Someone suggested, here or elsewhere, that the murderer might owe his middle name to a political group. I googled stormfront and read some of the discussion on their web site. Educational, to say the least.
It is difficult to believe that people like this walk among us.
Strange…
I should add that they might have been there and A- I didn’t see it or B- they weren’t in marked cars for whatever reason.
Blaming any of this on politics is mentally lazy. Silly even, as this is:
Given black-on-white hate crime is rare as snarks & boojums, something connotative of plain ol’ economically motivated criminality seems fair, and your murderous (but otherwise average) adherent of Islam simply allowed some fellow practitioners to hang that sign around his neck. (Best would be if they took special care to leave a note disavowing religion had a single thing to do with whatever they’ve done so the rush to judgement crowd doesn’t mistake it for yet another terrorist incident.)
Time will tell if Roof was a psych med pill popper. If he was, his dad is dumber than a box of rocks and ought to seriously consider his own culpability in this.
I imagine things will not go well for this guy in state prison. He is probably already a marked man.
There are some really awful people walking this earth. SMH.
I have cleaned out as many of the political postings as I could. This thread will have to be closed if the political opportunists don’t stop now.
From the Associated Press, an interview with a friend who saw him a few weeks ago:
More at link.
I don’t know if all of this stuff came from his parents or elsewhere. There’s certainly plenty of that kind of hate speech around. But whatever the source of his political “radicalization,” he committed mass murder for political ends. He’s no different from the Tsarnaev brothers.
I like how you brought in the term “radicalization” - it seems to fit here and is a flipping of the tables that is shocking to the senses in a weird, visceral way yet appears accurate.
Spoken by the late Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, as quoted by Henry Louis Gates in this piece:
What a loss of a man, whose words now sound like a cry about so much else wrong. What a loss of the others in this horrifying act.
I was thinking exactly this today, @Consolation . I remember when that happened, I predicted to someone, “This one is different. Something will come out of this.” I was wrong. We’re beyond redemption.
"“Meeks said Roof also told him that he had used birthday money from his parents to buy a gun and that he had “a plan.” He didn’t elaborate on what it was, but Meeks said he was worried — and said he knew Roof had the “Glock” — a .45 caliber pistol — in the trunk of his car.”
He was so worried, and knew Roof had a gun and a plan, but yet he didnt tel anyone!?!?
Not to derail anything, but @romanigypsyeyes - there was coverage of the vigils in Detroit on the local news, but most of it focused on interviews with Andre Spivey, who was a longtime friend of Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
And to keep the record straight - it now appears that no one GAVE the gun to Dylann Roof. He bought it himself with his birthday money.
Don’t want to wander into politics, but I agree with those who said that nothing - no massacre, no atrocity - will change the American gun laws now. If the murder of 20 children didn’t change things, then why should this horrible shooting? Along the way, it appears that many Americans have decided that the current gun laws are just fine, and the steady drum of school shootings, workplace shootings, and church and movie theater and mall shootings is an acceptable price to pay to maintain the status quo.
I bet if blacks, muslim, and Latinos start open carrying large caliber weapons, you’ll see a huge demand for gun control.
Jon Stewart’s monologue last night: http://gawker.com/somber-jon-stewart-delivers-scathing-monologue-about-ch-1712464655
Blame the fool not the tool. Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church bombing almost 52 years ago was caused by 15 sticks of dynamite, not 15 45ACP bullets. Terrorists don’t need guns to do their evil deeds.
It’s a lot harder to get dynamite these days. Even bulk purchase of Ammonium Hydrate fertilizer is scrutinized heavily after Oklahoma City.
I was a kid during the early days of the civil rights movement, and I remember being so scared when some of my family members who still lived in the South and were prominent in the movement had a crossed burned on their lawn and received death threats. My cousins were escorted to school by the FBI for several months.
Many of those people who threatened the lives of little kids because their parents supported civil rights are still alive. Racial hatred has not completely died. In fact, it has resurfaced. There seems to be less social stigma against certain expressions of racial animus now than back in the 70s and 80s.
My personal theory is that hard economic times result in some people looking around for someone to blame for their financial struggles. In this atmosphere, It is completely irresponsible for some with talk shows on radio or TV, or with positions in government, to spew hatred without regard to potential outcomes.
The Boston Marathon bombers used pressure cooker that can be bought at any Walmart.