RACE IN AMERICA - Emanuel AME Church Shootings and FBI Hate Crime Report

"What we know so far about suspected shooter Dylann Roof’s motivations" PBS NewsHour 6/20/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the fallout of the tragic shooting in Charleston on Wednesday, where nine people were killed at Emanuel AME Church.  What do we know about the motives of Dylann Roof, who has been charged with nine counts of murder?  Lopez joins Hari Sreenivasan from Mt. Pleasant, S.C. for more.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the story.  She joins me now from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

So, what more do we know today about Dylann Roof and his motivations?

LUCIANA LOPEZ, Reuters:  Well, one interesting thing that surfaced is that what appears to be a white supremacist manifesto has surfaced, and we’re trying to verify that — this does, indeed, come from Dylann Roof.  But it lays out a little bit about how he was radicalized, looking up information about Trayvon Martin, and it lays out some of his feelings about other racial groups as well.

Again, we’re trying to verify that this is, indeed, his.  But this goes a little bit deeper into his ideology.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  And what’s in there?  What does he think of and why — was there an explanation for why he did this?

LUCIANA LOPEZ:  There is an explanation of sorts.  Again, he talks about how he was radicalized and looking up information about different racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and then he says he’s picked Charleston, in fact, because of its significance, and because of its historical significance.  And he says that he felt like he really needed to make a statement and that this was really the place to do it.

And he also implies that there wasn’t anyone else to do this, and so, he felt like this was something that he had some sort of mission to go out there to do.

"FBI: Blacks most often targeted in hate crimes" PBS NewsHour 6/20/2015

IMHO:  This is a 'DUH, no kidding' article.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  An estimated 260,000 suspected hate crimes happen in the U.S. every year.  More than 50 out of every 1 million black citizens was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime in 2012, the highest of any group, according to FBI data.  Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham joins Hari Sreenivasan from Baltimore to put this week’s attack in perspective.