Charleston

Charleston church shooting

Based on what has emerged so far, it seems this was a flat out hate crime, and no one disputes that point.

The dolts and political fakers are insisting that a mass murder of blacks motivated by racial hate is per se terrorism, and that news media and others who are not calling the Charleston shooting that are racists using a double standard.

That idea is reportedly very popular on social media, the voice of the ignorant and irresponsible at their worst.

On Fox News, too.

Ditto.

Of course, as we learn more about the ideas and intentions of the young, white, and hateful shooter it may well emerge that this was an act of terrorism, however absurd.

Reportedly, he said he wanted to start a race war.

From the story, this.

Roof spent about an hour at the historic African-American church before the massacre, attending the prayer meeting with his eventual victims, Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said.

Witnesses told investigators the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said.

He answered one man's plea to stop by shooting him, said Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of the church's slain pastor who has talked to a survivor.

"'No, you've raped our women, and you are taking over the country," he said, according to Johnson. "... I have to do what I have to do."

All the victims were shot multiple times, according to Roof's arrest warrant.

"Prior to leaving the bible study room he stood over a witness ... and uttered a racially inflammatory statement," the warrant said.

Investigators are looking into whether Roof had links to white supremacist or other hate groups, a law enforcement official said. 

There's no indication so far that he was known to law enforcement officials who focus on hate groups.

In an image tweeted by authorities in Berkeley County, South Carolina, Roof is seen wearing a jacket with the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that a white minority ruled until it became independent in 1980 and changed its name to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has been ruled ever since by the racist, kleptocrat thug, Robert Mugabe, and I have no idea whether the native Africans of that country would have been worse off ruled by Ian Smith.

And not much whether the whites of that country would have been much better off.

SA got off to a much better start with black rule, and is so far apparently in better shape.

Reportedly, Roof was arrested the day after the shooting, more than 200 miles from Charleston.

He confessed when interviewed.

The police have independent corroboration that he was, in fact, the shooter.

On Thursday, investigators did a trace of the handgun used in Wednesday's shooting and determined that it was a .45-caliber handgun Roof purchased from a Charleston gun store in April, two law enforcement officials told CNN's Perez and Bruer.

Roof purchased a Glock .45-caliber model 41, which holds 13 rounds, a federal law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said. 

Witnesses have reported that Roof reloaded a number of times.

Roof's father and uncle contacted police after surveillance camera images of the suspect were made public, according to the arrest warrant. 

His father told authorities his son owned a .45-caliber handgun.

Joe Roof, his grandfather, said Roof was given "birthday money" and that the family didn't know what he did with it.

Interesting timing.

The wedding of Roof's sister, planned for this weekend, has been postponed, according to the Rev. Tony Metze, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

He certainly upstaged her, didn't he?

North Carolina still flies the Confederate flag on public buildings, a fact only slightly less annoying that it would be if the Federal Republic of Germany flew a flag with a great big swastika.

The "It's part of our history" excuse just doesn't actually excuse.

Anyway, that has emerged once again as an issue.

Lindsey Graham says that flag is "part of who we are," referring, I suppose, to South Carolinians.

Or maybe just the white ones.

Not something to brag about, I think.

This seems just weird.

Back in 2000, civil rights activists successfully lobbied to have a much larger Confederate flag removed from the Capitol dome. 

But there was a compromise. 

The South Carolina Heritage Act decreed that just about all other tributes to Confederate history would be virtually untouchable. 

The only way to change anything of that nature -- including the smaller flag that was erected on the State House lawn -- would be to gain the endorsement of two-thirds of lawmakers.

Really?

Does the constitution of South Carolina allow its legislature to pass a law that includes a stipulation that it cannot be repealed by the same legislature without a two thirds majority?

Doesn't sound plausible.

Which doesn't mean the pinheads who actually passed that law couldn't or didn't include such a stipulation, or that its supporters couldn't or haven't claimed it was valid, ever since.

Oh, and the same story about the flag controversy says this.

And Republican presidential contender, Sen. Lindsey Graham said of his home state, "At the end of the day, it's time for people in South Carolina to revisit that."

KOS

Laura Clawson says this is Roof's website.

The Last Rhodesian

Race hate, big time.

The Daily Mail