Active Shooter at Ohio State

[Brian]

A "Run Hide Fight" warning has been issued. That sounds scary as hell.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/active-shooter-re...mp;cid=abcn_tco

 

7 confirmed shot.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Brian

[Kyyle23]

i hope they get this shooter down quick, how horrible

[RockRaines]

my friend works at the hospital, says they are bringing in several trauma surgeons currently. Only one appears to be critical but not sure at the moment.

[RockRaines]

Coordinated attack, pulled fire alarm and used a car as first attack. f***ing bastards

[Brian]

Is it students or just some nut jobs?

 

Suspect dead

Edited November 28, 2016 by Brian

[RockRaines]

Is it students or just some nut jobs?

 

Suspect dead

Nobody knows, they are still searching the parking garage now. They have witnesses and some video.

[RockRaines]

Looks like one crazy with a machete and his car as a weapon, nothing more. All injuries are not life threatening

[LittleHurt05]

Reports that the attacker was a Somali student with permanent legal residence. The Donald is gonna eat this s*** up.

[caulfield12]

Next, we'll have conspiracy theories he was influenced by ISIS.

 

Because what better way to get closer and closer to drawing the US back into direct engagement...which leads to a cycle of more publicity and fundraising?

 

Let's say Trump does manage to close off all immigration from Muslim and terrorism-related countries. With all of those people he's bringing in on national security/defense, they will merely counsel for the US to be completely isolationist and stand idly by while the Middle East completely falls apart when...in the eyes of Republicans...Trump/Clintons and not Bushes are to blame for the destabilization?

 

Especially when the GOP is once again calling for massive increases in defense spending?

 

Thankfully he didn't have a gun or assault rifle.

Edited November 28, 2016 by caulfield12

[Jenksismyhero]

Senator Tim Kaine ‏@timkaine 5h5 hours ago

Deeply saddened by the senseless act of gun violence at Ohio State this morning. Praying for the injured and the entire Buckeye community

 

 

Good thing Tim checked his Tragedy Talking Points template before tweeting.

 

[caulfield12]

His talking point actually should have been that there wasn't a gun involved...except for law enforcement.

[RockRaines]

Reports that the attacker was a Somali student with permanent legal residence. The Donald is gonna eat this s*** up.

He was featured in a story this summer about different types of people on campus, clearly highlighting the life of a Muslim student and how difficult it is.

[LittleHurt05]

Next, we'll have conspiracy theories he was influenced by ISIS.

 

Because what better way to get closer and closer to drawing the US back into direct engagement...which leads to a cycle of more publicity and fundraising?

 

Let's say Trump does manage to close off all immigration from Muslim and terrorism-related countries. With all of those people he's bringing in on national security/defense, they will merely counsel for the US to be completely isolationist and stand idly by while the Middle East completely falls apart when...in the eyes of Republicans...Trump/Clintons and not Bushes are to blame for the destabilization?

 

Especially when the GOP is once again calling for massive increases in defense spending?

 

Thankfully he didn't have a gun or assault rifle.

 

It's not a conspiracy theory when ISIS declares him their soldier on their own news-wire.

 

 

[CrimsonWeltall]

It's not a conspiracy theory when ISIS declares him their soldier on their own news-wire.

 

Doesn't ISIS take always take credit for these types of attacks regardless of whether or not there is any actual connection?

[StrangeSox]

Yes, you can maybe say they're "ISIS-inspired" which is the whole self-radicalization problem, but it's substantively different from being an actual planned ISIS operation a la the Paris attacks.

[LittleHurt05]

Doesn't ISIS take always take credit for these types of attacks regardless of whether or not there is any actual connection?

 

No, not necessarily. They can be very methodical and deliberate with their propaganda, so they don't just jump out and claim everything. This one they waited 24 hours, sometimes they wait even longer.

 

Yes, you can maybe say they're "ISIS-inspired" which is the whole self-radicalization problem, but it's substantively different from being an actual planned ISIS operation a la the Paris attacks.

 

True, but there have been other attacks where someone connected to ISIS did nothing more than encourage someone over the phone or intrawebs. Attacks like Paris are very expensive and time-consuming and risky to plan. Grabbing a steak knife and driving your car up on the sidewalk can be done by anyone and requires little money or planning. It's why they issue all those videos and call to action, trying to persuade anyone who might be disgruntled or easily convinced.

[caulfield12]

So how will Trump solve the ISIS problem in 30 days or less? More carpet bombing/bomb them back to the Stone Ages approach?

Edited November 29, 2016 by caulfield12

[LittleHurt05]

So how will Trump solve the ISIS problem in 30 days or less? More carpet bombing/bomb them back to the Stone Ages approach?

 

He's gonna make it worse by calling out Muslims publicly, which will help ISIS convince a few more Western Muslims that it's Islam vs. the West.

[southsider2k5]

It's not a conspiracy theory when ISIS declares him their soldier on their own news-wire.

 

Even Reuters has picked it up.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Reuters/posts/1303760679644285

[caulfield12]

Can't wait for Putin and Trump to hold their first joint news conference.

 

 

[StrangeSox]

No, not necessarily. They can be very methodical and deliberate with their propaganda, so they don't just jump out and claim everything. This one they waited 24 hours, sometimes they wait even longer.

 

 

 

True, but there have been other attacks where someone connected to ISIS did nothing more than encourage someone over the phone or intrawebs. Attacks like Paris are very expensive and time-consuming and risky to plan. Grabbing a steak knife and driving your car up on the sidewalk can be done by anyone and requires little money or planning. It's why they issue all those videos and call to action, trying to persuade anyone who might be disgruntled or easily convinced.

 

Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing here.

[illinilaw08]

He's gonna make it worse by calling out Muslims publicly, which will help ISIS convince a few more Western Muslims that it's Islam vs. the West.

 

This x 1000000.

[Jake]

I was at OSU.

 

My first broad thought a day later is that if the initial emergency calls from students had realized the only gunshot came from the police officer, then this story wouldn't have had much reach outside of Columbus. The prospect of an "active shooter"—which was the story for several hours—is far more newsworthy than a guy who drove his car at some people and then managed a few swings with a kitchen knife before getting shot down. The havoc experienced on campus is largely from having had to spend a couple hours on lockdown thinking there was a gunman running around.

 

To the extent this man was a terrorist, he sure was a rotten one. There's no doubt that he intended to hurt people, but from what I can tell he must have either not planned much at all or was in such a deranged state that he failed to have a plan that would kill anybody. I've seen a Facebook post attributed to him which is a semi-coherent rant about mistreatment of Muslims, though he seems oddly focused on Burma, a place where he does not appear to have familial connections and the US is hardly involved. He makes mention of wanting the US to quit fighting ISIS (he refers to ISIS by an Arabic alias) by reaching some kind of diplomatic agreement. I've yet to hear from any of his acquaintances about how well-connected he was in Columbus, on campus, etc. The Somali Student Association at OSU says he never participated in their group and was unknown to them.

 

Current indications are that the fire alarm having gone off was purely coincidental. I've heard some on campus say that everyone who was forced to evacuate due to the fire alarm had already headed back inside.

 

The student newspaper published something on him a couple months ago, as previously mentioned. I do want to clarify, though, that the piece was in the style of "Humans of New York" in which they approach people on campus and ask them to make a short statement about themselves, which the newspaper prints verbatim with no additional introduction or commentary. The attacker complained in the piece that he didn't know where any on-campus prayer rooms were and that he worried about attracting negative attention with his prayers in public. He also said that he is sympathetic to the fears people have because of what he calls unfair portrayals in the media. The entire thing was probably 150 words long.

 

Columbus has the second-largest Somali-born population in the US after Minneapolis. I read recently that there are around 50,000 native Somalians, some of whom are refugees and others who immigrated via more conventional routes, in Columbus. I see them around town often and haven't had any remarkable interactions. I've chatted with a few at work who were very gregarious and friendly while others who I have passed in the store were speaking another language and may not have been comfortable talking in English. In other words, they are sufficiently large to be diverse in terms of how assimilated they are, how financially secure they are, and so on. The community has been established long enough that there are a lot of people the attacker's age who spent virtually their entire lives in the US, attending the grade schools and so on. My general impression is that Somalians in Columbus are not terribly impoverished as many of them run businesses and are never shabbily clothed or anything like that. I do know from my work that there is a lot of untreated mental illness in the Somalian community due to social stigmas and the sometimes horrific experiences that led some to become refugees.

 

With that said, there have been some frictions. There have been numerous incidents in which native-born people have gotten into road rage incidents with Somali immigrants and I vaguely recall an incident in which a Somali driver killed some pedestrians—by incompetence, not malice. Earlier this year, a Ghananian man stabbed 4 people (none died) at a "multicultural" restaurant (it explicitly appealed to Muslims, Jews, and Christians) and said ISIS had inspired him. In Columbus, most people believed the stabber to be Somalian due to his appearance and some errant reporting when it first happened. There has been some jostling in local politics in which the city government has faced accusations of not providing city resources, like bus routes, to the parts of town where Somalians and other minority communities live in greater numbers. I wouldn't call these really big stories, though, and I rarely hear them discussed in the local news or around town.

 

Anyway, there's some context. I'm interesting in hearing more details about the attack and the attacker in the coming days.

 

 

 

 

[caulfield12]

As usual, in reality, it's a very nuanced situation.

 

There's no quick/simple/easy solution to immigrant assimilation in the US.

 

Nice write-up.