Pipelines of Knowing and Unknowing Complicity
Pipelines of Knowing and Unknowing Complicity
Read Introduction
Nothing of consequence, good or bad, happens in a vacuum. Everything of consequence requires the participation, knowing or not, of others. That does not always mean that a complicit party is as guilty as the perpetrator. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they know what they are doing. Sometimes they aren’t doing enough. And sometimes they have no idea. The objects in this collection represent particular points in various pipelines of complicity that eventually led to devastation.
Facsimiles
Commercial Airline License for 9/11 Hijacker
On December 21, 2000, Mohamed Atta, 32, enrolled at Huffman Aviation flight school in Venice, Florida to learn how to fly small planes. After logging over one hundred hours of flight training, Mr. Atta received this Temporary Airman Certificate from FAA Southern Region, a credential allowing him to pilot commercial planes.
On September 11, 2001, at 8:46 AM, Mohamed Atta hijacked a Boeing 767 plane with 81 passengers. Using the training he received from Huffman Aviation flight school, Atta successfully flew the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 9/11 attacks resulted in over 2,996 deaths and transformed the day-to-day life and geopolitical consciousness of America and the world.
Facsimile
Opioid Pushers
Two million people are addicted to opioids in the United States, where overdosing on the drugs kills 130 people every day. In 2017, after 47,600 people overdosed, the Department of Health and Human Services declared a national public health crisis. It is considered to be the worst drug crisis in American history.
Behind the crisis, there was an active network of drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies, many of whom were aware of, but not dissuaded by, the addictive nature of the drugs. From 2006 to 2012, this network participated in the distribution of 76 billion opioid pills to big cities and small towns across the United States.
This email exchange from January 2009 is between a representative of what was at the time the nation’s largest opioid manufacturer, Mallinckrodt, and the vice president of sales at Keysource Medical, an Ohio-based wholesale drug distributor.
Everything of consequence requires the participation, knowing or not, of others.
Bank Funded Mass Shootings
We don't always have the money we need to purchase what we want. Credit cards, which offer lines of credit to cardholders, can be useful ways to fund purchases beyond our means. Each of these four credit cards funded the purchase of weapons and supplies used to carry out mass shootings in America.
Jared Loughner’s Chase Visa Card
6 people killed, 1 injured
On November 20, 2010, Jared Loughner used his Chase Visa card to fund the purchase of a 9-millimeter Glock handgun at a Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson, Arizona. Two months later, on January 11, 2011, at 10:10 a.m., Loughner used the gun to shoot Representative Gabrielle Giffords outside a Safeway supermarket.
Loughner stood trial in 2012, was convicted, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Facsimile
James E Holmes’ USAA Mastercard
12 people killed, 70 injured
Between June 7, 2012 and July 6, 2017, James Holmes used a United Services Automobile Association Mastercard to fund the purchase of more than $11,000 in weapons and military gear, including two tear-gas grenades, a gas mask and filter, a .40-caliber Glock handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .223-caliber AR-15, a 100-round drum magazine, two 40-round magazines, a laser sight, a bulletproof vest, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and two sets of handcuffs.
On July 30, 2012, James E. Holmes entered a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during the midnight premiere of a Batman film, and opened fire. He killed 12 people and injured 70 others.
Holmes stood trial in 2015 and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which was accepted. He was sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences.
Facsimile
Omar Mateen’s FCB Visa Card
49 people killed, 53 injured
Between June 4 and June 9, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, used his Florida Community Bank Visa credit card to fund the purchase of more than $3,500 worth of equipment, including a Sig Sauer assault rifle, a Glock G17, gun magazines, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
At 2 a.m. on June 12, 2016, Mateen entered Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where, over the course of three hours, he shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
Mateen was killed by police gunfire.
Facsimile
Stephen C Paddock’s Capital One Mastercard
58 people killed, 800 injured
Between October 2016 and September 2017 Stephen C. Paddock, a 64 year old accountant and real estate investor from Mesquite, Nevada, used credit cards, including his Capital One Mastercard, to purchase fifty-five firearms and firearm accessories.
On September 25, 2017, Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino with dozens of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Six days later, on October 1, 2017, from his 32nd floor suite, he shot and killed 58 people and injured more than 800 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Paddock died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Facsimile
The Purchase of a Death Row Inmate’s Last Meal
The process required to purchase a death row inmate's “special request” last meal requires a formal petition, written approval, and proof of purchase. This memo and the corresponding receipts are evidence of the often invisible administrative infrastructure, where anonymous backoffices spin with clerical duties. These documents provide granular paper trails of commutes to fast food restaurants; of the names of store managers and servers and cashiers; of $0 tips. They reveal the fingerprints of bureaucracy, including employees’ handwritten notes: “execution, last meal.”
This is the documentation for the purchase of John Wayne Connor’s last meal. He was executed on July 15, 2016, in the execution chamber of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, known as the “Death House.” He was 60 years old.
Facsimile
TLC Medallion Sales Pamphlet
Taxi medallions are city permits that provide automobiles the license to serve as yellow taxis in New York City. Given the limited supply of medallions, owning one was long thought of as a route to financial security, and eventually a retirement fund. Owners took out loans to afford medallions, worked hard, and were proud of their accomplishment.
From 2002 to 2014, artificially inflated medallion prices led to a bubble in the market. The price of a medallion rose from $200,000 in 2002 to $1 million in 2014. That year, the market collapsed. People who bought medallions, often immigrants or working class residents, faced financial ruin. More than 950 drivers have filed for bankruptcy. At least eight have committed suicide.
This is a pamphlet created by the Taxi and Limousine Commission in February 2014, a few months prior to the crash. The pamphlet promotes a medallion auction, during which the city sold 150 medallions at the peak of their value.
Letter from Bob Weinstein to Harvey Weinstein
Over the course of three decades, Harvey Weinstein, a movie mogul and fixture in the Hollywood film scene, exploited his power and influence to sexually abuse women. To date, more than 90 women have accused Harvey Weinstein of abuse. These allegations against him helped ignite the #MeToo movement.
People close to Weinstein knew he was regularly committing sexual abuse. In the summer of 2015, his brother Bob Weinstein, who was also his business partner, sent this letter to his brother Harvey via his lawyer, David Boies.
After reports of his sexual abuse became public, Harvey Weinstein, 67, was tried and convicted in a New York court of two felony sex crimes and sentenced to twenty three years in prison.
Facsimile
Social Media Slave Trade
Much of modern culture is online: we socialize, we search, we work, and we buy via apps and websites. The internet, and social media with it, has connected billions. It has launched movements, provided aid, amplified voices, and created a sense of community across the planet. And in any social network—physical or digital—connection can include exploitation.
On e-commerce platforms such as 4Sale and social media platforms such as Instagram, houseworkers are listed and sold in a virtual slave market, where sales are negotiated in the comments section and private messaging functions.
Sellers on these platforms “flip” humans—in some cases girls as young as 16—often buying maids for around $2,000 USD and selling them for a few hundred more. 4Sale allows potential buyers to filter by categories such as race, gender, and price.
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