Unreasonable Doubt

In the hub published right before this one, I spoke about how I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and to look for the more innocent of explanations before coming to a conclusion as to what I believe happened. And I really tried with this story to find a way to make it come out so that the suspect did not appear to be so villainous. But I couldn't do it for several reasons.

First, he ran from police. Not once but twice. I know that being white (which I am) has it's privileges when it comes to being stopped by the police. And I know that some cops get power hungry and think they have the right to order you around just because someone else pissed in their Wheaties before they tried to stop you and they'll take it out on you. But I also believe that for the most part, cops are there to help us. And when you run from cops, it usually means you've done something you don't want them to find out about. And such is the case with this man. He was wearing a bullet proof vest, a long military style coat and carrying a high-powered rifle that was loaded with hollow-point bullets. (Hollow-point bullets, for those who don't know, are meant to cause the most damage to internal organs. Upon impact with the body, the bullet "collapses" backwards, causing the sides to sort of "mushroom" out, making a bigger hole through whatever body part it is then passing through. In other words, the sole purpose of a hollow point is to do as much physical harm as possible to the human body.)

Second, the man had a grenade launcher. One does not need a grenade launcher in New Jersey. I thought perhaps the man might be a collector. But collectors don't normally run around in long military style coats with high-powered rifles with several clips of hollow point ammunition under their coat.

Third, the man went AWOL from the Navy and went into hiding for eight years. I get that someone might not like being in the military after they sign up. But there are ways around that other than going AWOL.

Fourth, the registration numbers/serial numbers for the guns had been tampered with. Granted, he might not have been the one to tamper with them, but then that means he bought guns he know could not be properly registered. Again, someone who respects the law doesn't buy guns with tampered registration numbers.

So no matter how I slice it, this guy has some serious issues. I can't say that he's a terrorist— and the FBI doesn't think he is— even though the article makes it a point to say that they found a head-scarf that looked Middle Eastern (reinforcing the false belief that all terrorists come from the Middle East). I seriously doubt the man is a terrorist of the Al Qaeda variety, although he might be a terrorist of the Timothy McVeigh variety. I can't say one way or the other, of course.

However, the thing I found most disconcerting about this story was discovering that the FBI does not consider McVeigh a terrorist. Tell that to the families of the 168 victims of McVeigh's home-made bomb blast.