“renewed white identity and common purpose”
By Gunmen have opened fire at mosques in Christchurch, with reports of up to 30 people killed. Four people are in custody – three men and one woman.
The Police Commissioner Mike Bush said “there have been some absolute acts of bravery” in the arrests of the four attackers.
A number of IEDs that were attached to vehicles in Christchurch have been defused by the Defence Force.
Bush said there were multiple casualties – a “significant” amount.
“This is absolutely tragic. So many people are affected.
“We don’t have the identities of those who have died yet because those places are in lockdown.”
He said he would not assume there aren’t other attackers.
The lock down of schools throughout Christchurch was lifted at 5.50pm.
When asked if it was true that a person had been arrested wearing wired explosives, Bush said that person had been made safe.
This development may not surprise you:
There are many ways in which Trump is terrible in the way any generic Republican president in 2019 would be terrible. But Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush would be rather less likely to inspire white supreamcist terror attacks. And of course it goes beyond Trump too:
This is why I think those who make some sort of outrage over, “Oh they’re banning Alex Jones/Zero Hedge/Richard Spencer from *insert social media outlet*..do you relly want Facebook deciding what is ‘appropriate’ speech’ are some of the dumbest fking ppl on the planet. https://t.co/Xm2DDNQKRI
— Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) March 15, 2019
Plenty of prominent and respectable people play with these themes and slogans and it is plainly just fun to them. The ruling party in this country leverages them because they think it works. All of it is as exactly as disgusting as it looks. There is no other layer.
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) March 15, 2019
UPDATE: At least 49 dead.
UPDATE: [PC]
A couple of statistics:
Gun homicides are extremely rare in New Zealand, with the last reported rate being approximately five per year (0.11 per 100,000).
The Muslim population of the country is very small, but has been growing rapidly, from less than one half of one percent of the population twenty years ago, to just over one percent at present.