The Charleston Shooter: Is He Or Isn't He? [View all]

[rocktivity]

Last edited Fri Nov 27, 2015, 01:20 PM - Edit history (16)

Let's get this straightened out once and for all: Did Dylan Roof commit an act of domestic terrorism, or did he not?

First things first: let's all get on the same page in terms of exactly what domestic terrorism IS. Okay then -- according to the Cornell University Legal Information Institute:

U.S. Code § 2331 - Definitions

(5) The term “domestic terrorism” means activities that:

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended to:

(i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

Now, let's look at the evidence available to us:

Daily Beast: Joseph Meek Jr...(a) best friend (in) middle school...says Roof had begun ranting about the murders of Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray...“He said blacks were taking over the world. Someone needed to do something about it for the white race,” Meek said. “He said he wanted segregation between whites and blacks. I said, ‘That’s not the way it should be.’ But he kept talking about it.”

...Roommate Dalton Tyler told ABC News that Roof was “planning something like that for six months...He was big into segregation and other stuff...He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself."

Christon Scriven, a friend...who is black...told the New York Daily News...“He flat out told us he was going to do this stuff...He was looking to kill a bunch of people.” He and their other friends assumed he had been joking. “He’s weird. You don’t know when to take him seriously and when not to,” he said.

Roof's Last Rhodesian.com Manifesto: ...(T)he Trayvon Martin case...prompted me to type in the words “black on White crime” into Google, and I have never been the same since that day. The first Web site I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens...

I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.

NBC News: The female survivor told Johnson that the gunman reloaded five different times..."You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," the shooter told the group, according to the survivor's account to Johnson.

The Guardian: Dylann Storm Roof...has reportedly confessed to carrying out the shootings at Emanuel AME church on Tuesday night...According to...CNN...(T)he 21-year-old...said that his motive had been that he wanted to start a race war...

Our next order of business is to determine if Roof's actions fit the legal definition of domestic terrorism -- did they:

Involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State? Yes -- shooting people is considered a violation of criminal laws in the United States, including the state of South Carolina.

Appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population? Yes -- his writings and the statements he made to his friends, his very victims, and law enforcement strongly suggest that he intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.

Appear to be intended to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion by assassination? Yes -- declaring a civil war on part of the civilian population is certainly a vote of no confidence in government policy.

Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States? Yes -- they occurred in the United State of South Carolina.

All that's left do now is determine what part of the civilian population Roof was trying to coerce or intimidate. Well, by his own admissions, Roof intentionally traveled to a place that he knew would contain a lot of black people, and shot nine of them because they were black and he wanted to start a race war against blacks. So his act of domestic terrorism must have been based on race, and the black race in particular -- right?

NY Daily News: South Carolina...(m)agistrate James “Skip” Gosnell, Jr...announced in the courtroom packed with the victims’ anguished relatives:

“There are victims on this young man’s side of the family...Nobody would have ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they are being thrown into...We must find it in our heart at some point in time not only to help those that are victims but to also help his family as well.” Gosnell’s...statement — which was aired live on cable news — drew the wrath of hordes of furious social media users...

Daily Kos: ...Charles Cotton...of the National Rifle Association...decided to weigh in with his own explanation of who was really to blame for this horrific act of domestic terrorism: One of the murder victims...State Senator Clementa Pinckney..."voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."

Right Wing Watch: Texas Gov. Rick Perry described the mass shooting at an African American church in Charleston earlier this week as an “accident” that was possibly caused by the over-prescription of medication...

Instead of talking about guns, Perry said, we should be talking about prescription drugs: "It seems to me, again without having all the details about this, that these individuals have been medicated and there may be a real issue in this country from the standpoint of these drugs and how they’re used.”

He added that while the shooting was “a crime of hate,” he didn’t know if it should be called a terrorist attack...

Business Insider: Reached for comment, a Perry communications adviser wrote in an email..."When watching the entire interview, it's clear from the context of his comments that Governor Perry meant incident."

Addicting Info: During a radio interview...Rick Santorum claimed that...Roof chose his victims “indiscriminately.”

“It’s obviously a crime of hate. We don’t know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be?...(Y)ou talk about the importance of prayer at this time, and we’re now seeing assaults on religious liberty we’ve never seen before..."

MediaMatters: Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy stated that it was extraordinary the massacre was being labeled a hate crime, positing, "It was a church, so maybe that's what they're talking about" and citing "hostility towards Christians."

Guest Bishop E. W. Jackson agreed that "most people jump to conclusions about race," and that "we don't know why he went into a church, but he didn't choose a "bar" or "basketball court."

Later, frequent Fox guest and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani theorized that "we don't know the motivation of the person who did this," saying "maybe he hates Christian churches."

And later that day on Fox News Radio, Brian Kilmeade speculated that maybe the shooter "hates Christian churches" or possibly just the state of South Carolina.

NJ.com: "It's an awful tragedy anytime that somebody would walk in and participate in a prayer service for an hour and then get up and shoot the people you have been praying with? That's obviously a pretty depraved person," Chris Christie said...

Huffington Post: "It was a horrific act and I don't know what the background of it is, but it was an act of hatred," Jeb Bush said.

Asked again whether the shooting was because of race, Bush added, "I don't know. Looks like to me it was, but we'll find out all the information. It's clear it was an act of raw hatred, for sure. Nine people lost their lives, and they were African-American. You can judge what it is."

DU-er Yuiyoshida (via Twitter and the Huffington Post):

[center][/center]

Wow -- I almost blew it, and I certainly owe Mr. Roof an apology. There I was, all set to brand him as a race-based domestic terrorist just because he admitted that he was trying to start a race war against blacks! Not once did I consider that Root might have been trying to intimidate or coerce the civilian populations of the religious in general, Christians in particular, the pharmaceutical industry, gun control advocates, or even his own relatives.

Roof told his acquaintances he wanted to start a race war against blacks; he told his victims he was murdering them because they were black; he confessed to law enforcement that he'd tried start a race war against blacks, and how do I thank him? With irresponsible speculating and baseless conclusions!


rocktivity