« Things that make you go 'hmmmmmm' | Main | Omeed Popal and the swallows of spring »

August 30, 2006

Frisco Jihadist Omeed - piecing the story together

Kim at Wizbang offers a round of links that belie the quick assertions by Mayor Newsom and others that this isn't a "hate crime" or had nothing to do with terrorism.

SFGate

A day of hit-and-run horror that started with the death of a Fremont pedestrian and erupted into half an hour of chaos on the streets of San Francisco ended in the arrest of a 29-year-old driver described by some relatives as mentally disturbed but by police as apparently rational and unrepentant.
[...]
Witnesses in San Francisco described the same unreal, terrifying scene again and again: A black SUV whose driver would chase walkers and bicyclists up the street and across lawns and slammed on the accelerator to pick off his victims.

"In some cases he drove on the sidewalk, and in some cases he drove on the street," said police Sgt. Neville Gittens, a department spokesman. "The hits were intentional with no regard in terms of who was hit."
[...]
A source close to the investigation in San Francisco, however, said Popal showed no signs of mental illness or remorse in his initial interviews with authorities. Popal reportedly told police that he had run down pedestrians "because he just wanted to."

I fully expect this to be written off as a "lone wacko"...just like the Seattle attack, or the SUV attacks on UNC-Chapel Hill students by Mohammed Taheri-azar, or Hesham Mohamed Hadayet's murder of three at LAX at the El Al ticket line, or ....

Ok now, just how many swallows does it take to make a spring?

Technorati: , ,

Posted by Darleen at August 30, 2006 12:29 PM

Comments

Ah Gavin! Good to see you.

How's that appeasement thing workin' out?

Posted by: Rob at August 30, 2006 04:33 PM

Sounds like a nut case to me.

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at August 31, 2006 09:54 AM

We must remember that it's only a hate crime when it's consistent with the liberal mantra, i.e., gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc.

When it comes to national security, calling this a hate crime brushes us up against racial profiling which is anathema to their misguided instinct that all cultures and religions are on the same moral plane.

In order to understand how the liberals perceive the world we have only to glimpse into their collective political soul where we find a host of contradictions and paradoxes, from blaming guns for criminal behavior to denying that a fetus is a human being.

In between are such richly naive assertions that capitalism is to blame for poverty and that diplomacy with Iran via the Security Council is the most prudent approach to ensuring that Ahmadinejad won't wipe Israel off the map with a nuclear weapon or use it as leverage for his hegemonic designs.

For a variety of editorials on these topics, please go to:

www.clearcommentary.com or www.clearcommentary.townhall.com

Philip Mella, Editor
ClearCommentary.com

Posted by: Philip Mella at August 31, 2006 03:40 PM

Looks like the lone crazy theory is bearing out.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15402293.htm

But he must have been a terrorist. He's got a funny name and you just know he's swarthy. So case closed.

Posted by: Josh at August 31, 2006 07:22 PM

Mr Mella:

Based on what I read, this crime had nothing to do with liberals, gun control or anyone's fetus. Not to mention capitalism, or Iran's foreign policy.

It was little more than the act of a deranged person. Why read more into it?

Why don't you sit down and listen to a little Opera?

I suggest Rossini's Semiramidi Only 2 acts.

Opera's my drug of choice...

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at September 1, 2006 11:21 AM