Exploding Packages: Why?

[AustinTink]

Most people I talk to locally are leaning toward the personal vendetta theory rather than a hate crime. This is Austin. We are a diverse and inclusive community and nothing whatsoever like the rest of Texas. I refuse to believe at this point that it is fueled by racism. I hope I'm right and I will be truly crushed if I'm wrong.

I believe they incidents are related and the person timed them around SXSW for maximum visibility and mayhem. We are still planning to attend the huge outdoor concerts this weekend. This kind of evil will not stop Austin in it's tracks.

 

[Geoff_M]

What the guy said is We are not ruling anything out. That isn't really backing off. They always say that whether they don't have a clue or they're pretty darn sure. And they always say well we haven't found anything that points to X whether they know 100% it points to X or know 100% it doesn't. They don't want to spook anyone they might be on to them.

Well, that's a very interesting thing to posit because this whole back and forth stated when I said "I've also read that the police have backed off the initial speculation that these are 'hate crimes', but they also haven't ruled anything out at this point in time." I was quickly told here that this statement was inaccurate and "To the contrary, it's a motive the police are seriously considering." So this poster endorsed the notion that what I first reported was an apparent difference in the tone that the authorities were taking from previous statements they had heard or read. On top of that, this notion was also expressed by members of the media who are covering the events in Austin. Here's another example from the AP as found in the Washington Post (see "3 PM" update):

The chief said earlier that investigators were considering whether the attacks could be race-related because the first three victims were all black. He says they aren’t ruling anything out, but they are no longer “making the connection to a hate crime.”

So I'm curious who you think is making up the claim that the police are "backing off" one theory... or that the police haven't really said that they have done so.

I also think part of the problem here is that people are confusing "backing off" with "ruling out". Those are two different things entirely. I also have not doubt that racial hatred will be investigated... as one of several possibilities.

People are also, of course, free to engage in all manner of speculation about who did it, and why. Perhaps it was the Klan. Perhaps is it was because someone felt someone in the victims' homes had cheated them out of money. Perhaps it was someone with a mental illness that happens to live in that part of town and picked the homes randomly. Perhaps it was Marvin the Martian with Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators. But at this point it's all "speculation" and the cops and the Feds are still in the very early stages of their evidence gathering. In the end, I just hope they find out who did it... and then nailed them. I think we can all agree to that!

 

[GreatLakes]

The initial victims of the unabomber were all the same race yet race played no part in his motivation. I'm not sure why that conclusion is being jumped to here already. That doesn't mean it isn't racially motivated, just that it seems an odd conclusion to jump to without any real evidence.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

The initial victims of the unabomber were all the same race yet race played no part in his motivation. I'm not sure why that conclusion is being jumped to here already. That doesn't mean it isn't racially motivated, just that it seems an odd conclusion to jump to without any real evidence.

1) It's the DIS
2) In today's world, a great majority assume race is always the motivating factor

 

[GreatLakes]

1) It's the DIS
2) In today's world, a great majority assume race is always the motivating factor

Sounds exhausting. Not sure why anyone would choose to live that way?

 

[AustinTink]

A lady I know is the former teacher of two boys whose mom is currently in critical condition from one of the explosions. She is getting information from school officials. There is definitely more to the story than the police are letting on. Of course it has to be that way with an ongoing investigation of this magnitude.

 

[AustinTink]

.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Looks like the suspect was identified..and he decided to um..kill himself by blowing himself up early this morning..sorry not another way of saying it. Various articles say he was 23 or 24 years old. From the article it says he killed himself after basically being spotted and then being followed by police.

The article said "Citing a high-ranking law enforcement official, the Austin American-Statesman reported that authorities had identified the suspect based largely on information, including security video, gleaned after he sent an explosive device from an Austin-area FedEx store."

As far as motive it's still a mystery, as well as if there was any one else working with him, at the moment but the news article I was reading said this "Authorities had initially believed the bombings may be hate crimes because the victims of the earliest blasts were black, but they backed off that theory after Hispanic and white victims from different parts of the city were also affected."

News also said they are staying vigilant because they are not sure if there are more bombs that had been placed.

 

[dadtoagirl03]

Sounds exhausting. Not sure why anyone would choose to live that way?

Because it's easy. Always have the "evil white man" to blame for everything without having to have any concrete proof.

 

[adelaster]

Because it's easy. Always have the "evil white man" to blame for everything without having to have any concrete proof.

Wait, are we talking about this story?

 

[DLgal]

Because it's easy. Always have the "evil white man" to blame for everything without having to have any concrete proof.

In this case, that's exactly what it was. A 24 year old white man. Shocking. Truly shocking.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In this case, that's exactly what it was. A 24 year old white man. Shocking. Truly shocking.

Though your earlier testament of the cause has not been found to be true at this time as the police do not think at this time it was a hate crime with race as the reason given the victims were of multiple races. At the very least we have more information to go off than we did before.

 

[DLgal]

Though your earlier testament of the cause has not been found to be true at this time as the police do not think at this time it was a hate crime with race as the reason given the victims were of multiple races. At the very least we have more information to go off than we did before.

"Hate crime" doesn't have to be racially motivated. Could be race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, etc.

No one knows yet. However, his white, Christian, homeschool (socially isolated) upbringing may be a clue. Frankly, it is usually white, Christian males who do these kinds of things and race is often a motivating factor.

Seems the later bombs weren't targeting specific types of peoole, but the placement of the first few seems to point to a specific agenda by this individual, who was born and raised in the area, so he knew exactly which kinds of people lived in which neighborhoods.

 

[VandVsmama]

To kill multiple people, you are pretty much insane in my book, hate crime or not. It's too soon to tell what the motivation is. I'm sure that the truth will come out over the next week.

 

[DLgal]

To kill multiple people, you are pretty much insane in my book, hate crime or not. It's too soon to tell what the motivation is. I'm sure that the truth will come out over the next week.

Very true. At the very least, you "hate" people in general. Or, you just lack the capacity to have feelings about life at all.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

"Hate crime" doesn't have to be racially motivated. Could be race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, etc.

Uh...yeah I know. I told you that several weeks ago.....when your comment was:

How much more of an explanation do you need? 3 minorities were victimized in 3 separate incidents, in a predominantly white city and overwhelmingly white state. Doesn't take a rocket scientist.

I had replied:

Hate crime is defined in the U.S. "basis of a person's protected characteristics of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability."

Race is just one component of hate crime.

At this point they aren't even sure if the people injured or killed were the actual intended targets. Kinda hard to eliminate all other possible motives when you don't know if they were the intended targets, you don't know who did it-which would help narrow down motive since you could look into their social media presence, their web browsing presence, if they belonged to any groups, was there any personal relationship with the targets, etc.

But it's interesting that now you're expanding your definition of hate crime when before you were pretty clear that hate crime was and only could be race driven..but ok

No one knows yet. However, his white, Christian, homeschool (socially isolated) upbringing may be a clue. Frankly, it is usually white, Christian males who do these kinds of things and race is often a motivating factor.

Hmm ok. Frankly I'd like to learn more about the situation rather than go to a very narrow-minded view. As far as race as a motivating factor-again at this time the police don't have that sort of angle at least as the main one considering victims were of multiple races..including white.

Seems the later bombs weren't targeting specific types of peoole, but the placement of the first few seems to point to a specific agenda by this individual, who was born and raised in the area, so he knew exactly which kinds of people lived in which neighborhoods.

I guess moral of the story is perhaps don't rush to assume.

However, If it was strictly a race issue and only a race issue I'm not sure killers would go and deviate from specified targets of a certain race to non-specified targets of any race.

 

[Domo]

I'm as anti-gun as it comes, but I have to admit, it is deplorable how people can turn anything into a weapon - bombs, chemicals, bio-weapons, knives, cars, vans, hammers... even fear itself!

 

[DLgal]

Uh...yeah I know. I told you that several weeks ago.....when your comment was:


I had replied:



But it's interesting that now you're expanding your definition of hate crime when before you were pretty clear that hate crime was and only could be race driven..but ok

Hmm ok. Frankly I'd like to learn more about the situation rather than go to a very narrow-minded view. As far as race as a motivating factor-again at this time the police don't have that sort of angle at least as the main one considering victims were of multiple races..including white.

I guess moral of the story is perhaps don't rush to assume.

However, If it was strictly a race issue and only a race issue I'm not sure killers would go and deviate from specified targets of a certain race to non-specified targets of any race.

I'm still standing by race, personally. That's my opinion here. I'll have no problem changing that view if it is proven wrong.

The FedEx facility explosions were packages addressed to a specified targets elsewhere in Austin. The authorities have not released that info. The only actual bombs not like the others were the tripwire bomb, which seems to have been randomly placed and the one left on the side of the road. Still though, the fact that the first two were hand delivered to people who were prominent members of the city's Black community, and the third was left on a minority family's doorstep, is a strong clue.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The Boogieman is almost always a homegrown white man. Sad that we always focus and lose our collective crap on immigrants, not to mention spend billions of dollars on foreign terrorism.

Just to be clear though terrorism is not restricted to non-whites nor to just foreign. There have however been very real cases of people here in the U.S. who have been recruited by foreign terrorists.

And while you did say 'almost always' the DC sniper who killed 17 people was not white and it was labeled among other things as domestic terrorism.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

Just to be clear though terrorism is not restricted to non-whites nor to just foreign. There have however been very real cases of people here in the U.S. who have been recruited by foreign terrorists.

And while you did say 'almost always' the DC sniper who killed 17 people was not white and it was labeled among other things as domestic terrorism.

Exactly. Which is why I said almost always white, homegrown and male. You found one person out of how many domestic terrorists who aren't homegrown white males? I'm sure you could even dig up a few more.