Leonard Pozner moves house a lot.
Sometimes, he says, he needs a ‘new start’. Other times, it’s because a picture of his home has been shared on the Internet. When that happens, the messages he so regularly receives – such as: “death is coming to you real soon and there’s nothing you can do about it” – seem much more real.
Leonard’s six-year-old son Noah was the youngest victim of the Sandy Hook massacre in the US in 2012. He was in the wrong classroom the morning Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot and killed 20 children as well as six adult staff members.
The 20-year-old murderer planned to move to the next classroom and the next – Noah’s two sisters would have been victims, too – but when police arrived Lanza shot himself in suicide.
Now, Leonard and his ex-wife – they are separated but remain close to raise their two daughters – are fighting, not only through their grief, but against the haters.
“I never imagined I’d have to fight for my child’s legacy. I never imagined life without any of the children at all,” Leonard told The Guardian.
The haters call themselves the “Sandy Hook Truthers”.
They believe the massacre was staged to create hysteria around gun laws. That no one really died and the people involved were all actors – employed by the Obama administration or anti-gun lobbyists.
Against social images of young victims like Noah, these “Truthers” will comment “Fake kid”, “Didn’t die” and “Fucking liar”.
They harbour violent hate and resentment for the families of the small children they say never died. They believe people like Leondard are part of the conspiracy.
“History books will refer to this period as a time of mass delusion,” Leonard said. “We thought the internet would bring all these wonderful things, such as research, medicine, science, an accelerated society of good. But all we did was hold up a mirror to society and we saw how angry, sick and hateful humans can be.”
Australian True Crime #1. Post continues below.
Except for moving house regularly, Leonard is working tirelessly to take down the people who deny Noah’s death, his existence even.
He’s suing the trolls for copyright when they use images of his son without permission. He sues for invasion of privacy, when they post images of his home on the internet. He reports the death threats to police. And, in 2015, he petitioned a Florida university to fire a professor for hoaxing.
Leonard is also the founder of the HONR Network, which supports victims of tragedy when they’re faced with online abuse.
“It’s taxing and draining, and I don’t think there’s a healing aspect to being drained this way,” Leonard told The Guardian.
“Maybe [I do this] because I was bullied when I was younger, so I have a low tolerance to being pushed around.”
Noah didn’t want to go to school, the morning of December 14 in 2012.
“I said to him: ‘Come on, Noah, we gotta get moving’,” Leonard told The Guardian. The six-year-old was wearing a Batman shirt and Spider Man sneakers.
“[When he got out of the car] I said: ‘I love you, have a great day’ and that was the last thing I ever said to him,” Leonard said.
“Not even Batman could have stopped an AR-15.”
Surely this family’s gone through enough?
Top Comments
This shows how subhuman, depraved and pure evil the far-far right are. Imagine being so addicted to a weapon that kills (and unlike knives, or cars or baseball bats, guns have no other purpose but to kill) that you have to FABRICATE a hoax, *just* to fool yourself into believing your position on guns is right? We really have not evolved much from cavemen. What sort of inhuman monster gives death threats to another human being who has suffered their son being shot dead at his kindergarten?
And, you know, it isn't much different here. Last year on the 20th anniversary of Port Arthur massacre, the Australian National Firearms Association were mocking it on Facebook, saying they were going to buy a new gun on the day, mocking the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. Members of the ANFL were going on the Alannah and Madeline Foundation's page and trolling and mocking them, making horrible, horrible comments. What drives human beings to be so depraved, evil, cruel, immoral and inhuman? Is it a faulty gene? Or a lack of proper upbringing? Or a combination of both? How can those on the far right defend such actions, and know deep down they are horrible and evil monsters?
These people are hate-filled horrible inhuman monsters with no morals whatsoever. If there is a God, they will really truly suffer and be made to account on judgement day.
Disgraceful.