L.A. Parker: Call Vegas attack what it is — Terrorism
“It’s always a white guy,” a Caucasian female coworker/friend said.
Not really, although the point remains acceptable when conversations include homegrown terrorist incidents such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, an Oklahoma City federal building, an AME church in Charleston and the Aurora movie theater massacre.
Weird occurs with reports that the previous record for the deadliest shooting in the United States happened in 2016 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where a gunman killed 49 people before police killed him.
The Las Vegas massacre death toll reached 59 as officials declared a new U.S. mark for mass murder as if they charted Major League Baseball numbers delivered by Elias Sports Bureau.
“That’s right, Vern. Gunman Stephen Paddock just surpassed the record formerly held by Orlando nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen who killed 49 in 2016. We never expected his mark to fall this quickly.”
These circumstances sound sickening when one thinks about such statistics, worse when one considers Chicago delivers daily dribs and drabs of death, seemingly unremarkable until the tote board registers 762 homicides as it did last year. Two murders per day sounds like a lot of killing.
Black shooters, yes, those community terrorists, eye the end of year numbers, although midway through 2017, Philadelphia had 152 homicides. That’s 21 percent higher at the same point in time last year.
White, black, religious beliefs, whatever descriptions connect to these lone gunmen, this violence takes a toll on victims, families, first responders and the nation.
Of course, we extend condolences and support to those closest to the carnage, this time Las Vegas where a crazed gunman ...... Heck, you know the story, however the real truth understands that these incidents impact most of us.
Amazing that television anchors and talking heads announced that the Las Vegas incident has been declared a non-terrorist act.
Twenty-two thousand people trapped inside metal fencing while some armed, dangerous, deranged despicable madman kills 59 people and wounds hundreds sounds like terror.
We have reserved terrorist labels strictly for Muslims. When white men kill, our lexicons deliver words like lone gunman, shooter, lone wolf, etc. but never the Tword.
When black men murder like crazy we deliver excuses about gun manufacturers and inner city gun sales as if each individual gun holder had no responsibility for discharging his weapon.
When white supremacists declare death to blacks, Jews and the LGBTQ community, it’s not terror just people fully exercising their constitutional right to free speech.
Las Vegas lies 2,500 miles from Trenton but television delivered those stunning videos and photographs.
No television service in my home allows for peace and relative quiet although my mind received three minutes of TV news at the office before a personal exit.
That proved more than enough to understand that terror would invade iPhones, tablets and personal computers. Terror received a 24-hour showcase on every cable channel, radio station and other media outlets.
Terror appeared everywhere Monday morning as people attempted to continue breathing. Mondays are bad enough but add terror and it would be understandable that people used a personal day or sick time.
(Won’t be in today, feel the need to shelter in place).
A coffee run showed terror in the eyes of a woman who works in Trenton’s city hall.
“It’s the coming of Armageddon,” she said.
Run for your life. Terror.