Whenever there is a movement for Black equality, white terrorism ramps up. #Birmingham1963 #CharlestonShooting http://t.co/vQSi6agpae
— Jesse Hagopian (@JessedHagopian) June 18, 2015
Seattle reacted Thursday to the news out of Charleston, SC, that a white man started shooting at a historic black church, killing nine Wednesday night. Charleston police called the shooting a hate crime.
Emanuel AME Church’s pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pickney, also a South Carolina state senator, died, along with eight others, according to police.
One of Pickney’s relatives told NBC News that a survivor told her the shooter sat with the bible study group for an hour and then started to shoot while making pejorative statements about black people.
Police conducted an overnight manhunt. Dylann Roof, 21, was arrested in North Carolina in connection with the Charleston shooting after someone he knew recognized him in surveillance footage from the church, police said. Roof’s Facebook photo shows him wearing a jacket with flags from apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia.
Seattle took to Twitter to react to the news:
The #CharlestonShooting was in a church,but I'm bracing myself for the people who will still find a way to say the victims "were no angels."
— Sonora Jha (@ProfSonoraJha) June 18, 2015
People jumping in to say "don't make this political" are conveniently ignoring that this has always been political. #CharlestonShooting
— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) June 18, 2015
Can white people please stop telling black folks how to react?! COME ON. We don't deserve their peace. #CharlestonShooting
— Meg Thompson (@NorthwestMegs) June 18, 2015
Historically, murdering people in a place of worship has been used as a war tactic.
And, once again, it is. #CharlestonShooting
— Litsa Dremousis (@LitsaDremousis) June 18, 2015
Police handled a suspected mass murderer more gently than an unarmed girl at a pool party. #CharlestonShooting pic.twitter.com/YWtDIR1zZx
— Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) June 18, 2015
Our thoughts and prayers go out to our brothers and sisters in Christ today affected by the #CharlestonShooting.
— Seattle Pacific Univ (@SeattlePacific) June 18, 2015
#CharlestonShooting is not a hate crime. This is terrorism (using violence to intimidate political opponents) and we must call it what it is
— Erik Magnuson (@erikmagnuson) June 18, 2015
