If this had happened at a mosque, do you think there is one chance in a hundred that they would’ve been so quick to declare this was not a hate crime?
The Los Angeles Times reports this morning:
Los Angeles Police Department detectives said today they have "strong leads" in the shooting that left two people wounded Thursday morning at a North Hollywood synagogue.
Detective Rich Wheeler says federal authorities are using high-tech equipment to enhance and clarify grainy video footage obtained from the parking garage at the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue where the two men were shot as they arrived for a morning service. The footage shows the gunman, officials said.
After determining that the attack wasn’t a hate crime and ruling out terrorism, detectives are now focusing on other motives, Wheeler said.
Dennis Prager said the following was a foolish comment: "There is absolutely no evidence to support any connection to terrorism or a hate crime," said Mike Downing, deputy chief of the LAPD’s Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau.
Dennis: "I am against all hate crime legislation, …but of course it was a hate crime. Do you think the guy meandered into a synagogue just to shoot people? He would’ve been just as happy to go to a 7/11? Isn’t that stupid? There is no evidence to support any connection to hate crime?
"Let me ask you folks: Do you believe if a guy walked into a mosque and shot two Muslims at prayer, an LAPD official would’ve said, ‘There is no evidence to link this to a hate crime.’ Not in your life would they say that.
"When the police start getting politically correct and lying and distorting truth because of political correctness, we are in trouble.
"Maybe it truly was, the guy said, I want to shoot two people. This is my day to do it. And he just happened to pass by a synagogue. If you believe that, you are counter-intuitive."
"We shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but they should not jump to the conclusion either that it is not. Just say we don’t have evidence in either direction. My belief is that common sense leads to a better response.
"It drives me nuts that within hours of a shooting at a synagogue, the police anti-terrorism and everybody else are announcing it is not a hate crime. How the hell do you know? It’s odd to think that a guy walked into, by sheer coincidence, and shot people. When they catch this guy, he’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a synagogue. I thought it was a pool hall.’"
"My agenda is that I pray it is not a hate crime. I hope it is just some nut who wanted target practice on human legs… The last thing I want is to believe that there is somebody who wants to shoot Jews."
"I would bet everything I own that if this had happened at a mosque they would announce, ‘We know it is not a hate crime.’"
I just did a Google blog search and couldn’t find anyone else who made Prager’s obvious point.
TabletMag.com declares in its headline: "L.A. Synagogue Shooting Not a Hate Crime"
How do they know? Because the LAPD says so. That settles it for 99.9% of the media I’ve surveyed on this. If the LAPD says it isn’t a hate crime, then it isn’t a hate crime. People have stopped thinking.
Alison Hoffman writes for tabletmag.com: "Good news: police seem to have decided yesterday’s early-morning shooting at a Los Angeles synagogue wasn’t a hate crime. They’re not really sure what prompted it, and they definitely don’t know who did it, but the main thing, LAPD counterterrorism chief Mike Downing told the Los Angeles Times, is that the two victims weren’t shot on account of being Jewish, but because someone had a score to settle. Which means that the guy who told the paper that the neighborhood where the shooting happened is “like a small Israel” was more right than he probably realized."
Everybody I can find online just accepts Mike Downing’s pronouncement as gospel truth even though the evidence — this guy walked into a synagogue parking lot and shot two Jews on their way to prayer — screams otherwise.
Andrew Silow-Carrol at the New Jersey Jewish News headlines his blog post: "L.A. shooting: ‘A far more mundane crime’
All these people prefer to ignore the prima-facie evidence of Jew-hatred to accept some nonsense handed to them by the LAPD and the quiescent Los Angeles news media.
