Posted on 08/14/2017 7:57:52 AM PDT by Kevin C
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday that the “evil attack” in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend meets the legal definition of an act of domestic terrorism, an early declaration in an investigation after a car plowed into a crowd of protesters.
“It does meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our statute,” Mr. Sessions said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” referring to a fatal attack on Saturday when a vehicle drove into a crowd protesting white nationalists, killing one woman and injuring others. A 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged by Virginia authorities with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.
“You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought because this is unequivocally an unacceptable evil attack,” Mr. Sessions said, adding that terrorism and civil rights investigators were working on the case.
Mr. Sessions appeared on several morning news shows on Monday, condemning the violent demonstrations over the removal of a Confederate monument and defending President Trump’s response.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’ll rephrase.
Everyone, of every ideology, needs to decline to embrace Nazis and Hitler.
Some people seem to view themselves as rebels by brandishing swastikas, but in fact by so doing they are aligning themselves with someone who killed innocent people, and thus they are damaging any constructive cause that they may claim to support.
Hear me out on this. This is what many are trying to say:
The guy may indeed have been maliciously driving into the crowd. That is a possibility, but is not given or proven.
Even if this person was a nazi sympathizer or alt-right or extreme-right-winger or anything else, that is irrelevant.
What is relevant is that he was driving his car down narrow streets, was likely getting things thrown at his car, having his car kicked, and people running towards his car before his car ever became visible on cameras.
I say this is likely because I have been at and seen leftist demonstrations before, and most of all, I have seen other videos of this exact same demonstration where other cars (completely unrelated to this incident) are having things thrown, car is being kicked, and crowds of people are rushing to the car and pounding on it, kicking it, hitting it with objects or throwing objects at it.
If that is the case, who is to judge the actions of the person?
If he said in advance he was going to take out people or perform some act of violence, to me, that would be the same as a muslim yelling “Allah Akbar” as he pulls the trigger on a weapon.
But in the absence of that, even if this person said Hitler was a great man, that doesn’t prove he did this intentionally.
Especially from that video which is like looking through a telescope from long range at a section of city street, and all of a sudden people appear in the viewfinder fighting or something else. It is a small visual snippet, and how can you come to conclusions on that? (Because that is what that video posted is, it is like looking at an event through a toilet paper roll.
Also, keep in mind that people panic. A man goes to hit the breaks and hits the gas instead. Couple that with a 400-700 horsepower engine. If you are shifting around looking at things (maybe at someone who was running towards your car with a cinderblock, baseball bat, or other object as you approached) isn’t it plausible, he goosed the gas to get by, and when he looked up, realized he was going to collide with a car in front of him and jammed on the brakes? Hitting his gas pedal instead, or having it slip off the brake and hit the gas?
With a 700 HP engine (or even the lower end HP) do you know what that car is going to do if you goose the gas? It accelerates pretty quickly. Doesn’t take much.
Bottom line, which scenario is more likely? Both are possible but it is probably going to be one or the other:
SCENARIO 1: Person gets into his car (his prized possession) and decides he is going to drive to a protest site, find a street with liberal protesters on it, and run them over using his car as the weapon with his license plate in full view, being recorded, etc. Then decides after he runs into people, to hightail it out of there.
SCENARIO 2: Person driving his car (his prized possession) and finds himself on narrow streets where people are pelting his car, kicking it, hitting it, blocking the road, floors it to get away to another street where there are even more people doing the same and they start yelling at him and pounding on his car and throwing things at it as he drives down the street...a one way street that he cannot turn off of, I am guessing, and looks up to see a crowd of people blocking the road, waving stuff and looking at him. He jams on his brakes, but his foot hits the accelerator, and he plows into people and a couple of cars stopped by protesters in front of him. His car is surrounded now by angry people on all sides who are likely trying to open the doors or smash the windows while also pounding on the car.
What I am saying is that unless people have proof that this was done intentionally, it is an injustice to treat it as such until facts are know. Even if the guy was a nazi sympathizer or alt-right or extreme-right-winger or anything else the media wants to label any non-liberal with.
Puke Sessions spoke solely of KKK and “White Supremacist”, not a damn word about Antifa or what the Governor or Mayor did. Made me want to puke.
Notice how you conveniently left out people holding Communist flags?
This guy can’t ESAD soon enough.
Again how often? Do I need it stamped on my forehead... How about those of the communist doctrine... far more have perished under that godless system than Hitler... Why... because our 'blood and treasury' ended Hitler evil reign. History will tell any who are able to learn that WWI and the communists, Treaty of Versailles was the 'seed' bed from which Hitler took advantage... But, 'We the People' and Allies took out Hitler..
Oh, this attempt to necklace Hitler around and about President Trump is NOT a new thing... Actually the 'neocons' attempted to keep Trump from the White House by calling him Hitler and then they called him a fascists. This leftist stunt in Virginia was wholly produced by the lunatic left, with some masquerading in sheep's clothing.
If you are brandishing swastikas, you are aligning yourself with Nazis, Hitler, and anyone else in that bucket.
But are you saying that because people on this very forum are questioning whether it was an unprovoked accident or non-intentional act are aligning themselves with Nazis?
Because that is not what I see here. I despise the Left more than anyone, and as corrosive, destructive, racist, and traitorous as their rhetoric is, I (and most conservatives on this site do as well) stand by their right to peacefully protest.
Even though we hate the swastika brandishing people, we have to allow them their right of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Do you not agree?
I have taken part in many protests and counterprotests, more than the vast majority on this website, I have no doubt. And they were done, respecting the right of our opponents to do the same. But I can tell you, that right to those things is not reciprocated. But that does not change our approach.
And I will say this: I have never, EVER been to a conservative rally or protest where we practiced those actions we saw in Charlotte. Never. And that spans dozens of protests spanning at least 10 years.
Embracing and brandishing swastikas is not happening on this forum. Can we agree on that?
STFU, Sessions. This was most likely self defense or at panick out of fear of being attacked. At worse it was manslaughter. Terrorism was not a planned attacked on unsuspecting unarmed citizens. Stop bastardizing the word and making this more than what it was.
Antifa and BLM have intentionally killed and brutally assaulted people just trying to walk into colleges or just walk down the street to get to work etc. WHere was this old geezer then? Yea, thought so.
Including every symbol in the world would take a super duper long time.
No, I absolutely, positively, definitively am not.
I am referring to people who actually do align themselves with those things, overtly and explicitly, by use of exact words and exact images.
I hope that is quite unambiguously clear.
Whatever..lol
I mean one guy vs days of violent destruction and assault over a bunch of lies?
These groups have been showing up attacking people for a few years now. Get your head out of the media..nobody in the real world thinks this is anything like terrorism or Ferguson.
We forget all the calls for punching “Nazis” or celebrating killing POTUS and his supporters? These people on the left have fomented this hate and that is one of the reason’s DJT won. People are tired of them.
Also, yes, I agree with the right to protest, provided of course that the protest or the ideological position associated with it is not used as an excuse to commit assault / theft / vandalism.
“Decline” requires no action but rather the absence of an action, which is why I used it to replace “disavow”, which would require an action.
“I suspect that the few with Nazi flags, armbands, KKK signs, etc. were paid plants courtesy of George Soros.”
I saw a picture of a woman carrying a flag. I cannot believe she was a “right-wing extremist.”
Well if you use “rear” to describe the upbringing of children rather than “raise” my hopes for civilization are not extinguished after all.
Precision in language is important not just because of rules of usage but because he who controls the language controls the argument. We know where that leads and what falsehoods fly under that flag.
I disagree that it was an act of terrorism (based on what we know at this time)mostly because we do not yet know motive if any. Yes people were terrorized but that is true of any violent incident.
the fact is these groups have descended anywhere people who they consider to be promoting “hate” have marched or even tried to speak peacefully and they’ve caused violence and disruption.Even in town hall meetings.
I’m not crying over this..SORRY!
There are a lot of people who are disenfranchised, and are weary of being cast as privileged oppressors, when they are neither privileged nor oppressors, and in flawed moments embrace any movement that tells them that they are neither privileged nor oppressors, and in those flawed moments fail to acknowledge the parts of the movement they have embraced that do more harm then good.
Where is ( cough ) Honorable Sessions on Antifa? No Where Man. Swamp lap dog Jeffery
“Well Jeffsesh, why don’t you go after Antifa, BLM, Communists in the same manner?”
Because he is a member of our irredeemably corrupt and depraved political class.
He was a senator, ergo he is corrupt and depraved.
Trump should get all politicians of all parties out of his administration.
I don’t think it was an act of terrorism either, actually.
If he showed up there with the idea that he was going to run people down, he deserves whatever he gets. If it was an act of passion, maybe a little less. But if it is the “kid was scared and running from rock throwers, I’d maybe give him involuntary manslaughter.
But I’m just thinking out loud based on what little information we actually have.
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