He moved with video game precision, taking each step as if ready to hit \u201cBack-A-Press\u201d on a controller. There was no rush, no frenzy. Just cold, calculated steps: identify the target, aim and fire. Against undefended victims, he still wore tactical gear; black, khaki and boots, with a mask and bullet resistant vest to complete his \u201censemble\u201d of death. He wanted it documented, so he made a Tik-Tok video of his preparation. And he planned his statements, a last minute message to his father to look on the computer, hidden in his locked room. The father found his crazed twenty page \u201cmanifesto\u201d and called the police. But while he lived at home, he was no child. At twenty-one he had a fully formed radical ideology. The swastikas were drawn on the gun stock of his AR-15. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know his name, but that\u2019s unimportant.\u00a0\u00a0The three names to be remembered are: Angela Michelle Carr, \u201cAJ\u201d Laguerre, and Jerrald Gallion, the \u201ctargets\u201d whose only mistake was going to the Jacksonville Dollar General store in New Town on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And, of course, of being Black, when another young, white male decided to carry out a murderous dream.\u00a0\u00a0The gunman went to a \u201ctarget rich\u201d environment, New Town, a Black neighborhood in Jacksonville.\u00a0\u00a0He started at Edward Waters University, an historically black college (HBCU).\u00a0\u00a0As the shooter put his tactical gear on in his car, a student reported him to security, and they got him off campus.\u00a0\u00a0The police were right behind, but it took only seconds to end three innocent lives at the Store.\u00a0\u00a0The shooter then killed himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a whole discussion about the access America has to semi-automatic rifles. But that\u2019s not the issue today. The shooter got his weapons legally, at well-known gun shops in Jacksonville. The question today is our new reality: the great threat of our time. It isn\u2019t the \u201cmob\u201d, it\u2019s the lone, lonely, isolated, gunman: the lone wolf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one\u2019s really \u201calone\u201d anymore.\u00a0\u00a0Those \u201cwolves\u201d have a \u201cpack\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s always a screen nearby.\u00a0\u00a0Anyone has access to the most extreme theories, often specifically designed to appeal to the isolated, the lonely, and the weak of mind.\u00a0\u00a0Young white men don\u2019t have to be failures, even without relationships or successes or goals and dreams.\u00a0\u00a0They can become \u201cinstant\u201d heroes of their fellow extremists.\u00a0\u00a0And they can learn how to do it on the computer.\u00a0\u00a0Ask the young Navy tech specialist in Massachusetts who stole classified information to \u201cshow off\u201d to his online friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s similar to the process that produces terrorists in bomb vests in the Middle East. Those \u201cvolunteers\u201d believe they are furthering the legitimate claims of their people, even if they actions are heinous attacks against non-combatants. And they often have direct connections to suffering; the loss of a brother or father or friend at the hands of their enemies. They become convinced that their suicidal sacrifice is part of the process of correcting history. They seek martyrdom as their way of advancing the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Charleston to El Paso to Buffalo to now Jacksonville; young radicalized white men have taken their toll. It\u2019s the full recipe of current American life: the polarization of much of our political thought, the access to every kind of extremism at the click of a button, the sense of white \u201cvictimhood\u201d that drives much of our current politics. It is an atmosphere that encourages those who are already on the margins to take the next step, and get their \u201cfifteen minutes of fame\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sure, gun control would help. But today\u2019s society already accepts extremes of action that were unthinkable twenty years ago. If someone thinks differently than you do, then they are an \u201cenemy\u201d, and any action is \u201cOK\u201d. You can\u2019t even put a political sign in your yard without thinking: \u201cWill that make me a target?\u201d \u201cWill someone physically attack my home, my loved ones, me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take that to the extreme and you get these young white men, shooting up schools or parades, or the New Town Dollar Store. They don\u2019t fit the classic definition of \u201cmental illness\u201d, but they are a threat to the \u201cdomestic tranquility\u201d guaranteed by the US Constitution. And like the suicide bombers in the Middle East, we don\u2019t have a plan or process to stop them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are \u201clone wolves\u201d, and no one knows until it\u2019s too late.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"