(June 18, 2015 at 7:09 am)Brian37 Wrote: I am not ready to call this a racist act. I'd have to know if this murderer said anything while shooting. But it could be simply a mentally disturbed individual just like the Newton shooter. If it was racist you could certainly say outside influences lead that sick fuck to that target, but I'd say mental illness regardless is going to come into play.
Even with that theater shooter, I don't like the legal standard of not guilty by reason of mental defect. I think outside a courtroom in psychology, you can know right from wrong, and be mentally ill at the same time. I think you can be guilty and mentally ill at the same time.
I think even with cases of religious violence, you are still talking about delusion and disenfranchisement combined to create acts of desperation.
That is a good point. The shooter could be mentally ill and the fact that he attacked a black church could have been random. Considering the history of racism and burning churches in the south, it is very easy to assume that racism was involved. I still think it might be racism, you are right, we shouldn't jump to conclusions yet.
CBS just announced that they are going to say what the gunman did before he opened fire. Perhaps that will give some insight into his state of mind at the time of the attack.
If the attacker had been brown and the church members white, this would be called terrorism
