Have you heard about the Jewish murders in Overland Park, KS?
A local Missouri racist who ran for political office lost his mind a long time ago, but took it to a whole different level this weekend when he went on a murder spree.
Glen Miller from Marionville, MO, killed three people.
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2014/04/14/supremacist-see-court-today-ozarks-reacts/7695927/
Since we talk about racism here a lot, I want to bring to your attention that people like this are not rare, even if you aren’t aware of them in your community.
Personally, I’ve known many of these kinds of people growing up here (many of you know about my past), and I’m trying to think of ways that we all can reach out to them and stop the hate.
If you have any ideas, I’d be interested in hearing them.
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Yes.
Maybe now they will get some gun control legislation passed.
@ragingloli Nope – if Newtown didn’t do it, nothing will.
Isn’t great that we live in a country where any American can own a gun, and practice freedom of religion in order to shoot people of religions he doesn’t like?
The joke’s on him, though – two of the people he shot at the Jewish center were actually church-going, devout Christians.
@KNOWITALL, you’re not going to convince a 70-year old man of much of anything. And as long as you have half the country disrespecting the other half, you won’t have much luck with younger people either.
@ragingloli We plenty of gun laws don’t need more gun laws as we/they obviously cannot enforce the ones we have. Miller is a felon and somehow he was still able to get a gun. Mentally unstable folks on all sorts of psychotropic meds can apparently buy guns too. If we enforced the laws we have many of these shootings could have been avoided.
@Cruiser I’m curious as to why the FBI didn’t keep their eyes on him if he had been the leader of an organized group of racists previously, seems very odd after all the domestic terrorism recently.
I swear… do criminals in other parts of the world work differently than they do in the USA? Do criminals look up the law and remark, “Well, I can’t shoot up this place, because that would be illegal”?
Because – and maybe it’s just that criminals in the USA are somehow “more criminal” – they don’t do that here. If they want to use a gun while committing murder, mayhem and robbery, then they do that, and they don’t always buy their weapon from a registered dealer, either. I know this must seem awful strange to some folks, but American criminals don’t obey laws, as a rule.
@KNOWITALL I don’t feel like the authorities follow or watch neo Nazis or the KKK at all. It would be interesting to find out they do monitor them. The cops come out for crowd control/peace keeping when one of those groups does some sort of demonstration, but otherwise I figured the authorities don’t do much of anything until a crime is committed.
In some parts of the world, the police and other authorities in these types of towns (and even cities) are card carrying members of the group of racists such as this Missouri Racist.
@Dan_Lyons I’m sure some here are, lots of small towns where the kids grow up to be just like their parents (as you know, I’m sure.)
When I first got here to fluther, the exposure to so many ways of thinking about thing’s intrigued me, it’s really true that the more insular your community, the more likely you are to be indoctrinated into any belief system.
Judaism is not a race, just saying.
People must start seeing each other as fellow humans, part of the same species, a product of the same earth. Religion works best at keeping us separated by teaching us that fundamentally, we are separate from each other based on what we believe or don’t believe.
Ideas and fantasies keep us at war with each other. So stupid when you think of all the problems in the world. If we would neglect the ideas and creations of mankind and instead focus on our shared humanity, maybe we could “all just get along”.
@tinyfaery I feel like I actually am nicer with my religion, I’m kind of an ahole without it and not real fond of a lot of people/ idiots. ;)
When I was a little girl my dad was the editor/publisher for our small town newspaper. It was his job to report on issues pertaining to my town. He took me to a Klan rally once to show me first hand how ugly racism was (he had to cover it). I stayed in the car and cried.
The lawyer for the Grand Dragon at that time lived in my town. My father played a round of golf with him and Billy Graham. Representing the Grand Dragon does not directly correlate with being a racist, just as representing a murderer doesn’t mean you advocate murder. But getting to know him gave my father a better perspective. Billy was just a good friend and my dad thought it would make for a very interesting conversation and round of golf.
The reason I mention all of that is because every group, regardless of stance, had the rights to peacefully demonstrate and apply for permits to do so. They are protected under the 1st amendment to rights of free speech. As long as they are not directly threatening another person or group of people, they can tout how much they believe themselves to be superior all day long.
It doesn’t make it right. It just makes it how it is.
The police department and city council certainly did not agree with the views expressed. They definitely listened to the lawyer representing the KKK when he demanded the right to demonstrate. They provided police presence because they must. They most certainly followed the activities around the klan in the days leading up to and following each demonstration.
Stupid racist bullshit in Southern small towns. I speak from experience.
If the only thing stopping someone from being an asshole is religion, that person is immediately under moral scrutiny. One might question your true nature.
@Tiny Loving thy neighbor & forgiving enemies is powerful stuff. I’m thankful every day for God’s grace.
Here is an interview with the perp from 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBl7-Q1CMlE
He likes Ron Paul and thinks that Jews control everything.
He also thinks that the world would be a better place if Hitler had won WW2.
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