Replies to post #181207 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Romney: Don't shoot the God-fearing

Sikhs attend a news conference Monday in Oak Creek, Wisc., on Sunday's mass murder at a Sikh temple.
August 6, 2012
I often feel the criticism of GOP hopeful Mitt Romney over his near-daily supposed gaffes goes too far, and yet... he just makes it so easy. The latest case in point: His statement of condolence [ http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-milwaukee-sikh-shooting-obama-romney-20120805,0,4599660.story ] following the mass shootings Sunday at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisc.
"This was a senseless act of violence and a tragedy that should never befall any house of worship," read part of Romney's official statement in the wake of the slaughter, which left seven dead, including the suspected gunman. Does that mean such killings are any less vile when they don't occur at a house of worship -- like, say, when they take place in a movie theater in suburban Aurora, Colo.?
[...]
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-romney-wisconsin-shootings-20120806,0,5748784.story [no comments yet]

[fuagf]

4-3 days to correct the perception that a policeman shot Wade.

wouldn't it have been clear to many at the scene that he shot himself in the head?

"The FBI, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Page died from a self-inflicted
wound to the head and not from a shot fired by a responding officer."

No big deal and not put to cast any negatives on anyone, it would have been a hectic scene,
just seems a bit odd it took Sunday to Wednesday for us to hear how it really happened.

Haven't heard the correction in Australia, yet.

[F6]

Wade Michael Page: Orange County Hate Music Scene Nurtured Alleged Mass Murderer (PHOTOS)


Wade Michael Page, who allegedly fatally shot six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, moved to Orange County in 2001 for the Southern Californian region's hate music scene.











By Kathleen Miles
Posted: 08/09/2012 3:46 pm Updated: 08/09/2012 7:59 pm

The white supremacist views of Wade Michael Page, the deceased man accused of mass murder at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, may have been fostered in Orange County, Calif.

According to Pete Simi, a scholar who regularly slept on Page's couch [ http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wisconsin-gunman-20120809,0,6250188,full.story ] and spent days on end with him for a book on neo-Nazis, Page said the Southern Cailfornia region "changed his life," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Page, who allegedly fatally shot six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, moved to the OC in 2001 specifically for the region's hate music scene. Soon after, he joined Youngland and several other hate music, or "hatecore," bands [ http://lagunabeach.patch.com/articles/wisconsin-shooter-had-ties-to-orange-county-s-white-power-rock-scene ] that regularly played at a neo-Nazi-friendly Anaheim bar called the Shack, according to Patch. The bar is now, ironically, a Latin dance club under different ownership.

Youngland, which appears to still be active [ http://wau14.com/WAUAustralia/?page_id=674 ], became known in the OC's hate music scene by its altered version of the John Denver song "Thank God I’m a Country Boy," retitled "Thank God I’m a White Boy," which has lyrics referring to “money-hungry Jews.”

Hate groups use "hatecore" as a tool to recruit new members [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/winter/youth-recruitment ], such as when a neo-Nazi label distrubited 100,000 hate-music CDs to middle and high-school kids as a part of its "Project Schoolyard USA," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Simi told the Times how much music meant to Page. “He expressed frustration that more whites weren’t standing up and defending themselves,” Simi said. “He felt music was one way to try to do that.”

Simi also told Democracy Now that Page, who was in the US Army from 1992 to 1998, would talk about "how much the deck is stacked against whites [ http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/8/9/academic_who_knew_sikh_shooter_wade ]," "that African-Americans in the military are coddled" and that "there was a small effort, a small conspiracy of Jews who were out to dominate world affairs."

Page isn't the only person whose white supremacist believes were fostered in Southern California. The Southland's growing racial diversity, coupled with the economic downturn, has fostered a welcoming environment for hate groups in the area. Last year, a 10-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed his father, white supremacist leader Jeff Hall [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/05/neo-nazi-leader-jeff-hall-son-jail-time_n_858340.html ], in Riverside. There was also a sizable neo-Nazi rally in Pomona to protest California's Dream Act [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/pomona-neo-nazi-rally_n_1080451.html ].

Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles Division, which includes Orange County, said law enforcement must balance free speech with public safety. "We don't monitor groups exercising their First Amendment rights [ http://www.ocregister.com/news/white-367883-page-one.html ]," she told the Orange County Register. "When a group crosses the line into criminal activity, that's what we're interested in knowing, and prosecuting."

This hate map [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map ] from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) shows that California, with 84 hate groups, has the largest number of active hate groups nationwide.

On its site, the SPLC says it is tracking 1,018 hate groups nationally – a 69 percent increase since 2000 [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/understanding-the-threat-splc-resources-on-the-sikh-attack-the-rise-of-extremism ]. The group adds that domestic "Patriot" terrorist groups, like the one responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, have grown by 755 percent in the first three years of the Obama administration –- from 149 at the end of 2008 to 1,274 in 2011.

After Page allegedly fatally shot six people at the Sikh temple, he shot himself in the head and died. Partly because they wear turbans and long beards, Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims. The New York-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than 700 hate crimes against Sikhs [ http://www.sikhcoalition.org/ ] in the U.S. since 9/11.

Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/wade-michael-page-orange-county-neo-nazi-hate-music-bands_n_1760817.html [with additional photos, and comments]