June 19, 2015

Call it what it is


We already knew Wednesday night shortly after the killings at the historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, SC--the oldest AME church in the south--that the act was committed by a young white man against nine African Americans. Only someone who hadn't lived in this country for more than five minutes wouldn't have had it cross their mind that the attack was racially motivated. Later that same evening, it was already being labeled a "hate crime" by authorities. And yet, by the next morning, Fox & Friends was already pushing the idea that the crime was an attack on Christians and Christianity (and the solution was more guns in churches--but more about that later).

Still later that morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on "The View" said, "There are people out there looking for Christians to kill them." Another GOP presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, jumped on the bandwagon, calling it part of a broader assault on "religious liberty" in America. And, Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) was all over the TV as slippery as a greased pig refusing to say the new R-word (racism)--alternately describing the attack as the Devil's work or trying to get out of explaining why the Confederate flag still flies in front of South Carolina state capitol.


Meanwhile, America had long heard the words uttered by shooting suspect Dylann Roof:
When a man pleaded with him to stop, the shooter replied, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," she said. 
A law enforcement official says witnesses told authorities the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people."



But it wasn't just politicians pushing this anything-but-race "alternative" theory of the crime. Comment after comment on articles and Facebook posts and other social media had average Joe's and Jane's--well, white ones anyway--earnestly insisting that the murders were due solely to mental illness, or attacks on religion, or incredibly whining "why was it being made about race" or "why am I being called a racist" when nobody had called them that in the first place.

The sheer will it must take to wonder "why this happened," or to subscribe alternate motives, or to gloss over the racial aspect of this when the POS who did it was absolutely clear why he murdered nine black people is astounding.


(The usually smart Amy Poehler's Smart Girls initially being pretty clueless which
they thankfully rethought here by linking to Charles P. Pierce's great article in "Esquire.")

Besides what he said himself, this is the same man who proudly displayed Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa flags on his jacket, a Confederate flag license plate on his car, whose friends admitted he was a racist, and whose racist views were apparently spilled all over his social media postings, and who drove hundreds of miles to go to an historic black church to murder black people.



This was first and foremost about race (so stop "wondering"). It was a deliberate attack on black bodies. And, yes, while it did occur in a church, it was not about religion:


It was also an act of terror. As Crooks & Liars pointed out, "The New York Times" tried to warn us just one day before this attack:
The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim extremists, but from right-wing extremists. Just ask the police. 
... 
An officer from a large metropolitan area said that “militias, neo-Nazis and sovereign citizens” are the biggest threat we face in regard to extremism. One officer explained that he ranked the right-wing threat higher because “it is an emerging threat that we don’t have as good of a grip on, even with our intelligence unit, as we do with the Al Shabab/Al Qaeda issue, which we have been dealing with for some time.” An officer on the West Coast explained that the “sovereign citizen” anti-government threat has “really taken off,” whereas terrorism by American Muslim is something “we just haven’t experienced yet.”
And, while this was about race, the accessory to these murders--to this act of terrorism--was our twisted gun culture and our refusal to stand up to it. From President Obama's statement:
I've had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. 
We don't have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hand on a gun. 
Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency.
And, from the "Washington Post":
Dylann Roof, the man accused of a shooting spree that left nine people dead at a historic black church in Charleston on Wednesday night, should not have been able to get a gun. 
Federal law prohibits people with pending felony charges from obtaining firearms. In February, Roof was arrested and later charged with felony possession of Suboxone, a narcotic prescription drug. He was released, and the case is pending. 
Because of his criminal record, Roof would not have been able to buy a gun from a store. Federally licensed gun dealers are required to run background checks on gun purchasers, and Roof’s pending charges should have turned up as a red flag. 
But Roof didn’t need to go to a dealership. According to his uncle, Roof received a .45-caliber pistol from his father in April for his birthday, Reuters reports.

And, lastly, this


In case you can't tell, that sticker on the newspaper is an ad for a gun shop...

9 comments:

  1. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency.

    Waiting for the Obots to claim that Obama was talking about roads and bridges or he meant just China, Japan and Russia when referring to .
    England, France and Norway are not "Advanced Countries”

    WRONG AGAIN… Obama Says: “This Kind of Mass Violence Does Not Happen in Other Advanced Countries”
    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/06/wrong-again-obama-says-this-kind-of-mass-violence-does-not-happen-in-other-advanced-countries/#ixzz3dRVyZaJz

    As Crooks & Liars pointed out,
    The are also calling for civility and a National conversation on Guns which consists of progressives exploiting the shooting and telling their opponents to STFU.
    Dear GOP: South Carolina Blood Is On Your Hands
    http://crooksandliars.com/2015/06/dear-gop-south-carolina-blood-your-hands

    In a couple of days, the progressives echo chamber like Crooks and Liars, Raw story,etc will blame Sarah Palin for the shooting because crosshairs. The calls for civilly have returned until Pam Geller or a anti gay marriage group is attacked.

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  2. It does happen in other advanced countries, but with nowhere near the frequency it happens here. Its getting to the point we have these kinds of massacres every six to twelve months, to say nothing of the daily death toll from more "routine" gun violence.

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  3. Six to twelve months? Mass killings are now happening about 3-4 per year in the U.S.A; and no, they do NOT happen with anywhere near that frequency in other advanced nations. And when they do happen, the other countries actually RESPOND-they make changes in policy to try and reduce the likelihood of re-occurrence in their futures. And shove this load of bulls**t about this "not being the appropriate time" to push the issue-when WILL the right time be, given this sort of thing just keeps on happening here?

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  4. My estimate was deliberatly conservative.

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  5. Obama said "Does Not Happen" Obots. Quit trying to pretend otherwise.

    the other countries actually RESPOND-they make changes in policy to try and reduce the likelihood of re-occurrence in their futures."
    Unless it involved Muslims, then they respond to ban hate speech to prevent the anti Muslim backlash.

    Of course the left never lies about shootings
    “fewer than 7 of the 74 school shootings listed by #Everytown are mass shootings,” that one or more probably didn’t happen at all, that at least one was actually a case of self-defense, and that 32 could be classified as “school shootings” only if we are to twist the meaning of the term beyond all recognition.

    Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/380108/lying-about-school-shootings-charles-c-w-cooke

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  6. So you're saying that 74 school shootings are a GOOD thing, because fewer that 7 were mass shootings? You are a very deranged person.

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  7. I'll add that you're ommitting the very next sentance the President uttered: "“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."

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  8. Out of Context Obama meant roads and bridges.
    http://lawofselfdefense.com/aoshq-obama-gets-gun-stupid-ace-kicks-him-in-the-nads/
    Meanwhile, our Low Information President wants to know why these sorts of mass shootings never happen in other advanced Western democracies, many of which have adopted sensible, pragmatic Total Gun Bans, such as England, Australia, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, France, Norway, France, and even Denmark.

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  9. Again, you ignore the second sentence, and the context of the entire statement. Its like you have no reading comprehension at all, mearly seizing on a single sentence out of a paragraph and completely ignoring everything else.

    ReplyDelete