Crime and Terrorism

I remember a Hill Street Blues episode from back in the day where the plot focused on two separate arrests. One person was obviously crazy as he set fire to his entire family. The other was of a woman who was the mother of a prominent politician and had shot an intruder coming into her home. It later turned out she intentionally left her window open and a TV in full view to entice the young criminal to commit burglary.

The climax of the show is when Captain Furillo confronts the presiding judge over the sentencing hearings as said judge bows to public pressure and declares the crazy person sane – so he gets a maximum penalty - while declaring the mother insane so she can avoid jail time.

I instantly thought of this episode when reflecting back on the terrible tragedies in Tennessee and South Carolina.  Both horrible crimes committed by terrible people.

But like the episode of Hill Street Blues, I am left wonder about the role of public perception.

In the first case, where Dylan Roof shot eight unarmed churchgoers in South Carolina, he is being charged with murder and now a federal hate crime.  And while both of those charges are absolutely appropriate, I hear very little in the media or in the public describing his action as an act of terror committed by a terrorist.

However, in the Tennessee episode, where Mohammad Abdulazeez killed five marines on active duty, every news story and every conversation includes words such as terrorist, radicalized, Jihad, etc.

But here’s the thing.   Roof killed unarmed civilians with the expressed purpose of creating fear and terror within the black community.  Just like the intentions of Osama Bin Laden and the 19 high-jackers, the entire reason for his infamous act was to terrorize.

However, and in no way meant to dismiss the barbarous act, Abdulazeez shot and killed soldiers. That’s not terrorism, that’s a crime committed under the auspices of war.

In my opinion, we as a people have to get passed the idea that only people of Muslim faith can be terrorists. The FBI has.  Reading this shows that homegrown extremists are more deadly than Jihadists since 9-11.  The FBI states that terrorism: “Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; appear intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

But we still have the mindset that only young men with long beards from the Middle East are terrorists while white guys who kill minorities are just criminals. Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist.  Eric Rudolph – the Olympic bomber was a terrorist. The KKK are terrorists.