In “Lone-Wolf Gunman Terrorizes Los Angeles,” November 5, 2013, I despaired not only that a lone gunman can wreak unspeakable terror, but also that there’s nothing anyone can do to stop such “lone wolves” from doing so. This has been borne out on far too many occasions, including just weeks ago in Orlando, where a lone gunman plunged the entire nation in mourning after he killed 49 people in a gay nightclub.
But reporting on this latest act of terror dramatized this despair in almost tragicomedy fashion. After all, even the most reputable news organizations initially reported that four gunmen perpetrated the shooting rampage in Dallas. Some even featured news anchors pointing to aerial views of how each sniper was perched atop surrounding buildings and picking off cops like sitting ducks.
Now comes this:
A U.S. Army reservist who served in Afghanistan, embraced militant black nationalism and professed a desire to ‘kill white people’ has been named by authorities as the lone gunman in a sniper attack on police in Dallas that left five officers dead.
Authorities said on Friday the suspect, identified as Micah Johnson, 25, was killed by a bomb-carrying robot deployed against him in a parking garage where he had holed up, refusing to surrender during hours of negotiations with police.
Thursday night’s bloodshed, which shattered an otherwise peaceful protest denouncing two fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota this week, added a new layer of apprehension to emotional national debates over racial injustice and gun violence.
(Reuters, July 9, 2016)
Therefore, given the unprecedented carnage this lone wolf caused, the national mourning he evoked, the wall-to-wall coverage he commanded, and the political hysteria he incited, I cannot overstate this abiding fear:
God help us if al-Qaeda ever decided to emulate this feat by coordinating 10 similar [shootings], at 10 football stadiums, in the 10 biggest cities in America, all on a typical Saturday in the fall, when they’re packed with over 100,000 people watching college football games. Not only would the carnage be 1,000 times more devastating, but based on the reaction to this terrorist attack, law-enforcement authorities would have to lockdown not just the airports as they did on 9/11, but the entire friggin’ country, no?
(“Manhunt for Bombers Turning Boston into Theater of the Absurd,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 19, 2013)
With that, until the next mass shooting/bombing, my thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of these latest victims.
Related commentaries:
Brussels, Paris, San Bernardino…
Orlando…
Dallas…