Dylann Roof

The Black Death: Black Deaths Matter?

It has been four days since the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It is Halloween, and the funerals began yesterday for the 11 victims. It has been called “the worst attack on Jews in American history.” The coverage has been relentless throughout the media, and touching vignettes of the lives of the victims have been ubiquitous. President Donald Trump has ordered flags at federal buildings throughout the United States to be flown at half-staff in “solemn respect” for the victims. Grotesque irony notwithstanding, United States President Donald Trump also visited the site of the massacre yesterday and met with victims and/or their families.

Defending gang killings against Dylann Roof comparison

I am morally opposed to the death penalty—even for crimes as vile as self-avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof’s. That said, if Roof’s crimes merit punishment by death then so should similar crimes committed by gang members. When I took to social media with this I was hit with dozens of comments from mostly African-Americans justifying how Roof’s plotting and planning to kill as many Blacks as he could didn’t warrant comparison to the same actions by your garden-variety gang member. But why is that?

FBI moves to dismiss lawsuit over Charleston church shooting 

The FBI wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the agency of negligence in last summer’s South Carolina church massacre, arguing that the agency was stymied by state and federal limits on background checks and local errors in record-keeping as it reviewed Dylann Roof’s handgun purchase.