Not Without Precedent
March 20, 2018 7:22 AM   Subscribe

A fifth package-bomb, destined for Austin, has exploded at a FedEx facility. Two people were injured in package-bomb explosions just yesterday. Austin police suspect that these incidents may be racially motivated and are now asking for the killer to reach out and talk to them.

Victims

Draylen Mason, 17, a senior at East Austin College Prep, was the principal double bass at the Austin Youth Orchestra and the principal bassist at the youth music program Austin Soundwaves. At age 13, he won the Hispanic Bar essay contest with a piece on racial profiling and had planned to attend the University of Texas at Austin's prestigious Butler School of Music upon graduation. His family, friends and, acquaintances say he was 'a cool guy, fun to be around, talented to the max, vibrant, an outstanding son, friend, student, and global citizen.' A YouCaring donation page for Draylen can be found here.

Draylen was also the step-son of one Freddie Dixon, a prominent black reverend at the Wesley UMC, and co-founder of the Austin Area Urban League with LaVonne Mason, grandmother to the first victim in this series of attacks, Anthony Stephan 'Steph' House.

Steph, 39, the father of one 8-year old daughter, husband to a loving wife, had an MBA from Texas State University and was running his own firm. He is described as being "a giving, generous, and loving husband and, father as well as a beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend to many." A GoFundMe in support of his family can be found here.

There are four other victims, all currently hospitalized, including one 75-year old Hispanic woman, two young white men, Will Grote and Colton Mathis, and a unnamed individual who was treated at the FedEx facility where the fifth bomb went off.

Ongoing

The attack on Will and Colton is seen by officials to be different than the previous, set off by a 'nearly invisible tripwire' in a public space, and an evolution to once purposeful attacks. Officials now believe the bombings to be serial murders, to be random, and to display 'a different level of skill above what we were already concerned this suspect or suspects may posses.' All this occurred while SXSW was ongoing, and a concert by The Roots had to be cancelled due to a bomb threat that was made during their show.

History

These attacks are not without precedent nor are they completely disentangled from the city's own history of segregation.
In 1928, Austin created a “Negro District,” which resulted in black residents being forced to move east of what is now Interstate 35. Whites took over property west of Interstate 35 once held by blacks. In later years, through gentrification, whites acquired desirable real estate held by blacks closer to downtown. [...] Two years ago, Mayor Steve Adler formed a task force in response to racially-motivated incidents involving African-Americans and police. One involved the fatal shooting of 17-year-old David Joseph that resulted in a $3.25 million settlement to the teenager’s family — the largest payout in the city’s history as a result of lethal police force. In another incident, officer Bryan Richter’s forceful arrest of Breaion King led to an HBO documentary, Traffic Stop.
This September marks the 55th year since the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. And it has only been two years since the last attack at a black church caused significant damage contributing to the long history of violence against African-American churches, itself a part of the even larger history of violence against African-Americans in the United States.

As Sen. Kamala Harris once said, "If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done during the Civil Rights Movement, this is your opportunity to find out."

Further Reading

How to be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed by Ijeoma Oluo (see also - The Price Ijeoma Oluo Paid for Speaking Up About Race in Her New Book: Her White Friends Stopped Thinking of Her as "Fun")

White Anti-Racism Must Be Based in Solidarity, Not Altruism

The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Fundamentals of Anti-Racism at Race Equity Tools
posted by runt (144 comments total) 79 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you for making this thread!! It's like the sixth headline down at the Boston Globe, well under "OMG 10 inches of snow is coming tomorrow." I was all ready to post in the main political thread, how come no one is talking about this bomb that killed people??
posted by Melismata at 7:30 AM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


Thanks for this thorough post
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:39 AM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


They may be avoiding talking about it to deprive the bomber of attention and press. I sure hope that’s the case, anyways.
posted by crysflame at 7:41 AM on March 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


I'm pretty sure this

Austin police suspect that these incidents may be racially motivated

is why it hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. The radio silence from the administration is particularly deafening.
posted by lydhre at 7:44 AM on March 20, 2018 [43 favorites]


another suspicious package found at a FedEx location in Austin; not yet clear if it's related or if indeed it's an explosive device
posted by halation at 7:59 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


There have been a lot of suspicious packages reported. Frankly, lots of packages just look suspicious, and there's no way to know if it's legitimate or not without getting into an unsafe range, so you have to call the cops (ugh). My apartment complex was investigated, but I'm sure by the end of this it will be investigated more than once because complexes always have packages sitting on doorsteps.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2018


Maybe now that a corporation has been harmed, the authorities will actually give a shit.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


Everything about this is horrible. People here in Austin are terrified and no one seems to have any real idea who is doing this or why, especially as the bomber's MO has changed slightly with each attack. Several out of state friends have opened their home to me in case I want to go hide out until this blows over - that's the degree to which there seems to be no end in sight.

I don't personally know any of the victims, but as Austin at times still feels very much like the mid-sized city it was until not too long ago, I'm a few degrees of separation removed. My coworker's sisters go to church with the woman who was critically injured. A good friend was childhood neighbors/friends with Steph House. Draylen Mason is the grandson of the other dentist at my dentist's office. My heart breaks for all of the victims and their families.

I had to call my dentist's office and get an invoice from them today, and I found it so utterly fucked up that day to day life in America is so infected by hate and violence that a person finds themselves telling their dentist they give their condolences for the possibly racially-motivated murder of their brilliant young grandson. What a world.
posted by marshmallow peep at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2018 [66 favorites]


Maybe the media is doing the right thing even if for the wrong reason? I can't imagine how a big public fuss from the president would be of any help to the police or the FBI catching this guy. And a nationwide panic about suspicious packages would be even more of a disaster and might inspire copycats.
posted by straight at 8:13 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I get that everyone here is probably commenting in good faith, but when your instinct is that it makes sense that we oughtn't make a fuss about an ongoing bombing campaign, maybe you should be thinking really hard about whether the response would be the same if more privileged communities were being threatened by it.
posted by BrashTech at 8:21 AM on March 20, 2018 [18 favorites]


Any chance we could impeach awful AG Jeff Sessions for allegedly lowering the priority of monitoring domestic terrorists?
posted by puddledork at 8:27 AM on March 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


It's big news on the west coast. I don't know why people here think it's not being taken seriously, I have good friends in Austin and they said the place is crawling with cops and feds and they are taking it extremely seriously and have been the whole time, answering every call about suspicious packages and not naming the person who's misdelivered package injured the elderly lady. There are lots of rumors but the attacks have taken place all over town and no one knows what is going on or why.
posted by fshgrl at 8:35 AM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


Sarah Sanders just tweeted about the attacks, after radio silence from POTUS:
.@POTUS mourns for victims of the recent bombings in Austin. We are monitoring the situation, federal authorities are coordinating w/ local officials. We are committed to bringing perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice. There is no apparent nexus to terrorism at this time. - PressSec
It's possible that viewing this tweet through the lens of my utter hatred for this woman and her boss and my general rawness about the topic is leading me to jump to the worst interpretation, but: how charming that the implication is that there's only one kind of terrorism.
posted by marshmallow peep at 8:42 AM on March 20, 2018 [50 favorites]


It's possible that viewing this tweet through the lens of my utter hatred for this woman and her boss and my general rawness about the topic is leading me to jump to the worst interpretation, but: how charming that the implication is that there's only one kind of terrorism.

Listen, this is just someone committing a series of murderous bombings; it's not like he's a kid who made a clock and brought it to school or something.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:48 AM on March 20, 2018 [92 favorites]


Here's another perspective: Say you dislike corporate America. Say you really dislike one company in particular. A company that has made your town a finalist for its second corporate headquarters. A company whose products are delivered to its customers as packages, usually cartons. If you really want to hurt that company, you'd strike at its sales/delivery model, because that it nearly its whole being. Create fear and mistrust of packages, and there goes its business model, and its business.

I'm just sayin' there may be a larger target than the immediate victims of these attacks.
posted by Lunaloon at 8:49 AM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


As a citizen of this fair city I would be very cautious about the way that we present this news. I'm all for calling out alleged police cover ups, but it seems like at this point of the investigation we really shouldn't jump to any conclusions. The victims of the bombings have been a variety of races, so it doesn't seem like someone can fairly equate this as a hate crime. Or at least a hate crime directed at a single race. The fact that two victims were cyclist doesn't make this a 'cycle related' crime.

Can we please just be patient, watchful, cautious and understanding? The city needs calm. Inciting fear and anger will not help.
posted by Dillionaire at 8:51 AM on March 20, 2018 [18 favorites]


There's a bit of speculation that the recent Netflix Unabomber series might be some inspiration for this horror. It was the first thing that I thought when reading the news also. No clue in that insight (if it be so) as to how targets are being chosen, of course.
posted by Chitownfats at 9:00 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I kind of hate myself for thinking of this, and I hope it’s not the case, but I have a bad feeling just from MO that it might be a radicalized veteran of the recent conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan. The tripwire is what is making me think that.

I hope whoever he is, he gets caught soon, though. No one deserves the terror of dealing with IEDs in their own hometown.
posted by corb at 9:03 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


The first two victims were both members of Wesley UMC. There's been some press that Herrera was injured by a bomb that was intended for someone connected to the first two victims, but I've not seen any details about why. The last two bombs have changed MO.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 9:15 AM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Fedex being the target makes little sense given that the first packages were not decorated to appear like Fedex packages, were not sent through any postal service, and were sent to targets unlikely (as we have seen) to get much media attention. Nor does the tripwire make any sense at all (assuming that all of the incidents are even related).

Speculation is not really helpful.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:16 AM on March 20, 2018 [9 favorites]


I'm reminded of the DC sniper attacks in 2002; there is a huge difference in the scale of media coverage.

Maybe the difference is race, and maybe it's the density of media people and policy makers in DC as opposed to Austin. And probably it's both.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:26 AM on March 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


I kind of wondered if the first two were a personal grudge, rather than an explicit racial attack, because the two families were connected and prominent within the black community but not high profile in the way that I would think would make them an outside white supremacist's obvious target? But who knows. Scary and tragic.
posted by tavella at 9:30 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Regarding racial motivations, after the first few targeted racial minorities I was convinced this was racially motivated, then the tripwire bomb went off in a pretty white and wealthy area, which indicates to me that whoever is doing this is changing tactics and areas to maximize terrorism. this shit is weird. I live in Austin I don’t fucking know what to think.

I’m looking at how London handled the IRA bombings as my model for citizens opsec.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:40 AM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


I don't believe that the tripwire bombing necessarily excludes the possibility of a radicalized right-wing attacker. Does that area have a reputation for voting blue? If not, the bomber could be betting on the confusion it causes to set up a bomb there. Or he could have a very specific grudge at an area resident.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:45 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


There is no apparent nexus to terrorism at this time. - PressSec

This only confirms what I’d been feeling about this and the utter lack of silence on the part of everyone to call it domestic terrorism. It could actually be anyone, but it feels that given past experiences with bombers, they’re assuming it’s a white man who’s doing it. This assumption ties their hands and prevents them from calling it terrorism of course, since there’s a good chance the perpetrator is Caucasian. Ipso facto, not a terrorist.

So they tiptoe around it, despite the fact that bombs are going off in what appears to be a fashion designed to instill only one emotion, that of fear. But hey, the person doing it might be white, so we need to slot this into the ‘serial murderer’ box for now. If we later discover his skin is brown, we can always call it terrorism then. Everyone knows, white people can’t be terrorists, right?

Ugh. As a fellow human lacking melanin it just makes my skin crawl.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 9:48 AM on March 20, 2018 [29 favorites]


President Donald Trump is blaming a “very sick individual or individuals” for a series of bombings in Austin, Texas.

Looks like he's presuming white perpetrators, since white people tend to be "sick puppies" while brown or black people are "savages" or "terrorists" or "thugs."
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2018 [15 favorites]


Why won’t the President say the words “Radical Right Domestic Terrorism?”
posted by valkane at 9:57 AM on March 20, 2018 [18 favorites]


I kind of wondered if the first two were a personal grudge, rather than an explicit racial attack, because the two families were connected and prominent within the black community but not high profile in the way that I would think would make them an outside white supremacist's obvious target?

I wondered that too. To address a bomb to someone you'd have to really specifically want to kill that person. Of course it could be racial and a personal grudge at the same time. Doing that then setting a tripwire that just catches whoever stops by seems like a strange thing for the same bomber to do. But you have to assume its the same person, especially as the police are and they have the bomb remains to compare.

So devastating to lose a teenage child to something like this though. My heart just goes out to that family
posted by fshgrl at 10:06 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


SXSW is drawing a lot of media attention. That could be a factor. Think the Olympic Park and subsequent bombings. Much has been made here locally that there were no delivery services involved in the first four bombings. The FedEx bomb may have been an attempt to essentially say, "Nope. You're not safe from that either". If the FedEx device matches the others in design, sophistication and materials, then this may be a single loon expanding their repertoire. Motivation will probably be unknown until (or if) there is some sort of communication from the bomber(s) or there is a telling mistake...
posted by jim in austin at 10:10 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


To be honest America does have a rich history of killing cyclists, though usually its by automobile
posted by localhuman at 10:10 AM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


Mod note: We're not having a discussion about cyclists here.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:16 AM on March 20, 2018 [25 favorites]


Sincere question: why does it matter what race Trump or Sanders think the perpetrator is?
posted by mosst at 10:20 AM on March 20, 2018


Why won’t the President say the words “Radical Right Domestic Terrorism?”

Because they're the demographic with which he is polling best.
posted by Mayor West at 10:21 AM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


I mean, obviously if it's racially motivated then race generally is salient, but, like, from an executive branch equipped with (likely) limited intelligence and a rich history of lying...what is the point of disseminating and analyzing whatever they say? I'm much more interested in the reaction of members of the local community.
posted by mosst at 10:22 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm at the point where I agree that nothing these windbags say means anything, so why even bother, but: Trump tends to broadcast the message that crimes committed by people of color are more urgent, more obscene, more devastating, more worthy of swift response. That message resonates with his base and is repeated and perpetuated, and serves to cement feelings of resentment and hatred towards stereotypical "terrorists." These attacks deserve every bit of the condemnation he typically reserves for perpetrators who happen to be of color.
posted by marshmallow peep at 10:26 AM on March 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


Sincere question: why does it matter what race Trump or Sanders think the perpetrator is?
posted by mosst at 1:20 PM on March 20 [+] [!]


I mean, obviously if it's racially motivated then race generally is salient, but, like, from an executive branch equipped with (likely) limited intelligence and a rich history of lying...what is the point of disseminating and analyzing whatever they say? I'm much more interested in the reaction of members of the local community.
posted by mosst at 1:22 PM on March 20 [+] [!]


I understand the fatigue of parsing everything Trump or the Trump administration says, since it's a never-ending torrent of bullshit, racism, fascism, thuggery, and idiocy. But, it is important that the president has refused in the past to vocally and unequivocally condemn racist white terrorism on communities of color or on opponents of white terrorism. I don't give two shits about what Donald Trump actually thinks, but it's arguable that most powerful person in the United States giving cover to white terrorists has encouraged more white terrorism. I know the state of America right now is testing everyone's concern bandwidth, but I think we can care about the people in the community and the response of the president at the same time.
posted by runcibleshaw at 10:35 AM on March 20, 2018 [10 favorites]


Sincere question: why does it matter what race Trump or Sanders think the perpetrator is?

When they think they're white and nonmuslim they use individualizing language, but when they think they're not white or are muslim they use language that, often deniably, implies or connotes that the criminality is a function of the group, not the individual. This matters because it reinforces bigotry against those groups.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:38 AM on March 20, 2018 [52 favorites]


It matters here on metafilter because pointing at their bigotry and saying "This is bigotry" feels good and is at least arguably good.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:39 AM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


De-prioritizing surveillance and prosecution of violent right-wing domestic terrorism seems to be an explicit policy goal of his administration and their distinction between "sick individuals" and "evil terrorists that must be stopped at all costs" is part of it.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:43 AM on March 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


then the tripwire bomb went off in a pretty white and wealthy area, which indicates to me that whoever is doing this is changing tactics and areas to maximize terrorism
Or to throw people off the scent. If the first two victims are connected, and if that's because the attacker had a motive connected to the first two victims, then they may have only belatedly realized that it would be a good idea to make the first fact seem like a coincidence.

Or to practice tactics. A lot of successful crimes are done by "copycat" criminals, but there have been surprisingly few serial-murderer-bombers in history, and if some monster is aspiring to change that then they'd have to figure out what to do from scratch.

Or, in what I think is the least likely but most frightening possibility, because the later bombings *are* a copycat criminal. "Two horrifying homicide scenes, police have no leads and are pleading with the perpetrator(s), and there's national media coverage" is the sort of event terrorists of all stripes would find interesting. The national media coverage may not be as much as the victims deserve, but can anyone here name last year's Austinite murder victims? I find 300 Google hits for "Ronda Beans", 0 on CNN; compare 100,000 and 27 for "Draylen Mason".

I think I've exceeded the number of "or" paragraphs allowed to someone who can pretend to have any idea what's going on.

I think that bombs have been historically unpopular as a murder weapon because they're harder to pull off. Consider Columbine, where the killers made literally a hundred bombs but most didn't work and even the rest didn't cause any fatalities and now people hardly remember that bombs were involved at all. Or look at the case that got me curious long ago: Mark Hofmann, who only managed to kill 2 people before nearly killing himself with his own bomb and putting the police on his trail.

But the last 15 years have given a lot of bad people a lot of experience with IEDs, and experience tends to spread, and if the publicly spread experience at some time became sufficient but the fact of that sufficiency now also becomes common knowledge then the next 15 years are going to be even uglier.

I'm honestly afraid that at this point the least-awful possible outcome would be for the police to end up just mopping up the remains of another murderer literally hoist by their own petard.
posted by roystgnr at 10:46 AM on March 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


their distinction between "sick individuals" and "evil terrorists that must be stopped at all costs" is part of it.

It parallels the opioid crises; ignore the pharmaceutical origins, kill the POC on the street corner.
posted by valkane at 10:46 AM on March 20, 2018 [9 favorites]


For anyone doubting this is a terrorism campaign, I just discovered that the first bomb went off about 4 miles from where I live. I'm officially terrified.
posted by scalefree at 10:49 AM on March 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Sincere question: why does it matter what race Trump or Sanders think the perpetrator is?
posted by mosst at 1:20 PM on March 20 [+] [!]


It matters because how people who commit crimes are characterized affects how people feel about them and groups they are believed to represent. Remember when he wanted to publish a list of all the crimes committed by immigrants? When you characterize some groups of people as criminals or violent and that gets accepted by large parts of the public it affects how members of those groups are treated. Hate crimes against Muslims, for example, are way up. Statements made by the head of the country and his spokesperson are going to be part of the conversation either way, so it's important to push back when they frame white people committing crimes as aberrations to be pitied and PoC/Muslims/immigrants as dangerous.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:52 AM on March 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


I'm an Austinite, too, and I think that if the APD is on record saying that they have not ruled out the possibility that this is racially-motivated, that we all should at least consider that these bombings could be racially-motivated. To me, the fact that two white men were injured because of a trip-wire (that anyone of any race could have tripped) makes those bombings different from the package bombs that were left at specific residences.
Ditto--especially as we don't know what the Austin address the Fedex explosive was sent to was. (Trying to grab a source for that at the moment, but that's what NPR said on my ride to work this morning--that it was sent from an Austin address to an Austin address.)

That being said, as far as I can tell, the neighborhood in which the tripwire was set is one that went straight from "unincorporated farmland" to "wealthy, largely white" neighborhood. (South Austin has, of course, been increasingly gentrifying for the past twenty or thirty years; East Austin, the location of the first two bombs, has begun to gentrify in the past five but is still largely occupied by Black and Latine folks.) Which does not rule out racial motivation and trying to cover that out on the part of the bomber or bombers, either, particularly when the first bombs had defined targets as specific people of color and the tripwire bombs did not.

Or to practice tactics. A lot of successful crimes are done by "copycat" criminals, but there have been surprisingly few serial-murderer-bombers in history, and if some monster is aspiring to change that then they'd have to figure out what to do from scratch.

The most troubling thing about these bombs is actually the fact that this bomber is escalating in skill level rapidly more quickly than someone who is learning on their own would be. A tripwire bomb is much harder to successfully create and set without triggering it accidentally than a package bomb, and a mailable bomb is much harder to create and set than a tripwire bomb. You have to worry and wonder where this bomber developed those skills, because this is not someone who hasn't ever made a bomb before. And they're certainly trying very hard to inflict lethal damage.
posted by sciatrix at 10:55 AM on March 20, 2018 [17 favorites]


For everyone in this thread who doesn't live in Austin please keep in mind that a lot of people in this thread do live in Austin and our adjacency to this is less abstract than yours. On that note, I'm noping the fuck out of this thread.
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:56 AM on March 20, 2018 [20 favorites]


For anyone doubting this is a terrorism campaign, I just discovered that the first bomb went off about 4 miles from where I live. I'm officially terrified.

Tell me about it. East Austin is my home--it's where I've lived since I moved here in 2012, give or take the year I spent up by Burnet. My neighborhood hasn't been targeted, but it's certainly a very similar one to the neighborhoods that have been in the earlier attacks. My spouse is now insisting that everyone in my household check for car bombs before touching the car, and while I think that's overblown, it's still scary.

Hell, the most blase person in town I know is my good buddy in the department, who says his considered opinion based on all the fieldwork he's done on the Indian/Tibetan border in the Himalayas is to ignore it, grit your teeth, and not let it change your behavior. Asking him for advice is not precisely reassuring.
posted by sciatrix at 10:58 AM on March 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


The bomb that went off in SA this morning was mailed from a FedEx store near my house. The elementary school my kids attend and where my wife works is very close to that FedEx location, and she says that shortly after the announcement was made, APD sent officers to the school as a precaution.

I'd given articles written last week that claimed the city was "gripped by fear" the side-eye, but now I have to agree. This is outright terrifying.

Yesterday was the first day of school after Spring Break, and my kids told me all of the children are talking about these explosions and the injuries and deaths. After the first report, we told our kids that they are not to pick up any packages on our doorstep or anyone else's. After talking with their classmates yesterday, our children are now afraid to even go near our front door when there's a package there. And I'm fine with that "abundance of caution."

At this point, I don't even care what the 45th President is or is not saying, I just want an end to this situation.

Stay aware and stay safe, fellow Austin MeFites.
posted by lord_wolf at 11:06 AM on March 20, 2018 [22 favorites]


Oh, yeah, I hear that the Austin Independent School District was actually refusing to send buses out to East Austin neighborhoods on Monday, saying it couldn't afford the security and any absences or missed school as a result would be counted as excused. (Which is horrifying to me, but would totally make it a popular topic of conversation among K12 kids.) My friend who lives down south, by the tripwire bombing, said that she was told that no one in her apartment building was allowed to go anywhere without a police escort until 10am on Monday morning.

I heard rumors from a coworker that the LBJ library on campus was evacuated and there was a fire truck down there this morning; haven't seen anything more substantial, though, and I haven't had any reason to go over there today myself. So. There's that.
posted by sciatrix at 11:12 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


The major players in the Atomwaffen Division were seen celebrating at a black metal show in Houston this weekend.
After the Pro Publica exposure, I would expect them to have hunkered down. But I guess sometimes it is good to be seen.
With active cells in SA and Austin, I would not be surprised to hear that they are connected to this shit. While blatantly racist, they also advocate for random violence against society in general.

There is a palpable fear in this town right now. People are talking about it everywhere. But life goes on.
My kid has received a lecture to avoid anything that looks abandoned of just *off*.
posted by Seamus at 12:24 PM on March 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


So friend said the bomb that went off last night was set at a school bus stop. That's why they canceled school bus pick up and wanted people indoors till they could check other bus stops. That's really horrifying to think about. I hope they catch this person or people today. I hope someone turns them in. Someone must know or suspect something.
posted by fshgrl at 1:30 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Oh, yeah, I hear that the Austin Independent School District was actually refusing to send buses out to East Austin neighborhoods on Monday, saying it couldn't afford the security and any absences or missed school as a result would be counted as excused.
The AISD announcement said they wouldn't have bus service to Travis Country (the small neighborhood where the tripwire bomb went off, not the whole county-without-an-r), not East Austin, and said the reason was "Due to police activity", not inability to pay for security.
KXAN's Alyssa Goard observed FBI agents at the Brodie Lane FedEx measuring doors with a tape measure and covering some entrances with butcher paper inside the location.

A robbery detective told KXAN that method is used to determine height.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I feel like the "don't be abstract" advice given upthread is counterproductive: when you're closer to a dangerous situation is when you most need to think dispassionately. Abstract thought typically works better than fearful or vengeful emotion. On the other hand, I have here a scary email from my (Austin) workplace, a scarier email from my kids' school, and some relieving evidence that investigators are handling that dispassionate-thought job just fine, and so trying to figure out exactly what could be going through a serial killer's head feels less important now that the answer probably includes "I mailed a bomb in front of security cameras? Shit shit shit shit shit shit..."
posted by roystgnr at 2:23 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'm a little confused about the logistics surrounding the packages that were found today. Investigators are saying the one that exploded at a FedEx Ground facility had been sent from Austin to Austin. But it exploded just outside San Antonio, about 130 miles roundtrip from Austin. So Austin, a metro area with over 2 million people and a lot of pretty big companies, doesn't have a sorting facility for ground shipping?
posted by theory at 3:20 PM on March 20, 2018


I wouldn't think that is surprising? FedEx is all about the centralizing.
posted by tavella at 3:32 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thank you for the excellent FPP. I'm near Austin and it's dumbfounding to me how little attention is being paid to this. Serial terrorism is happening in an American city and it feels like official response is just to kinda shrug and wait for the murderer to reveal himself or blow himself up.
posted by threeturtles at 4:16 PM on March 20, 2018


Good lord. Stay safe, everyone.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:22 PM on March 20, 2018




We need a word for "white people are affected now so it can be reported in the papers," something like "schadable cause."
posted by rhizome at 5:37 PM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm a little confused about the logistics surrounding the packages that were found today. ... So Austin, a metro area with over 2 million people and a lot of pretty big companies, doesn't have a sorting facility for ground shipping?

Austin is dwarfed in size by San Antonio and is a lot less of a major metro area than you would assume. It's a little silly to send something from Austin to San Antonio and back, but it in no way surprises me that the first stop for Austin Fedex Ground packages is San Antonio, even if that means they send some straight back.
posted by hoyland at 5:54 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Explosion reported at Goodwill in SW Austin

In that link - Authorities have told KVUE and Austin American-Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski there may be a second device at a location in south Austin -- making it the eighth device investigated by law enforcement, according to Plohetski.
posted by waitingtoderail at 6:09 PM on March 20, 2018


...aaaaand the explosion at the Goodwill on Brodie is determined to be an "incendiary device," not a package bomb. Not thought to be related. A fucking copycat.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:10 PM on March 20, 2018


BTW, the Texas Tribune has a curated list of reporters on Twitter who are covering the bombings. It's a useful way to filter out the dreck.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:11 PM on March 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


This reminds me of the Beltway Sniper as far as the sort of general panic level and intensity in the media coverage.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 6:16 PM on March 20, 2018


My wife and hound dog were on their way home from PetSmart and had just driven past the Goodwill 2 miles north of our house literally minutes before the "incendiary device", or whatever it was, went off. They came home and picked up our other dog and me so we could turn around and all go to Home Depot together, and the police were just starting to block off Brodie to traffic, so we were detoured. The ambulance passed us to go get whoever was injured, and we saw a couple of dozen APD and state trooper cars and trucks headed to the scene, and a police chopper circled overhead.

This is nuts. I wonder what this guy's motivation is, assuming this is related to the other bombs. Maybe it's racism, or maybe it's something else, but I think a dearth of hard evidence makes an assumption of racism as the motivation premature. Right after OKC Muslims were getting all the blame, but the reality turned out to be quite different once the facts were in.
posted by Daddy-O at 7:00 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]




Texas serial bombing suspect dies after detonating explosive inside car.

Austin Police chief Brian Manley confirmed the death of the 24-year-old man, who has not been named, after officers tracked him down to a hotel in Round Rock, near Austin. The suspect set off the explosive device inside his vehicle as a SWAT team approached.

The suspect was identified in the last 24 hours after shipping an explosive device from a FedEx store in the Texas capital, the Austin Statesman said. Authorities found store receipts showing suspicious transactions and obtained a search warrant for his Google search history which also showed suspicious behaviour, an official told the newspaper. Police then used mobile phone technology to trace the suspect to a hotel in Williamson County and a chase ensued, according to reports.
posted by rory at 3:19 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Maybe it's racism, or maybe it's something else, but I think a dearth of hard evidence makes an assumption of racism as the motivation premature. Right after OKC Muslims were getting all the blame, but the reality turned out to be quite different once the facts were in.

I'm not totally comfortable with this parallel: Muslim who don't do terror attacks are just folks. Racists who don't bomb minorities are still fucking racists.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:59 AM on March 21, 2018 [23 favorites]


On the one hand, I feel like the "don't be abstract" advice given upthread is counterproductive:

I need clarify something. When I say “abstract” I am talking about idle speculation, people pondering what-if’s that aren’t important, derailing into comparisons that are not really germane or useful, etc.

I think what you’re talking about is compartmentalization, which is a really damn useful tool for getting into tactical survival mode. Which is something I agree with and support.

(For instance when I was a pre-teen I was way way into military stuff and read army training manuals like a 6 year old reads Dr. Seuss. For the past few days I have been recalling information I read from the urban warfare training manual and field survival guides. Did it help? I don’t know but it did help me feel like I was better prepared.)
posted by Annika Cicada at 4:18 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


For those of you wondering why thid hasn't been getting more media attention: FWIW, Fox News has been breathlessly covering the bombings for three days straight.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:01 AM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


24 year old white male - but I am sure he was not a terrorist (going to throw up now in anticipation of what's coming).
posted by Ber at 6:54 AM on March 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


Ted Cruz has already used the word "terrorist", which is surprising.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:16 AM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


Local paper the Statesman has best info so far.

Mark Conditt was either 23 or 24, Pflugerville (nearby suburb) resident, homeschooled, very little social media posting (under his name at least).

They are still worried there might be bombs out there waiting and urge residents to be cautious.
posted by emjaybee at 7:44 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


it was an artillery simulator about 6 inches long that was found by an employee while going through donated materials, and that they don't have reason to believe that this incident is related to the previous bombs.
Not only unrelated, but possibly (hopefully!) unintentional:
It’s not clear whether the donation of the simulator was malicious, but Reyes noted that it is common for military-style mementos to find their way to donation sites if family members find them and don’t know what they are.

“We have no reason to believe this is an attempt at a copycat,” Reyes said.
The best summary (despite the click-baitiest title) I can find of the whole mess is at heavy.com, but they buried the lede:
Police Urged the Public to Remain Vigilant, Saying They Do Not Know ‘Where the Suspect Has Spent His Last 24 Hours’ & There Could Be More Bombs Already Set
And they were quick to quote that "police are not yet ruling out that others were involved in the bombings".

Be careful out there still. It turns out the killer traveled a good 15 miles to post and to plant some of those bombs from South Austin, so who knows where else he went.

He lived about 3 minutes walk from a Pfluger Park entrance, or 4 minutes to the stretch of creek there where kids love to wade, 5 minutes to the big playground...

Still no solid motive deeper than "death and mayhem", no answer to what could have been going through his head (except for one satisfying answer, "his own fucking shrapnel").


On preview: the Statesman link from emjaybee is more up to date, and has more good news:
Police said Wednesday morning that they believe one person created all of the explosive devices used in the recent bombings himself.
posted by roystgnr at 7:53 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Good riddance to the bomber, if this was him.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:01 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I am no longer terrified. So there's that.
posted by scalefree at 8:37 AM on March 21, 2018 [9 favorites]


traveled a good 15 miles

15 miles in Texas is nothing. That’s like a trip to the grocery store.
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:54 AM on March 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


The Statesman has updated its article with info about his political views:
In 2012, when he was 17 years old, Austin bombing suspect Mark A. Conditt laid out his political views in a series of blog posts he wrote for an Austin Community College course on U.S. government.

In the posts, Conditt takes conservative stances on a variety of issues. He wrote that he was against gay marriage and abortion and in favor of the death penalty.
posted by Mister Cheese at 9:31 AM on March 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


To everyone complaining about the lack of media coverage: WTF? It has been EVERYWHERE for several days -- all major news outlets, virtually all local affiliates, etc.
posted by davidmsc at 9:35 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Radicalized by the Daily Mail and Fox News rather than Atomwaffen, it seems. Though if he was home schooled by fundie parents I’d take a hard look there too.
posted by Artw at 9:35 AM on March 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


To everyone complaining about the lack of media coverage: WTF? It has been EVERYWHERE for several days -- all major news outlets, virtually all local affiliates, etc.

Yes, but that only happened after two white people were injured by the 4th bomb -- the first three that killed and injured black and hispanic people got minimal national coverage.
posted by tavella at 9:41 AM on March 21, 2018 [13 favorites]


The Statesman has updated its article with info about his political views: In 2012, when he was 17 years old

I don't think this says much yet, honestly. I was 17 in an AP Gov class once and I remember arguing for voter ID tests which my libertarian leaning, Ron Paul / Dennis Kucinich loving teacher gave me one of only two A's in class for (the other being my friend's essay which argued very strongly against it). and my parents were conservative and openly racist towards other people of color and liked to espouse the same (luckily I happened to hate them; that's one silver lining to years of abuse)

5 years is plenty of time for a sea change, for better or worse (worse in this case, but who knows to what). I remember going from someone who thought politics was how the West Wing made it out to be and then suddenly getting very jaded after reading about human rights abuses on the ground in Pakistan and Yemen. college hearthrob Obama authorizing drone strikes and repeated viewings of The Wire radicalized me towards the left and into community organizing and anti-racism; there's no telling what event(s) might have pushed this guy in a very different direction
posted by runt at 9:48 AM on March 21, 2018 [7 favorites]


From What we know about Austin bombing suspect Mark Conditt:
Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, allegedly detonated a bomb in his vehicle as SWAT officers closed in, approaching the car in a ditch off Interstate 35 near Old Settlers Boulevard. One of the officers was thrown back and had minor injuries, while another one fired at Conditt.
Saw in my Twitter feed that I35 was shut down in both directions at Old Settlers for a while overnight. My first suspicion was the bomber; looks like I guessed right.
posted by scalefree at 9:51 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I am so, so curious about this guy and what the treasure trove of information found in his house referred to in one of the above articles is. Views like "against gay marriage and abortion and in favor of the death penalty" are pretty much par for the course for many men (hell, people) in Texas. Granted, those posts were made 6 years ago and the political climate has gotten much more intense since then, but that still doesn't seem to be indicative of a budding serial murderer. Initial reports don't have much to say about him except that he was a sheltered, home-schooled guy who kept a low profile... I think examining how he got from there to planting fucking bombs across the city will tell us some damning things about society.
posted by marshmallow peep at 9:51 AM on March 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


Being against sex offender registration seems like an outlier there and possibly significant.
posted by Artw at 9:52 AM on March 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


15 miles in Texas is nothing. That’s like a trip to the grocery store.
15 miles in west Texas ranchland is a trip to the grocery store.

15 miles from Pflugerville is a circle with 900,000 people inside it.
posted by roystgnr at 10:29 AM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


There are definitely legitimate reasons to oppose sex offender registries (which could provoke a derail, so maybe let's leave it at that?), so I wouldn't read too much into that specific point.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:31 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I don't think this says much yet, honestly.

I actually agree with this myself. I was born and raised in Central Texas; those those views are part of the air you breath growing up. Thank MetaFilter and California for preventing me from defaulting to similar thinking. I'd expect politically motivated bombings to be more targeted and publicized as such. I hope bombing is behavior unique to Conditt.
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:36 AM on March 21, 2018


Combine that religious home schooling and you get “evangelical cult” though. Again, probably fair to point out that’s probably a lot of Texas.
posted by Artw at 10:48 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was kind of -- I don't know if hoping is the right word, but it's close -- that the perpetrator would turn out to be some disgruntled man in his late 50s, with extensive military training or knowledge of chemistry and electronics.

The fact that it's a young man with no apparent training in making these kinds of devices leaves me deeply worried, thinking about how much more frightening a group like, say, the Charlottesville Nazis would have been if they'd had someone like Conditt in their ranks.

I hope the authorities can figure out how he was able to achieve what they had previously described as a surprising level of sophistication with his bombs and what other individuals or groups he may have been in contact with.

Also hope he was stopped before he could plant or ship any more bombs.
posted by lord_wolf at 10:52 AM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


It's not that there isn't enough bomb-making information out on the internet or books to design mail bombs, it's that people tend to make enough mistakes (or fail to identify bad information) on the learning curve to either discourage themselves (possibly fatally) or reveal themselves. Or make initial bombs less effective. Going from 0 to lethal on first try is unusual for an amateur. You have to wonder if he got training from *somewhere*. Not necessarily someone meaning any harm, building shit to blow up for fun is a thing.
posted by tavella at 11:13 AM on March 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


Would depend on the explosive used, I expect. If it was the peroxide based stuff then the chances of it going wrong would be much higher but a lot more people would have been killed. As for the mechanical aspects it doesn’t seem like it would have to be a very complicated machine.
posted by Artw at 11:27 AM on March 21, 2018


Mod note: Couple comments deleted. Cool it please. Analogies are always a little risky, they don't hold in every respect, and it can lead to needless acrimony. I get that people are tense, let's give each other some space here and assume we're all more or less trying to get it right.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:31 AM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Hmm... turns out “evangelical cult” AND “has some training” might both be on the money:

Schultz said they were both involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids that included monthly activities such as archery, gun skills, and water balloon fights. Conditt and his younger sister would usually attend the activities along with 15 to 20 other kids, according to Schultz.

“A lot of us were very into science; we would discuss chemicals and how to mix them and which ones were dangerous,” said Schultz, who is now a house painter. “We were into weapons and stuff. A lot of us did role-playing, and RPG [role-playing games]; we’d have foam weapons and act out a battle.”

Schultz described Conditt as a "pretty normal kid." She said that a lot of children who were part of RIOT carried knives and learned how to shoot guns at gun ranges, but she didn't recall bombs or bomb-making being a specific topic of discussion at RIOT.

RIOT events also included 30 minutes to an hour of Bible study, Schultz said.

She said she attended Bible study at Conditt’s parents' home, where they would study a Bible passage and talk about how it applied to their daily lives. She described the family as “more conservative, strictly religious.”

posted by Artw at 12:13 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


I am so, so curious about this guy

I've volunteer coached quite a bit of kids sports and you always get home schooled kids who need to meet their PE requirements. This kid sounds so so so like a lot of the boys from religious families (I mostly coached girls but met quite a few kids or was told about them). They are raised like little crown princes, told they are "deep thinkers" and allowed to lord it over their sisters and often mothers. Some of them really buy into this. Then they're tossed out in the real world without even a GED and end up with some crap job and get really weird and resentful. A lot of crimes within the family go unreported if gossip is to be believed.

Most home schooled kids are completely normal people and savvy enough to try really hard to get some formal education. But the parents are often completely delusional about their "teaching" skills and how troubled their kids are. Especially the mothers.

Btw- I bet that RIOT thing is nothing but a religious version of the boy/ girl scouts. There are tons of those alternative things for kids now. It's bad in that their are totally isolating their kids but I bet it's otherwise benign. If this guy had help, it wasn't from a kids camp.
posted by fshgrl at 12:19 PM on March 21, 2018 [15 favorites]


This is the future DeVos wants for our kids.
posted by Artw at 12:23 PM on March 21, 2018 [14 favorites]


RIOT sounds a lot like Awanas, which was basically Boy Scouts but with more Jesus (Baptist-flavour) and less outdoorsmanship. Don't the Boy Scouts have marksmanship badges still?

So far, I'm still not seeing a smoking gun as far as a source of radicalisation (Awanas was a creepy environment, but there was no implied call to action like you get with anti-abortion crusaders) or, crucially, a source for his bomb-making skills. Like tavella said, with a home-grown serial bomber you'd normally expect some duds or self-injury before a successful attack. Smells to me like there's another link here that just hasn't turned up yet.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:23 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yep, you don't need a full on organized movement to radicalize your children. One cock-eyed parent can do that all on their own. A small group of cock-eyed parents and you have your own little fucked-up, hyper-local subculture of crazy.

If you're involved in anything with kids, anything, you have to work to keep the anti-vaccers and the Jesus pushers and whatever else out. The kids are usually very grateful.
posted by fshgrl at 12:32 PM on March 21, 2018 [9 favorites]


RIOT sounds like one of those things that could be anywhere from totally innocent to radical hotbed. If they were doing target shooting for fun or hunting practice and carrying around pocketknives, perfectly innocent. If the practice was accompanied by lectures about how you have to be ready to kill the unrighteous when the tribulations start and they were carrying around K-bars, well...

Either way I would not be surprised if some of those discussions of explosives led to a subset of them going further in private.
posted by tavella at 12:32 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


Strong suspicion this is a cult kid who became isolated and decided to execute on their apocalypse programming solo.
posted by Artw at 12:35 PM on March 21, 2018


Aaron Katersky: The shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland "was not a random act of violence," investigators said. Austin Rollins appears to have targeted a female victim with whom he had a prior relationship that recently ended. She remains critical

posted by PenDevil at 12:50 PM on March 21, 2018 [5 favorites]


RIOT sounds like youth group for right-wing Evangelicals more than it does a militia.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


So two things struck me:

Lack of social media posts--at least, under his real name. I would expect there to be some kind of online connection for such an isolated guy, providing him with encouragement, info and radicalization.

His parents were Amway sellers. Amway seems to fall somewhere between pyramid scheme and cult for a lot of people.

Not any real smoking guns here...lots of people sell Amway, lots of people send their kids to weird Christian daycamps, most don't result in mass bombings.

I wonder if the other common red flag, domestic violence or assault charges, will pop up for this guy?
posted by emjaybee at 1:42 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


15 miles in west Texas ranchland is a trip to the grocery store.
No, 15 miles in west Texas ranchland is your neighbor.

15 miles from Pflugerville is a circle with 900,000 people inside it.
Yeah I know. I lived in Austin for a few years. 15 miles is not an unusual distance. People will absolutely travel 20-30 miles to do something they want. Lots of people travel farther than that for work every day.

(I see from your comments that you do live in Austin so it’s weird to me that you think 15 miles is far, but to each their own I guess)
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:04 PM on March 21, 2018


his one year at community college, his online blog for class, and his involvement with that Christian conservative (well, more than normal) Boy Scout makes it at least seem like he has some grip on what the world outside of his own family is like

the part about him being 'quiet and reserved' even at his place of work and with the abovementioned kid's club seems to hint at a strong influence beyond these relatively Texas-normal things

at the very least, he will have learned dogma and extremism from his parents and he will have been able to test that identity in spaces where anything but violent extremism is normalized. he may have seen his club friends and the people at his school as delusional and 'liberal snowflakes' or whatever but I'm not sure if that's something you can learn from the things we currently know about him, especially not from Amway, fake smiley, pro-social-but-only-for-the-money parents, and ones that allowed him to go to community college and were proud of him for it. there must be some exposure to a radicalized fringe element like, say, one of the nastier internet forums or a really horrible uncle or something
posted by runt at 2:08 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


People will absolutely travel 20-30 miles to do something they want. Lots of people travel farther than that for work every day.

People do that everywhere in the US. Austin is not unusual in that people will drive 15 miles for something. Is there like a zoo, sports stadium, or major concert venue every 15 miles across the entire US? It is also not a distance that anyone in Austin proper would have to drive to go to a grocery store.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:40 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


The most exhausting part of following this ordeal from over here has been watching friends of mine go through every possible mental contortion to offer any other explanation but racism. Even progressive friends who didn't hesitate to call it terrorism. Whatever the explanation, racism is certainly one of the more plausible ones, but more than a couple people I thought I knew better really went out of their way to avoid even considering that possibility. America has a really long way to go.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:51 PM on March 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


at the very least, he will have learned dogma and extremism from his parents and he will have been able to test that identity in spaces where anything but violent extremism is normalized.

For example:

Cassia Schultz, 21, told BuzzFeed News that she ran in the same conservative survivalist circles in high school as Conditt. Schultz said they were both involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids...

“A lot of us were very into science; we would discuss chemicals and how to mix them and which ones were dangerous,” said Schultz, who is now a house painter. “We were into weapons and stuff. A lot of us did role-playing, and RPG [role-playing games]; we’d have foam weapons and act out a battle.”

Schultz described Conditt as a "pretty normal kid." She said that a lot of children who were part of RIOT carried knives and learned how to shoot guns at gun ranges, but she didn't recall bombs or bomb-making being a specific topic of discussion at RIOT.

posted by msalt at 3:36 PM on March 21, 2018


(I see from your comments that you do live in Austin so it’s weird to me that you think 15 miles is far, but to each their own I guess)

Pretty sure the issue is less "15 miles is far" than that 15 miles means a huge number of people and places at risk. If "15 miles from Pflugerville is a circle with 900,000 people inside it", that's a lot of people who may be in danger from possible undiscovered explosive devices.
posted by Lexica at 3:49 PM on March 21, 2018


> For example....

Honestly, that background really isn't frightening. This describes me and a ton of my friends when I was young, of all political walks - maybe not so many learned to shoot, but certainly some of them did. I don't even think RIOT is all that scary - It's just a goofy "edgy" name for a youth group. Those were a dime a dozen. It was extraordinarily common to be in those groups just for a social outlet... I was an Athiest at a few christian youth groups, and it wasn't uncommon to have friends there who were Jewish or catholic or whatever. It didn't matter. The "bible study" was more of a cover and technicality, a lot of us skipped out on that. Eliminate bible study, and you've described the boy scouts - as problematic of an organization as they can be, individual troops could be very different from each other, and there were certainly more "progressive" troops, believe it or not.

Literally everything you mention is extraordinarily normal where I'm from - this is KY youth in a nutshell. Blowing up two liter bottles with household chemicals was practically a rite of passage, and pretty much all of us had pocketknives. It's not like we walked around with daggers or bowie knives. And I hope you aren't considering RPGs/LARPing part of the "scary background" because that's awfully reminiscent of the old satanic panic.

The one thing that raises an eyebrow - and only slightly - is "conservative survivalist."

The one kid I knew who ran in our circle of carrying knives and conducting household chemistry experiments who actually ended up being radicalized had other signs, like overt racism and mysogyny, open disdain for anyone who wasn't born successful, cruelty towards animals, and love of Ayn Rand novels. He ended up moving to the middle of nowhere, bunkering up, and became a Trumpist MRA "anarcho-libertarian." The rest of us just became architects, engineers, general contractors, real estate agents and doctors, and are all very very left wing.
posted by MysticMCJ at 3:57 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


not everyone who suffers from depression has a backstory that would make you think they're depressed,

I mean, that's because there's evidence that depression is both genetic and environmental. I guess if your argument is that there is some inborn desire for this serial killer to construct elaborate package bombs in an act of explicit terrorism (vs a relatively easy-to-commit gun-related mass murder that our government freely allows) then that would be the first I've heard of anti-social personality disorders being linked to genetics
posted by runt at 4:02 PM on March 21, 2018


Honestly, that background really isn't frightening.

Well, I think it can be interpreted benignly or not, but it certainly has the potential to have been bad-- and obviously it worked out that way.

I grew up in Oregon, where guns and blowing shit up were definitely around but less common and associated with hard right people, like John Birchers. Of the two guys I knew most like that, I lost track with one, and the other -- an open racist who chased kids around the playground swinging a baseball bat but was too weak to be feared -- was involved years later in a terrorist plot to poison the local water supply.

Meanwhile, R.I.O.T. is apparently well funded and backed some kind of propaganda movie with this 1974-Stevie-Wonder/Bowie-esque funk track?
posted by msalt at 4:06 PM on March 21, 2018




Meanwhile, R.I.O.T. is apparently well funded and backed some kind of propaganda movie with this 1974-Stevie-Wonder/Bowie-esque funk track?

Is that actually related? When I was googling earlier about this, I was under the impression that this was just the name of a song by Christian singer named Carman (which seems to have saturated the top Google searches for the phrase "Righteous Invasion of Truth"). I mean, there also appears to be a Guyanese organization and a televised program from a Nigerian ministry going under the same name. I just figured "Righteous Invasion of Truth" was a (not super popular) Christian evangelical(-ish) slogan.
posted by mhum at 4:16 PM on March 21, 2018


And I hope you aren't considering RPGs/LARPing part of the "scary background" because that's awfully reminiscent of the old satanic panic.

Again, it may or may not be. For example, alt-right groups used LARPing/reenactment battles -- specifically a Dagorhir group -- to train for street fighting, specifically at Charlottesville. The "shields" in fact were considered the leading phalanx of the League of the South / Daily Stormer "reading group" fighters who led the charge there.

Again, I think a lot of this is part of the license given to white kids. "Blowing shit up" and training for battle is fine for them, but a black or brown kid doing the same would be called a terrorist. It's like the Black Panthers and guns, all over again.
posted by msalt at 4:17 PM on March 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


I was under the impression that this was just the name of a song by Christian singer named Carman

Good heavens, that's why RIOT sounded familiar to me. He was pretty popular through my Evangelical childhood. Though the Boy Scouts alternative I was a member of was the Royal Rangers.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:22 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Honestly I have no idea if there's a connection with this group, you might be right about the slogan. But there was a 1996 movie starring Carman as a cop who flees the big city to a small town because of gangs full of minorities in the city.

It does contain this remarkable music video (rap, of course).
posted by msalt at 4:31 PM on March 21, 2018


I want to make it clear that I'm not excusing the behavior here, saying "he was a good kid," or "he was normal," or anything along those lines.

All I'm saying is that bible study groups, blowing things up, and carrying a pocket knife is quite a bit more common and widespread in certain areas of the country - especially the South - and that's not necessarily indicative of the person someone will become.

I'm not trying to play along with "oh he was such a good kid i never saw it coming" and make excuses for him - What he did was clearly a racist act. I think it's important to not conflate the racism and hate in this kid with a lot of what I mentioned re: knives, bible study, etc.... maybe it's too close to my own heart, because a lot of us were judged harshly and held in suspicion for things like playing RPGs and carrying a knife, while there were plenty of "good upstanding" kids who could be overly abusive and racist and have a blind eye turned to it.

I didn't look into RIOT any, and I'm not trying to make excuses for them either - I didn't read it as RIOT being the ones who were teaching the kids to shoot, but I'm re-reading and yeah, if that is the case, then that's more problematic. They may be (and likely are) a group that is largely part of the problem. But I just wanted to mention just how normal some of these "bible study" groups are, especially ones that have edgy names, and that they in of them selves shouldn't be cause for concern without knowing more of the context behind them. The groups I was in were by no means white supremacist organizations and were quite diverse, but I was certainly in a more blue area of KY.

I will agree that "this is part of the license given to white kids" - there was definitely privilege at work there that I couldn't perceive at the time. But I really think the context of a lot of this is important.... kids carrying an old timer pocketknife, blowing up two liter bottles, playing D+D, occasionally ambusing each other with water guns and hanging out in one of the few sanctioned "late night" venues for an under 18 year old that happens to be religiously associated is a very different thing from kids open-carrying "tactical" fixed-blade knives, making shrapnel/pipe bombs, trying to drill paramilitary tactics with NERF, and preaching right-wing fundamentalism at each other. I have a feeling that this guy was more in the latter category -and the context of these groups is what I would pay more attention to rather than the general categories of "carried knives", "played RPGs", and "bible study"
posted by MysticMCJ at 4:41 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


there must be some exposure to a radicalized fringe element like, say, one of the nastier internet forums or a really horrible uncle or something

For the explosives knowledge, if not his motivation for the attacks. I'm guessing this guy was smart enough to use anon VPNs and shit to cover his real activity online. Because there's a hell of a lot of space between "talked about dangerous chemicals with my buddies as a teen" and a successful serial bomber (again -- no duds and no accidents).
posted by tobascodagama at 5:25 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm not totally comfortable with this parallel: Muslim who don't do terror attacks are just folks. Racists who don't bomb minorities are still fucking racists.

Please read my comment more carefully. Here is the parallel I actually made.

I never made an analogy between falsely-accused racists and falsely-accused Muslims, I made an analogy between 2 different situations where assumptions were made prematurely without sufficient facts to back them up. I never said "don't rush to judgment, because it's like rushing to judgment against Muslims". I said don't rush to judgment before the facts are in, and gave an example of a previous case where people rushed to judgment before the facts were in. Another example of people rushing to judgment prematurely is when Richard Jewell was assumed by many to be the 1992 Atlanta Olympic bomber when the facts later implicated Eric Rudolph, but giving the example isn't making an analogy between the two men.
posted by Daddy-O at 8:56 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Damon Young: Why Are White Men So Angry?
And yet these men are our domestic terrorists. They are our militia founders and leaders. Our most prominent anarchists. Our most likely nihilists. Our angriest police officers, our angriest welders, our angriest plumbers, our angriest teachers, our angriest accountants, our angriest engineers, our angriest pastors, our angriest firefighters, our angriest college professors, our angriest presidents.

And I guess this question is asked so frequently because their anger is so perplexing. Sure, there are “answers.” There’s racial anxiety. There’s economic anxiety. There’s a sense of irrelevance. There’s an angst about their place in the world. There’s the feeling that a place that was once theirs no longer is. There’re women doing ... things. Each of these answers would be fine if not for the fact that people who are not white men are also dealing with many of these same issues.

posted by TwoStride at 5:16 AM on March 22, 2018 [6 favorites]


I feel like a lot of speculation about why white men are angry and commit acts of violence against people who are not white men can be resolved by reading some Ida B. Wells.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 5:58 AM on March 22, 2018 [6 favorites]


The Guardian: Austin bomb suspect left video 'confession' before he died
Brian Manley, the interim Austin police chief, said in a news conference that before Mark Conditt died after setting off an explosion in his car as officers closed in on him, he made a 25-minute video, found on his phone this morning, in which he describes the differences between the explosive devices in detail. “I would classify this as a confession,” Manley said. As to a motive, he added, “We are never going to able to put a [rationale] behind these acts.”

However, Manley said, “He does not at all mention anything about terrorism nor does he mention anything about hate. But instead it is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point.” Manley said police had no plans to release the video, which they believe was made between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday, a couple of hours before the suspect’s death. He indicated the video suggested Conditt planned to commit more crimes, but Manley declined to elaborate.
I can see not releasing the video because glorification, but I am wondering how the cops came to their empathetic conclusions about his motive.
posted by maudlin at 7:59 AM on March 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


Because he's white. It's impossible to not compare the tender sympathy accorded the bomber by police with the way they dismissed his murder of Anthony Stephan House as a suicide, on zero evidence.
posted by tavella at 9:44 AM on March 22, 2018 [22 favorites]


I can see not releasing the video because glorification, but I am wondering how the cops came to their empathetic conclusions about his motive

It’s... weird. And smells of a cover up. Probably because of some shared values between the police and the bomber - religious fundamentalist, white suppremacist or both.
posted by Artw at 10:50 AM on March 22, 2018 [12 favorites]


You can say hateful things without "mentioning hate." You can say racist things without mentioning race. You can commit terrorism without calling it that.

I don't trust these cops. They need to release the video.
posted by emjaybee at 1:25 PM on March 22, 2018 [20 favorites]


Each of these answers would be fine if not for the fact that people who are not white men are also dealing with many of these same issues.

Because people who are not white men don’t expect to get the prize every time.

There’s been a lot of social science research that says happiness and satisfaction are measured in the difference between your expectations and your reality. Women and POC expect life to be hard with some rewards: if they get that, they feel life is worth living and fighting for more rewards. White men expect life to be full of rewards: when it’s not, they think something is fundamentally wrong with the universe.
posted by corb at 1:32 PM on March 22, 2018 [11 favorites]


I could see reasons for not releasing the video itself to avoid making his face more famous, but there's no reason not to release a transcript. I find it unlikely that there was nothing whatsoever in the video that didn't suggest why he targeted those specific people or at least locations.
posted by tavella at 2:18 PM on March 22, 2018 [7 favorites]






...and now we return to our regularly scheduled gun violence, "4-year-old accidentally shoots 7-month-old in Temple, police say" (60 miles up the road from Austin)
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:26 PM on March 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


Meanwhile, an Austin TV station referred to one of the victims, Draylen Mason, as "this monkey" in its closed captioning.

But don't worry, the media has all the time in the world to wonder why disaffected white male terrorists have it so hard.
posted by TwoStride at 9:34 AM on March 23, 2018 [8 favorites]


Austin TV station apologizes for controversial closed caption during bombing

Controversial? What a useless word. Just call it what it is.

Austin TV station apologizes for racist AF closed caption during bombing
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:41 AM on March 23, 2018 [6 favorites]


I've seen a number of commentators both from and outside of Austin link to articles, written not just recently, but well before this as well, that discuss the racism in Austin and especially in their police force. It's been really eye-opening, and it certainly makes all the hand-waving about how we can't possibly know if it's racism (because, as the inestimable Charlie Pierce says, it's never about race) seem like it's missing the point. As it is in the entire rest of the country, white supremacy is baked so firmly into the firmament of a lot of communities that it really is inseparable from the conversation about this type of violence.

The way that the APD has been handling this, and how media outlets like the NYT have been hitting the "good Christian boy" angle hard, it's very unsettling. The continued references to his religiosity and how "Godly" he and his family underlines the way the conversation about domestic white terrorism, especially when rooted in Christianity, continues to demonize Muslims while absolving Christians. Take for instance this excerpt from the Independent:
The Austin bomber was involved in a teenage Christian “survivalist” group that discussed weapons and dangerous chemicals, according to a childhood friend. Mark Anthony Conditt reportedly took part in a conservative outdoors club called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), in which home-schooled young people studied the Bible and were taught gun skills.
I mean, they're still worshiping roughly the same Abrahamic deity, but there is zero chance that this exact same situation wouldn't be described as essentially an ISIS training camp if the perpetrator was Muslim. It's got all the elements: religious indoctrination, firearms training, bomb construction, and potential for chemical warfare. A Muslim RIOT would have been raided and shut down years ago regardless of whether the attendees were quiet, peaceful, "Godly" folk. Sure, for some this whitewashing may not be deliberate, but given what I'm reading about the community and local law enforcement, it seems clear that a lot of it really isn't.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:55 AM on March 23, 2018 [19 favorites]


I mean, they're still worshiping roughly the same Abrahamic deity, but there is zero chance that this exact same situation wouldn't be described as essentially an ISIS training camp if the perpetrator was Muslim

I mean, look at how the Trumpist half of America lost their shit over the fact that Obama attended a madrassa (gasp!) when he lived in Indonesia as a child...
posted by TwoStride at 10:00 AM on March 23, 2018 [3 favorites]


I would love to get Austin police Chief Manley's opinion on how a young man who never mentioned terrorism or hate was nevertheless treated like a critical threat to the safety of the 100s of people simply because some racist idiots thought he had something that looked like a bomb: remember Ahmed Mohammed from Irving AKA Clock Kid?

I'd also love to sit with Manley and talk about all the times I've been "challenged" in Austin for DWB, WWB, and EWB by police officers and security guards without feeling the need to lash out.

It's amazing to me that when it was pointed out to some sports journalists that they had a tendency to describe white athletes as cerebral students of the game and black athletes as naturally gifted or freaks of nature, many managed to address their issues, but if you point out the differences in the way minority and white suspects are spoken of and treated by law enforcement and the press, you get either denials or crickets.
posted by lord_wolf at 1:50 PM on March 23, 2018 [14 favorites]


LOL: The New York Times (home of "Michael Brown Was No Angel") wants to know "Do We Cover White Christian Attackers Differently?" Have at it, y'all.
posted by TwoStride at 2:37 PM on March 23, 2018 [10 favorites]


It's amazing to me that when it was pointed out to some sports journalists that they had a tendency to describe white athletes as cerebral students of the game and black athletes as naturally gifted or freaks of nature, many managed to address their issues...

I write about the San Francisco 49ers now, which almost certainly has the most progressive fanbase of any NFL team, I have a progressive editor and I've probably driven off any racist twitter followers, so my experience is skewed. But there's a running joke in my circles about the cliches used for white skill players: "blue collar," "brings his lunch bucket," "gym rat," videotape junkie," "fearless" (of hard hits).

On the one hand that's encouraging, but on the other hand the whole point is that this kind of talk is still constant, clearly one-sided in a racist way, inaccurate, and on many national programs unremarked on.
posted by msalt at 5:04 PM on March 23, 2018 [5 favorites]






Sounds like the latest shooter used a handgun, no fatalities except herself. Wonder if we should classify these differently from higher casualty assault rifle shootings.
posted by Artw at 3:30 PM on April 3, 2018


I was just thinking about this, is there any way to FOIA request that cellphone video or something? It does not sit well with me that the police just decided to declare it was “personal reasons” and it’s not important for anyone else to know why.
posted by corb at 4:47 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]


Just normal boring workplace shooting stuff versus huge massacre workplace shooting stuff.
posted by Artw at 5:03 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


Assuming you are talking about the YouTube shooting, it's now being reported by the police as _not_ personal reasons, but (likely) a grudge against YouTube, and that she had no connections with those who were shot. (As usual, initial reports are often wrong).
posted by thefoxgod at 7:10 PM on April 4, 2018


No, I meant the Austin bombings, sorry for being unclear.
posted by corb at 8:39 PM on April 4, 2018


What We Lost in Austin Bombing Victim Draylen Mason (Mark Hall, Texas Monthly, 30 March)
posted by mixedmetaphors at 10:27 AM on April 14, 2018 [2 favorites]


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