[This goes with your memorial post, Peter, the insane are still with us.]
Russia prepares to charge synagogue attacker
ISN SECURITY WATCH (12/01/06) –
Russian prosecutors on Thursday
prepared to
charge a young man with attempted murder after he went on a rampage at
a Moscow
synagogue the night before, stabbing eight people before he was
overwhelmed by a
rabbi. He was arrested soon after.
The attack, which most observers are calling a racial hate crime, took
place a
year after President Vladimir Putin expressed shame over rising
anti-Semitism in
Russia at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and just
two
months after thousands of nationalist-minded youth marched on Moscow's
streets,
shouting Nazi slogans.
"I came here to kill you!" 20-year-old Alexander Koptsev, according to
witnesses, shouted as he was knifing the synagogue worshippers.
The victims included Russians, a US citizen, an Israeli, and a Tajik
national.
Two of the eight victims initially hospitalized with severe cuts
remained in
critical condition as of Thursday.
Koptsev was wrestled down by the synagogue rabbi and his son and held
by the
worshippers until police arrived.
Officials are preparing to charge the suspect with attempted murder,
inflicting
injuries, and actions aimed to hurt ethnic and religious dignity.
Chief Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said on Thursday that Koptsev
should
undergo psychiatric examination, Interfax news agency reported.
He said earlier that Koptsev had no criminal record and was not a
member of any
extremist group even though the attacker "shouted words that showed he
was
motivated by ethnic and religious hatred".
In an interview published by Kommersant newspaper on Thursday,
Koptsev's father,
Alexander, said his son was unemployed and spent most of his time at
home,
playing computer games. His favorite was Postal, in which the
protagonist, a
postman, attacks people on the streets of London.
He also said that recently he had seen his son reading anti-Semitic
literature.
Investigators found 64 rifle cartridges and a list with addresses of
three
Moscow synagogues during the search of the Koptsevs' apartment on
Thursday,
Russian media reported.
Koptsev could have been driven to the attack by the intensified
nationalist
propaganda in the Russian media, including television, according to
Alexander
Verkhovsky, head of the SOVA Moscow-based think tank specializing in
nationalist
studies. ISN Security Watch spoke with Verkhovsky on Thursday.
"Nationalists in the Russian press and television have been glorifying
xenophobic attacks, and for emotionally unstable people, like Koptsev,
this can
become a motivation," he said.
Alla Gerber, head of the Holocaust Foundation, a Moscow-based rights
watchdog,
said on Thursday that the attack was made possible by the failure of
Russian law
enforcement to battle nationalism and xenophobia.
"I […] think it was an absolutely predictable attack," she told ISN
Security
Watch. "The frequent racially motivated attacks, skinheads marching in
Russian
cities under Nazi banners and swastikas, this all led to the incident
in the
synagogue," she said.
Attacks on dark-skinned migrants and foreigners happen almost daily in
Russia.
Over 60 people were killed in these attacks in the past two years,
according to
a study released by SOVA in 2005. Extremist literature is freely sold
in Russia.
Last November, about 3,000 skinheads freely arranged a march in
downtown Moscow.
Criminal convictions acknowledging racial or xenophobic motivations
behind
attack on foreigners and dark-skinned migrants are very rare in Russia.
On Thursday, security was boosted at 35 major synagogues in major
Russian
cities.
"Where we had no armed guards, we have them now. Also police patrol
every
synagogue and [Jewish] community center," spokesman for the Federation
of Jewish
Communities in Russia, Borukh Gorin, told Interfax on Thursday.
Several Russian senators and senior members of the State Duma
(Russia's lower
house of parliament), including speaker Boris Gryzlov, on Thursday
criticized
Russian law enforcerment for leniency in fighting religious and ethnic
extremism.
Gryzlov proposed to harden laws against extremism.
Jewish leaders also said the attack should serve as a clear message to
Russian
authorities and the public to fight racism.
In a statement late Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the
attack a
"provocation by those who would like to bring discord in Russian
society and
ignite national and religious dissension, which have not succeeded and
will not
succeed".
(By Nabi Abdullaev in Moscow)
www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=14315
Such games should be outlawed. That would at least put a dent in their availability. I have played similar murderous games and there is no joy in them! Even when I am massacring usama bin laden or common street thugs, there is no lasting joy. Outlaw all such games!
And outlaw all stupid senseless kill-for-fun movies like Kalifornia and Kill Bill. All they do is invite trouble by the troubled.
Here in the U.S. so much of life is over-regulated but the evil computer games and movies simply get slapped with silly stickers warning of their content. BFD! Doesn't keep them out of the hands and minds of somewhat older kids (and some of the targeted younger ones) anyway. No good can come from this.
I am all for artistic license but evil for the sake of evil is evil! And content creators know the difference between evil for the fun of it and an artistic portrayal of evil inherent in an issue being addressed by a work.
Stepping off my soapbox now. Sorry for the rant. This issue always steams me.