Terrorism Vs Hate Crimes

On September 11th of 2001, more than 3,000 people died during the terrorist attacks. The event changed the lives of not just the people whose loved ones died on that day, but also of those who belonged to the Islamic world. The experience of Muslims who lived in America in 2001 and those who were yet to come here would never be the same again. After 9/11, the number of hate crimes against Muslims in the United States increased and their everyday lives changed forever due to the rise of islamophobia and the vicious influence of the American media.

For this assignment, I’ve decided to focus on Dylann Roof and the hate crime he committed on June 17, 2015. In summary, during a prayer service, Dylann Roof killed nine people, all African Americans. After the shooting took place, several thoughts of why Roof committed such heinous crime were considered. However, shortly after, a website owned by Roof was discovered. The website contained images and symbols of white supremacy, along with a manifesto written by Roof. After such discovery, it became clear the motive behind Roof’s actions.

In 2015 there was a racially motivated shooting at a historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina (Horowitz, Corasaniti, and Southall). There was a total of nine victims total that died (Horowitz, Corasaniti, and Southall). Local Church leaders felt that there was no other explanation than racial discrimination (Horowitz, Corasaniti, and Southall). Later investigators ruled the shooting a hate crime fueling the fire on the confederate monument removal.

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old man murdered nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. (Corasaniti, Perez-Pena, & Alvarez, 2015). Before June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof was a person filled with hate towards African American individuals in the United States. When the news came out about these murders initially, no one could understand why he had done this assuming he had a mental health condition. In the accounts of the event Ms. Washington recounted, “ You don’t have to do this.” Rooff replied,” Yes, You are raping our women and taking over the country.” (Corasaniti et al., 2015). Roof said,” The people were so friendly to me I thought about not shooting them.” It was learned that “Dylan Roof had posted a white

Indisputably, a great tragedy was inflicted upon the people of Charleston, South Carolina. Indisputably, nine innocent people were murdered in a prayer service on the evening of June 17, 2015. The suspected perpetrator of this massacre is twenty-one year old, and South Carolina native, Dylan Roof. A website was discovered that contained 60 images depicting Roof committing such acts as burning and spitting on American flags, waving confederate flags, and posing with guns. Also, on this website

Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old murderer of nine, was arrested for his crimes in June. According to many Roof was just a very confused and mentally ill young man, but surprisingly he was completely sane when he committed these murders. When asked about his reasoning behind his actions, Roof had this to say, “The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case... this prompted me to type in the words ‘black on White crime’ into Google, and I have never been the same since that day. The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens. There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders...At this moment I realized that something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of

The shooting in Charleston was immediately labeled as a hate crime. However, it seems appropriate to recognize this attack as terrorism too. If Dylann were a Muslim American instead of a Caucasian, who had murdered nine people during a church event, the news outlets would report the story with the term “terrorism” rather then “hate crime”. It is a matter of perspective when it comes to touchy subjects such as the Charleston shooting.

On June 17, 2015, nine people were killed while at a prayer meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina, one of America’s oldest black churches. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire over the congregation after attending the service for approximately an hour. The victims include Rev. Clementa Pinckney, South Carolina’s state senator, and his sister, in addition to five other women and two men. The shooting is considered by most to have been a racially fueled hate crime, as its perpetrator has a history of racism over social media. Immediately before pulling the trigger, Roof was overheard saying, “I have to do it. You rape our women, and you are taking over our country. And you have to

It saddens me that even in this day and age racial terrorism still exists. One major event that reflects this is the Charleston, South Carolina, Church shooting that occurred last Tuesday June 17. On this day, 21-year-old Dylann Roof attended a bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and after about an hour he opened fire to the members who attended the study. Consequentially 10 people were shot and unfortunately 9 of them did not survive.

Acts of terrorism plants fear and terror into the hearts and minds of individuals but when mass shootings occur in the United States, they get classified as murder or hate crimes. This research will show that mass shootings and hate crimes inflict the same type of terror in the hearts and minds of individuals throughout communities within the United States as terrorist attacks have inflicted on communities.

They elucidate that terrorism is a “premeditated, politically motivated, violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups of clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience,” (National Institute of Justice).

Terrorism, a word most people fear, but so often misinterpret. The textbook definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. But how does that compare to domestic terrorism? Domestic terrorism or “homegrown terrorism” can be defined as “the committing of terrorist acts in the perpetrator’s own country against their fellow citizens”. Throughout the years, America as a nation has experienced quite a few occurrences of both types. An early example of homegrown terrorism would be the Haymarket Affair which occurred May 4, 1886 where in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, labor protesters detonated a bomb during a rally. Chicago police then responded by firing

The Charleston church shooting was a mass shooting and hate crime that took place at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. This took place during the evening of June 17, 2015. This shook the entire world and was heard all over the news. Nine people including the pastor were killed by the gunman Dylann Roof, A 21-year-old white supremacist. Fortunately, three people survived the Charleston church massacre. The next day after the attack, police arrested Roof in Shelby, North Carolina. He confessed to committing the shooting hoping to start a race war. He had a website that described his motives and what was going through his head. He specifically targeted one of the US oldest black churches. Roof wrote “I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world,

Terrorism in the twenty-first century has some similarities and differences from terrorism in the twentieth century. Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use or threatened use of violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. Also useful to remember that because the two entities involved, the terrorists and the terrorized, are on the opposite end of the political, religious or ideological continuum, the same act is viewed by them differently. There is much sense in the phrase one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Acts of terror and political violence are inevitably one in the same. Terrorism requires violence towards non-combatants with a goal derived from a social or political view differing from the target of interest. It also pertains to violence or acts of terror committed to achieve a political goal. Political violence is described as violence perpetrated by either persons or governments to achieve political goals. These definitions are one in the same. However, what they don’t include is the use of symbolism behind their malevolent acts. Symbolism introduces itself when the use of propaganda campaigns and statements is utilized to critically convey the righteousness and benevolence of the terrorist. The symbolic value of targets also distinguishes terrorism from other simple acts of extreme violence. Another seldom-thought component behind terrorism is that these acts seek to inflict psychological damage rather than demolish its material or ability to fight (Matusitz). Terrorism exploits symbolism by using it to push an extremist agenda, commit graves acts of terror and strategically target items or people of interest.