The Sword and the Fury

Timothy Caughman about to vote on Nov 8, 2016

"Why are you doing this? What are you doing?"

As horrific as it sounds, according to an eyewitness quoted in a New York Times article by N.R. Kleinfield, those may well have been the last words of 66-year-old New Yorker Timothy Caughman as he was being stabbed to death last Monday night by a 28-year-old white man from Baltimore named James Harris Jackson.


It's been hard to get those words out of my head this past week as I tried to wrap my head around the startling depth of racial hatred Jackson must have harbored in his mind to conceive of something as demented as traveling from his home in Baltimore to New York City in order to murder black men he didn't even know with a sword.  

I mean who even thinks up something like that, let alone makes the choice to do it?

As Ian Reifowitz observed on DailyKos.com last Friday, those questions obviously didn't trouble Donald Trump. Despite the fact that he recently spent four days tweeting about a terrorist attack in Sweden that never happened, and tweeted about the American victim of the recent London terrorist attack Kurt Cochran - thus far 45 has made no comment about Timothy Caughman's death.

It's been hard to imagine the agony and indescribable horror of being stabbed in the back and chest with an 18-inch sword - a death so gruesome it defies belief given that it took place on a Manhattan street in the the 21st century.

Caughman managed to stumble into an NYPD station after the 11:30pm attack, but he later died at the hospital.

No manhunt for James Jackson was necessary as he turned himself into police on Wednesday after seeing street camera video footage of himself was broadcast on the local news.

Jackson being arraigned in court on Thursday

According to news reports Jackson told investigators that he'd planned to go to Times Square and use the sword to kill as many African-American men as he could.

Jackson claimed that Timothy Caughman, who was searching though a trashcan for bottles and cans to recycle when he was attacked, was supposed to be what he called "a practice run."

How do you even classify something like that?

Was Jackson a terrorist, a potential mass murderer, or was he a serial killer who was arrested before he could follow through with his plan to kill random African-American men?

According to an exclusive interview with reporters Ellen Moynihan and Stephen Rex Brown posted on the NY Daily News Website earlier today, Jackson further elaborated on his motivation for the killing.

He claimed that his intention had been to murder "a young thug" or a "successful older black man with blondes", corroborating statements he made to NYPD investigators about his anger over black men being in interracial relationships with white women.

Jackson, who attended a prestigious Quaker Friends school as a child and served in the Army as a military intelligence officer, was raised by parents who were liberal in their political beliefs, but he claims he began hating black men as early as 3 years-old.

He also told the Daily News that he felt that "The white race is being eroded" and that he wished that it was "1950's America".  

Thoughts that echo the kind of divisiveness cultivated by Donald Trump's campaign, views promoted by two of Trump's key domestic policy advisors, Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller.

Was Jackson somehow "inspired" to carry out his twisted act of hatred by Dylann Roof's heinous, cold-blooded murder of nine innocent African-Americans at a Bible study in South Carolina back on June 17, 2015?

Roof's friend Joey Meeks sentenced to 27 months

Back on January 12 federal jurors sentenced Roof to the death penalty for his actions.

And that horrific racist killing was back in the news again last week after 22-year-old Joey Meeks, a childhood friend of Roof's from Lexington, South Carolina was sentenced to 27 months in prison for telling others not to turn Roof in to authorities.



As Andrew Knapp reported in an article for the Post and Courier last Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel told the courtroom that Meeks "knew who (the gunman was)" and "affirmatively acted to stop someone else from reporting it" to authorities.

As Knapp reported, Meeks and Roof often spoke of their racist beliefs together while drinking, doing drugs and playing video games.

And Roof had specifically told Meeks of his intention to murder innocent African-Americans with a handgun.

After the killings happened, Meeks not only lied to FBI investigators about knowing about Roof's plans, he also told a younger friend not to say anything about knowing that it was Roof who carried out the attack.

US District Judge Richard Gergel

A decision that put the Charleston community in "serious" danger according to Judge Gergel.

As an African-American man, the attacks by both Roof and Jackson are extremely troubling.

With so many different incidents of racial and ethnic hatred having taken place since Trump's election back in November, I can't help but wonder how many other Dylan Roofs or James Harris Jacksons there are out there waiting to lash out at innocent people of color.


It was just last Sunday that I blogged about a man coming into my place of work and calling me a "fucking nigger" to my face because he was upset about the parking spaces in the apartment complex where I work not being cleared of snow.

I'm not saying someone calling me a racial slur in my place of work in any way compares to a man being stabbed repeatedly with an 18-inch sword or being shot multiple times.

But I'm not alone in feeling anxiety about the reality that some white people in this country now feel empowered to lash out at people of color.

Last week I listened to an interesting call-in segment on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC about the growing sense of anxiety many people of color are feeling these days; it offers an interesting snapshot if you have a few minutes to listen.

Brian asked callers to share how they're coping with that anxiety, some are praying, one African-American woman now makes sure to always check in with friends and family via social media so they know where she is at all times in the event something happens to her.

Me personally, I try to use writing to explore and process my feelings about what's happening in the country - but as the horrific death of Timothy Caughman demonstrates, that's not always easy,

And it doesn't always offer comfort or solace in the face of such racially motivated fury.

Fallout From 45's Swedish Fantasy

At this point it's difficult to tell whether it's more embarrassing to be America's unpopular Groper-In-Chief, a member of the Republican Party, or a citizen in the nation that elected the delusional clown who calls himself our president.

Apparently undeterred by the recent backlash from senior White House staff members Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway talking about fictional terrorist acts in Atlanta and Bowling Green, yesterday the increasingly erratic SCROTUS made reference to a terrorist attack in Sweden that never actually happened.

As the New York Times reported 45's latest lie was told in front of an audience of supporters in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday.

Evidently he'd fled there to try and escape his historically low poll numbers, growing anger over his disastrous policy rollouts and scrutiny over his ties to Russia.

Was the delusional Donald simply trying to re-stoke the irrational anti-immigrant hysteria that fueled his presidential campaign in a desperate attempt to boost his sagging poll numbers?

Perhaps he said it as a distraction from a story posted on Saturday by Reuters about the federal government's inquiries into Russian interference in the November 8th elections including three separate FBI investigations into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee's emails, the hacking of Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta's email account and a counterintelligence probe of financial transactions between Russian individuals and organizations with known ties to the Trump campaign.

Who knows, maybe it was a poorly-planned klutzy combination of both.

Regardless of his intentions, the absurdity of his lie has gone global - further reinforcing the public perception of him as being detached from reality, averse to telling the truth and completely unqualified to hold the office he's held for less than a month.

The flagrant lie drew a swift response from social media that ranged from bewilderment, to condemnation, to amusement and mockery.

One of the funniest responses was from an unknown Twitter user who had the presence of mind to quickly create a parody Twitter account called "Last Night In Sweden" that began posting some pretty hysterical sarcastic responses to the mythical terrorist attack.

One of the photos published by Aftonbladet showing
actual scenes of Sweden on Friday night

Some of my favorites include:

"Last night we listened to ABBA. Today, we are listening to an angry yam."

"Last night, no one in Sweden had heard of the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution. Today we are very interested."

And (Last Night In Sweden) "It was very cold."

Swedish media was quick to jump in on the act as well.

The popular Swedish tabloid daily Aftonbladet posted an article in English that listed a brief timeline of routine things that actually WERE happening in Sweden on Friday night when Trump's non-existent terrorist attack was supposedly happening.

Including:

"8:46pm: Due to harsh weather in the northern parts of Sweden, the road E10 was closed between Katterjakk and Riksgransen. Due to strong winds and snow in the region the Met office also issued an avalanche warning."

Ex-Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt

Upon learning of Trump's statement, early this morning former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt posted a brief message on his Twitter account that read:

"Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound."

Questions indeed.

Like where's the White House focus on REAL terror plots here in America?


While Trump and members of his senior staff have been trying to incite fears about foreign terrorist acts that haven't actually happened, the White House is facing growing criticism for ignoring the danger of real terror attacks by white extremists here in America.

As the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center Richard Cohen warned in a recent article, with the Trump administration so consumed with the idea of terrorists from foreign nations entering the U.S., they are ignoring the potential for threats faced from right-wing American extremists.

As Cohen notes, individuals like white supremacist Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 men, women and children and injured nearly 700 in the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, Neo-Nazi Wade Page who shot and killed six Sikhs at a temple in Wisconsin in 2012, or more recently, Dylan Roof, who murdered nine African-Americans attending a Bible study in South Carolina, represent a far more dangerous threat to American lives than the fictional terror plots consuming the Trump administration's attention.

Trump, Stephen Bannon, his anti-immigrant zealot policy adviser Stephen Miller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions only being capable of seeing a boogeyman with dark skin is troubling.

The inability of Republican leaders to acknowledge that a terrorist that looks more like them also represents a clear and present danger to Americans of all faiths and ethnicities is a threat far more menacing than the imaginary terrorists who did not attack Sweden on Friday night.

Gingrich Uses Nice Tragedy To Fan Muslim Hatred

The body of a young victim in Nice

A trip to my local after work last evening to cool off with a drink and unwind morphed into a sobering experience when I received a news alert on my iPhone via the New York Times about the horrific act of terror that took place in Nice, France.

I asked the bartender to switch one of the flat screen TVs mounted on the wall over the bar from the golf highlights no one was really paying attention to over to CNN so we could all watch the first reports of  yet more innocent people being killed.

The lighthearted conversation was quickly replaced by a sour mood as the gathered patrons began to express frustration and anger over the actions of those who would use terror to take the lives of innocent strangers using barbaric acts meant to shock and seize the attention of global media.

Once again this latest mass killing was carefully and diabolically timed to dominate headlines heading into a summer holiday weekend; and we're left to ponder the aftermath.

At least 84 people (including 10 children) reported killed, including a father and son from Texas, and more than two hundred injured; including at least three students from UCLA.

What makes this heinous act even worse are the deplorable attempts by prominent Republicans and conservative media figures to use this tragedy to once again vilify all Muslim refugees.

Gingrich calls for Muslim "tests"

As you've likely heard, former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gringrich is making headlines for comments he made during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity in which he suggested that America needs to begin implementing some kind of religious litmus test for all people of Muslim faith to determine if they profess a belief in Sharia Law.

A test? How would that even work?


According to estimates by the Pew Research Center, there were approximately 3.3 million Muslim-Americans in this country as of 2015; the very idea that the U.S. is somehow going to "test" the beliefs of of more than 3 millions American citizens is ludicrous.

And as President Obama said in a statement, Gingrich's "test" idea is "repugnant" to the very ideals of the Constitutional protections afforded to all citizens; including the freedom of religion and the freedom of expression.

Did Gingrich call for "testing" Christians after 20-year-old Adam Lanza gunned down 20 people in Sandy Hook Elementary back in 2012?

I certainly can't recall conservatives calling for a Christian "test" after 21-year-old Dylan Roof shot and killed nine people at a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17 last year.

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen - Born in New York

As Justin Salhani observed this morning in an article on ThinkProgress.org, none of the perpetrators of the recent string of high profile terrorist acts in France and Belgium were Muslim refugees; they were legal citizens of those respective countries.

Just consider the horrific mas killings we've seen across the United States recently, including in Charleston, Orlando, San Bernadino and most recently in Dallas.

They were all committed by unbalanced American psychopaths who had easy access to guns - they were all Americans born right here in America.

None of them were Muslim refugees, in fact there's no evidence any Muslim refugee has been arrested for plotting to kill Americans at all - in fact as Vox.com reported, 80% of terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11 have been committed by Americans.

Governments around the world, not just in American and Europe, have enough to deal with to try and figure out a practical and effective long-term strategy to deal with the global threat posed by people who've been radicalized by groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram that pervert the Koran to justify barbaric acts of violence and cruelty.

Newt Gingrich calling for the establishment of some kind of thought police in America is not the solution, and creating some kind of "American Taliban" is anathema to the principles on which this country was founded.

Horror, Healing & Hope

Dylann Roof's booking photo [Charleston County Sheriff]

Like many, it's taken me some time to mentally and emotionally process the unmitigated horror of what took place inside the Emanuel A.M.E Church last Wednesday night.

From the shocking eye-witness accounts of the racially-motivated premeditated savagery committed by suspect Dylann Roof, I can't even begin to fathom what the victim's family members, friends, church members and co-workers must be going through as they try and process this unspeakable act of domestic terrorism that claimed the lives of nine innocent people.

The term "hate crime", while appropriate given the suspect's own statements, actions and beliefs, doesn't even come close to encapsulating the magnitude of this act of violent race hatred.

It's almost as if humanity needs a new word to describe this kind of senseless slaughter of innocents in the same way the word Holocaust (a term first used in the 13th century) became the de facto description of the mass slaughter of Jews and other peoples by the Nazis during World War II.

But if any positives have come out of this tragedy, it's not just the holding up of the scourge of racial hatred to the scrutiny of truth, it's the reaction of the local, national and global community as heroes and healers have stepped forward to counteract the killer's demented desire to spark some kind of conflict based on race.

Debbie Dills helped police capture Dylann Roof [Photo ABC News]

Take Debbie Dills (pictured left), the florist and minister who was running late for work at about 10:30am on the morning after the killing when she spotted the deranged killer in his black Hyundai stopped at a light on Highway 74 in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, turned her vehicle around and followed him for 35 miles to Shelby, North Carolina while she contacted the police with the help of her boss - leading to the quick capture of this monster and assuring he answers for his crimes in a court of law.

There are also the many members of law enforcement and emergency response teams in Charleston, SC who first responded to the shootings and helped get descriptions of the killer and his vehicle out to other police departments and to local media; and the members of the Kings Mountain & Shelby, NC police departments and federal agents of the FBI and BATF who helped apprehend the killer.

Credit must also be given to the many local community leaders in Charleston who called for calm in the wake of the killings, even as some mainstream media outlets began to warn of the rioting that might erupt; which never happened.

Audience members sing "We Shall Overcome" [Getty Images/AFP]

Instead we've watched thousands of South Carolinians from different races, religions and backgrounds come together in prayer services for the nine victims as well as peaceful vigils and prayer services around the nation.

Such as the diverse group of more than 4,000 people (pictured left) who gathered at the College of Charleston TD Arena at an interfaith service of remembrance on Friday to hear appeals for peace and unity from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergy and recognize more than 50 relatives of the nine victims of the shooting who attended the ceremony; which opened with a rendition of "Amazing Grace" and culminated in the entire crowd singing "We Shall Overcome". 
 
On the other side of the coin, it's also been quite instructive to observe the reaction of some Republicans and other American conservatives to this tragedy.

As an article on the CrooksAndLiars.com Website reported on Thursday, both FoxNews.com and the Fox Nation television broadcasts completely downplayed the murder of nine innocent people at a bible study by a 21 year-old white supremacist, as such things fall outside the Fox News narrative.

If you can stomach it, click the link above and read a sampling of the comments posted in the aftermath of the murders on the FoxNation thread; which include such insightful observations as: "Are we sure they were black? Or did they just check the box?" And: "Going to be a riot in Charleston, look out liquor stores and cell phone stores and electronic stores."

And we wonder how a depressed, unemployed 21 year-old white kid with substance abuse issues (and a .45 caliber handgun he bought at a gun store with no background check...) became indoctrinated with the delusional half-baked white supremacist theories he espoused; including that black men are raping white women and "taking over" the country.

Sen Lindsey Graham after visiting Emanuel AME memorial

As an article posted on NPR.org reported, reactions from Republican political leaders differed.

South Carolina Senator and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham attended the Friday interfaith service in Charleston and he appeared visibly shaken (pictured left) as he spoke with members of the media after he payed his respects at the memorial site at the Emanuel A.M.E Church

Senator Ted Cruz addressed the shootings directly and called for a moment of silence in opening remarks before a speech. NJ Governor Chris Christie called the shootings "depraved" but suggested the solution wasn't more laws: "Only the goodwill and the love of the American people can let those folks know that that act was unacceptable, disgraceful, and that we need to do more to show that we love each other."

A law that would've prevented the killer from having a .45 caliber handgun in the first place isn't a solution?

Unfortunately for the optimistic Christie "the goodwill and love of the American people" can't stop a nut-bag with a gun from shooting people.

Jeb Bush stirred a bit of controversy on social media by waffling and refusing to say directly that the shooter's motivations were based on race. Bush stated: "I don't know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes," Really?

I guess Jeb hadn't read about 26 year-old Tywanza Sanders, who bravely stood up during the shooting and begged the killer to spare the remaining members of the bible study before the killer said that he couldn't stop because black people are raping white women and blacks are taking over the country before shooting and killing Sanders as his wounded mother lay nearby.

Funny how pretty much everyone in America and millions around the world understand exactly what was in the killer's mind when he shot those poor people; everyone except Jeb Bush.

Not the kind of answer I'm looking for in a presidential candidate.

Bush's weak-ass comments seem to typify the tepid Republican response which seems to completely avoid acknowledging the racist beliefs of the killer and focus instead on the concocted conservative issue of "religious liberty" (Republican code for anti-abortion...) and not pissing off the NRA over yet another mass slaughter of innocents by yet another troubled nut-bag with a legally purchased gun. 

Bush's comments reflect his campaign thus far; so not ready for prime time.

Rick Santorum, champion of "religious liberty"

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum didn't do himself (or his capacity as a potential leader of the free world) any favors when he suggested that the killer chose his victims "indiscriminately" during an interview on the Joe Piscopo Show the day after the shootings took place.

Instead of linking the motivations of the shooter to racial hatred, Santorum had the temerity to make an effort to link the killings to the mythical issue of "religious liberty" Republicans seem to feel is so important.

During the interview Santorum said, "You talk about the importance of prayer at this time, and we're now seeing assaults on religious liberty we've never seen before."

As if America doesn't already have one of the most religiously diverse societies on the planet; and call me crazy but freedom of religion has been enshrined in the Constitution since the 18th century.

Apparently Santorum hasn't figured out that the killer wasn't targeting Christians; he was targeting black people simply because they're black.  

Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley seemed genuinely affected by the brutality of the killings and was quick to wave the pro-capital punishment flag by calling for the death penalty in this case, but like her GOP cohorts she's missing the message too.

She probably would've been better off supporting the long-time organized movement within her own state calling for that huge Confederate flag flying over her own statehouse to be removed.

By not publicly (or intellectually) making the connection between the extremist mindset that cultivated the twisted beliefs someone like Dylann Roof and the statement a huge Confederate flag flying over the building where state lawmakers meet makes, Haley is only demonstrating her willingness to remain detached from the mainstream American mindset which views the flag as a divisive symbol of hate and the pro-slavery movement.

Since the killer is just beginning the long road to his day in court, and the families, friends and co-workers of the victims along with millions of people around the world are still grieving for the heinous deaths of the nine victims inside the Emanuel A.M.E Church - there's much to come regarding this sad chapter in American history.

But for the time being, I think Dylann Roof's 56 year-old uncle Carson Cowles pretty much summed up the thoughts of many on this deranged killer's capture when he told Reuters news agency:
"I will say this, I hope he gets what's coming to him. They got his ass now."  

You got that right Uncle Carson.

Now that the horror is over, let's pray that the healing and hope for positive change as a result of this tragedy can now begin.