© Bensalem Police DepartmentJoshua Cooper
An 18-year-old transgender woman in the US state of Pennsylvania, who fatally shot a young girl and
then confessed to the crime on Instagram, has been sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars, local prosecutors announced on Thursday.
Ash Cooper, known as Joshua Cooper at the time of the 2022 murder in Bensalem Township,
began transitioning after the arrest. Cooper, who was then 16, told the police that
he and the victim - 12-year-old Morgan Connors - were in a sexual relationship.
"Ash Cooper, who previously went by Joshua Cooper, pled guilty Thursday to
third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence," Buck's County District Attorney's office said in a statement.
"Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Cooper to 15 to 40 years in state prison and a consecutive sentence of seven years of probation," the DA office added.
The perpetrator was also ordered to undergo a psychological and psychiatric evaluation.
Comment: Throughout history, bands of men hunted together and fought together. They needed to develop the ability to cooperate well in groups, to self-organize in the manner best suited for the task at hand, and they needed to be inspired to do so, both for their own survival and the survival of their families. The particular pro-sociality of men is built into their very nature, and the anti-social is a deviation from the norm. As Smith notes above, this is built into all of humanity's greatest and most resonant stories. Maybe it's that way for a reason. And maybe the problems feminists see are either a generalization based on the anti-social exception, or a projection of their own deranged mentality.