'We were safe until he started talking': El Paso residents respond to President Trump

[riversedge]

She hit it on the mark!


‘We were safe until he started talking’: El Paso residents respond to President Trump


https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-05/el-paso-shooting-residents-respond-to-president-trump


By David Montero, Jenny Jarvie
Aug. 5, 2019 6:04 PM


Watching President Trump step up to a White House podium Monday to assert that “hate has no place in America,” many people in this Texas border city were dumbfounded.

“We were safe until he started talking,” John Smith-Davis, 47, a retired Army veteran, said as he mourned with his friends at a memorial near the Walmart where a gunman opened fire Saturday. “He made us a target with his hateful rhetoric.”

Veronica Sanchez, a 23-year-old dental assistant, put it more succinctly: “He has said enough.”

El Paso, whose 680,000 people are mostly Latino and mostly Democrats, has long viewed Trump warily — and his most forceful statement since the massacre that has now claimed 22 lives there did little to change that.


“These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack against our nation and a crime against all of humanity,” Trump said in a speech Monday about the killings here and another mass shooting a day later in Dayton, Ohio. “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.”

That was little comfort to many El Paso residents, who focused instead on the ways that Trump has stoked the racism and xenophobia that appears to have motivated the killer and his decision to target Mexican immigrants............................................






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Mourners at a vigil



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A vigil for victims of the El Paso shooting.
(Associated Press)

[SallyHemmings]

1. I hope they go on with their day and ignore him

The empty streets or lack of a crowd will speak volumes.

[Grammy23]

2. He has no business going to El Paso or any other place suffering the grief

that follows a mass murder in their community. He has used vile, divisive rhetoric from Day One of his efforts to be President. It is a core part of his rallies and statements made from podiums in the White House. He has spent countless hours coaching his minions on how to feel and act toward certain groups he designates in his speeches. Television or the internet has spread his racist message by carrying his speeches Live and putting them on repeat until we are sick to death of hearing his voice.

tRump can run but he cannot hide. His defenders can deny his part in these tragedies but the connection is clear. Some of these perpetrators even use his words. So the connection is very clear. He has used his influence and authority to tell people how to feel and act. And like true believers do, they follow his orders. They repeat his racist ideas and in the case of the killers, they carry out their murderous acts thinking they are doing what he wants them to do.

Donald tRump needs to understand that words matter. His influence as POTUS matters. And if there is a straight line connecting him to these vicious murders, he shouldn’t try to hide behind his words. Be a man about it and accept that he is tied inevitably to these events. If he is so convinced that what he says at his rallies is truth, then own the natural outcome from teaching people to hate.

[smirkymonkey]

5. +1000

This! Very well said! Can't rec this enough!

[Eyeball_Kid]

10. Trumpy knows that words matter. That's why he uses them to foment

division, violence, and death. From his POV, it's his ticket to power.

This makes him a purveyor of evil. Mincing words about Trumpy's nature is a mistake. He's simply an evil son of a bitch who needs to be silenced and overcome by the good actions of others.

When the history of this time is written, Trumpy will symbolize a chaotic and crazy moment in human political history in which everything went wrong for all the wrong reasons. Like Hitler's rise to power in the 20th century, Trumpy's rise to power will be shown to illustrate the poor judgments that humans can make in allowing an evil despot to rule over them.

[malaise]

3. Get thee to the greatest page

Shun that monster

[Stuart G]

4. K and R

[llmart]

6. Thousands of protesters ought to greet him with signs...

standing silently with signs that say "We don't want you here".

That would be a powerful message.

Stop normalizing this ugly excuse for a human being.

[TNNurse]

7. You were not welcome at those funerals and you are not welcome here.

Someone should look him in the face and say it.

[Pobeka]

8. How many days before twit-head blows dog-whistle that evicerates his "statement" from yesterday?

I think less than a week.

[bigbrother05]

9. It appears that the wall went up on the wrong side of El Paso

If it was on the other side, Trump and that kid from Dallas wouldn't get in.

[SCVDem]

11. People wanted a businessman in charge.

Okay, fine. Here's how that works.

Dear Deadbeat Donnie, Due to a half million dollars owed to El Paso for security last visit, which is unpaid, The city cannot provide any further assistance when you disrupt our city with your unwanted visit.

It's a safe city until you start talking, so there is your security advice. No charge.

Thoughts and prayers!

[bucolic_frolic]

12. These mass murder events are serving the purpose

of instilling fear in the minds of the resistance. It's being used for suppression of public opinion in that sense.