Sympathy for Austin Bomber because he's white?

[Sandy]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sympa ... spartandhp

[Dave Roberts]

Nobody in national politics is willing to call him a terrorist. Not brown, black, or middle eastern.

[Rvaughn]

I'm not in national politics, but I have no sympathy for him because of his whiteness. I have a son, daughter-in-law, and (especially) 2 grandchildren in Austin, so that may affect my lack of sympathy.

[ET]

[Haruo]

Question is whether this guns-and-chemicals kids' gang called RIOT that he was allegedly active in might be a terror group. I don't know. Timothy McVeigh comes to mind.

[Haruo]

Oops, I called it a gang, which suggests the kids were nonwhite. I should have said club, so you would know most if not all of them were white.

That's sort of tongue in cheek, but there is a real sense in which club-vs-gang is color-coded, and police responses to the two terms differ. Even though the activities may be identical.

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

Then again, it might be under this definition of domestic terrorism:

(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.


Too many definitions to fuss over. The dude was crazy or evil or both.

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

Right now is rating this "Unproven" -- which I think basically means they don't have enough info to confirm or deny.

[Haruo]

[ET]

I tend to require and believe a political motivation or goal is necessary to reach the classification of "terrorism". McVeigh would fit that bill for "domestic terrorism", as he had a grudge against the government. I think a "gang" tends to have some aspect of illegal activity to one degree or another, at least in the common usage of the term. A white kid in a "club" wouldn't meet the definition of a gang unless the club itself had some nefarious activity as part of its regular activities.

[JE Pettibone]

[KeithE]

I do not know about public/press sympathies in this Austin case,

but when it really counts, whites receive more sympathetic treatment than blacks or hispanics:

In police altercations:

In the Criminal Justice System:

[Sandy]

He was white, and he was sympathetic to conservative political causes, and he was male. He gets a pass from the right wing media, and most of the right wing, on being labelled the same way that anyone of another political perspective or race would have been. Period.