Terrorism
Editor's note: All school and mall shootings should determine the religious background on the shooter(s) and mention it in the original story and every follow-up story after that. Then we will begin to see how much more dangerous religious teaching in the U.S. and how many more American citizens they kill. It's the Christian Shria Law that we have to be worried about with the majority dominating the minority and forcing the minority to adhere to the majorities misguided take on morality. Talk
with your kids about terrorism
Assure children that this kind of violent act almost never happens in the US. It is shocking to all of us, but most people are safe and will continue to be safe. Always be honest with your children and leave plenty of room for questions. Age-appropriate guidelines for how parents can talk with their kids about the recent tragedies. The guidelines include common questions children may ask and suggested answers parents can give. You know your child the best—so use this information as a guideline and start talking together. Before you begin First ask your child:
Having this information will help inform your response, based on your child’s age. For young children in elementary school A child’s concern: Children may ask, “What’s happened in New York?” Response: A mother of a five year old in New York City offered this explanation to her son: “Something very bad and sad happened in New York and in other cities. Two planes crashed into the big buildings downtown. Bad people took over two airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade buildings and many people died. Now many firemen, police officers, and doctors are trying to help all the people who got hurt. Police are also trying to find the bad people.” A child’s concern: Children may be worried about mommy or daddy going to work. Children may be thinking, Will Dad’s or Mom’s office blow up? Or if their parents fly, children may worry, Will the plane be hijacked? Response: Assure children that this kind of violent act almost never happens in the US It is shocking to of all of us, but most people are safe and will continue to be safe. A mother is Washington DC offered the following to her sons: “Your dad works downtown but he will be safe. He and his coworkers and the government are doing everything they can to make everyone safe.” A child’s concern: Some children may ask, “Did children get hurt in the crashes or explosions?” Response: Parents can say: “Sadly, a few children may have been hurt. This is very sad. And we send our thoughts and prayers to the families of the children. But most American children are safe now.” Let children know that if they have any questions about being safe it is okay to talk about these questions and any feelings of fear or sadness. For children in fourth grade and older A child’s concern: Older children might express the concern, “Why did this happen?” Response: Parents can say: “We don’t know exactly why this terrible act of violence has happened. We know that some people used the most extreme form of violence - murder of innocent civilians but we don’t know their reasons for this act of terrorism. There can be no sane reason for doing this.” (Because we have leaders that want to kill people because it makes a lot of money for their friends who make things for war - guns, bombs, planes, tanks, etc.) A child’s concern: Older children might express the concern, “What does our government do to keep us safe from this kind of violence?” Response: Parents can say: “The army and the police are working to make us safer. They are working to find the people who did this. We must let people know that violence against people is not a way to solve problem ever.” A child’s concern: Kids of all ages may feel fearful. They may not say it, but they may feel very scared and shaken. Ask children how they are feeling. Let them communicate their feelings. Some children’s expressions of feelings may seem inappropriate (For example, children tell such as jokes or saying, “It’s not big deal”) so it may take some time for some children to get in touch with their true feelings and to express them. Be patient. But check in with your kids daily to see how they feel and to ask if they have any questions. This may need to continue over the next few weeks or months. Helping children feel safer Talk about the news and provide lots of time for questions (if the children are older). Parents should watch the news with their children but young child may be overwhelmed by constant images of explosions and violence. Turning off the TV for while is very appropriate. For younger children who may show little interest in the news it’s a good opportunity to spend time together, reading books that are comforting, and letting kids know how much they are loved. All school age kids-students will hear
about the attacks and ongoing events on the playground from
other kids. Be prepared to offer your comfort when they
return from school with stories (some of them potentially
scary) from other kids. San Bernardino
Shooting is Deadliest Since Newtown Besides Newtown, only four other attacks have ended with larger body counts. Another aspect that makes the Inland Regional Center shooting unique is the number of attackers. The vast majority of mass shootings have been carried out by lone gunmen; two people are suspected in San Bernardino. Here are America's deadliest mass shootings: 32 killed On April 16, 2007, 23-year-old Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people to death on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus before killing himself. The dead included 27 students and five faculty members. Another 17 people were injured. Days after the shooting, the worst school shooting in the nation's history, NBC News received a package from Cho that contained a video of him ranting about rich "brats" and complaining about being bullied. Students visit a makeshift memorial set up on the campus of Virginia Tech for the students and faculty that lost their lives in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history on April 18, 2007 in Blacksburg, Va. ?Evan Vucci / AP File 27 killed On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 28 people, including himself, his mother, 20 elementary school kids and six school staff and faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Lanza suffered from extreme mental health issues that weren't treated, and was preoccupied with violence, a report from state officials found. He also had easy access to weapons, the report said. 23 killed On Oct. 16, 1991, A 35-year-old named George Hennard crashed his pickup through Luby's Cafeteria, a packed restaurant in Killeen, Texas. He shot and killed 23 people before shooting and killing himself. Twenty-seven others were wounded. The Texas massacre is the deadliest shooting to not happen at a school in U.S. history. According to a former roommate, Hennard "hated blacks, Hispanics, gays. He said women were snakes." 21 killed On July 18, 1984, James Huberty, a 41-year-old former security guard who had lost his job, opened fire at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, killing 21 employees and customers, including children. A police sniper killed him an hour after he started shooting. 18 killed On Aug. 1, 1966, former U.S. Marine Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, killed his mother and wife, then went on top of a tower at University of Texas at Austin and killed 16 others. He also wounded at least 30. Whitman had complained of physical and mental health issues before the attack. He was then shot by a police officer. An autopsy after his death revealed he had a brain tumor, but it was not clear whether that had affected his actions. 14 killed On Dec. 2, 2015, 14 people were reported dead and an estimated 14 hurt in an attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, a state-run facility that provides services to people with developmentally disabled people and trains social workers who care for them. The killers remained on the run Wednesday afternoon. 14 killed On Aug. 20, 1986, postman Patrick Henry Sherill killed 14 postal workers in Edmond, Oklahoma, and then killed himself with a shot to the head. The rampage came a week after two supervisors reprimanded him for lousy performance. 13 killed On April 20, 1999, students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Two dozen were injured. They then killed themselves in the school's library. In journal entries, the high school seniors had written about a desire to imitate events such as the Oklahoma City bombing. 13 killed On Nov. 5, 2009, Mad. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, killed 13 people and injured 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas. The massacre prompted the Army to come up with a list of 78 recommendations for Fort Hood to identify the potential for violent behavior among its soldiers. Hasan has been sentenced to death. 13 killed On April 3, 2009, in Binghamton, New York, 41-year-old Jiverly Wong, an immigrant, killed 13 people and injured four others at an immigrant services center before killing himself. President Obama called the shootings "an act of senseless violence." 13 killed On Feb. 18, 1983, three robbers at the Wah Mee gambling club in Seattle killed 13 people. Kwan Fai Mak and Benjamin Ng were convicted of murder later that year and are serving life sentences; Wai-Chu Ng was deported to Hong Kong last year. 12 killed On July 20, 2012, 24-year-old James Holmes sprayed bullets on a midnight screening of the new Batman movie at a theater in Aurora, Colorado. In addition to the 12 killed, 58 were wounded. Defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully to argue that he was insane at the time of the attack; he was sentenced to life in prison in August. 12 killed On Sept. 16, 2013, a 34-year-old named
Aaron Alexis opened fire inside the Washington Navy Yard,
killing 12. The former Navy reservist died in a gun battle
with police. Why isn't it
'terrorism' when the perpetrators aren't Muslim? At this week’s Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas and in the courts of America, it seems like when we talk about “terrorism” we only appear to bring the subject up when the perpetrators are Muslim and/or brown-skinned. Since September 11, there were nine foreign-inspired “Jihadist” terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that killed 45 Americans, while 18 domestic-inspired far right terrorism attacks killed 48 people. We consider and debate all sorts of measures to change surveillance and immigration procedures while ignoring due process and the Constitution for foreign and Muslim threats because of the 14 people killed in San Bernardino last week. But we do absolutely nothing in response to the nine people killed in Charleston by Dylann Roof, or the six people killed at a Sikh temple in 2012, or the three killed in Colorado at Planned Parenthood last month, or the three killed in Las Vegas in 2014 including two police officers and one “good guy with a gun” in Walmart, or the three people killed at a Kansas Jewish center in 2014, or the four people killed in a multi-state spree by white supremacists in 2012, or the four people killed by the FEAR Militia in 2011. But then in those 18 deadly domestic terrorist attacks, nearly all of the “violent killers” involved were white. So I guess it just doesn’t count then, does it? And all of that's not including the 32 people killed by Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech, the 26 killed by Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut, the 12 killed by James Holmes in Aurora Colorado, the 12 killed by Aaron Alexis at the D.C. Shipyard, the seven killed by Elliot Rodger in Isla Vista, California, the six killed by Jared Loughner in Tuscon, Arizona, and the two killed by Vester Lee Flannigan in Moneta, Virginia. Those cases, which killed a total of 97 people and wounded dozens, were deemed to be the result of “mental illness” and not “terrorism” so there’s nothing to discuss about them, is there? Certainly not background checks or temporary weapons restraining orders for those under emotional duress, so let’s move on. This very point was the core of the Young Turks’ discussion this week following the Republican debate, because when you look at not just the lethal attacks but the non-lethal violence of domestic terrorists, it gets even worse. “In the last 13 years, there’s been five times as many right-wing attacks in this country as Muslim attacks. Not a single question about it,” host Cenk Uygur said. He pointed out that while Republicans have been critical of Democratic candidates for not saying the phrase “radical Islam,” the GOP refuses to say “right wing terrorism.” Terrorism from foreign sources has not
risen dramatically in recent years, despite San Bernardino.
But the fact is that acts of hate
and domestic terrorism against
Muslims A new FBI report says hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise. As Republican officials wring their hands about letting Muslim refugees in the country, hate crimes against Muslims in this country are actually on the rise in the U.S. That prediction for 2015 seems to be proving true as we look back just over the last couple of weeks:
Another point is that there is no real
or practical difference between a “hate crime” and
“terrorism.” U.S. Federal statutes define
hate
crimes (1) Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.—Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person— Which has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison or life in prison if someone is killed, but domestic terrorism is defined as: (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; Which has maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy, or death if murder is involved. But in real terms, anyone who attacks or attempts to intimidate someone on the basis of their race, religion, or national origin is also trying to “coerce a civilian population” by injecting them with fear, aren’t they? In one case it’s about the race and religion of the victim, in the other it’s the race/religion of the perpetrator, which is largely a distinction without much real difference. And what should be shocking is that except for Timothy McVeigh who was charged with conspiracy and use of a WMD, none of the domestic terrorism cases listed or mentioned at the beginning of this post have resulted in prosecutions for terrorism. Robert Dear was charged with murder in the first degree—not terrorism—for his attack on Planned Parenthood. Dylann Roof was charged with murder and firearms violations, but not terrorism. The Department of Justice charged Dylann Roof, the white 21-year-old man who allegedly gunned down nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, with murder, attempted murder and use of a firearm, all in the commission of a hate crime. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the charges on Wednesday afternoon. It wasn’t a “political act” despite the fact that Roof wrote a racist manifesto where he specifically stated he wanted to “start a revolution.” The same was true of Oregon white supremacists Holly Grisby and David “Joey” Pedersen, who killed four people in a multi-state murder spree. A 27-year-old woman who joined her boyfriend in a 2011 murder spree to kill Jews and minorities has pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., in a deal that calls for her to spend the rest of her life in federal prison without the possibility of parole. Yet again, not “terrorism.” The five members of the "FEAR" militia who killed three people weren’t charged with terrorism, either. According to prosecutors, the four soldiers were part of a militia formed at nearby Fort Stewart, which trains the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. They dubbed their group FEAR, for Forever Enduring Always Ready, says Burnett. They wanted to kill the president, but apparently they didn’t want to “affect the conduct of our government by assassination.” Okay. Even if you go back to before September 11, when the U.S. Olympics were bombed in 1996 by Eric Robert Rudolph, he also was not charged with terrorism. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Federal authorities today charged Eric Robert Rudolph with the fatal bombing two years ago at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, as well as the 1997 bombings at an Atlanta area health clinic and a nightclub, the Southeast Bomb Task Force announced. Contrast these facts with the FBI ten years after September 11, giving itself a pat on the back for stopping terrorism—but only cases of terrorism attempted by Muslims. This is not just a coincidence: It’s a biased strategy to shunt dozens of mass murderers with political, religious, or racial intent into the state court system to face conspiracy and murder charges. Unless they happen to be Muslim, in which case they face charges of terrorism. It’s happening at all levels of government, not just during the presidential debates and regardless of whether the current administration is Democratic or Republican. This is just how we roll. All of which leads you to the conclusion that unless you’re a member of Occupy, are protesting NATO, or are one of the 15 Confederates who crashed a party because they wanted to “kill the niggers,” if you aren’t a Muslim you pretty much can't be a “terrorist.” Even if you go out and do everything a terrorist would do. Except be whiter. Not in ‘Murica. No sir.
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have been increasing.