SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
hate crimes
5 Years After El Paso Shooting, Calls for Fighting Gun Violence and Racism
"When politicians use 'great replacement' conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood," said Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro.
Aug 04, 2024
Saturday marked five years since a self-described white nationalist killed 23 people and injured 22 others with an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and the anniversary sparked fresh calls for efforts to combat gun violence and racism.
"Five years after a man armed with hate and a gun drove into our community and stole the lives of 23 of our friends and neighbors, we still feel the pain of their absence," said Myndi Luevanos, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action in El Paso, in a statement. "Since the shooting, our leaders have refused to meet the moment, failing to enact common-sense gun safety measures that could save lives and address the disproportionate rate of gun violence faced by the Latinx community in Texas."
"Half a decade later, we cannot let the failures of the past become the norm," Luevanos continued. "Now more than ever, we must honor the victims and their families with action and protect Latinx Texans for generations to come from gun violence."
The group Brady said on social media that "easy access to guns, especially assault rifles, makes hate lethal. We must #HonorWithAction and #DisarmHate."
The shooter, Patrick Wood Crusius, is serving 90 consecutive life sentences after being convicted of federal hate crimes and in September agreed to "pay restitution in the amount of $5,557,005.55" to victims' families. Both Republican District Attorney Bill Hicks and his Democratic opponent for this November's election, James Montoya, hope to have him tried in front of a jury on state charges by next year. In the Texas case, he could face the death penalty.
Crusius, who traveled nearly 600 miles across the state to the border city where he shot dozens of people, wrote in a racist manifesto posted online before the attack that he aimed to address the "Hispanic invasion of Texas." He is one of multiple mass shooters who have cited the "great replacement" theory that white people will be replaced by people of color.
"Hate speech isn't just words—it has real, devastating consequences," UnidosUS stressed on social media. "The anniversary of El Paso reminds us of this. Words have power—they can heal or harm. We decide to use our voice to create a world where no one lives in fear."
The 2019 massacre was "the deadliest attack on the Latinx community in America," noted Mireya Rodriguez, a volunteer with Students Demand Action in Texas. "Racism emboldens violence and set against Texas' weak gun laws, you get a recipe for the very tragedy that shattered El Paso."
"Our leaders have a responsibility to reject racist and anti-immigration rhetoric, yet it's no secret that some Texas politicians have chosen to embrace, rather than condemn that hatred," the activist added. "We won't stand for that. We will honor the lives stolen through our advocacy to end gun violence and combat white supremacy in all forms."
As Common Dreamsreported Friday, a new analysis from eight groups "exposes the normalization of xenophobic 'great replacement' and 'invasion' conspiracies within the 118th Congress, documenting their historical roots and widespread promotion by members of Congress." It features examples from two Texas Republicans: Congressmen Lance Gooden and Jodey Arrington.
Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro said on social media Saturday that "we can honor the lives lost and the families affected by denouncing the awful rhetoric that incited this act of hate."
"When politicians use 'great replacement' conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood," Castro added. "As we remember the victims in El Paso, we have to call out those who use vile rhetoric to lead. There's no place for hate in this country."
Sharing the names of the El Paso victims of social media, March for Our Lives—launched after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—said, "Let's be clear: This was a racist, anti-immigrant act of terror."
"The shooter's 'great replacement theory' language is deadly, fueled by our leaders who demonize immigrants and people of color," the group asserted. "Their words have real, fatal consequences."
March for Our Lives last month gave its first-ever political endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris, who on Friday secured enough delegates for Democratic nomination to face former President Donald Trump. The Republican—who in July survived an assassination attempt by a shooter at a Pennsylvania campaign event—was in Georgia on Saturday, spewing anti-migrant rhetoric to a rally crowd.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden released a lengthy statement and Harris said that "five years ago today, 23 people were killed and 22 others were injured during a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that was carried out with a weapon of war. It was an act of hate that targeted Latinos."
"Doug and I join the community in remembering those who lost their lives in this senseless act fueled by white supremacy, and we are thinking of those who were injured," she continued, referring to her husband. "As we honor the lives that were taken and support the survivors, we recommit ourselves to achieving a future where every person can live free from gun violence, fear, and hate."
Harris is spending the weekend vetting potential vice presidential candidates, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Kelly's wife is Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman who resigned after she survived a 2011 assassination attempt outside a grocery store in Arizona. She now leads a gun violence prevention group called GIFFORDS.
The El Paso tragedy "happened because someone who was fueled by hate was able to easily access a gun," she said in a statement. "Americans deserve better. The Latino community deserves better. People should be able to walk into a Walmart without the fear of being shot."
Giffords also pointed out that five years ago, "hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio experienced a parallel tragedy outside a bar, when a Saturday night out turned into horror and loss."
"This weekend, I'm thinking of those lost that night and the survivors whose lives were irrevocably changed," she said. "GIFFORDS stands with the Dayton community and we will never give up in our fight to stop gun violence."
Keep ReadingShow Less
House GOP Plays Politics With Campus Antisemitism While Enabling Islamophobia
The House education committee has not made any efforts to investigate the targeting of Muslim and Palestinian students despite the fact that it keeps happening with sometimes violent consequences.
Apr 23, 2024
The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the halls of Congress. For proof, look no further than the Republican-controlled House education committee's latest hearing focused on investigating allegations of antisemitism at American colleges and universities.
During last week's widely covered hearing, many committee members followed a predictable playbook: mischaracterize any pro-Palestinian student activism as antisemitic, ask incendiary "gotcha" questions about imaginary incidents of antisemitism, and then pressure college leaders to silence young people who advocate for Palestinian human rights.
House committee members like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) have mastered this artform, which gives them an opportunity to go viral in right-wing media, smear pro-Palestinian students, and virtue signal that they oppose any form of bigotry even as their political party enables nearly every form of bigotry.
Until House committee members stop playing Joseph McCarthy and start taking the threat of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia seriously, no one should take their dishonest, theatrical, politically motivated hearings seriously.
Months ago, the civil rights and advocacy organization we serve—the Council on American-Islamic Relations—sent a letter to House committee members encouraging them to hold comprehensive hearings focused on not just antisemitism on college campuses, but also incidents of anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Palestinian racism.
Since then, the House committee has not made any efforts to investigate the targeting of Muslim and Palestinian students despite the fact that it keeps happening with sometimes violent consequences.
At Columbia University, pro-Israel individuals allegedly doused pro-Palestinian students with military-grade "skunk spray," the chemical weapon that the Israeli government infamously uses on Palestinian protesters and worshippers.
At Stanford University, a pro-Palestinian student was hospitalized after being intentionally rammed by a car while protesting.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pro-Israel student ripped down posters held by pro-Palestinian students who were staging a sit-in and physically rammed his way through them.
In Burlington, Vermont, a man opened fire on three Palestinian college students walking around in public wearing the keffiyeh, paralyzing one of them and seriously injuring the other two.
In Austin, Texas, a group of young Muslims who had just attended a protest near the University of Texas were attacked by a ranting racist who attempted to rip their keffiyeh off their vehicle and yanked one of the men and out of the car, stabbing him.
And those are just incidents of violence.
Students who advocate for Palestinians have also faced discriminatory, institutional efforts to silence their voices. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attempted to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, only to backtrack when CAIR and our partners filed a federal lawsuit. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order directing schools and universities to investigate and punish students who engage in pro-Palestinian activism.
Meanwhile, numerous schools have smeared and silenced their own students without any prompting from government officials.
Most recently, the University of Southern California claimed that it had to cancel the commencement speech of its Class of 2024 valedictorian, a Muslim biomedical engineer named Asna Tabassum, due to harassment and threats of disruption from pro-Israel voices.
Don't expect any congressional hearings about those incidents from the House education committee, which appears to live in an alternate reality in which anti-Palestinian racism and Islamohphobia do not exist.
The House committee's obsession with investigating only antisemitism is especially problematic because of the difference in power dynamics at play.
Many reported antisemitic incidents on college campuses involve students peacefully expressing views that other students find offensive, while many incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on college campuses involve either outright violence or school leaders, prominent advocacy organizations, and government officials wielding institutional power to smear, doxx, and silence students.
It is also important to note that pro-Israel advocacy organizations like the Anti-Defamation League have allegedly exaggerated the number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses.
For example, the ADL's latest data labels as antisemitic any protest at which a member of the crowd chants "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"—regardless of whether the person chanting it was one person among thousands, regardless of whether the protest was Jewish-led, and regardless of the fact that activists who chant the phrase have repeatedly explained that they are calling for citizens of Israel and Palestine to live together in a single state with equal rights (whereas the Israeli government and its supporters are calling for a permanent state of Palestinian subjugation when they demand "full Israeli security control" from the river to the sea).
To be clear, bigotry is not a competition, real antisemitic incidents on college campuses have undoubtedly risen over the past six months, and any manifestations of antisemitism should be condemned. But so, too, should incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
Here's the truth about why that isn't happening.
Polls show that Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 tend to sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people far more than older Americans. Instead of addressing or even debating the concerns expressed by those students, many pro-Israel legislators, school leaders, and advocacy organizations prefer to silence those students by simply labeling them antisemitic.
This must end, beginning in Congress.
Until House committee members stop playing Joseph McCarthy and start taking the threat of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia seriously, no one should take their dishonest, theatrical, politically motivated hearings seriously.
Keep ReadingShow Less
School Hate Crimes Quadruple in GOP States Attacking LGBTQ+ Rights
"For the activists and politicians writing these laws, this is just a sign that their plan is working," said one rights advocate.
Mar 12, 2024
The Republican Party's hateful policies are having a predictable result: more hatefulness.
The GOP's current targeted attacks on transgender and nonbinary youths are relatively new, with right-wing governors and legislatures in the last few years prioritizing legislation barring young people from living according to their gender identity—but federal data shows the impact the push is already having on the safety of LGBTQ+ kids, with school hate crimes surging in states where attacks on their right to exist have passed.
According to FBI data analyzed by The Washington Post, in states where LGBTQ+ rights have been restricted, an average of about 28 anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes at K-12 schools and colleges were reported annually between 2015-19. The number tripled to an average of 90 in 2021-22.
In just K-12 schools, the average number of hate crimes went up from 13 per year between 2015-19 to 61 per year from 2021-22—more than quadrupling.
Overall, across the country, there was an average of 108 hate crimes at schools reported annually between 2015-19. Between 2021-22, the average more than doubled to 232.
At the same time, counseling services like the Trevor Project and the Rainbow Youth Project have seen a sharp rise in calls from young LGBTQ+ people distressed by the political rhetoric that's seeped into their schools.
"My government hates me," "my school hates me," and "they don't want me to exist" are among the fears that young people in states hostile to LGBTQ+ rights regularly report, Lance Preston, founder and executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project told the Post.
"That... is absolutely unacceptable," he said. "That is shocking."
The surge in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes did not come as a surprise to advocates including Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow for the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.
"Can anybody be surprised if discriminatory laws produce hateful results?" said Pitcavage.
According to the Trevor Project, at least 580 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were being considered in 2023 and at least 53 had been enacted. The Post traced the beginning of the surge back to around 2021.
Recent proposals include a bill advanced by the Florida Legislature to require residents' driver's licenses and ID cards identify them as their sex assigned at birth and a ban on gender-affirming care and transgender students playing on sports teams that match their gender identity in Ohio. The latter was vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine but later moved forward when lawmakers overrode the veto.
The Post released its analysis weeks after the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student in Oklahoma who used they/them pronouns and died a day after a getting in a physical fight with a group of girls in a school bathroom.
Oklahoma's anti-LGBTQ laws include a ban on gender transition procedures for minors, a law requiring students to use school bathrooms in accordance with their sex assigned at birth, and the so-called Save Women's Sports Act, pertaining to transgender kids on sports teams. The state is also now considering a requirement that schools teach that "a person's sex is an immutable biological trait."
For right-wing politicians and anti-LGBTQ+ activists, said Gillian Branstetter, communications strategist for the ACLU, the surge in hate crimes "is just a sign that their plan is working."
A transgender 17-year-old named Carden, who lives in Virginia, told the Post that he was harassed twice at school this year over his gender identity, and connected the incidents to the mainstreaming of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric by right-wing politicians.
"Kids parrot these ideas in their head, it's like, 'Oh, my parents think...,'" Carden told the Post. "Then it translates to being mean to other people their age."
The Rainbow Youth Project, which offers a hotline for crisis counseling to at-risk LGBTQ+ youth, said the top reason for calling cited by its clients in 2023 was "political rhetoric." The group recorded an average of about 1,000 calls per month in 2022 and over 1,400 per month last year.
"This legislated hate," said Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic, "has consequences."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular