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Since Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City, scientists have begun to look more closely at the individual perpetrators.
What they have uncovered since then should give food for thought.
A pack can be found near almost every “lone wolf”.
The wolf, i.e. the assassin, may have been lonely, but he is rarely alone.
Expressed in figures: In 79 percent of the attacks carried out by individual perpetrators, other people knew of the perpetrators' radical convictions, and 64 percent even knew of their plans.
Almost half of the lone perpetrators had personal contacts with members of radical networks, and an additional 35 percent had connections of a virtual nature. Even in school rampages, the researchers found that the young perpetrators were connected in many ways with other subcultures and worldviews.
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And what about the Halle assassin?
He has now been sentenced to a maximum sentence for his murderous acts and the attempted assault on the synagogue in early October 2019 and will remain in prison for the rest of his life.
From a legal point of view, there is no doubt that he was a single perpetrator, but with a view to preventing future murder attacks it would be advisable to take a closer look.
In this sense, 2019 was a year of murder, in which every lone wolf was inspired by the deeds of its predecessors and made no secret of the online pack.
It began in March when two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand were targeted, and continued in April with an attack on the synagogue in Poway, USA.
Attacks on a supermarket in El Paso and a mosque in Bærum, Norway, followed in August.
On October 9th the bloody act finally took place in Halle.
To this day, the forums of techno barbarians on the Internet celebrate the Christchurch assassin as a saint, all subsequent murderers as his disciples and cheer for the 78 deaths in total.
What follows from this is clear: It is time to say goodbye to the trivializing of the individual perpetrators, against whom nothing can be done.
Instead, you should take seriously the fact that you can recognize them in advance if you do what German privacy advocates forbid: to monitor the environment “without cause”.
In the case of such offenders, the definition of the cause is new, different from what has been customary in criminal law up to now.
This, too, is a conclusion that can be drawn from the Halle crime.