Another domestic terrorist attack?
By zuiko Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
A man intentionally runs over 15 people in San Fransisco today.
One man has died and at least 14 people were injured when a Fremont man purposefully drove his sport-utility vehicle onto sidewalks and crosswalks in San Francisco and Fremont today
Clearly, this was not accidental since the attacks on pedestrians took place at different times and different locations throughout the day.
The driver was in police custody. His name was not immediately released, but Department of Motor Vehicles records show the license plate on the SUV is registered to Omeed A. Popal of Fremont.
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Newsom described the suspect as a ``relatively young man.''
Now that isn't evidence of anything, yet, but it certainly does raise some questions. Where are the questions? Are we ever going to hear them asked, or have them answered? I'm not holding my breath.
As Hugh Hewitt points out, where is the MSM coverage of this attack at all? Are they simply asleep on the job? If their goal is to simply generate ratings, I would think this story would be more deserving of coverage than a rerererehash of Katrina. It is mind-boggling that it has been, so far, ignored.
This is also not something our government seems to be willing to address. Every one of these events (and there have been many in the past 5 years) is written off as the work of a crazed loner, unless we have him in the shaking hands with Bin Laden in one of his videos.
Whether this particular incident is terrorism related or not, it seems to me that domestic terrorism is here, and has been for a while. The first step towards doing anything about it is admitting it is a problem. We still don't seem to be ready to take that step. We won't be until those who wish us harm find much greater success... and that is truly unfortunate.
of these crazy 'loners' around.
Re: As Hugh Hewitt points out, where is the MSM coverage of this attack at all?
IMO, thus sort of thing (which is really very small potatoes) should not be sensationalized lest it enocurage copy-cat actions by others. And yes, there are a lot of nutcases running around our country (see: deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill). Anyway, terrorists prefer very high profile and high-casualty attacks precisely so that they will make the headlines. Even if this guy is a jihadi wanna-be we shouldn't give him or his ilk any free publicity.
It isn't small potatoes to the person who was killed or those that were injured... just as the shooting at the Jewish Community Center, or at LAX were not "small potatoes" to those who were killed. Is death toll the metric we go by? If it's less than, say, 3000 per incident, it is a non-issue?
If body count was the metric used for everything, that doesn't really explain media obsessions like the Petersons or the Ramseys, or even school shootings.
The approach we are taking with these "lone wolf" terrorist attacks is identical to the approach we took with organized terror before 9/11. Ignore it and it will go away. They are just looking for attention. It's just a law enforcement problem, like jaywalkers. It took 3000 deaths in one big incident to change our minds about organized terror. If 9/11 failed, we would certainly still have our head in the sand. If 9/11 had claimed "only" a few dozen lives, it would've probably yielded the same result. Unfortunately, it does seem that you need a sufficient body count to get people's attention. I'm sure the jihadists will continue to work on that.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
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Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
the problem is global warming.
If we would simply ban SUVs the problem would go away.
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If "pro" is the opposite of "con", what is the opposite of "progress"?
It has been reported on cable news (at least two different channels) this morning. No mention of possible "terrorist" implications but to that matter, do we really want every incident of violence to be considered an act of suspected terrorism until proven otherwise?
What qualifies an incident as genuine "domestic terrorism" in your opinion? It seems we have an obvious incident from which to start staking out the boundaries for domestic terrorism in the Oklahoma City attack. Eric Rudolph doesn't seem like too far a stretch as a qualifier for a "domestic terrorist" label. But isn't there a seperating line between mass murderer and serial killer type incidents - or generally deranged actions whether from rage or mental illness - and terrorism?
All this said, without actual evidence to indicate this was a premeditated act of terrorism against Jewish residents, it doesn't seem like this would be the right time to criticize the press or the administration for failing to cover the incident (or cover it to a greater extent, as has been pointed out, it was covered by cable news). If such evidence is exposed and concrete motives to terrorize are uncovered, and the press and government remain silent or apathetic, criticism for lack of coverage would make more sense.
Terrorism is the act of attacking random, innocent civilians with the purpose of instilling fear. This is distinct from ordinary crime, in which the motive is usually more personal, either to benefit the criminal or to get back at the victim.
Attacks out of the blue on Jews seem to fit the profile to me.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
There have been many, such as the suicide bomber that wanted to blow himself up inside a college football game, then when he could not, he blew himself up outside. Or the student that purposely ran over students at a college campus? These events have already been happening quite often, and yet it is totally under the radar.
Motivations are what matter when it comes to determining what is terrorism... but this is not the criteria the government uses. They seem to only look for evidence of a large conspiracy before they call something terrorism. My point is that no such conspiracy is necessary. Terrorism by small homegrown cells or even individuals could be as much of a problem as terrorism conducted by large international organizations... and these attacks are much harder to detect and thwart in advance.
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"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
- As is always the case when an SUV is involved, most of the reports make it sound like there was no driver involved. The SUV did this, the SUV did that. Why not the driver did this, the driver did that?
- The driver's name was Omeed Aziz Popal. No mention as to nationality or ethnicity. Hmmm. Has CAIR come out with a statement yet that it's yet another case of police harassing someone because he has an Arabic-sounding name?
- How soon before Honda gets sued? File it in San Francisco, and surely we're talking about an eight-figure claim for their making SUVs that kill people.