Charleston police chief Greg Mullen declared that the shooting of nine African-Americans in Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday was a “hate crime” even before we learned anything about what may have motivated the attack. As it became increasingly clear on Thursday that alleged shooter Dylann Roof is a white supremacist who wanted to terrorize the black community, many asked why journalists and law enforcement were sticking with the milder term rather than calling the shooting an act of domestic terrorism.
On the journalism site Poynter, Al Tompkins argued that the media “should remain factual and focused on truth-telling, not guessing” in times like these.
Who was the shooter referring to? Church members? Christians? Or black people?
Is this shooting in Charleston, South Carolina an act of terrorism? We don’t know yet. My advice to Matt [Jaworowski, a digital content producer] was to stick to the facts, publish as much information as possible to catch the killer, then we can begin to understand why he did what he did.
… it is important to use the term “terrorism” when we see it in order to be consistent. Terrorism is already used without hesitation for many non-white – especially Muslim – actors who carry out violence consistent with the definition outlined above. Few media sources use the term for violent actors motivated by, for example, white supremacy or anti-government rage. To avoid the term becoming simply an insult, or worse a racist insult, it should be used whenever the basic criteria apply, or not at all.
@Deanofcomedy i didnt wait, though...because authorities see it that way. terrorism doesnt just mean "muslim extremism"
3. Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.
Roof’s comment that blacks were “taking over the country“ and “have to go” makes it clear that his murderous rampage was at the very least intended to intimidate the African American community in that area. He wanted to terrorize them so they would not even feel safe in their own place of worship.
Roof also assassinated an elected official, South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney, the well-known pastor of the church. Was this assassination intended to impact the conduct of government? Again Roof’s comment that blacks are taking over our country would arguably indicate that he wanted to remove black elected officials from office, which would certainly influence government policies.
Given these facts, as a former trial lawyer, I can say it appears that Roof’s conduct warrants charging him with domestic terrorism under this federal statute.
White men telling me that this can't technically be terrorism are perhaps not themselves, personally, in a position to be terrorized by it.
Call it a "hate crime," but really that's a euphemism for the kind of terror black folks have experienced since we were brought here.
I guess people shy away from calling acts like this terrorism because that would mean white supremacy in itself is a terrorist act. And we live in a country that operates on systemic racism.
But do the thought experiment: If this attack on the church in Charleston had been conducted by a Muslim man shouting “Allahu akbar,” what is already a big news story would have become even bigger, as it would appear to fit so well into the political and media narrative that Muslim militants are the major terrorist problem in the United States.
According to a count by New America, since 9/11, 26 people have been killed in jihadist terrorist attacks in the United States, while extremist right-wing racists and anti-government militants have killed 48, if we include the nine people who were killed in the attack in Charleston, which is being investigated as a hate crime.
Terrorism in the United States and around the world, however, has a much longer history than the period after 9/11 and hasn’t been limited to radical Islamists. Consider the IRA, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, Carlos the Jackal, the Red Brigades, the KKK, and Timothy McVeigh. The use of violence as a political tool against civilian targets is a tool that adheres neither to religion nor race.
It has always been ironic to me that America has been diligent in fighting the war against terror around the globe, losing thousands of lives in the effort and spending billions, if not trillions, of dollars over the years to hunt down foreign terrorists whom we felt were a threat to our nation or our allies. Well, America, it is past time to fight a war on racial terror within our own shores.
We have allowed it to fester for far too long, and it is ripping our nation apart.