The horror inflicted on a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday was not, as President Trump suggested, the consequence of worshiping without the presence of an armed guard. It for all the world appeared to be the act of a hate-filled man who saw validation of his anti-Semitism in white nationalist conspiracy theories and whose arsenal included an AR-15-style assault rifle, which has become the weapon of choice in murderous rampages.
Eleven Jewish Americans were shot and killed as they worshiped at the Tree of Life synagogue. Its heartbreaking, outrageous and cause for all Americans to ask what is going so awry in our nation.
Four armed and trained police officers were wounded as they confronted the suspect, making a mockery of the presidents claim that the results would have been far better if only the synagogue had an armed guard.
Its absurd to suggest the answer to a shooter with an AR-15 is to put an armed guard at every place of worship, movie theater, school and workplace that could become the next scene of an American expression of madness. Its not enough to extend thoughts and prayers after the fact, and allow this continuous loop to spin with greater frequency and carnage. Its ludicrous to suggest that the death penalty might deter such attacks, when history shows that many assailants are killed on the scene, often with their own gunshots.
There is no escaping the vitriol behind the synagogue massacre with the shooter making anti-Semitic statements as he opened fire in the context of a rise of hate speech and political violence in the country. The suspect had found a forum for his anti-Semitism on Gab, a network popular with white nationalists. He frequently lashed out about the migrant caravan of several thousand Honduran refugees headed to the United States. He echoed Trumps unsupported warning that dangerous criminals were lurking in their midst. Just hours before the attack, the suspect blamed the humanitarian nonprofit Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society for assisting refugees who will do violence against others.
Screw your optics, Im going in, he wrote.
The attack of the synagogue came one day after the Florida arrest of Cesar Sayoc, a fervent Trump supporter accused of mailing pipe bombs to prominent Democrats who had been favorite targets of the presidents rhetoric.
This domestic terrorism is not happening in a vacuum. It is being whipped up by political rhetoric designed to divide, riven with resentments and portraying those who dare to challenge it whether by ideological differences or a dedication to pursuit of the truth as evil, or as enemies of the American people.
There is a sickness in this nation that is being nurtured when it needs to be acknowledged, confronted and disavowed in no uncertain terms.
The San Francisco Chronicle
