Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 10-30-18

National
72 Hours In America: Three Hate-Filled Crimes, Three Hate-Filled Suspects
Consider the past week in America.
Wednesday, a white man with a history of violence shot and killed two African-Ameri- cans, seemingly at random, at a Kentucky Kroger store following a failed attempt to barge into a Black church.
After mail bombs were being sent to people who'd been criti- cized by the President, a suspect was arrested Friday -- a man who had railed against Democ- rats and minorities with hate- filled messages online.
And Saturday morning, a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs opened fire at a Pittsburgh syn- agogue, killing 11 people attend- ing Jewish services.
Those three incidents in 72 hours shared one thing: hate.
"It's a terrible, terrible thing what's going on with hate in our country and frankly all over the world," President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday before boarding Air Force One for a flight to a political rally in Indiana.
Death In The Grocery Store
He tried first to enter a church in Jeffersontown, Ken- tucky, just outside of Louisville. It was the predominantly Black First Baptist Church, and Gre- gory Bush allegedly banged on the door and tried to pull it open, CNN affiliate WDRB re- ported.
Bush, a 51-year-old white man, didn't manage to get in- side. The doors were locked.
Bush then headed to a Kroger store, where he allegedly shot two people, both African- American. The first victim was Maurice Stallard, 69, who was with his 12-year-old grand- son buying a poster board for a school project. The second was Vickie Jones, 67, killed in the parking lot as Bush fled.
Members of the Louisville Metro Police Department talk inside the Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, after Wednesday's shootings.
"I'm just sick and heartbroken and quite angry. I feel that way about any act of violence and cruelty," said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.
Bush has a history of men- tal illness, made racist threats and repeatedly called his ex- wife the N-word, according to court records, WDRB reported. He has a lengthy criminal record that includes domestic violence, the station reported.
Jeffersontown Mayor Bill Dieruf said it shook the com- munity, which values its sense of family.
"We are kindred spirits no matter our walk of life or how we worship or what we look like. We take pride in that," he said.
Bush is in custody and faces potential civil rights violations,
Gregory Bush shot two in- nocent Black shoppers for no reason
such as hate crimes, the US at- torney for the Western District of Kentucky, Russell Cole- man, said Friday.
"The murders are not being taken lightly by the United States government," Coleman said.
Terror In The Mail
When the Kentucky shooting happened, the nation was get- ting nervous about an increas- ing number of suspicious packages being sent through the mail.
The first one was discovered Monday afternoon at the home of liberal campaign donor and billionaire George Soros. Wednesday morning, the Secret Service said two more had been found -- one addressed to for- mer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and another to former President Barack Obama.
A member of the New York Police Department bomb squad is pictured outside the Time Warner Center in New York on Wednesday after a suspicious package was found inside.
Four more would be found before the end of the day -- in- cluding one sent to CNN's New York bureau, prompting the evacuation of the entire build- ing, Time Warner Center.
The package sent to CNN -- the first of two -- was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan.
On Friday came word of more packages, and then an ar- rest -- a 56-year-old Florida man named Cesar Sayoc. Fed- eral authorities said he mailed a total of 14 packages containing pipe bombs, none of which det- onated, but all of which were real.
Sayoc's political inclina- tions were passionately dis- played for everyone to see. His white Dodge van was plastered with pro-Trump messages and stickers showing prominent lib- erals in crosshairs. A sticker reading "CNN Sucks" was also on the van.
A former boss said Sayoc called himself a white suprema- cist. Online, with two accounts on Facebook and three on Twit- ter, Sayoc often posted provocative photos and memes attacking liberals, along with conspiracy theories.
Massacre In A Synagogue
Maurice E. Stallard died in the shooting. His daughter is Louisville’s chief equity offi- cer.
Saturday morning brought news of a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, where congregants had gathered for services.
A man shouting anti-Semitic slurs ran inside the Tree of Life synagogue in the close-knit neighborhood of Squirrel Hill and opened fire, killing 11 peo- ple. Six people were injured in the attack, but it left many more hurting.
"This is an absolute tragedy," Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in a tweet. "These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans."
Robert Bowers, 46, was identified as the gunman and arrested. He had frequently ex- pressed his disdain for Jews on social media, a federal law en-
Vickie Lee Jones was also killed. Her nephew described her as “a good Christian woman” who wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
forcement official said.
Social media posts targeting
Jews that are believed to have come from Bowers are a focus of the investigation, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Shortly before the shooting, in an account on the Gab social media platform that authorities are investigating, the suspect is believed to have posted that he "can't sit by and watch my peo- ple get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."
A law enforcement source told CNN that investigators be- lieve that other anti-Semitic posts on a Gab account belong to Bowers. The language on the account matches the sus- pected motivation behind the shootings, the source said.
In one post, Bowers wrote,
"HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people," referring to a Jewish refugee advocacy group that held a National Refugee Shabbat last weekend.
Bowers also posted xeno- phobic content, claiming Jews were helping transport mem- bers of the migrant caravans in Latin America.
U. S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Bowers now faces hate crime and other fed- eral charges that could lead to the death penalty.
"Hatred and violence on the basis of religion can have no place in our society," Sessions said. "These alleged crimes are reprehensible and utterly re- pugnant to the values of this na- tion."
What Comes Next?
Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Mary- land that the shooting in Pitts- burgh was a "terrible, terrible thing."
He offered support and sym- pathy in messages on Twitter, saying "All of America is in mourning" following the mas- sacre.
"This evil Anti-Semitic attack is an assault on humanity. It will take all of us working together to extract the poison of Anti- Semitism from our world. We must unite to conquer hate," the President wrote.
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