June 19, 2015

NRA Board Member Blames Charleston Victim For His Own Death

NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed Clementa Pinckney, a victim of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for his own death. He also blamed Pinckney, the pastor of Emanuel AME and a state senator, for the deaths of the other eight people killed.

As a state senator, Pinckney supported tougher gun regulations and opposed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in churches. On TexasCHLForum.com, a message board, Cotton wrote that “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.”




http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/18/3671649/nra-board-member-blames-charleston-victim-death/

June 19, 2015

Chris Hayes Confronts Mark Sanford About Confederate Flag: Flying ‘Symbol of Tyranny’

The shooting in Charleston has revived a national debate over the Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina state capitol and the question of why the Confederate flag is still embraced in the state, especially given how the Charleston gunman had a Confederate flag license plate.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes confronted former South Carolina governor and current congressman Mark Sanford about why a “symbol of tyranny” and “white supremacy” and “domination” continues to fly from the capitol to this day.

Sanford argued that to another part of the population, “it’s a symbol of heritage” and state’s rights and the sacrifices of their ancestors. Hayes shot back that there’s clearly a connection between the symbolism of that flag and the horrible, racist actions of the Charleston killer.

Sanford insisted the shooter is an “outlier” and talked about making racial progress in South Carolina in other ways. Hayes was just really bothered by the strange resistance to taking it down in the first place.


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-hayes-confronts-mark-sanford-about-confederate-flag-flying-symbol-of-tyranny/

June 19, 2015

SPLC statement on the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina

A white man who admires apartheid walks into a black church and kills nine people. According to an eyewitness, he says that he has "to do it" because black people "rape our women" and are "taking over our country." It's an obvious hate crime by someone who feels threatened by our country's changing demographics and the increasing prominence of African Americans in public life.

Since 2000, we've seen an increase in the number of hate groups in our country — groups that vilify others on the basis of characteristics such as race or ethnicity. Though the numbers have gone down somewhat in the last two years, they are still at historically high levels. The increase has been driven by a backlash to the country's increasing racial diversity, an increase symbolized, for many, by the presence of an African American in the White House.

Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of Jihadi terrorism. But the horrific tragedy at the Emmanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real.

Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. Black churches, including those in South Carolina, have been the targets of hate crimes throughout our country's history. We know that they will remain resolute and their faith unshaken in the face of this tragedy.


http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-statement-on-the-shooting-in-charleston-south-carolina

June 19, 2015

Here is what I find most disturbing about Roof's racism (I'm thinking out loud).

That's a rant that goes back to Reconstruction, Jim Crowe and the heyday of the KKK. Now, while I don't hang around any white supremacists, I don't recall hearing about protecting white women in the past few decades. Where does a 21-year old kid pick that up unless he lives in a household where that kind of old-school racism goes back for generations. And how many other households in the South are breeding more Dylan Roofs?

June 19, 2015

Texas oil exec stops his car to punch a gay pedestrian unconscious

A Texas oil executive swore at a gay couple he passed in his vehicle, stopped his car in a lane of traffic, got out, and proceeded to knock a man unconscious, the Dallas Voice reports.

Anthony Fera, the president of Houston’s MidStar Energy LP, has been charged with assault.

In April, Andy Smith and Paul von Wupperfeld, who are married, were walking in Austin when, the couple says, Fera drove by and almost mowed them over.

“I hollered out, ‘you nearly hit us.'” Smith writes in his statement to police. Fera reportedly replied, ‘Fuck you faggot.’” Smith and Fera exchanged a few more words before Fera exited his car, punched Smith in the head, ran back, and resumed driving.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/fck-you-fggot-texas-oil-exec-stops-his-car-to-punch-a-gay-pedestrian-unconscious/

June 19, 2015

Ohio man terrorizes black children with gun

An Ohio man harassed a group of boys, at least some of whom were black, while pursuing them on foot through his neighborhood, hurling racial epithets in their direction, threatening them with a gun, and urging police to come arrest the children, WKBN reports.

On Monday Gust Mamounis observed two boys outside his home begin to fight, while five other boys looked on. In a video obtained by police, Mamounis exited his house and cocked his gun.

The children, feeling threatened, dispersed. But Mamounis, a 38-year-old man, followed them, shouting racial slurs. Police can confirm Mamounis did this because he was on the phone with 911 at the time, and the four-minute recording is part of the evidence police used to charged the Struthers man with aggravated menacing, disorderly conduct, and inducing panic.

WKBN obtained a recording of Mamounis’ 911 call, which it says it will not publish because the tape is “filled with so many expletives and racial slurs.”

The news outlet reports Mamounis used the word “n****r “nine times and the word “fuck” 29 times during his phone conservation with the Struthers police.


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/send-the-ns-back-to-youngstown-where-they-belong-ohio-man-terrorizes-children-with-gun/

June 19, 2015

Roof lived in the most right wing part of South Carolina

According to a guest on MSNBC.

June 18, 2015

Report: Roof planned massacre for months. Wanted new Civil War

The roommate of the white, 21-year old man who allegedly massacred nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina said Thursday that he thought the suspect had been planning the attack for about six months.

Dalton Tyler told ABC News that he'd known Dylann Storm Roof for about seven months to a year. Tyler told the news outlet that he last saw Roof about a week ago and knew he'd been planning something like the Charleston church attack "for six months."

“He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Tyler told ABC News. “He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”

Tyler described Roof as "on and off" with his parents, according to ABC News. Members of Roof's immediate family have not given extensive comment on his alleged crime.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dylann-roof-plan-charleston-shooting

June 18, 2015

Rand Paul: Shootings Like Charleston Can't Be 'Fixed By Government'

Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) kept his comments on the shooting in Charleston, S.C. brief on Thursday, saying that the "sickness" in America that gives rise to such killings cannot be solved by government.

"What kind of person goes into a church and shoots nine people?" Paul said in the middle of his speech to the Faith & Freedom Coalition Policy Conference, broadcast by C-SPAN.

“There’s a sickness in our country,” he continued. “There’s something terribly wrong, but it isn’t going to be fixed by your government.”

"It's people straying away, it's people not understanding where salvation comes from," he added.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/charleston-shooting-rand-paul-government

June 18, 2015

Marco Rubio ignores Charleston tragedy in big speech — but makes sure to praise the Second Amendment

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida ignored yesterday’s heinous shooting at a historical African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina when he addressed a crowd of conservatives today, choosing instead to reaffirm his commitment to the 2nd amendment.

1-year-old Dylann Roof was apprehended today after he allegedly opened fire on a Bible study group at the historic predominantly black Emanuel AME Church last night. The shooting left nine people dead.

Today, Rubio spoke before the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road To Majority 2015 summit in Washington. Billed as “the premier event for people of faith and conservative activists,” the summit is expected to host every announced and potential 2016 GOP candidate except Donald Trump. Today’s schedule featured Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, in addition to Rubio.

During the speech, which was interrupted by immigration reform activists, the freshman senator completely ignored the Charleston attack.

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/18/marco_rubio_ignores_charleston_tragedy_in_big_speech_but_makes_sure_to_praise_the_second_amendment/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow