WASECA, Minn. — Authorities said Thursday that they prevented an “unimaginable tragedy” by foiling a teenager’s elaborate plot to kill his family and bomb the junior and senior high school in the southern Minnesota city of Waseca. Police arrested John David LaDue, 17, on Tuesday and charged him in juvenile court Thursday with four counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of possessing explosive or incendiary devices and two counts of criminal damage to property…. According to the charging documents, The Free Press of Mankato reported, LaDue kept a 180-page notebook that detailed his plans. He allegedly told police he planned to shoot his mother, father and sister, then start a fire in a rural field to distract first-responders while he went to the school to set off pressure-cooker bombs in the cafeteria. He also allegedly planned to throw Molotov cocktails, gun down students and kill a school liaison officer while he helped injured students. LaDue said his ultimate goal was for a SWAT team to kill him.
It’s certainly a sad commentary on the state of our society when this sort of thing occurs with what feels like increasing frequency. Congratulations should go out to the law enforcement personnel who brought this incident to a safe and successful conclusion. Things could have ended very differently. From all indications, it appears LaDue was well down to the road to committing what would have been a horrific crime against innocent civilians.
What I find most interesting about this story is what’s missing from it. LaDue is White, which means that he’s guilty of plotting a terrible act of mass murder…but what if LaDue was, say, Muslim? Call me cynical, but I have to believe that the words “terror plot” and “terrorism” would have been stamped all over this story. Those of us here in Portland will remember Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a hapless 19-year-old Somali who in 2010 wanted to set off a car bomb at the annual Christmas tree lighting in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Had he been successful, thousands would have been injured and/or killed. Th FBI had been monitoring Mohamud for months after intercepting emails indicating his interest in terrorism. When an undercover agent determined that he was serious, the FBI set him up with a van and a fake explosive device. On the night of the tree lighting, Mohamud parked across the street, and when he attempted to detonate what he thought was a working bomb, he was arrested.
Mohamud’s case was heralded as a potential terrorist attack thwarted by heroic FBI efforts. Perhaps so. Claims of entrapment aside, Mohamud was planning an act that would have caused significant loss of life. His intent was to commit an act that meets the textbook definition of terrorism.
LaDue was also planning an act that would have caused significant loss of life, something that would seem the very definition of domestic terrorism. I’ve yet to hear or see the word “terrorism” used in conjunction with LaDue’s plot, even though in concept and intent it differed little from Mohamud’s. The only difference that leaps to mind is that LaDue is a good, God-fearing, White Christian, while Mohamud is an evil swarthy Islamofascist. No, the acts planned weren’t the same, but the intent was similar. The distinguishing factor appears to be the skin color of the perpetrators.
The mainstream media continues to perpetuate the dishonest story line that Evil, Swarthy Brown People are terrorists, while Good, God-fearing White Christians are disaffected loners planning one-off attacks as an expression of their frustration and alienation. The dishonesty lies in the truth that Americans are far more likely to be killed by an act of domestic terror than an act of terror committed by a foreign Islamofascist. If Mohamud’s intended attack can be fairly described as terrorism, LaDue’s should be as well.
Or are we willing to without question buy into the not-so-subtle racism that makes a distinction between acts committed by White Christian Americans and Evil Swarthy Islamofascists?
We’re told that those from foreign shores who hate us for our freedoms are the ones plotting to destroy us, while the truth is that most terrorist acts on U.S. soil are committed by White Christian males (Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Eric Rudolph, Paul Hill, Scott Roeder, Ted Kaczynski, etc.). As a society, we’ve accepted the propaganda that the chief threat to our security comes from foreign shores, when the truth is that threat looks a lot like you and me. Americans are far more likely to be killed by an act of domestic terrorism than a terrorist act committed by a foreign national. All one need do is to look at the proliferation of racist militia groups across the country to understand where the real threat lies. Not that you’ll hear any of this from the mainstream media.
Of course, since White folks don’t commit acts of terror, all we really have to worry about are foreigners…right??
