Society's Child

Over 40 arrested as 'potential mass shooters' since terrorist attack in El Paso

Bob Bingham
Raw Story
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC

Authorities have been aggressively investigating potential mass shooters since the white supremacist terrorist attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

"In the four weeks since a 21-year-old alleged white nationalist was charged in the slaughter of 22 people inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, law enforcement authorities have arrested more than 40 people as potential mass shooters — an average of more than one per day," the Huffington Post reported Saturday.

"A HuffPost survey of these arrests likely didn't capture every one, but it offers a snapshot of the types of cases that law enforcement officials face in a country with easy access to weapons capable of killing a lot of people quickly.

"The cases range from allegations of vague social media threats from juveniles that set parents on edge to well-developed plots from people who had access to weapons and appeared to authorities to have been planning a mass murder.

"There were roughly a dozen cases involving right-wing ideology. There were at least a dozen alleged threats against schools. There were half a dozen cases involving alleged threats against Walmarts."

Patrick Crusius was arrested for the El Paso attack, which killed 22 people and injured 24. He reportedly published a right-wing manifesto on 8chan shortly before the shooting.

Read the full report, which includes background on the individual cases.

Comment: More from Huffington Post, 31/8/2019:

A number of the alleged threats, if carried out, would have qualified as instances of domestic terrorism. A top FBI official told reporters this year that domestic terrorism cases were "challenging" for the bureau.

The disparate handling of right-wing and Islamic terrorism has set off a debate over the need for a domestic terrorism law, and one prominent lawmaker has introduced such legislation, which has already raised objections from civil liberties advocates.

As of late July, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee that the FBI had already been involved in 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests in the first three-quarters of the 2019 fiscal year, which began in October 2018.

The rapid pace of new cases suggests that the number of domestic terrorism-related cases in the 2019 fiscal year could outpace the 2017 and 2018 fiscal year figures. Bureau officials said they'll use any tool they can to take out a potential threat, and a review of the cases suggests the FBI was involved in a number of cases that resulted in local charges.

"It may not be evident in the face of the crime or who's involved working it that it's a domestic terrorism suspect who was arrested," an FBI official previously said. "We use anything [in federal law] we can that fits, that's appropriate."

Return to McCarthyism? Messing and McCormack demand 'blacklist' of Trump supporters in Hollywood

Danielle Ryan
RT
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 17:34 UTC

Entertainment industry figures could soon find themselves on a "blacklist" of Donald Trump supporters if Will & Grace co-stars Debra Messing and Eric McCormack have their way. Have we reached peak neo-McCarthyism?

The pair are demanding that the Hollywood Reporter print a full list of attendees for an upcoming Trump fundraiser in Beverly Hills - an appeal which has drawn natural comparisons to the late Sen. Joe McCarthy's efforts in the 1950s to rid Hollywood of "Communist sympathizers."

The difference is, this time the calls for a political blacklist are coming from the Hollywood left itself.

Comment: See also:
Is Hollywood blacklisting actors & celebrities who support Trump?

'Nothing!' Media refuse to cover Roger Waters concert in support of Julian Assange

RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:43 UTC

If most rockstars performed one of their iconic hits outside the British Home Office, the media would lap it up. Not so, if the star is Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters and he sings for jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Mainstream media completely ignored Waters' performance outside the British interior ministry office on Monday evening. A search of the ProQuest newspaper database found "nothing" from any UK newspaper on the event, media fairness website Media Lens tweeted.

A Google News search finds coverage from the World Socialist Web Site, the Irish Examiner, Ecuador-based Telesur, and some Turkish outlets, as well as RT and Sputnik - but nothing from any major British newspaper or broadcaster.

The event was heavily promoted on Twitter by WikiLeaks and Roger Waters himself - so it appears that the lack of coverage by UK media was a conscious decision rather than an oversight.

Israeli police to reduce presence in Issawiya, East Jerusalem

Middle East Monitor
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 11:30 UTC

© Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
Palestinian women look on during a raid by Israeli police in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, July 1, 2019.

Israeli authorities have agreed to reduce the heavy police presence in Issawiya, occupied East Jerusalem, after a months-long operation characterised by collective punishment and violence.

According to a report in Haaretz, the agreement between the Israeli police, Jerusalem municipality, and local residents, will see a reduced presence of Israeli forces in the community and the release of two detainees, while Issawiya residents have cancelled the school strike scheduled for today.

The deal came in response to an announcement by Issawiya's parents' committee last week that their children would not be sent to school on the first day of the school year as a protest against the police's collective punishment of local residents.

Comment: For more on Israeli harassment and collective punishment in Issawiya, East Jerusalem, see also:

Four 'uncles' face off against swarm of armed protesters in Hong Kong metro

RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:34 UTC

Hong Kong's club-wielding, helmet-clad 'peaceful' demonstrators may have met their match, after failing to intimidate four men riding the subway. Video of the confrontation shows the brave commuters facing off with the angry mob.

Footage posted to social media shows four men standing defiantly inside a subway car as a group of armed protesters threaten them from the station's platform. The demonstrators repeatedly raise their clubs and umbrellas as if preparing to strike the men, and on several occasions rush into the car and engage in a skirmish with the commuters.

Subway passengers quickly flee the scene, but the four men, apparently dubbed "uncles" on Chinese social media, remained in the car.

Intense heat begins to burn away Europeans' opposition toward air conditioning

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 16:38 UTC

Northern Europeans have traditionally looked down on their American cousins for relying on home air conditioning. However, with temperatures rising they're starting to feel the heat, and beginning to embrace the American way.

From the muggy swamp of Washington DC to the arid heat of Texas, America is the land of air conditioning. AC units hum away outside 90 percent of homes, restaurants, and offices across the land, and few Americans have to subject themselves to the elements for longer than a few minutes at a time. From the air-conditioned home, to the air-conditioned car, to the air-conditioned office, and then on to the air-conditioned bar for happy hour, life is a series of short walks between cocoons of icy comfort.

Things are a little different in Europe. While air conditioners are common in the warmer south - the Greeks, for example, depend on them - the Viking-blooded northern Europeans would rather put up with the heat. Some of this, of course, has to do with the region's cooler climate, but even on hot days, Germans, Brits and Dutch will choose to shutter their windows and strip off their clothes before investing in AC, while the French will sooner dip their toes into a public fountain.

Kabul residents protest against presence of foreign troops after Taliban attack

Sputnik
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:32 UTC

The residents of the Afghan capital's PD9 district took to the streets on Tuesday following a deadly Taliban attack to protest against the presence of foreign troops in the area, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

"There have been frequent bombings of this camp [of troops], which destroyed our homes, severely injuring the people living in this area. People have lost their lives and many more have been injured because of this. The camp is set up in a residential area and should be evacuated from the district. If the camp is not evacuated, people will continue their protests, as well," local resident Mohammad Kamal Afghan said.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the Taliban's deadly attack and called it an act of terrorism.

"This is not the first time that the Taliban use such tactics, but the security forces cannot prevent them. Since the intelligence activities are weak, the Taliban easily perform their operations and reach their goals. On the other hand, the Taliban do not pay attention to the lives of civilians. Carrying out such heavy attacks in the city is a massacre," a former chief of the Afghan Air Force, Atiqullah Amarkhail, said.

On Tuesday morning, residents of the district took to the streets and blocked the highway east of Kabul, demanding that foreign troops be removed from the area.

South Africa descends into chaos amid widespread riots, looting and violence against foreigners

RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:28 UTC

Police have used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to try and quell an ongoing outbreak of violence, rioting and looting across South Africa. So far, over 90 people have been arrested.

Rioters looted shops, created flaming barricades on roads and engaged in street fights with police, as attacks on immigrants and foreign-owned businesses increase. Some 50 businesses were looted and damaged on Sunday alone. It's the second outbreak of such violence in the country in the space of a week.

David Tembe, Chief of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) urged motorists to exercise extreme caution on the highways and to avoid the Maritzburg street area entirely.

Another mass stabbing at a Chinese primary school - 8 dead, 2 injured

Alice Yan
South China Morning Post
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 17:13 UTC

A 40-year-old man was detained after eight children were stabbed to death in a knife attack at a primary school in central China on Monday, local authorities said.

Two other children were being treated for injuries following the incident at Chaotangpo Primary School in the town of Baiyangping, in Hubei province, on the first day of the new academic year.

The suspect, who police said was a local man surnamed Yu, was found by officers at the scene.

A spokeswoman for Enshi Central Hospital said wounded pupils were being treated there, while the local government said it was offering counselling.

The Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported that Yu had been given an early release from prison last year after serving a sentence for attempted murder. A man from the same village as Yu said the conviction had been for an incident in which Yu gouged out his former girlfriend's eye.

"After he returned home last year, he displayed some mental problems," the man, whose name was not given, was quoted as saying.

Knife attacks on schoolchildren are a regular occurrence in mainland China, with the perpetrators often saying they are motivated by a desire to take revenge on society.

Comment: The U.S. has mass shootings, China has mass stabbings. For example, over the course of 2010-2012, a string of around 10 such school attacks left at least 25 dead and 115 injured. But they continue, and not just in schools. Here's a selection:

18 injured (May 10, 2017)
9 dead, 12 injured - middle school (Apr. 27, 2018)
3 dead, 43 injured (Sept. 12, 2018)
14 injured - kindergarten (Oct. 26, 2018)
11 injured (Feb. 21, 2019)

Tennessee elementary school bans 'Harry Potter' books because they contain 'actual curses and spells'

Ebony Bowen
New York Post
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 16:38 UTC

Students at a Catholic elementary school in Tennessee will no longer be able to borrow copies of the Harry Potter book series after a pastor there outlawed them — claiming they contain real curses and spells.

The Rev. Dan Reehil informed St. Edward Catholic School parents that the seven-tome fantasy series would be banned from the Nashville school's library after he consulted with several exorcists in the US and Italy who suggested they be removed.

"These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception," Reehil told parents in an undated email, the Tennessean reported Saturday.

Great interview with Professor Petrovsky, a very brave soul ! He is clear and concise from a Vaccine researcher /producer point of view and calls...

Gator

There's no mileage in anything the Smith's have to say, their well versed in interfering with things. So we can all sleep safely in our bed...

Winternights3

Seriously, lets break down these words, and I am fully equipped for this task that I give to myself NOW. gives OSHA the authority to act quickly...

Buffalo_Ken

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

This ain't no fucking real emergency. It is an effing emergency in the mind of a few....who thought they were gonna put the rest of us into...

Buffalo_Ken

Society's Child

Over 40 arrested as 'potential mass shooters' since terrorist attack in El Paso

Return to McCarthyism? Messing and McCormack demand 'blacklist' of Trump supporters in Hollywood

'Nothing!' Media refuse to cover Roger Waters concert in support of Julian Assange

Israeli police to reduce presence in Issawiya, East Jerusalem

Four 'uncles' face off against swarm of armed protesters in Hong Kong metro

Intense heat begins to burn away Europeans' opposition toward air conditioning

Kabul residents protest against presence of foreign troops after Taliban attack

South Africa descends into chaos amid widespread riots, looting and violence against foreigners

Another mass stabbing at a Chinese primary school - 8 dead, 2 injured

Tennessee elementary school bans 'Harry Potter' books because they contain 'actual curses and spells'

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