Charleston shooting

[The Shadow]

So now we learn that a judge with a history of overt racism is presiding over his case. Not only that, but he's claiming Dylann Roof's family are victims as well.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...f-s-judge.html

The judge who called for sympathy for shooter Dylann Roof’s family members has a history of racist language in the courtroom
.
Charleston County Magistrate James B. Gosnell began Friday’s bond hearing for mass-murderer Dylann Roof by declaring that the killer’s family members were victims as well.

At least he did not repeat an opinion that he offered in another proceeding a dozen years ago.

“There are four kinds of people in this world—black people, white people, red necks, and n---rs,” Gosnell advised a black defendant in a November 6, 2003 bond reduction hearing.

And people wonder why there's no faith in the system.

[Rageaholic]

What's up with all these shootings lately? It seems like every day something happens. If it's not some radical nutjob like this guy, it's an overzealous cop.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

A few updates:

- The judge with racial tendencies has been removed from the case.

- The group Roof associated heavily with, the Conservative Citizens Council has been running scared. They took down to their FB page for awhile yesterday and one of their leaders has disappeared from Twitter. The FB page has since returned but the Twitter profile is still gone.

- Certain conservatives are absurdly trying to claim Roof was a leftist/Democrat because he burned the American Flag.

[s_stabeler]

- Certain conservatives are absurdly trying to claim Roof was a leftist/Democrat because he burned the American Flag.

the hilarious thing? I believe the Flag Code actually specifies burning as the proper means of disposing of a flag. (the idea is that the flag isn't supposed to be tossed out with the rubbish)

[Kheldarson]

the hilarious thing? I believe the Flag Code actually specifies burning as the proper means of disposing of a flag. (the idea is that the flag isn't supposed to be tossed out with the rubbish)

True, but there's still a proper way to burn it, and an improper way.

[s_stabeler]

with the level of intelligence in some of the things people are saying, I wouldn't be surprised if the flag WAS burned the correct way.

[mjr]

Ah, good, they found his 2000 word racist manifesto. That should shut the bobble heads the fuck up over whether this was a hate crime against black people or not. Well, at least it should. Probably won't. But we can hope.

Seems like not only was he racist, he was likely anti-Semitic, too.

[TheHuckster]

White supremacists tend to be anti-black, anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Catholic, anti-anything-that-isn't-like-them-or-their-fellow-members.

[Estil]

What blew my mind is the right wing talking heads claiming this is a hate crime against Christians, not black people.

What blows my mind is how quickly liberal politicians/groups take advantage of tragic situations like this one to further their political agenda.

I'm gonna make this VERY simple. A thug murdered nine innocent people in cold blood and needs to pay the price. It doesn't matter what race or whatever the victims happened to be. A murderer is a murderer.

[the_std]

A thug murdered nine innocent people in cold blood and needs to pay the price. It doesn't matter what race or whatever the victims happened to be. A murderer is a murderer.

This is just ridiculous. It absolutely does matter what race the victims are when the killer was transparently racist, when there is a spate of racially-motivated deaths in your country, and when people choose to ignore it and say "a murder is a murder".

There is a pattern of abuse and bias being perpetrated against black people in the States, but if it doesn't fit your right-wing political agenda, then "a murder is a murder". Pretty hypocritical.

[Estil]

I still don't see how fighting discrimination with even more discrimination solves anything. Yes I absolutely agree that abuse and bias being perpetrated against black people is wrong, and doing so against any other group is wrong too. And how cute of you to make such a blatant sweeping assumption about me having a "right wing political agenda" when I only just came back here a few days ago from CS (seriously see if you can take a guess where I stand on the issues; I bet you'll get a lot of them wrong). I guess some stereotyping and discrimination against some groups of people is not that big a deal huh?

[NecCat]

I still don't see how fighting discrimination with even more discrimination solves anything.....I guess some stereotyping and discrimination against some groups of people is not that big a deal huh?

Who is being discriminated against by acknowledging that this crime was motivated by racial discrimination?

[Estil]

But doesn't that send the wrong kind of message that if he had done the exact same crime...but against white people (like let's say he was a fundamentalist Christian who shot up a Catholic church congregation...yes that discrimination occurred too) that it means it's not quite that big a deal? Motivation for murder comes in all different forms and whether there was a racial element or not, he will pay the price either with the needle or life in prison (I don't know off the top of my head if SC has the death penalty). It sadly won't bring back the innocent lives he took away though.

[Kheldarson]

But doesn't that send the wrong kind of message that if he had done the exact same crime...but against white people (like let's say he was a fundamentalist Christian who shot up a Catholic church congregation...yes that discrimination occurred too) that it means it's not quite that big a deal? Motivation for murder comes in all different forms and whether there was a racial element or not, he will pay the price either with the needle or life in prison (I don't know off the top of my head if SC has the death penalty). It sadly won't bring back the innocent lives he took away though.

Except there are different societal connotations. If he let loose on a white congregation, we'd stare in horror at the mad man and try to figure out if gun culture, video games, or his parents failed him. With a black congregation and his outspoken racism, we go "see, we still have a race problem".

Unfortunately, we, as a society, won't do anything to actually address either underlying issue.

[Andara Bledin]

I still don't see how fighting discrimination with even more discrimination solves anything.

Oooh, goody... an 'intolerance of intolerance' argument. It's just as much crap now as it has been every other time it's been trotted out.

There is no discrimination in calling people who commit terrible acts terrible people.

The fact that he targeted a specific group of people because of a specific status they shared matters. You can try to hand wave it away and present a whole bevvy of equivalencies, true or false, and it won't change the fact that in this case the maladjusted asshole chose to kill a bunch of black people in an attempt to foment more violence.

If he'd chosen to kill a bunch of Christians to start a jihad, it would be different, but it should still be called out that it was a bigotry-motivated mass murder.

Bigotry, no matter it's focus, should always be pointed out and deemed unacceptable, no matter the expression or target.