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posted by n1 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:35AM   Printer-friendly

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


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:28PM (7 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:28PM (#517598) Journal

    If there's a bright spot in this terrible story it's that despite everything, basic human decency is still alive in America. Standing up to intervene for people who have been relentlessly demonized in the press for 20 years (or longer) shows courage.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:43PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:43PM (#517694)

    Shut up you hypocrite.

    You voted for the candidate who said "Islam hates us" [washingtonpost.com] and campaigned on banning the girls in this story.

    You don't get to act like you are a decent person when it comes to anti-muslim bigotry. You are part of the problem.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:47PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:47PM (#517814)

      Out of curiosity. Imagine you were able to poll every single Muslim worldwide and asked them to respond to the following question: "On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is hate and 10 is love, how would you rate your feelings towards the United States?" How do you think they would respond? I think all religions are pretty scummy, but Islam takes the cake there since the religion is still in its more fundamentalist phase that most other religions have already gone through. Also, Trump did not campaign on deporting Muslims - he campaigned on tightening immigration requirements so that the people that would answer closer to 1 for the above survey would be less able to get into the United States.

      If an otherwise secular individual had the beliefs of a Muslim, they'd be considered a racist, sexist, homophobic, bigot. It's interesting that because you say you have those beliefs because of a god, that suddenly we're supposed to accept that. To me that's silly. I don't condone racist rednecks because it's their culture, and I don't condone Islamic stupidity because it's their culture either.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:07PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:07PM (#517827)

        > How do you think they would respond?

        Not much different from any other group.

        > If an otherwise secular individual had the beliefs of a Muslim, they'd be considered a racist, sexist, homophobic, bigot.

        In the US muslims are 50% more likely to support gay marriage than evangelicals. [pewforum.org]
        They also have the highest levels of income and education gender equality [gallup.com] after jews.

        The version of islam that you know is not the version of islam that actual muslims live. Delete the jihadwatch bookmarks and start paying attention to facts, not sophistry from haters.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:41PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @10:41PM (#517938)

          "not sophistry from haters."

          Meaning, we can stop listening to you, and all the progressives. You hate America, and your sophistry only tries to disguise that fact.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:26AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:26AM (#518069)

            Ah, just like so many of your fellow assholes. Faced with demonstrable facts, all you've got is "you hate america."
            No, I hate the bullshit you spout and I hate your faux patriotism. You are no american, you are lying, countryless scum.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:42AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:42AM (#518105)

          Do you even grasp your own cognitive dissonance?

          You're trying to spin 42% of a group supporting gays having the same legal rights under law as straights as a good thing. Similarly that "income and education equality" equality is absurd. The education aspect isn't even quantified, and the "economic equality" is praising the fact that Muslims are very poor. Muslim men live in the poorest households in the US, which puts them on par with Muslim women. What amazing progress. That figure is even more sad given they're looking at household income (as opposed to personal income) and the average Muslim household size in the US is substantially larger than average meaning more potential bread winners.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:56AM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @03:56AM (#518085) Journal

      Simplistic reductionism such as you are practicing helps no one, least of all yourself. It glosses everything into a blur of binary oppositions that will lead to you misread the world time and again, and take the wrong actions and form incorrect assumptions based on that misreading. Maybe you are young and don't know yet that the world, and certainly not human beings, does not confine itself to your petulant need for clear categories. Or, maybe you are an adult and don't know that because your emotional intelligence is insufficient or your social development was fatally stunted at some stage.

      No candidate does, however, conform 100% to any voter's set of cherished beliefs. No candidate will ever do so. Unless you're a churl you will concede that much. Further, unless you're a churl, you will concede that voting for a candidate does not an endorsement of everyone of the candidate's beliefs make. Further, I think we can all agree, or at the very least take as so for the sake of argument, that the two nominees in this last race were particularly awful. So the previous two statements were even more true than usual.

      Since you seem to recall I voted for Trump, then you would also recall that I was very forthright about why (and, spoiler here, it was not because he hated Muslims or was going to build a stupid wall). I voted the way I did because I knew a great deal about the Clintons and would have been sooner drawn and quartered than see them return to the Whitehouse. I voted the way I did because I was gambling Trump was a better hope for killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which by itself was such a huge deal that his making good on that promise right away, summarily, still vastly outweighs everything else he has done and a great deal more than he could still do. I voted the way I did because I thought there might at least be a chance that he would kick some of the Wall Street bankers in the nuts, because he could and because the rabble (like me) would cheer him for it; Hillary never would.

      So there's no hypocrisy on my part. I was clear why I voted for Trump, and hating Muslims was not among my reasons, and so there is no contradiction in my lauding people who interposed their lives to save others whom most of the "decent" people in America have been taught to despise. It is a mark of the highest character to do something like that. As a man and Mason and Christian, it's what I believe integrity demands and is a standard I hope I would be equal to if ever called upon.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.