Remembering Hans Von Themsche - And a Small Victory

Luna Drowart, Oulemata Niangadou & Songul Koc:
 the victims of Hans Von Themsche

"These horrific, cowardly murders are a form of extreme racism. It should be clear to everyone now where extreme right can lead to."

Were those cryptic words of warning uttered by a principled American political leader in response to the violent killings that have taken place in recent weeks across the U.S.?



No, that's actually a quote from the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt commenting on the heinous shooting spree of then-19-year-old Hans Von Themsche back in May of 2006.

He was responsible for a senseless and violent racist killing that may have faded from the collective memory of many Americans, but it was an event that shocked Europe and the world when it took place 13 years ago - a killing spree sparked by a disturbed individual's internalized racial hatred.

From my perspective, one of the most troubling aspects of the aftermath of the recent killings in New York, Maryland and Portland are the efforts by conservative and right-wing media outlets and talking heads to attempt to downplay their significance and dismiss them as random acts of violence rather than as intentional acts of racial hatred.

Check out Corey Pein and Nigel Jaquiss' article in Williamette Week on how the alt-right movement in Portland is suddenly trying to distance itself from Jeremy Christian's violent attack two weeks ago - many on the right are trying the same stunt.

I'm talking about the same quasi-delusional conservatives, politicians, pundits and journalists alike, who tried to insist that Dylan Roof killing nine innocent African-Americans at a Bible study at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015 was not an act of racial hatred.  

Dylan Roof poses with a handgun and Confederate flag

As Jeet Heer reported in an article for New Republic back in June of 2015, the GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum tried to paint Roof's actions as an attack upon "religious liberty".

Heer noted that during a discussion of Roof during an appearance on Fox and Friends in the wake of the killings, quack fear-meister Rudy Giuliani told host Steve Doocy:

"We have no idea what's in his mind. Maybe he hated Christian churches."

Such thinking suggests to me that perhaps the symbol of the Republican Party should be an ostrich with its head in the sand rather than an elephant.

One of the most puzzling aspects of modern conservatism in America is the willingness of many Republicans to cultivate, capitalize on and openly traffic in the kinds of internalized racial and ethnic prejudices and fears that divide people based on religion and skin color.

Yet at the same time, Republicans peddle a weird kind of unified theory that supports a detached parallel reality where racism doesn't exist - exemplified by Donald Trump's silence about high-profile racist or ethnic hatred killings when the victims are non-white, and their killers are clearly motivated by the same divisive rhetoric he used throughout his campaign.

(Have you noticed how Trump has ruthlessly attacked the Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn, a Muslim, after the terrorist attack that killed seven on Saturday night, but said nothing about the Mayor of Manchester Carl Austin-Behan, who is white, after the Manchester terrorist attack that killed 23?)

It's like Republicans want to harvest the political fruits from the 21st century version of the Southern Strategy (e.g. bigotry and intolerance), but they chafe at acknowledging that they planted the seeds in the first place - knowing full well what would grow.

Sean Urbanski stabbing Richard Collins on the campus of the University of Maryland on May 20th was not a random attack, nor was James Harris Jackson stabbing 68-year-old Timothy Caughman with a sword a couple months earlier in March on a street in New York.

Those killings were part of a distinct and disturbing pattern, not just in this country either.

Hans Von Themsche

That's why I think Hans Von Themsche's unprovoked racist spree killing in Belgium eleven years ago is important to remember.

It offers valuable context on the current global political environment.

Especially given the movement towards the mainstream of once-fringe right-wing political parties steeped in the cloak of nationalist populism - and the more overt extremism that has flared up from Europe to the United States.


Extremism fed, in part, by frustrations from the global austerity of the recession that decimated the poor, working and middle classes around the world.

Frustrations fueled by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hysteria whipped up by so-called political leaders like Donald Trump, or the Netherlands' Geert Wilders - individuals who cultivate the hatred of others simply as a means to satisfy their own lust for power.

In fact, it may well have been right-wing Belgian political leaders like Frank Vanhecke or Filip Dewinter, leaders of Vlaams Blok, the now-disbanded extremist political party that embraced Flemish nationalism, that motivated Hans Von Themsche's murderous racist killings in 2006.

Von Themsche was only 17-years-old when the the Belgian High Court ruled that Vlaams Blok was racist and discriminatory in violation of Belgian law and it was eventually disbanded.

It was an opposition party with concentrated support in the northern part of Dutch-speaking Belgium where it's emphasis on Flemish nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric fueled it's rise in popularity starting in the 1990's. (Perspective: the Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh took place in 1995.)

After Vlaams Blok was outlawed, the party reformed as Vlaams Belang, and it's important to note that Von Themsche's father helped to found Vlaams Blok, and his aunt served as an MP for Vlaams Belang - a dark influence that would prove deadly.

Nanny Oulemata Niangadou and Luna Drowart

On the morning of May 11, 2006, Von Themsche purchased a hunting rifle and ammunition and dressed in black and with his hair closely shaved (he later told police he was a skinhead) he walked into the city center of Antwerp, located in the northern Flemish region of Belgium where Vlaams Blok was popular.

He took aim and shot Songul Koc, a woman of Turkish descent, in the chest as she was reading a book - wounding her severely.

He then saw Oulemata Niangadou, a 24-year-old nanny from Mali taking care of her charge, a 2-year-old Belgian girl named Luna Drowart.

Von Themsche shot Niangadou in the back, when young Luna began crying, he shot her in the back too - killing them both.

He told friends before the shooting that he was intentionally looking for people who were not white to kill - and he likely would have killed more innocent people if not for a passing Belgian policeman who shot Von Themsche in the stomach and arrested him.

As a Wikipedia article on the killing reported, when police later questioned him about why he decided to shoot the 2-year-old girl who was white, he said her "presence near a black was sufficient reason."

As The Guardian reported, the killings horrified Belgians, having taken place in the wake of a number of violent racist attacks on black people and foreigners around the country.

Thousands march against racism in Belgium on
May 26, 2006 after the killings in Antwerp

Tens of thousands came out to march in silence to protest the killings of Niangadou and Drowart.

Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens said:

"It cannot get any worse. It cannot be fathomed that his happens in clear daylight in Antwerp."

17 months later on May 11, 2007 a jury rejected Von Themsche's lawyer's insanity argument and found him guilty.

He was sentenced to life in prison.


It's been just over ten years since that day in a Belgian court, and given the horrific rise in violence associated with racism and ethnic hatred here in America, we would do well to heed the words of former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt:

"It should be clear to everyone now where extreme right can lead to."

While that's become painfully clear to many of us in this country, I'm not sure how clear it is to members of the Republican leadership in Washington and conservative media - some of whom are pretending it's not even happening.

As the BBC reported, the lawyer who represented young Luna Drowart's parents during the trial of Hans Von Themsche told reporters that after the verdict in the court was read:

"I saw Luna's parents hug a black man from the family of the babysitter. I watched and saw Luna's mother shut her eyes. And when it was over and she came to kiss me...she said it's a small victory. Luna won't come back, but this is justice."

The Terror Here and There: Trump's Situational Silence

A traumatized woman after last night's terror
attack in London 

This morning as I lay in bed reading the latest updates on the terror attack that hit the city of London last night, it was hard to fathom the depths of depravity to which some individuals will sink to inflict suffering and death upon the innocent.

According to a recap of the incident and its aftermath published in the Telegraph earlier today, at least seven people lost their lives and 48 people were injured in the course of the nightmare that unfolded on a busy Saturday night in London.

As the Telegraph reported, witnesses heard at least one of the three men who exited the van that struck at least five people on London Bridge shout"This is for Allah!" (ISIS claimed responsibility) before they began racing into pubs and restaurants in the crowded Borough Market section of London slashing and stabbing innocent people with large hunting knives and machetes.

One can only wonder what's going on in the minds of the relatives and friends of the victims of these attacks, certainly for those who knew someone who died, but also for the dozens of people who remain in critical condition in three area hospitals.

As someone who lived in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, I can understand the feelings of trauma, fear, anxiety, helplessness, anger and sadness that the residents of London, and indeed the entire UK, are now experiencing - and people in other countries where some of the victims are from as well.

As an American I'm embarrassed, outraged and simply baffled at the dimwitted comments Donald Trump released about the terror attack via his Twitter account.

It's remarkable, with each day and each tweet, this delusional narcissist seems to further demonstrate just how totally unqualified he his to hold the office that some members of the Russian government and former FBI director James Comey helped him win.

It was just a couple weeks ago when a 22-year old British Muslim named Salman Ramadan Abedi detonated a shrapnel bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, taking the lives of twenty-three children and adults and leaving 119 people injured.

Sean Urbanski and victim Richard W. Collins

With the people of the United Kingdom still reeling from that heinous act of terrorism, at a time when people need leadership and strength, Trump offered his usual mix of divisiveness, uninformed drivel and outright buffoonery.

He drew widespread condemnation from political leaders both here and around the globe today for using the attacks to attack political correctness and disrespect the mayor of London Sadiq Khan by totally mischaracterizing the words of a statement he'd released.

What's interesting is that while Trump was quick to take to Twitter to make a moronic attempt to criticize advocates of gun control because UK police shot and killed all three attackers who used a van and knives to slaughter innocent people, he's been virtually silent on the death of African-American Bowie State University student Richard Collins, III.

It was about 3:05am just a few weeks ago back on Saturday May 20th that Collins was stabbed in the chest and killed by a white student named Sean Christopher Urbanski on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland while waiting for an Uber driver to come pick him and two friends up.

Urbanski is a resident of Severna Park, Maryland who was a University of Maryland student and a member of a Facebook group called 'Alt-Reich: Nation' (which has since been deleted) where members posted a mix of offensive racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim content.

He didn't know Collins, or the two friends who were with him when the attack occurred, a white male and a young woman of Asian descent.

Like 28-year-old James Harris Jackson who stabbed 68-year-old Timothy Caughman with a sword on a New York City street back in March, Urbanski targeted and attacked Collins because of his race and skin color.

Collins was a graduate of the Bowie State School of Business and the school's ROTC program and had been commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army two days before he was killed.

Graduation gown placed in memory of Richard Collins
at the University of Maryland commencement

Trump, who campaigned on divisiveness, intolerance and bigotry, and counts known white supremacists among his top White House advisors, said virtually nothing about the killing.

But the silence from the federal government, particularly the Department of Justice is particularly deafening.

As NPR reported Collins' killing is being investigated as a hate crime, but how much solace does that give to the family and friends of Richard Collins?

There is little doubt about what kind of crime it was.

The University of Maryland, which was rocked by the unprovoked attack, also placed a cap and gown in honor of Collins at it's commencement ceremony as well, where they observed a moment of silence in his honor.

As Colin Campbell reported in an article in the Baltimore Sun back on May 23rd, Collins' family received a lengthy and emotional standing ovation as they came to accept his degree which was awarded posthumously at Bowie State University's commencement ceremony.

Given the widespread increase in hate crimes and hate activity across the United States in the wake of Trump's election and a resurgence in white supremacist activity, the manner of Collins' death took on a larger meaning in a historical context as Bowie State was the first Historically Black College / University (HBCU) founded in the state of Maryland back in 1865 as a teachers college.

It's one of the ten oldest HBCU's in America.

During the ceremony Bowie State President Mickey Burnim noted that:

"one of our graduates - in the prime of his life - has fallen victim to an unprovoked assault, in yet one more manifestation of the senseless violence permeating our society."  

A violence fueled, in no small part, by the divisive rhetoric and cultural intolerance cultivated by the man who would be president and many of the advisers who surround him.

Jeremy Joseph Christian ranting at his arraignment
in a Portland courtroom last week 

For a man who assured the nation that he wanted to represent all Americans at his inauguration, Trump's inability to offer at least some kind of substantive or meaningful statement on Collins' killing is inexcusable.

And evidence of his administration's undivided loyalty to the radical alt-right base whose support helped propel him into the White House last fall.

Trump's silence was also evident in Portland last week.

As the entire globe expressed shock and outrage after known white supremacist Jeremy Joseph Christian boarded a crowded light rail train car in Portland and began loudly berating two young Muslim women before stabbing and killing two people (and seriously wounding another) who attempted to come to intervene and come to their aid - Trump said nothing.  

As Renee Graham observed in an article in the Boston Globe, Trump finally released a terse, generic cookie-cutter comment about the incident via Twitter a full three days after the attack.

And then only after being widely criticized by millions of people on social media, including former CBS anchorman and journalist Dan Rather.

Equally disturbing, as noted by Williamette Week reporter Corey Pein during a recent interview on NPR's On the Media, are efforts by right wing media to attempt to characterize Christian as some kind of leftist radical and deny the fact that not only was he a white supremacist with Neo Nazi beliefs - and that he specifically targeted two innocent women because of their faith and skin color.

A kind of bizarre knee-jerk, ostrich head-in-the-sand reaction from right wing media pundits attempting to shield Trump from the responsibility he faces in openly courting fringe extremists and mainstreaming bigotry and intolerance.

Mississippi State Rep. Karl Oliver

Did you hear about Mississippi State Representative Karl Oliver calling for people who supported the removal of Confederate statues to be "lynched" on his Facebook page?

He wrote that on the very same day that Richard Collins was killed in by Sean Urbanski in Maryland.

Trump's unwillingness to even acknowledge the numerous incidents of domestic terrorism against victims who are people of color or Muslim is also evidence that he views terrorism solely through the narrow prism of brown-skinned attackers who commit heinous acts in the name of a warped interpretation of Islam against mostly white victims.


It's also evidence that his outrage over terrorism is based solely on the skin color, ethnicity and religion of the victims.

Trump's views on terrorism, much like his ethics, are situational at best.

Like I said, it's difficult to try and fathom the depths of depravity to which some people in this world will sink to kill or harm innocent people in the name of their own ideology.

It's even harder to fathom a sitting president who chooses to ignore heinous terrorist acts simply because they don't fit into the narrative of the ideology that he and those around him adhere to.

Whether it be in London, Portland or Kabul, terror is terror - except, apparently, to Donald Trump.