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An Army veteran, a recent college graduate and a student who once won a poetry contest by condemning prejudice stirred up by the Sept. 11 attacks intervened as a man screamed anti-Muslim insults at two women in Portland, Ore., on Friday.
[...] Two of the men — Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53 — died in the attack, which occurred on a commuter train. The third, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, was treated on Saturday for injuries that the police said were serious but not life-threatening.
Jeremy Christian, 35, of North Portland, Ore., was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the attack and could face additional charges when he is arraigned on Tuesday. Mr. Christian, who the authorities said had a history of making extremist statements on social media, was ranting at, and talking disparagingly about, the two women, one of whom was wearing a hijab.
Source: The New York Times
President Donald Trump has released his first official statement on the attack in Portland, Oregon, more than 48 hours after the two victims died.
"The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable," Mr Trump tweeted. "The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them."
Source: The Independent
Portland law enforcement leaders were tightlipped Saturday about the investigation into Friday's attacks that killed two men on a light rail train but a federal official did say it was too early to label the incident a hate crime.
[...] Loren Cannon, special agent in charge of the Portland FBI office, [...]
"It's too early to say whether last night's violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime," he said. "However, in the coming days, the FBI, PPB and the prosecutors will work together to share information, leverage resources and make determinations about future criminal charges."
[...] Leaders of the Muslim community said they were thankful for the men who gave their lives to save the girls from harm. They have raised $50,000 toward a goal of $60,000 to help support the victims and their families.
Source: The Oregonian
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:02AM (14 children)
Here [youtube.com] is a video of the attacker on a different day than the attack. He was deranged and talking to himself while bashing Christians, Muslims, Jews, taxpayers, and just about everything. He also seemed aggrieved that some group managed to get his wife's metal concert cancelled - all while threatening to stab everybody and simultaneously nobody since he was basically talking to the clouds. According to the person [wweek.com] who filmed the video, this was just the tail end of a ~15 minute rant of him talking to himself. The reporting of the stabbing in question has him going on another rant before everybody moved away from him except for a handful of individuals who decided to approach him. Don't escalate situations against insane individuals.
Our media is spinning this as an anti-Muslim attack and trying to frame it as terrorism on top of that, to finally fit their narrative. But their 'home grown white terrorist' is a guy going on regular lengthy rants to himself on the city bus and making threats like stabbing the bus driver because he must not be "moving forward" (I guess not driving quickly enough?) because he's a Christian or a Muslim. That said it does make one wonder what to do in a situation like this. Anybody who's relied on a mainline city bus for any period of time will have run into these sort of guys plenty. The threats could potentially be a felony, but the law requires they be real. If the situation with this individual had not been escalated, there likely would never have been a stabbing. And in any case this guy belongs in a mental institution, not a prison. Put him in prison and he'll just go further off the deep end as he organizes and further radicalizes with other similarly deranged individuals.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:11AM
Yeah! Fuck the Abrahamic religions! Tax is theft, Caesar! Fucking Roman punk-ass bitches.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:43AM (5 children)
And, what about the following (found on random site [govtslaves.com]), is the fact true? The anti muslim march was surely planned before the attack, you don't organize those things in a mere week.
"Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has urged the federal government to revoke a permit for a “free speech” rally and to refuse a permit for an anti-Muslim march planned for Portland next week."
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:36AM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:09AM (2 children)
I believe he's trying to refute the claim that openly anti-Muslim sentiment is just something being made up by the mass media.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:55AM
No, sorry, I was saying that marches against Islam* were already planned, but media failed to take into account the combination of this climate and a clearly deranged individual in their analysis. Media is, again, mere propaganda.
*) which are perfectly justified, because Islam is not constitutional whenever it gets outside the personal belief sphere, in the social sphere, and this is happening and media play dumb, and left plays dumb, and you should be concerned about that.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @01:47PM
unlikely since he's anti-muslim himself and considers it "natural."
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:53AM
Can't have freedom of speech (or in this specific case, freedom of assembly) if you suppress people even if you think they're batshit insane.
The ACLU went to bat for the American Nazi Party [wikipedia.org] over this very issue, and won the case because it didn't meet then standard of "clear and present danger", or the current standard of "imminent lawless action" required for prior restraint of the government.
Still always moving
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 30 2017, @09:24AM (6 children)
The thing you don't get is that the situation had already been massively escalated by said crazy person. It is foolish to ignore the person with the greatest control over the situation, Mr. Christian himself. And if those bystanders hadn't "escalated" the conflict, perhaps it would have been a couple of teenage girls who would have died instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:44AM
An outcome they sure would have preferred, if they had the capability of hindsight, I am sure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @11:20AM (4 children)
The girls, along with everybody on the bus, had already removed themselves from the situation. Any risk, which may not have even existed, had already passed. Escalating the situation against a deranged individual is idiotic. What exactly did they think would happen? For him to decide, "Oh gosh you're right. I guess I shouldn't be a deranged menace on the bus. Please give everybody my kindest apologies. Thanks, gents."? Approaching him was begging for a physical altercation against a potentially psychotic individual who is repeatedly stating he wants to stab people. Another very reasonable possibility is him having been under the influence of drugs such as PCP whose side effects include 0 sensitivity to pain, impaired decision making, and effectively superhuman strength. These sort of individuals can take a half dozen trained law enforcement officers to control.
If people feel the person might be a genuine future threat then the right thing to do would be to call the authorities. Presumably the bus would have a camera which the police could use to make an informed decision (though again I think it's a shame we're sending these people to prison instead of mental institutions). But in 99% of circumstances the solution is to treat them like animals - avoid eye contact and leave them alone, and they leave everybody else alone even if they might rant at them. Had the individual in question decided to begin approaching the girls or otherwise become physically aggressive then that's another situation altogether and I would support intervention simply because there is no other reasonable alternative. As is, these deaths were completely unnecessary and it's a complete shame.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:56PM (3 children)
The girls were able to remove themselves with the intervention of the three guys who were attacked. They might not have been able to otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:12AM (2 children)
That has not been reported or even alluded to. Not a single news article has alluded to the crazy in any way whatsoever physically interacting with the girls - and our news media is already absurdly sensationalistic. The media would be jumping all over it if it happened or could even be somehow possibly spun to have happened. Even the one girl who has spoken on video (and whom, by the way, is not a Muslim - yay media) simply said [bbc.com] they were going to go get off the bus. The bus line does [trimet.org] has cameras on every bus and so there is objective evidence that will likely be revealed or leaked at some point.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:58AM (1 child)
Instead Christian physically interacted with three people who had intervened to prevent him from physically interacting with the girls. And I see one of the girls has said [bbc.com] "Without them we would be dead" and that Christian had started attacking before the two girls could flee the area. So this eyewitness account contracts the earlier assertion that the girls along with everyone else "had already removed themselves from the situation" was wrong. A couple of quotes from this previous post which also appears to be by you:
When seconds count, the authorities are only a few minutes away. I bet we'll find that there were multiple 911 calls prior to the attack. But law enforcement doesn't magically arrive exactly when they are called.
This wasn't 99% of circumstances. Perhaps you too should listen to your own advice and wait for evidence before making broad, unfounded assertions about the incident. We already have an eyewitness account that contradicts some of your assertions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:20PM
And more detailed accounts are coming out [koin.com]. Another one [oregonlive.com]. The reporter in that one took some liberties with facts by, for instance, describing the initial shove against Christian as an attempt to move him away from the girl. Problem being the person being interviewed already said she couldn't even see where the girls were and so obviously did not say this - it was also the reporter interjecting that. It was not quoted or even paraphrased like the vast majority of the article. In any case, both start to show you a clear picture. And sadly it is exactly as I told you it would be.
The crazy was being crazy. A smart veteran started trying to trying to calm him down by talking to him like an actual person. Our poet then "briskly walked" to the crazy and "loudly implored him" (using our 'creative' reporters phrasing) to get off the train. He then apparently got into the crazy's personal space and placed his camera over his head. To give some context to the distance - the personal account said she was unsure if he was recording it or trying to show the crazy a video! At that point another previously uninvolved individual decides to go shove the crazy. The crazy at this point drew his knew, dared him to shove him again, but then immediately cut him without warning. He then got on the other individual that had been "loudly imploring" him to leave and hovering his phone over him. At this point the veteran intervened to tried to save the kid and was targeted as well.
Really this is all just incredibly sad. I could easily see myself being the vet there. But the other point is that this all could also have been likely avoided if people didn't turn a vocal altercation violent. The vet had the right of it. Treat the guy with respect and dignity, even if he doesn't deserve it, and try to calm him down. Getting in his face? Shoving him? What exactly did they hope to accomplish?