Official: One of Texas Shooting Suspects IDed
Source: ABC News
One of the suspects in the shooting in Garland, Texas late Sunday has been identified as Elton Simpson, an Arizona man who was previously the subject of a terror investigation, according to a senior FBI official.
Overnight and today FBI agents and a bomb squad were at Simpson's home in an apartment complex in north Phoenix where a robot is believed to be conducting an initial search of the apartment.
Officials believe Simpson is the person who sent out several Twitter messages prior to the attack on Sunday, in the last one using the hashtag #TexasAttack about half an hour before the shooting.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/official-texas-shooting-supsects-ided/story?id=30782088
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)What a gift to the Islamaphobes.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)I'm not victim blaming but it's logic. Knowledge that drawing the Prophet makes militant muslims act irrationally is used to create a situation where militant muslims act as expected then the Islamaphobes get to declare they were right and be outraged by the predictable outcome.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)These two ISIS-wannabes did more to make her argument for her than she herself did in the previous decade.
Extremists feed on one another.
forthemiddle
(1,373 posts)Do we blame the pro choice movement?
If we bend to one religion, why not bend to all?
There is no excuse for this violence, and blaming of the cartoonists that deem it their 1st Amendment write to draw the Prophet in insulting cartoons won't help the situation.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)I didn't blame the cartoonists. I'm just stating the facts of the matter and the facts of the matter is this:
When you have extremists (whether it be militant muslims or militant christians) and you do something they consider an affront to their extremism, they're going to act predictably.
An anti-choice extremist is predictably going to do something extreme when it comes to abortion clinics, doesn't make it right but it's, sadly, a fact. We've had enough incidents to prove this out.
This cartoon convention is the same thing. The Islamaphobes created a convention, that they knew had the possibility to incite violence (they spent 50k extra on security), and violence happened. It's logic (or causation), not blame. If you yell fire in a packed theater people are going to run.
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)starroute
(12,977 posts)This convention -- like earlier "draw Mohammed" events -- had no purpose other than to incite violence. It was exactly the same as Pamela Geller's "Killing Jews is Worship" posters that forced the New York Transit Authority to ban all political advertising.
Geller is a master of incitement, and this time she's gotten her wish.
samsingh
(17,571 posts)is stopped, what is next? wait - the towers in NYC have already been brought down, tens of thousands have died, many beheaded, in the past few years because of isis. Who is provoking who?
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)I don't think I did. I said this is a simple case of cause and effect. We live in a world where extremists go to extremes.
We can argue foreign policy and bigotry and all kinds of other topics that has caused extremist muslims to act against the US (some would say that the US went to extremes in the Middle East long before 9/11) but it comes down to extremism causes extremes--no matter what side that extremism is on.
No where in any of my comments have I advocated curbing freedom of expression but don't be surprised if someone freely uses extremes in that expression when there is an equally extreme response--unfortunately it's part of the world we currently live in.
On edit:
How many people in the Middle East have been killed by the US governments' illegal war in Iraq? I'm not saying that gives militant muslims the right to kill Americans (before you think about going there) but you cannot talk about 9/11 without then talking about how we retaliated, that's an unfair comparison of who is worse. Our policy effects people other than ourselves.
Response to justiceischeap (Reply #18)
Post removed
samsingh
(17,571 posts)speech?
itcfish
(1,828 posts)It was also a CONTEST!! Draw a Mohammad image and win a prize. Very very provocative. IMO
samsingh
(17,571 posts)samsingh
(17,571 posts)and the Japanese translators (who were killed by some other jihadist) were all doing their jobs. Why should they be forced to hide or be killed?
samsingh
(17,571 posts)type of bullshit.
samsingh
(17,571 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)I'm not in any way saying this makes the shooting okay, it doesn't. I'm just pointing out the effects of extremism on both sides.
samsingh
(17,571 posts)samsingh
(17,571 posts)you said something - and we had to shoot you - thinking.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)samsingh
(17,571 posts)she asked to be raped?
denying it doesn't make it true.
warrant46
(2,205 posts)Some nutjobs get 2 AK-47s.
Buy a few bullet proof vests
drive 900 miles and
tweet they are about to wipe out a couple of cartoonists.
Because the cartoonists drew some pictures of a mythical man from the year 700 AD (Christ's years)
And then some here blame the guys with the ink, pen and paper
I need a drink !
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)And using rape as an example is a false equivalency. No person invites rape. Yet, it would seem Geller had some idea that her convention could possibly draw an extremist reaction because she spent $50k on security and then complained about having to spend that much money on security.
Just because we have a first amendment right to free speech doesn't mean that we shouldn't use that speech responsibly. A better parallel is people who bully others with language. We have an epidemic of kids killing themselves because they're bullied with speech and often many blame the bullies speech because they have a responsibility to use that speech in a manner that isn't going to cause harm.
Geller, instead of toning down her rhetoric, instead chose to pay $50k for security and its a good thing she did or there could have been a hell of a lot more casualties.
You can call this victim blaming all you'd like if it makes you feel better about your views on the situation but as someone who was told repeatedly as a kid that I was beat with the ugly stick, words have consequences and should be used responsibly or there may be unintended reactions to those words.
samsingh
(17,571 posts)hunter
(38,264 posts)Great job, guys!
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)This guy was an ISIS-wannabe when the FBI got wind of him.
Not everything is the government's fault.
This guy was a radical, fundamentalist who wanted to murder people.
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)samsingh
(17,571 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)simpson has had his problems with committing or talking about jihad:
http://az.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20110314_0000473.DAZ.htm/qx
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)We know what todays MSM news will be...
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)and the rest of America, for that matter. Finally, the news has something "fun" to talk about, whipping up fear and paranoia.. American Muslims better stay home for a week or so.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)as retaliation.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)Saudi Arabia doesn't permit Jews to enter,* nor women drivers.
I don't condone what Gellar did; I consider it rude and clearly an effort to incite.
An effort we all note was successful, because it showed very clearly that much of Islam has a serious violence problem within it.
* http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/saudiban.html
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)However, I do wish people would quit dying in order to benefit the Widow Geller.
warrant46
(2,205 posts)" showed very clearly that much of Islam has a serious violence problem "
I can't ever recall a Christian blowing himself up in a market in the name of Jesus.
I can't recall an instance where a Jew beheaded someone and posted it on the internet.
If you insult Jesus, a devout Christian will pity you.
If you insult Moses, a devout Jew will ignore you.
If you draw a stick figure of Mohamed, a devout Muslim will cut your head off.
alp227
(31,960 posts)Police officers shot and killed the man, identified as Elton Simpson of Phoenix, and his companion Sunday evening, outside the Curtis Culwell Center, at an event organized by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a New York-based group that also uses the name Stop Islamization of America. The gunfire, which began shortly before 7 p.m., left a security guard wounded.
In 2010, federal prosecutors in Arizona charged Mr. Simpson with plotting to travel to Somalia for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad, and then lying to a federal agent about his plans. A judge found him guilty of lying to the agent, but said the government had not proved that his plan involved terrorism, and sentenced him to three years probation.
itcfish
(1,828 posts)to this event but to provoke a reaction. To reinforce hate. It has nothing to do with freedom of Speech!!! Nobody cared about Mohammad until he was used to provoke. This is not art, it is not freedom of speech. It is screaming "Fire" in a crowded theater.
IMO
wingzeroday
(189 posts)I can think of a lot of dedicated progressive activists who also happen to piss people off who are going to get locked up if this anti-blasphemy craze ever takes hold.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence would be one group for starters.
Really sad. If someone told me 20 years ago that there would be a push for criminalizing blasphemy coming from the progressive left instead of the religious right in this country I would have thought they were crazy.
Maybe we are coming full circle as a nation. Returning to puritanical roots and all that.
Psephos
(8,032 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,149 posts)The 'screaming "fire" in a crowded theater' analogy is about not doing something which then leads to a mindless reaction that other people are unable to stop. Offending someone, as in this case, is nothing like it. The 2 gunmen chose to drive from Arizona with weapons to attack the exhibition. They planned deadly force. If they were still alive, they would be convicted for it.
Yes, it has a lot to do with freedom of speech. It happened in the USA, where there is freedom of speech, including speech that reinforces hate. Nazis, racists and homophobes are allowed freedom of speech, even though they are trying to stir up hatred.
"Nobody cared about Mohammad" - no. People have had plenty of arguments with Islam before arguments in the West about pictures of him, and other people have supported Islam then too.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)over their actions. They really should figure that stuff out, because its not helping their backward cause. They don't seem to be big picture sort of people. That seems to be a commonality that most religious people share regardless of their actual faith.
Plenty of idiocy to go around here.
*No, I'm neither excusing the shooters or condoning the idiots who held the convention. I dislike everyone involved in this. Although the shooters receive most of my dislike since actual violence is always worse than hate speech.