Tarkan wrote:Kurt wrote:Tarkan wrote:It was a shame they identified the suspect so soon ...I was hoping Seek was going to blame the attack on a right-wing racist plot.
I figured that is what it was at first. I should have known that a neo Nazi would have probably been a better shot.
There's the better proficiency with firearms angle, and the there is also the fact that there just aren't that many right-wing nutters that try to assassinate politicians. Shoot up a church full of black people, throw bacon at a Mosque, sure. But political assassination? Not unless the FBI is goading them.
The state with the most political assassinations is Arkansas followed by Kentucky. The most popular reason to try to kill a politician, historically, in the US is the perception or promise of a patronage job. Either someone is crazy and is deluded into thinking they were due for a job or else they were promised a job and didn't deliver.
Second most common is just crazy people. Sometimes the patronage expectation was combined with the crazy (Charles Guiteau killing President Garfield is an example of this) Mayor Cermak of Chicago was killed by a guy who was most likely driven made by gallbladder pain, and FDR may have been the target.
A weird one from Tennesse is Byron "Low Tax" Looper shot and killed his opponent, a Democrat named Tommy Burkes.
Looper changed his name legally to Low Tax and was a frequent losing candidate who switched parties based on his opponents. So I classify him as a Democrat / Republican and Crazy assassin, since he covers all bases.
Another odd one is the Murder of Robert Smith Vance in Texas by Walter Moody via mail bomb. Moody was angry that Judge Vance refused to expunge his past possession of explosives conviction.
The "Activist" assassinations seem to follow a similar pattern. Someone who is a businessman (failed) and "Community Activist" gets pissy when something does not go their way and kills the person responsible (or tries). This may be associated with a bit of crazy as well.
Another activist one was when Otheniel Askew murdered NYC City Coucil member James Davis ...which happened right accross the street where I used to work, I saw them both carried out and both were still alive (I was on the 21st Floor so my view may have been off). Davis was a retired cop so he was allowed to carry a firearm and City Council never made their own members or their guests pass through a metal detector and Askew was his guest. Askew shot Davis and a bodyguard or another Coucil member shot Askew. Askew wanted David to appoint him as his successor but Davis wanted his brother to succeed him so Askew shot him, right before Davis could stand up and give a speech introducing Askew and recognizing his work as a community activist.
Later Davis' brother ran for the seat as a Democrat but was beaten by Letiticia James who ran as a Third Party candidate and beat them. Now she is the AG of New York and is a a pain in the ass to Trump, Cuomo, and the NRA.