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Living and dying in America

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 17, 2023

Broadcast radicalization

You’ll recall the hissy fit conservatives threw at the FBI’s suggestion post-Jan. 6 that domestic terrorism by “white supremacists, militias and other extremists” was a growing threat in this country.

Some years earlier, the Department of Justice was focused on foreign terrorists’ efforts at “online radicalization.” As in “Online Radicalization to Violent Extremism” (2014):

Using a combination of traditional websites, mainstream social media platforms, YouTube, and other online services, extremists broadcast their views, provoke negative sentiment toward enemies, incite people to violence, glorify martyrs, create virtual communities with like-minded individuals, provide religious or legal justifications for violent actions, and communicate individually with new recruits to groom them for violent activities

I’m wondering today (again) when the DOJ will turn its attention to the threat of broadcast radicalization. But I’m not holding my breath even after the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Chicago, allegedly by Joseph Czuba:

In the petition requesting that Czuba be detained, Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald said that right before the attack, the landlord confronted the boy’s mother, Hanaan Shahin, and “told her he was angry at her for what was going on” in Israel.

Shahin “stated she responded to him ‘let’s pray for peace’,” the petition said. Shahin “stated Czuba gave her no chance to do anything … then attacked her with a knife.”

Czuba, the boy’s mother told investigators, was an “angry” man. His wife, Mary, told investigators that Czuba “listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis” and became obsessed with the war between Hamas and Israel.

Meanwhile in Georgia:

A Black man who spent 16 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a violent crime was shot and killed by police in Georgia on Monday.

Leonard Cure, 53, was killed after a sheriff’s deputy pulled him over in south-eastern Georgia’s Camden county early on Monday morning. The Georgia bureau of investigation (GBI) is examining the shooting.

Cure was released from prison in Florida in 2020 after a conviction review unit exonerated him of robbing a drug store in 2003.

These days, one is not willing to take the cops’ story at face value. But here it is:

Preliminary information indicates that at about 7:30 a.m., a Camden County deputy initiated a traffic stop on Interstate 95 Northbound, just south of Mile Marker 9 in Camden County, GA. The driver of the car, later identified as Leonard Allan Cure, age 53, got out of the car at the deputy’s request. Cure complied with the officer’s commands until learning that he was under arrest. After not complying with the deputy's requests, the deputy tased Cure. Cure assaulted the deputy. The deputy used the Taser for a second time and an ASP baton; however, Cure still did not comply. The deputy pulled out his gun and shot Cure. EMT’s treated Cure, but he later died.

There is no reference to body- or dash-cam footage that might corroborate the deputy’s account. Nor is there a reason given for the traffic stop. Mr. Cure is permanently unavailable for comment.

And this?

Kids just being kids? Whose kids?

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

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