Yet another tragedy

[The_Doc_Man]

This morning at roughly 3 AM, a man drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 10 and injuring at least 30 to 35 people. The police were already in the French Quarter in anticipation of a large New Year's Eve crowd before the Sugar Bowl college football game today and officers were able to respond immediately. This part isn't clear, but it is verified that the driver exchanged gunfire with police. The driver might also have had a homemade explosive device. (The IED is as yet unconfirmed.)

Details are a bit vague at this time as the police have only made preliminary press releases. News reports confirm that the driver is deceased. Motive is not yet known. The local news broadcasts show New Orleans Coroner's Office trucks (at least 3) still in the area. It would have been nice to be able to interview the driver but he chose to end his day with a gun battle. With several police officers on the street at the time, the result of firing a gun in the general direction of crowds is more or less predictable.

This type of attack has already been repeated around the world many times in the last couple of years. But driving a truck through a crowd is as effective as firing a gun. For those who worry about gun control, are you now going to worry about pickup truck control? Are we entering an era when "if pickup trucks are illegal, only criminals will drive pickup trucks"?

EDIT: Occurred at 3:15 AM

 

[AccessBlaster]

Fox News has learned that the truck used in the attack had a Texas license plate, and that it was tracked crossing the southern border into the U.S. at Eagle Pass, Texas, two days prior to the attack.

 

[Isaac]

I was just reading and hearing about this on the news a few minutes ago. It's so horrible and terrible to imagine. And this isn't the first time in the past couple years there's been a number of these vehicle attacks. You're right the root problem is not guns! It is the people filled with hatred or bitterness are a mixture of both. Terrible to hear that it recently crossed the border too...

I hate to admit it but last night I was thinking to myself surely something is going to happen either in a New Year's Eve celebration or on New Year's Day. I hoped I was wrong ... but it just seems like there are too many people who hate America... and hating America is considered cool in many countries, even as humor such as Colin it's really not funny anymore. It costs lives

Ameriphobia should be a new word conservatives create as a way of bringing awareness to the fact that it's not a good idea to treat hatred of Americans as a subject of either humor or education.

 

[ColinEssex]

and hating America is considered cool in many countries, even as humor such as Colin it's really not funny anymore. It costs lives

I dont hate Americans or America, if I did I wouldn't bother to engage on what is now an American forum.

And don't you dare say that my harmless banter costs lives - I find that very offensive and would have expected better from you, shame on you.
Col

 

[Steve R.]

Regretfully, this only one of several similar attacks that recently occurred. Coincidence?

Driver runs down two New Zealand police officers, killing one

A New Zealand police officer died in hospital on Wednesday and another was seriously hurt after a driver ran them down as they patrolled on foot in the early hours of New Year’s Day, the country’s police chief said.

apnews.com

5 killed, 200 injured in German Christmas market attack

At least five people are now known to have been killed in the vehicle-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday.

abcnews.go.com

Waiting for Biden to issue the standard admonition that we should not be Islamophobic.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

They have now named the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is described as an American-born citizen. He was described as using an "assault rifle" to engage police though there is some confusion among media reports over what is or is not an actual assault weapon. Improvised explosive devices were also found, basically pipe bombs with coiled wire and nails. An ISIS flag was found in the truck, which had been rented a couple of days before. I don't wish to jump to conclusions or confusions, but it is at least beginning to look a bit like a terrorist event.

 

[Isaac]

I dont hate Americans or America, if I did I wouldn't bother to engage on what is now an American forum.

And don't you dare say that my harmless banter costs lives - I find that very offensive and would have expected better from you, shame on you.
Col

I considered the American bashing humor to be all part of it, sorry if that makes you feel bad but I think it leads to bad things when entire groups of people learn to dislike Americans in great particular

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Regretfully, this only one of several similar attacks that recently occurred.

We've had two or three others in the USA - one in Wisconsin, another in Texas. Can't say "coincidence" because the odds are too great that a better term would be "copy-cat" or "facsimile."

 

[Galaxiom]

Waiting for Biden to issue the standard admonition that we should not be Islamophobic.

A phobia is an irrational fear.

There is plenty for rational people to fear of any group insisting their primitive misogynistic culture is the model for a way of life that everyone should follow. Fundamental Judaism and Christianity have the same kind of attitudes and more of those edicts persist today in some societies than many are comfortable to acknowledge.

After millions of years of winning at natural selection through cooperation, Homo Sapiens have embraced some tendencies to be incited into becoming a barbarous mob under the influence of strong, violent leaders and circumstances where they feel aggrieved for whatever reason.

The structure worked well for the clever leaders to incite hungry hunters in the pursuit and slaughter of large game animals for a very long time. Religions likely grew out of predicting the success of the hunt and the politics of deciding who to blame when things went wrong. Some hunters no doubt died on the excursions and the roots of sacrificial rituals can be imagined. Culture inevitably has very deep roots.

 

[DickyP]

A phobia is an irrational fear.

Not just irrational - to quote the OED
"phobia
n noun an extreme or irrational fear of something. "

My phobia about dogs is not irrational but it is extreme - it is the result of being seriously injured as a child by a dog attack! I still suffer from it in my 70s.

 

[Cotswold]

These people have no respect for Western social values. Their education and influence seems to be from attitudes and propaganda thousands of years old. Their values, social beliefs, standards, together with their scant regard to the lives of others are 500 to 600 years behind ours. Maybe some of their drive is avarice but the overriding justification appears to be is a firm belief in their own doctrine and dogmas.

We saw this type of random attacks through the 20th century in England from the fanatical IRA and associated organisations. Their leaders never apologised for their frequent bombings, or shootings. In fact they publicly and proudly justified their actions by claiming they are at war with the English. Unbelievably, they were often financed by American donations. Time and again Biden has clearly displayed his ignorance and a negative Irish attitude towards the English and the whole of the UK. Even though Northern Ireland is a part of the UK. His claim to be Irish is somewhat tenuous as he is only very remotely Irish. Eventually as the death toll of their own people became too high and public opposition increased, the IRA continued their fight politically. As they still are to this day with some success.
Current problems can be from the likes of ISIS, Hamas, etc and political solutions appear to be of little, or no interest whatsoever.

 

[NauticalGent]

Fundamental Judaism and Christianity have the same kind of attitudes and more of those edicts persist today in some societies than many are comfortable to acknowledge.

 

[Isaac]

A phobia is an irrational fear.

There is plenty for rational people to fear of any group insisting their primitive misogynistic culture is the model for a way of life that everyone should follow. Fundamental Judaism and Christianity have the same kind of attitudes and more of those edicts persist today in some societies than many are comfortable to acknowledge.

After millions of years of winning at natural selection through cooperation, Homo Sapiens have embraced some tendencies to be incited into becoming a barbarous mob under the influence of strong, violent leaders and circumstances where they feel aggrieved for whatever reason.

The structure worked well for the clever leaders to incite hungry hunters in the pursuit and slaughter of large game animals for a very long time. Religions likely grew out of predicting the success of the hunt and the politics of deciding who to blame when things went wrong. Some hunters no doubt died on the excursions and the roots of sacrificial rituals can be imagined. Culture inevitably has very deep roots.

Thank you for at least correctly defining and referring Phobia.

This shows how woke liberals have hijacked the term into something it does not mean. I.E. homophobia for anyone who doesn't approve of everything gay people may do, islamaphobia for anyone who rationally fears the spread of Islam, etc. etc. etc.

Most people who use a term ___phobia seem to have no idea what phobia means.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Had the ballards been operational or they placed sanitation trucks blocking vehicle traffic we wouldn't be having this conversation. The city managers dropped the ball and people lost their lives.

 

[Isaac]

Yeah, as discouraging as it is, planners and security personnel have to start treating major outdoor events similar to the security they'd implement in major indoor events. Well, similar level of concern, different implementation

I've always said/marveled at how the simple act of DRIVING a vehicle is such a major risk - meaning there are so many idiots out there who barely know how to drive, or don't know how to drive in the US, and the whole thing is grossly unregulated as far as giving people licenses, and they're out there driving killing machines, and regularly killing people, and we do nothing about it.

Now these incidents are bringing that kind of language to life, unfortunately. The sanitation truck blocking is a great idea AB

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Had the ballards been operational or they placed sanitation trucks blocking vehicle traffic we wouldn't be having this conversation. The city managers dropped the ball and people lost their lives.

The bollards were being repaired after many years of operation to block off the streets at night. However, the driver DID drive around a police car that was parked sideways in the street where the bollards would have been raised. The perpetrator drove up on the sidewalk to go around the police car. It is now questionable as to whether the bollards would have stopped that approach.

And don't you dare say that my harmless banter costs lives

Col, I wish we could honestly say that it doesn't. I would agree that it is unlikely. We have to continue our lives. We cannot live in a continual state of fear. But we DO have to acknowledge that when dealing with folks who are mentally unbalanced enough to plan a terror attack, we don't know WHAT will trigger them, including some off-handed comment that seems so innocent as to be trivial.

I'm not saying that you intentionally do anything other than take a jab now and thin. We understand that your fun includes taking those jabs. But for folks who worry about mandatory hijabs for women, we can't say what tips them off. That is just the reality of a global culture conflict.

 

[Isaac]

Yeah, like ... Col I'm not saying your harmless banter directly costs lives (obviously), I'm saying that the general trend of it being "the thing to do" to dislike Americans appears to have bad consequences - consequences other than just making Americans dress up more when they go to Barcelona. It inspires bad people and of course, was always of questionable right-ness to begin with. Your banter is just a small part of that. We are all familiar with the trash-talking of Americans that occurs around the globe. I'm just suggesting that all parts of it contribute to a festering pot that produces very bad things in the end

 

[ColinEssex]

I'm not saying that you intentionally do anything other than take a jab now and thin. We understand that your fun includes taking those jabs. But for folks who worry about mandatory hijabs for women, we can't say what tips them off. That is just the reality of a global culture conflict.

You and Isaac obviously think I am a danger to world peace and more importantly, a threat to the USA.

If you don't like it, I suggest you delete me - then I won't be a threat any more.
Col

 

[GaP42]

Jeez - if the comments about Col's jibes are dangerous then what about the comments and jokes in threads in the watercooler - about transgender, about is Islam a threat etc... those are just as likely to inflame hatred. Introspection warranted? No?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

You and Isaac obviously think I am a danger to world peace and more importantly, a threat to the USA.

If you don't like it, I suggest you delete me - then I won't be a threat any more.
Col

I said I agreed it was unlikely that you would be considered a threat. Heck, as hard as you are on the USA, you even might be seen as an ally to ISIS in their war against the Great Satan (which is one of the names they have for USA citizens.)

Because I was in a rather somber moment, I also said we don't know what will set off a crazy person, you included. And ME included.

Col, that terrorist attack was within a few miles of my home. If my response betrayed a bit of nerves, it was because the event was truly unsettling. The attack was at least 150 times closer to me than it was to you. I used to work one block away from where the perpetrator crashed his vehicle and came out shooting. If that wouldn't make you at least a little bit upset, you've got a stronger disposition than I do.

No, I'm not going to delete you. I'm just going to ask you to understand that I was - and maybe still am - a bit rattled.