediately fled to Tel Aviv then that would be cause for suspicion lol (unlikely).
wow that is some super suspicious shit. is that just a common thing security guys do? The one in the black shirt was still doing signals at the moment of the shot. he was startled when it happened but I guess anyone would be even if they were prepared for it.
lol yeah they’re definitely gonna put an assassination co-conspirator right next to him, on camera, so that he can tell someone to shoot Charlie Kirk, which is necessary because…?
[CW: Blood] Are these candid hand gestures?
It’s worth considering, but security personnel do sometimes have hand signals as normal operating procedure for a litany of reasons, like not cluttering comms, not creating undesired noise (he was right next to Kirk who was speaking in public and taking questions), not competing with ambient noise, and being understood over distance without needing to again cause one of the aforementioned problems. Most security people are going to be formerly military or police, where such signals are commonly used (or at least taught, in the case of cops). It’s also part of the “operate” aesthetic that those piggies love.
While it narratively looks right to have a dude signal for the attack right next to the target, like Judas betraying Jesus by kissing him, I don’t think there’s really all that much reason for there to be signals down to a “fire now” from someone right next to Kirk when the event is highly public, has many uncontrolled cameras on it, Kirk mostly isn’t really moving during the presentation anyway (he was sitting down), and we don’t have reason to think that exact moment is an especially good time compared to 30 seconds earlier or later, plus the dude was not trying to conceal the gestures at all. It would be absurd for someone to blatantly produce a hand gesture that was covertly to tell the shooter to fire when he was so close to Kirk and therefore sure to be caught on camera like he was.
Overall, I think it’s extremely unlikely, though again it’s a question worth asking. I agree with the other commenter that being startled isn’t a strike against the theory, but there are too many other factors against it.
Having the sniper wait for a visual cue allows them to abort the mission at the last moment if they desire, without cluttering audio comms as you said.
And maybe they were waiting until he mentioned gun violence.
Although I admit the only thing that would accomplish would be irony. It’s probably just an ironic coincidence.
That is true, but I don’t think it refutes anything that I said, because I never disagreed about the fact that it could be useful to give a signal aside from the fact that the timing does not need to be that precise in this case.
Unless by “last moment” you seriously mean a window of less than 5 seconds, it just makes much more sense to have him not be right there next to Kirk. He could still be far closer than the sniper without being like 6 feet away, and then he could much more easily avoid notice.
And waiting until he mentioned gun violence just isn’t compelling as a theory. Like yeah, I can’t disprove you, but that seems like such a goofy thing to stake the mission on and do we even know that he was specifically going to talk about gun violence at the event? Or was it just because of the direction of conversation he happened to go in? How much of a benefit does that really give versus revealing that this wasn’t a lone wolf because a plant somehow infiltrated Kirk’s security outfit? And again, that could have been done at a much greater distance with no loss in efficacy beside the delay of literally a few seconds of the sniper looking between plant and target.
Realistically, I don’t think there’s much that such a plant could accomplish that couldn’t be done by the sniper a) looking through the scope and b) being tapped into their comms, which presents a comparatively negligible risk even if you’ve got a guy on the inside to facilitate b. Again, Kirk’s plan was just to sit there and talk for an extended period of time, this doesn’t require Ocean’s 11 heist tactics, and being immediately caught like this guy was, if he was guilty (I am sure he isn’t), is such a huge risk for causing the whole operation to backfire as the conspiracy is uncovered.
Yeah, I guess so. If they were on the “stage” (behind the barriers) with Kirk then private security makes more sense. I was assuming they were mixed into the general audience when I first saw the video.
I’d be interested to see more angles just to confirm how close they were. It would be neat if a journalist could interview them too (not even out of suspicion, just in a “tell us what it was like” way) and confirm that they worked for Kirk. If they immediately fled to Tel Aviv then that would be cause for suspicion lol (unlikely).
It wouldn’t be hard to plant the question but I agree
wow that is some super suspicious shit. is that just a common thing security guys do? The one in the black shirt was still doing signals at the moment of the shot. he was startled when it happened but I guess anyone would be even if they were prepared for it.
lol yeah they’re definitely gonna put an assassination co-conspirator right next to him, on camera, so that he can tell someone to shoot Charlie Kirk, which is necessary because…?
I thought they were in the crowd at first, but thanks for the feedback all the same. It’s why I post questions on Hexbear.