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ECLECTIC RANT: On the New Zealand killings
Editor's Note: We are following the example of Al Jazeera in no longer printing the names of mass murderers.
On March 15, 2019, B***** T*******, an Australian, attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 50 and wounding several others. He posted links on Facebook that connected to a live video of the massacre from a camera mounted on his body. The video showed unspeakable slaughter as a gunman moved through the houses of worship, saying nothing, shooting as many people as he could.
He also left behind a 74-page “manifesto" declaring himself a “ racist” and “ethno-nationalist eco-fascist" and various diatribes against immigrants, Muslims, Jews and religious converts. He wanted to defend “our lands” from “invaders,” to reduce immigration rates” and to deepen division and start a civil war in the United States. Calling immigrants invaders is right out of Trump’s playbook.
T****** further stated in his “manifesto” that he was inspired by mass murderer A*** B*****, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. He also mentions Finsbury Park terrorist D**** O*****, and then goes on to rail against mass immigration and said he views Donald Trump a “symbol of renewed white identity.” Think about that for a moment — Tarrant links Trump with two mass murderers.
President Trump expressed sympathy for the victims, but played down the threat of white nationalism across the world, saying he didn’t consider it a rising threat despite data suggesting otherwise. Yet, Trump keeps encouraging both violence and white nationalism, and white-nationalist violence is rising. David Leonhardt of The New York Times put it nicely, “While Trump doesn’t deserve blame for any specific attack; he does deserve blame for using the world’s biggest bully pulpit to corrode our democracy and public safety.”
