By Janet Reitman The New York Times Tues., Nov. 6, 2018 The first indication to Lt. Dan Stout that law enforcement’s handling of white supremacy was broken came in September 2017, as he was sitting in an emergency-operations centre in Gainesville, Fla., preparing for the onslaught of Hurricane Irma and watching what felt like his thousandth YouTube video of the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va. Jesus Christ, he thought, studying the footage in which crowds of angry men, who had gathered to attend or protest the Unite the Right rally, set upon one another with sticks and flagpole spears and flame throwers and God knows what else. A black man held an aerosol can, igniting the spray, and in retaliation, a white man picked up his gun, pointed it toward the black man and fired it at the ground. The Virginia state troopers, inexplicably, stood by and watched. Stout fixated on this image, wondering what kind of organizational failure had led to the debacle. He had … [Read more...] about How U.S. law enforcement failed to see the threat of white nationalism
Columbine police report
Teen Texas gunman suspect studied previous mass shootings: Report
REUTERS: The teenage boy charged with murdering eight students and two teachers during a gun rampage at a Houston-area high school on Friday (May 18) studied previous mass shootings before carrying out his attack, sources told ABC News.The accused killer, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, "used aspects of those (attacks) in his own shooting," a source told the broadcaster, without going into further details.Classmates at the school in Santa Fe, Texas described Pagourtzis as a quiet loner who played on the football team. The attacker wore a black trench coat to school even in the Texas heat on Friday and opened fire with a .38 caliber pistol and Remington shotgun.Multiple media accounts say the gunman taunted some of his victims, asking some hiding in a closet if they wanted to answer their ringing cell phones. "You want to get that?" the attacker said, according to The Wall Street Journal.He spared others saying he wanted his story told. Police also found homemade pipe bombs that did not … [Read more...] about Teen Texas gunman suspect studied previous mass shootings: Report
U.S. woman sentenced to life in Valentine’s Day shooting plot at Halifax mall
By The Canadian Press Fri., April 20, 2018 HALIFAX—An American woman who plotted to go on a Valentine's Day shooting rampage at a Halifax mall has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole for a decade. Lindsay Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan that would have seen two shooters open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in 2015. Police thwarted the planned attack after receiving an anonymous tip, but not before the 26-year-old woman boarded a plane in Chicago, Ill., bound for Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski told the court she is and will remain a threat to society. The judge told the court Souvannarath has not expressed remorse for her plot to kill people at the mall, nor has she renounced her ideological motivations for the conspiracy. Article Continued Below Her co-conspirator, James Gamble, killed himself as police surrounded his Halifax-area home, while Souvannarath … [Read more...] about U.S. woman sentenced to life in Valentine’s Day shooting plot at Halifax mall
‘Last night I told my wife I would take a bullet for the kids’
By JULIE TURKEWITZ The New York Times Tues., Feb. 20, 2018 TAMARAC, FLA.—The shooting was all over, but the emotional reckoning had just begun, and so on Saturday the teachers of Broward County in Florida packed their union hall to discuss what it meant to have become the nation’s human shields. “Last night I told my wife I would take a bullet for the kids,” said Robert Parish, a teacher at an elementary school just miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where a former student killed 17 people, including at least three faculty members who found themselves in the line of fire. Since the attack on Wednesday, Parish said, “I think about it all the time.” Across the country, teachers are grappling with how their roles have expanded, from educator and counsellor to bodyguard and protector. They wonder if their classrooms are properly equipped, if they would recognize the signs of a dangerous student and, most of all, if they are … [Read more...] about ‘Last night I told my wife I would take a bullet for the kids’
World News: Connecticut in mourning; Gunman kills 28
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Quiet Connecticut town rocked by mass school shooting Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: The peace and security of the suburban Connecticut community of Newtown lay shattered yesterday after a gunman attacked a primary school in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.Tearful parents and children gathered around Sandy Hook Elementary School by midday, surrounded by police vehicles, as young and old alike struggled to make sense of a shooting rampage that killed at least 28 people, including 20 children.Mergim Bajraliu, a 17-year-old high school student, said he was at his home nearby when he heard two shots. He and a neighbor ran to the school to find his 9-year-old sister, Venesa, a fourth-grader.“My heart sank,” he said, describing seeing two students covered in blood being carried out of the building, one of whom looked like his sister. To his relief, his … [Read more...] about World News: Connecticut in mourning; Gunman kills 28