The Argument that #CharlestonShooting Was Hate Crime

by Kim D.

The horrific shooting that took place last night at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC has gripped the nation. News is breaking quickly, but the best update to this tragedy is that they got him. The shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, has been captured in Shelby, NC.

Based on witness statements, contrary to what friends may be saying, all evidence points to the sad reality that this is a hate crime of epic proportions. The MSM keeps questioning his mental health, and, honestly, what sane person would do something like this, but Roof's mental state should have little bearing. Evil exists and has no decency when it reaches its tentacles into the heart of mankind.

Survivor: Charleston shooter referred to victims "raping our women" and "taking over country," re-loaded 5 times. http://t.co/MWAhCZ4xiU

— Greg Mitchell (@GregMitch) June 18, 2015

Roof allegedly allowed one victim to live and be witness to his killing rampage.  According to Raw Story, the survivor claims Roof sat through the Bible study then opened fire at the conclusion of the meeting. 

The lawmaker’s cousin said the shooter came into the church and sat next to Pinckney through the service and started shooting when it concluded.

A survivor told reporters that the gunman reloaded five times during the massacre and ignored the pleas of one man to reconsider killing the worshipers.

“You rape our women and you’re taking over our country — and you have to go,” the terrorist said, according to a survivor.

Once the shooter was identified, Facebook provided other key evidence. Roof's profile picture makes a huge statement. Why is a 21-year-old wearing a jacket with two decals symbolizing apartheid? These flags faded away into the dark bowels of history way before he was born. 

Bloomberg Politics explains the significance of these flags which offers great insight as to the motive for such a horrific crime.

The top flag was used by South Africa from 1928 to 1994, until the coming of black suffrage and the adoption of the country's current "rainbow" flag. The bottom flag was used by Rhodesia -- now Zimbabwe -- from 1968 to 1979. They have one thing in common: They were the symbols of white minority regimes that oppressed their majority black populations. Both of the flags would have been relatively obscure, in a way that a Swastika flag or even a Confederate battle flag are not. As the Southern Poverty Law Center has noted, white supremacists like to argue that Zimbabwe and South Africa under majority-black rule represent cautionary tales for what could happen to a nation that allows non-whites to take over. To them, Zimbabwe's economic decline under Robert Mugabe says everything about what happens when black people are allowed to rule; to them, against all evidence, South Africa is always one disaster away from a war on whites.