Nine dead in shooting by white gunman at historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-church-shooting.html

surveillance photo of suspect: http://i.imgur.com/UmWyeHz.jpg

history of violence against black churches:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/thugs-and-terrorists-have-plagued-black-churches-for-generations/396212/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/18/for-charlestons-emanuel-a-m-e-church-one-of-the-oldest-in-america-shooting-is-another-painful-chapter-in-long-history/

(Charleston Police Chief Gregory) Mullen said the suspect was a "younger white male between 21 and 25 years of age, 5 foot 9 in height" and "has a very distinctive sweatshirt that has markings."

A female survivor told family members that the gunman sat down briefly before standing up and opening fire Wednesday night, Dot Scott, president of the local branch of the NAACP, told The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston. The gunman reportedly told the woman he was letting her live to tell everyone else what happened, Scott told the paper.

The suspect was seen leaving the church in a black four-door sedan, the flier says. "The vehicle you will see has a very distinctive front license plate," Mullen added.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/charleston-church-shooting-police-call-help-catch-gunman-loose-n377546

"You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," Johnson said the survivor recalled.

state senator reverend clementa pinckney among the victims

http://i.imgur.com/91qXhBA.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/live/updates-on-charleston-church-shooting/pastor-was-an-influential-figure-from-the-start/

shots fired into a memphis church just now: http://www.wsfa.com/story/29350533/shots-fired-into-church-on-pendleton-street

what the fuck

suspect confirmed as 'dylann storm roof', 21 http://www.wistv.com/story/29351540/charleston-shooting-suspect-from-columbia-area

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-06-16/opinion/op-15599_1_separate-black-churches

^ published in 1996

His uncle recognized him, said for his 21st birthday in April he'd been given a gun as a present.

you can't make this up - SC newspaper has gun ad obscuring headline

http://i.imgur.com/dJteYLr.jpg

abysmal real names, abysmal acts

the terrifying thing is that this is just the tip of the racism iceberg, the breakout violence fostered by entire cultures of hatred

http://i.imgur.com/3eTGYe6.jpg

flags on his jacket are rhodesia and apartheid south africa

https://twitter.com/HayesBrown/status/611536413830426624

Yeahhhhhhhhh, that's probably the guy they're looking for.

even that britpop hairdo looks evil.

disgruntled bowlcut

Repeal the 2nd amendment

http://i.imgur.com/xQTyCik.png

sounds like this guy would be more up for repealing the 13th

Fuck me.

xxp could be he got 2 african flags on his jacket after all

I feel a lot of inarticulable anger and sadness about all of this but that tweet made me so angry my vision literally went red. Which is probably my blood pressure. God damn this shit.

not really sure this is needed, bananaman begins

ok.

that tweet reminds me of that fucking insane delawarean who catfished me last year, it's as much a gun lobby thing as a racism thing (although it's both)

the emanuel AME church has a donation button on its website:

http://emanuelamechurch.org/

thanks for that

Repeal the 2nd amendment

― Οὖτις, Thursday, June 18, 2015 10:31 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am 100% w/ you and feel desperate, sad, angry, and perhaps most horribly not surprised at yet another instance in the utterly depressing regularity of mass shootings and racist violence in the US but i do know better than to expect any meaningful legislative change from any mass shooting. if 20 children shot at sandy hook fails to result in gun legislation i don't see how this would, there is going be a million pieces of shit, as usual, trying to diminish this horrible incident and ignore 1) its part in the wider pattern of gun violence in the US and 2) its part in the history of white supremacy and terrorism

That Cuomo twit shouldn't be taken out of context. Most of his tweets have been defending reporting this as a hate crime, which just indicates how awful his reader comments must be.

you're right in that he's a twit

http://i.imgur.com/w96wTVx.jpg

better view of the license plate on the front of his car

guy totally has a Reddit account, right?

Yikes, what a sight.

like half of america has a reddit account xp

I'd love to see some soul searching in South Carolina (and elsewhere), with people finally taking off the vanity licence plates and patches.

A major reason I'm estranged from my mother is her Confederate reenactor boyfriend, who besides being a sociopath had all this hateful Confederate paraphenalia about.

That Cuomo twit shouldn't be taken out of context. Most of his tweets have been defending reporting this as a hate crime, which just indicates how awful his reader comments must be.

― We'd like to conduct a wobulator test here (Sanpaku), Thursday, June 18, 2015 2:50 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought of that, and that means people doing every kind of mental gymnastics possible to convince themselves that this guy wasn't white.

I'm just so sorry. I'm so sorry this keeps happening. I'm so sorry for my friends. I don't know what to do.

guy totally on facebook i bet

That's kind of making this about me, which is not a thing to do. xp

People like to say the Confederate flag stands for "Heritage Not Hate." So I guess this is a heritage crime.

he is - daily beast did a pretty awful story about his account which i'm not gonna link here xp

re: reevaluating the fetishization of the Confederacy and guns, I actually do know one formerly very pro gun person who, after Sandy Hook, was like you know what fuck it, and got rid of her guns (except a hunting rifle because let's not get ridiculous). But I know a lot more people who, when faced with this kind of situation, just dig in even deeper.

Come on humans. We can do better than this.

from the NYT:

Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Mr. Pinckney, told NBC News that she had spoken with a survivor of the shooting who told her the gunman reloaded five times. The survivor, she said, told her that the gunman had entered the church and asked for the pastor. Then he sat next to Mr. Pinckney during the Bible study before opening fire.

“I have to do it,” the gunman was quoted as saying. “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

I really hope they bring this asshole in a live and don't give him the pleasure of offing himself.

our country

and this fucking terrorist is a confederacy fetishist. his country died in flames 150 years ago.

I really hope they bring this asshole in a live and don't give him the pleasure of offing himself.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, June 18, 2015 11:12 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

chances are high as he's white

murderer in dis guys, could he not be wite

Hope he is the only white guy in the courtroom tbh

hearing reports that he's been arrested?

i do know better than to expect any meaningful legislative change from any mass shooting

yeah I don't expect it either, but I feel compelled to reiterate the extremist stance when it comes to the 2nd Amendment because a) nobody says it and b) the NRA has an all-or-nothing agenda (that they are remarkably successful at) and the best way to counter that is for the opposition to adopt an all-or-nothing position as well. The NRA's going to say "liberals want to take away your guns" no matter how weak any proposed regulation is, so we might as well own it imo - after all, repealing the 2nd Amendment would be the optimal outcome, and we shouldn't be ashamed to argue for it.

Charleston's Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. has set up the "Mother Emanuel Hope" fund . The fund will help family members pay for funerals, counseling and other financial needs. Donations can be online, by texting 'prayforcharleston' to 843-606-5995 additionally you can walk into any of Wells Fargo's 6,200 banking locations now you can also make a check out to "Mother Emanuel Hope Fund" and send it to the address below:

Mother Emanuel Hope Fund

C/O City of Charleston

P.O. Box 304 Charleston, SC 29402

The Lowcountry Ministries -- Reverend Pinckney Fund will be administered by the Palmetto Project, a non-profit dedicated to improving lives in South Carolina. These funds will be used to support local initiates serving Rev. Pinckney's church , vulnerable populations and youth projects he was passionate about. You can donate online or by mailing a check to:

Lowcountry Ministries -- Reverend Pinckney Fund

c/o The Palmetto Project

6296 Rivers Avenue #100

North Charleston, SC 29406

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/18/us/iyw-help-charleston-heal/

They also have a Paypal donation button on the website:

http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/#

tbf to Chumley (ok not really) how often do you see reactionary piece of shit racists argue that black men should be more well armed

I mean we're at a place where Confederate Flag-loving white guy is saying "black people need more guns" it's fucking bonkers

that argument is not uncommon among libertarians

thanks for link to donation site

I don't think they're all racist in the sense of disliking / hating black people, but I think it's racist in the sense that these people devote considerable time to their cause while not taking time to learn that civil rights people tend not to agree with them on guns. They should respect and understand their opposition more - black churches are a significant part of that.

Of that opposition, I mean. The gun groups choose to demonize the opposition, which isn't civil when you're packing.

great jelani cobb talk of the town piece about terrorism and white supremacy

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/terrorism-in-charleston

friend of mine wrote this re: the roots of roof's radicalization

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/24/3673580/lone-wolf-origins/

Upthread I noticed someone quoting the usual yahoo internet comments to the effect that 'if the pastor were armed, this wouldn't have been as bad as it was'. All I can say is that when the Black Panthers said much the same as these brainless NRA gun lovers, that all black men and women should arm themselves with an arsenal equal to their enemies' weaponry, it led to the FBI besieging them in Oakland, pouring a hail of thousands of bullets at them through the walls of their apartment, and these same yahoos were cheering for the police.

― Aimless, Saturday, June 20, 2015 1:18 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this just gets more surreal.

but btw i kinda don't think contemplating an armed zealot killing a bunch of people (even if they are NRA people) is a good mental habit to get in, even if it is more "sad thought experiment" than fanfic/fantasy.

http://mic.com/articles/121303/black-baptist-church-in-north-carolina-set-on-fire

Are you fucking kidding me goddamit no

holy hell.

hoping desperately against hope that this is something, anything other than what it seems.

Yeah, holding out for a secretary trying to cover up embezzelment or something.

man, this country.

this eulogy is so beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvXxDWdcYkI

btw:

https://twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/614527435510386689

Three black churches burned in the last four days:
Macon, GA (June 23)
Charlotte, NC (June 24)
Warrenville, SC (June 26)

yeah, I have held off on talking about that on Facebook given the Supreme Court celebrations but

three?!? motherfucker

fucking hell

I...

eulogy is/was really moving & inspiring, def worth watching if you havent seen it

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/president-obama-took-me-to-church-today-1714260805

yeah i watched that yesterday and teared up quite a bit, prob his finest hour as a speaker

The deadspin article is worth a read even if you've already watched the speech, imo

more on the church fires, of which there were two more yesterday

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2015/06/26/string-of-nighttime-fires-hit-predominately-black-churches-in-four-southern-states/

Sister of accused Charleston shooter asks for donations to cover canceled wedding

as much as the plea is a little misguided, I think someone who had to cancel their wedding because their brother went on a killing spree deserves some sympathy.

Yeah I mean, I'm not donating but this doesn't really strike me as egregious, particularly when you look at how much money can go into a wedding; trying to recoup $5K from that doesn't strike me as unreasonable at all, particularly from a circumstance that they didn't actually create.

There is an awful lot of "she is his brother so therefore she is a racist right-wing redneck" in the comments (and in the article, starting with that photo, jesus christ)

Er, sister.

The picture is from CMT show My Big Redneck Wedding.

Well, I didn't think it was from the GoFundMe, that was kind of my point.

(Though I'm wrong to say it starts there, the photo is further down than the "The Wedding Klanner" subhead)

Given that the entire narrative around this dude is that he was alienated from his family for being a big fucking racist, this whole thing is extra gross.

yup. why do people write and publish things gratuitously cruel? ugh.

what a gross and horrible article

like, if the sister was fundraising to pay for getting a counter-narrative about her brother out there because we haven't heard the whole story and there's some mythical information out there that would make the racially-motivated murder of nine people make sense, I could understand this article

I could get behind it if her wedding was simply going to the courthouse to get registered and all the donations went to victims instead.

well like I said, I'm not behind it but I don't begrudge it, either

i guess i don't understand why someone's reaction to a horrible event would be to compound the suffering (albeit in a way that's trivial compared to the suffering her brother caused)

it doesn't seem to come from a place of genuine anger and concern, more like trolling

IIRC Wonkette lives on schadenfreude; they just used to be better at picking targets

i honestly cannot tell the million clickbait blog "news" sites apart and i'm not sure i want to expend the time and energy to do so

well Wonkette was "the mean political website everyone on ILX liked because an ILXor was running it"

otoh I wouldn't say that ILX has always given wonkette a free pass for ruining people's marriage plans

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/09/12/an-american-void/

photos to this are amazing

jury has sentenced dylann roof to death

Given the current state of the law and the evidence, that was the correct sentence. But the death penalty does nothing for society other than degrade it.

I mostly agree. I gleefully await Dylan Roof's execution.

I've been thinking about this a lot since it was published: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/opinion/dylann-roof-shouldnt-get-the-death-penalty.html Not intended as a comment on anybody's else's position - just something that's stuck with me.