White Supremacist Opens Fire at Holocaust Museum, But Will it Be Labeled “Terrorism”?
Jun 10th, 2009 by Will Potter
A White Supremacist and Holocaust denier, James W Von Brunn, opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. this afternoon, wounding at least one person before being shot in the head. That makes the second violent attack by right-wing extremists in about three weeks.
Meanwhile, the “radical” animal rights and environmental movements have not harmed a single human being in their 30-plus years of existence. Yet they are the FBI’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.”
On top of this, the Holocaust Museum–one of D.C.’s most popular tourist destinations–was full of school children. And it’s not the first time Brunn armed himself in the nation’s capital:
In 1981, von Brunn entered the Federal Reserve in Washington with a shotgun to make a citizens arrest, he later said, to protest about high interest rates. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail.
Will the government and the press respond the same way they did in the murder of Dr. Tiller, and not label it “terrorism”?
How do you think the government and the press will respond?
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Correctelmundo, no ‘radical animal activists’ have ever harmed a single individual ,yet a CNN reporter just moments ago on the Situation Room just managed to tie ‘radical animal activists’ in with this horrendous act, and the abortion activists saying ‘these groups use up tremendous amount of FBI resources.’
Repeal AETA and we’ll have lots of FBI resources freed up to go after the REAL bad guys.
Actually, it was a female prosecutor named Fran, that Wolf Blitzer was interviewing, who made the connection between ‘radical’ animal activists and this shooter…not sure if she was a CNN reporter, but might be.
I read on Yahoo news that he only served 6 years for trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. I’m against all prisons, but come on, putting that next to what Jeff ‘Free’ Luers was sentenced to just shows the absurdity of the courts.
According to Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier ” this is an act of a lone gunman and not part of any larger plot” .
Rod Coronado was right when he said that the Feds care more about protecting corporate profits and property than life.
Joe, you discredit yourself so readily.
VR, it was a lone White Supremacist in a museum, what corporate profits or property are the feds protecting here?
cubestar, how have I discredited myself by repeating the chief of police?
Joe,
I think VR is explaining why the FBI are quick to label animal activists as terrorists. _They_ threaten corporate profits, and _not_ the lone gunman in this case who is actually threatening (terrorising) people.
For those of you playing along with the “What will Joe say?” game, I was way off on this one.
I was guessing that he would say something along the lines of “Of course it is terrorism for a white supremacist to bring a loaded gun into the Holocaust Museum and fire it in a room where school children are being given guided tours…But that doesn’t mean that eco-terrorism is less of a threat to the fabric of American life.”
For those keeping score, I’m now 2-1.
lone gunman = ultimate sleeper cell
Got a great comment on Twitter and wanted to share:
From @Z4F4R “the gunman” label means he will be psychoanalyzed instead of pilloried by the media.
[...] Will Potter, a freelance journalist who has written extensively about federal terrorism legislation in cases involving property damage by animal liberation and environmental groups, wonders if the carnage at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — along with the May 31 murder Dr. George Tiller, the ob-gyn in Wichita, Kansas — will be labeled as terrorism. [...]
I do have to say Will, I was pleasantly surprised to read that as of last month, the Department of Homeland Security issuead a report labeling “rightwing extremism” as the “most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the US.” Now of course I read it in a CREDO Mobile/Working Assests action email, but the link to the report goes through The Raw Story and then has the actual report link:
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
Either way, I am finally glad to see the term actually applied correctly for once.
definitely not terrorism. like someone else mentioned, it will go down as a “gunman” incident.
[...] talk about “dangerous”? “Dangerous” is not queer kids kissing. “Dangerous” is racists opening fire at a museum. “Dangerous” is right-wingers, espousing many of the same anti-gay, fundamentalist Christian [...]
Will, you got your wish. Sorta, kinda. The media is starting to label violent people other than radical Muslims and non-violent political activists as terrorists.
You can’t get more mainstream than the Associated Press:
http://tinyurl.com/m2z8u2