Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Stephen Tyrone Johns- MURDERED at the Holocaust Memorial Museum by a Domestic Terrorist



From MSNBC:

Guard dies after Holocaust museum shooting
Authorities say they're investigating a white supremacist as the suspect

Steve Ruark / AP

WASHINGTON - An 88-year-old gunman with a virulently anti-Semitic past fatally shot a security guard inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said.

The assailant was hospitalized in critical condition, leaving behind a sprawling investigation by federal and local law enforcement and expressions of shock from the Israeli government and a prominent Muslim organization.

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle. "The second he stepped into the building he began firing."

Law enforcement officials said James W. von Brunn, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting and that his car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. The weapon was a .22-caliber rifle, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation just beginning.

Museum officials identified the dead guard as Stephen T. Johns, a six-year veteran of the facility. In an e-mail, director Sara Bloomfield said he "died heroically in the line of duty."

Racist Web site
At the White House, just blocks away from the museum, President Barack Obama said, "This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world."

Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentiles," alleging a Jewish "conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool."

In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. At the time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation's economic difficulties.

Writings attributed to von Brunn on the Internet say the Holocaust was a hoax and decry a Jewish conspiracy to "destroy the white gene pool."

"At Auschwitz the 'Holocaust' myth became Reality, and Germany, cultural gem of the West, became a pariah among world nations," it says.

The museum, which opened in 1993 and has drawn nearly 30 million visitors, houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust of more than a half century ago in which more than six million Jews died at the hands of Nazis. Its Web site says the museum "teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide."

The museum was crowded with school children and other tourists at the time of the attack, but they all escaped injury in the outburst of violence.


Rest of article at link above.

RIP, Mr. Johns. Thank you for saving the lives that you did.

6 comments:

Laura Werner said...

My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Stephen Johns. Does anyone know if a memorial fund or aid fund for his family is being established?

Anonymous said...

ACTION TIME: From Blacks4Barack: Is the crazed killer James W. von Brunn the type of person whom the right-wing hate radio/media is directing their code-phrase messages of incitement and deadly hate ?

WE SAY YES !

We need volunteers who will monitor as often as you can the right-wing radio/media 'messengers of hate' (CONTACT US IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO). Please write down code phrase comment(s)...who said it...day/date...time. Send this information to Blacks4Barack. We will then compile this information and turn it over to proper authorities.

It is absolutely illegal to spew deadly innuendo via the media. A radio host and buddy of Hannity's named Hal Turner was just arrested for spewing deadly incitement.
Visit www.Blacks4Barack.blogspot.com for more details.

Anonymous said...

Why are Americans so evil? It took several armed guards to stop this killer in a public museum. Last week a Doctor was shot and killed in church. Every day we read of shootings in every large city. Only one Canadian is shot for every 10 Americans shot and Canadians are exposed to the same movies, TV, etc as Americans.

We are doing something terribly wrong.

Brian said...

Thanks Rikyrah,

I didn't want to tackle this one. I think i'm suffering from a sort of Right wing fatigue (especially all the terrorism). This could have easily been me.

It looks like the DHS report that the Republicans complained so strongly about has been proven correct (I knew it was on target all along).

With the election of Obama, I guess this is what we can expect every few weeks for the next 4 years. This is about as bad as I thought it would get.... but I didn't expect it to be this bad so soon.

A new kind of insurgency perhaps? An American insurgency? What we thought of in this Country as impossible and implausible now doesn't seem so unlikely anymore.

rikyrah said...

From DailyKos:

Fox News Ignores Murder At Holocaust Museum
by BarbinMD
Thu Jun 11, 2009 at 03:10:06 PM PDT
Let's take the high road here and assume that this just means that Fox News is too modest for shameless self-promotion:

1 minute, 50 seconds

That's the amount of time Fox News spent on the Holocaust Museum killing last night during prime-time, according to TV Newser.

Brian said...

Anon@7:45,

Current case law surrounding Freedom of Speech protects most of the hate language unfortunately. Congress and the FCC could probably make small changes that would make it a little easier to combat this...but not much can be done to really stop it.

There are several sites that try to track this stuff.... check my page (listed on the sidebar)....which I did several weeks ago. I just updated this page on Wednesday morning...and thought that I wouldn't have to update it again for a few months. Looks like I was wrong.

At the end of the page... I list several websites that also track the hate speech.

I'm at a loss for what exactly should be done right now... because the law is so tricky. Congress and the Obama Administration are too chicken to even bring back the Fairness Doctrine. If they are too chicken to deal with that... then they aren't likely to do anything about curbing Right wing/Republican hate speech.....especially the kind of language that fuels people like the Museum terrorist.