Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
Sat May 27, 2017, 02:31 AM May 2017

Terrible tragedy on Portland's Max Train. Champions of justice risked and lost their lives.









Yelling anti-Muslim, 'anti-everything' slurs, man kills 2, Portland police say

Two men were fatally stabbed on a crowded commuter train in Portland, Oregon on Friday after they confronted a passenger who was "yelling a gamut of anti-Muslim and anti-everything slurs," a Portland police spokesman said.
The suspect may have been targeting two girls who were described as Muslim. One of them was wearing a hijab, Portland police Sgt. Pete Simpson told CNN.
"We have not been able to find those girls to verify that," Simpson said.
Police are considering the man's remarks as hate speech, the department said in a statement.
What happened?
The stabbing occurred on a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light-rail train, Portland police said.
One man suffered from traumatic injuries and first responders attempted to save his life, but he died at the scene. The second victim, also stabbed, died at a hospital, police said.
Witnesses said one of the victims was stabbed in the neck, CNN affiliate KOIN reported.
A third passenger who also tried to intervene with the shouting man was injured but his injuries were not expected to be life-threatening, police said.
The victims didn't know the suspect and were trying to protect other passengers in the train, police said.
42 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Terrible tragedy on Portland's Max Train. Champions of justice risked and lost their lives. (Original Post) L. Coyote May 2017 OP
This is terrorism. .where's the GOP ? Kittycow May 2017 #1
The GOP is busy devising a bill to deprieve milllions of health care. riversedge May 2017 #2
Surely Rep. Greg Walden will hurry forth to denounce this as terrorism. Kittycow May 2017 #3
Well, to cut taxes on GOP donors sharedvalues May 2017 #9
The GOP? joshdawg May 2017 #4
+1 uponit7771 May 2017 #7
Is it? Or, is it a hate crime? Police say hate crime. L. Coyote May 2017 #11
YES IT IS heaven05 May 2017 #27
There are no "white people" at all, just people. It is racist to divide people into colors. L. Coyote May 2017 #32
I agree about overcoming and it is the human race heaven05 May 2017 #33
And the supremists need to know they are NOT "white" people. L. Coyote May 2017 #36
well, tell them!!!!!!! heaven05 May 2017 #37
Message auto-removed Name removed May 2017 #5
Many thanks to your friend for getting involved! Kittycow May 2017 #8
Jesus. Warren DeMontague May 2017 #6
I would recommend that anybody else that is as mouthy as me............. socialist_n_TN May 2017 #10
+Infinity. The constabulary have been infiltrated by these Nazi types too, and can no longer KingCharlemagne May 2017 #14
Yep, as witnessed by almost ALL of the police "unions"........ socialist_n_TN May 2017 #34
Cops exist to safeguard the interests of the status quo, i.e., the bourgeoisie. Lenin once said KingCharlemagne May 2017 #35
Didn't see your thread malaise May 2017 #12
Just bumped yours. I saw the "terrorism?" thread, started this one for sake of truth. L. Coyote May 2017 #15
See training does help malaise May 2017 #16
Well, it for SURE can't hurt......... socialist_n_TN May 2017 #38
I hold Donald Trump and anyone who voted for him personlly responsible for these KingCharlemagne May 2017 #13
Enabling hate. People have been sued successfully for that in Portland. L. Coyote May 2017 #18
Was that when the Ethiopian guy on a bike was murdered? Kittycow May 2017 #21
Legacy of a hate crime: Mulugeta Seraw L. Coyote May 2017 #22
That was such a huge victory, esp. back then! Kittycow May 2017 #23
I have to refrain from comments on these racist cretins anymore. roamer65 May 2017 #17
Brave people. They need a hero's buriat. Knr joeybee12 May 2017 #19
I hope there's a public program of some kind. Kittycow May 2017 #20
Was NOT a terrorist attack, it was a hate crime and a lethal altercation after people intervened. L. Coyote May 2017 #24
the people who perpetrate heaven05 May 2017 #28
There are no "white people" only people. It is racist to divide people into colors. L. Coyote May 2017 #31
Portlanders have raised $125,000 for "TriMet Heroes" killed or injured in MAX hate attack. L. Coyote May 2017 #25
These two men are true American heroes. L. Coyote May 2017 #26
Just awful MFM008 May 2017 #29
I can't bear this story flamingdem May 2017 #30
I can't bear the ReTHUG silence malaise May 2017 #39
Can't believe the rethugs are silent on this flamingdem May 2017 #41
Well they're all in this malaise May 2017 #42
Portlanders Arrive By the Thousands for Vigil to Celebrate Men Who Gave Their Lives L. Coyote May 2017 #40

Kittycow

(2,396 posts)
3. Surely Rep. Greg Walden will hurry forth to denounce this as terrorism.
Sat May 27, 2017, 04:46 AM
May 2017

Oh wait, you're right. What was I thinking

He's one of the top guns dismantling health care.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
27. YES IT IS
Sat May 27, 2017, 10:22 PM
May 2017

white supremacist terrorism. Period. What??? White people can't be terrorist in your book now? WHITE TERRORISTS!!!!!!

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
32. There are no "white people" at all, just people. It is racist to divide people into colors.
Sun May 28, 2017, 01:20 AM
May 2017

Don't do it. There is no such thing as races of humans. People need to ovecome this ignorance.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
33. I agree about overcoming and it is the human race
Sun May 28, 2017, 09:08 AM
May 2017

yet to understand our(ameriKKKan) history, the ignorance generated by forced servitude to white people by black people generated that ignorance and the ignorant have never let it go, hence trump the boy who would be potus and his now from the sewer rabid, racist voter base. Getting rid of WHITE SUPREMACIST THOUGHT would go a long way toward toward ridding the world of just one source of hate and ignorance, but it is a large source that has, I dare say, infected the whole world and keeps infecting generation after generation. IT'S SYSTEMIC and INSTITUTIONALIZED as a firm way of life for millions. I didn't divide, I stated a reality of life as created by people who hate and have hated generation after generation.

You have a good Memorial Day, I will be remembering those who have not been able to enjoy this Remembrance Day. All races.

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
36. And the supremists need to know they are NOT "white" people.
Sun May 28, 2017, 09:35 AM
May 2017


...8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, 32, 64, 128, 256,
512 great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents,
1,024 2,048 4,092 8,184 16,368

Fifteen generations ago 32,736 great, great..... grandparents.
Counting back, every generation twice as many ancestors as the generation of descendants.

Given 25 years per generation, 40 generations occur in 1000 years.
We each have one trillion ancestors in the last 1000 years, ..................

Source: http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/ancestors.html



Response to L. Coyote (Original post)

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
10. I would recommend that anybody else that is as mouthy as me.............
Sat May 27, 2017, 09:06 AM
May 2017

get some intensive self-defense training ASAP. It might save your life in a situation like this. Or it might not. But at least the odds would be better.

Because I know that I would have been just like these two martyrs and stood up for those girls. Loudly and vociferously. This kind of shit going down is why I'm always armed with at least a knife and have trained extensively in how to use it. It's also why racists and fascists can't be argued with or allowed an unobstructed platform to spew their hate.

 

KingCharlemagne

(7,908 posts)
14. +Infinity. The constabulary have been infiltrated by these Nazi types too, and can no longer
Sat May 27, 2017, 10:54 AM
May 2017

be relied upon for protection. Half of the pigs probably side with the assailant in this case.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
34. Yep, as witnessed by almost ALL of the police "unions"........
Sun May 28, 2017, 09:10 AM
May 2017

endorsing Trump in SPITE of his rhetoric on the campaign trail. Cops are NOT your friend when it comes to fascists. I would say that MORE than half would probably side with the assailant.

 

KingCharlemagne

(7,908 posts)
35. Cops exist to safeguard the interests of the status quo, i.e., the bourgeoisie. Lenin once said
Sun May 28, 2017, 09:29 AM
May 2017

that police in a capitalist state are not workers, but are servants of the bourgeoisie (roughly translated). In State and Revolution (1917), Lenin wrote that "A standing army and police are the chief instruments of state power."

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
15. Just bumped yours. I saw the "terrorism?" thread, started this one for sake of truth.
Sat May 27, 2017, 11:01 AM
May 2017

This is very Portland. It happened near where I lived. Good people everywhere in Portland don't allow hate speech to go down. This time the guy was a violent and crazed person. Wish I had been there, I've was stabbed nine times once, eight in my left arm and one in my kicking leg, and sent my assailant running with a very sore scrotum. I might have been able to put this guy down with one kick and prevented any deaths.

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
18. Enabling hate. People have been sued successfully for that in Portland.
Sat May 27, 2017, 11:47 AM
May 2017

A national organization of white supremists was brought down by a lawsuit representing the victims of hate crime because they encouraged a local skinhead group to hate.

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
22. Legacy of a hate crime: Mulugeta Seraw
Sat May 27, 2017, 01:24 PM
May 2017
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/11/1998_story_legacy_of_a_hate_cr.html

.......... This story first appeared in The Oregonian on Nov. 13, 1998, the 10th anniversary of Mulugeta Seraw's murder at the hands of three racist Skinheads. ......

Ten years ago today, three men who shared a racist version of the American dream clashed with an African student with a different vision of America. They came together by chance -- a carload of neo-Nazi Skinheads and a 27-year-old Ethiopian named Mulugeta Seraw -- at the Southeast Portland corner of 31st Avenue and Pine Street. There, amid racial slurs, one of the Skinheads raised that most American of symbols, a baseball bat, and clubbed Seraw to death. ...............

"Sounds like the Skinheads did a civic duty, and they didn't even realize it," Tom Metzger said on his taped Jan. 30, 1989, phone hot line.

The words were monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the nation's leading civil rights groups. They infuriated Morris Dees, the center's lead trial lawyer.

Dees, a curly-haired barrister with a silky drawl, kept up with the Seraw case from his office in Montgomery, Ala. He was convinced that Metzger helped to influence the murder. But he lacked evidence.

Four months after the slaying, Dees got the evidence he sought. One of his investigators had obtained a copy of a letter, penned five weeks before the killing, from John Metzger to Mieske. It advised the Portland Skinhead that Mazzella was coming to town to show his friends how the Aryan Youth Movement worked.

If Dees could prove that Mazzella incited Seraw's murder as an agent of WAR's youth wing, he might be able to bankrupt Tom Metzger's organization.
Dees enjoyed an excellent trial record against hate groups. In 1987, he won a $7 million verdict against Klansmen who murdered an African American teen-ager in Alabama and strung his corpse from a tree limb. ...............

Kittycow

(2,396 posts)
23. That was such a huge victory, esp. back then!
Sat May 27, 2017, 02:25 PM
May 2017

Thank goodness the good guys persevered!

Thanks for refreshing my memory. .

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
17. I have to refrain from comments on these racist cretins anymore.
Sat May 27, 2017, 11:05 AM
May 2017

I'd get banned for what I would suggest.

Kittycow

(2,396 posts)
20. I hope there's a public program of some kind.
Sat May 27, 2017, 12:25 PM
May 2017

I imagine that the families' wishes will be honored. I'm just reeling over this, as a Portland citizen.

Mayor Ted Wheeler was on a flight to London when this happened. As soon as his plane landed, he took the first flight back to Portland. I really respect him for that.

I read the Freeper's thread (when I googled the assailant's name ) and besides making fun of PDX for basically being a snowflake city, one poster opined that the killer was acting in self-defense!

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
24. Was NOT a terrorist attack, it was a hate crime and a lethal altercation after people intervened.
Sat May 27, 2017, 04:30 PM
May 2017

9/11 was a terrorist attack. Some idiot wingnut harassing people isn't terrorism. Those who are trying to label this terrorism need to read the law and read the story first.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
28. the people who perpetrate
Sat May 27, 2017, 10:34 PM
May 2017

crimes like this are in the same league as those who flew planes into those buildings. People like this would mass hang those girls with hijabs, AA, gays....they are WHITE TERRORISTS with hate filled minds....it can be denied by purists afraid of truth when it comes to labeling white people as terrorists like this vicious person. Terrorism, pure and simple.

Always using law to cover the truth. The story says, he was harassing two muslim women, two people stepped up to defend those women and are now dead. These people use terror as a weapon, just like those planes were used to create terror and chaos, just like the KKK did in my youth. You can parse all you please. He is a white supremacist and they use threats of terror to cow people into submission to their racist will.

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
31. There are no "white people" only people. It is racist to divide people into colors.
Sun May 28, 2017, 01:17 AM
May 2017

Racism is by definition believing there are different groups of people. Lots of people don't know they are racists. They need to be made aware of their ignorance.

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
40. Portlanders Arrive By the Thousands for Vigil to Celebrate Men Who Gave Their Lives
Sun May 28, 2017, 05:45 PM
May 2017
http://www.wweek.com/news/2017/05/27/portlanders-arrive-by-the-thousands-for-vigil-to-celebrate-men-who-gave-their-lives-on-max-train/
Elise Herron | May 27 at 10:16 PM

Portlanders showed up in the thousands Saturday evening at a vigil for the two men killed on a MAX train in Northeast Portland Friday afternoon.

"I had to park eight blocks away," said John Gartner, a TriMet worker who came with crates of plastic water bottles to hand out to the large crowd.

Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namakai-Meche, 23, were killed Friday afternoon. The suspect is Jeremy Joseph Christian, a white supremacist who was allegedly harrassing two Muslim women.

On Saturday evening at 6:30, a crowd gathered in the grassy knoll in front of the Hollywood MAX station near were the train on which the men were slain stopped Friday. Flowers, candles and handwritten signs and notes were placed by a utility pole adjacent to the crowd.

"We stand with immigrants. We stand with African Americans, with our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters," Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.) told the crowd.

..................
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Terrible tragedy on Portl...