Shooting at Sikh Temple
 

Police are calling the killing of 7 people at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin an act of domestic terrorism. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Sikh community.

What does that mean, @BarryRX? Domestic terrorism. I've been watching and reading about this all afternoon and missed the news conference with the police. Has the shooter been identified? Did they find a note?

I'm not sure yet. The newscasters said they held off labeling it as such until the investigating police used the term. Some more terrible news on Yahoo. An officer responding to the call for help stopped to help a victim in the parking lot and was ambushed by the shooter and shot. I am praying for this hero and his family.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families, and their community, also.

Let's see, killing of US soldier, while yelling, Allah Akbar, is work place violence, but shooting in a Sikh temple is domestic terrorism. This administration needs to get it act together.

It terrible, but we need to lose the PC and start putting bad guys in jail for long time and leave law abiding citizen alone. Use a firearm in the commission of a crime, life in prison, hurt someone, no matter how slight, death penalty.

The shooter had not been identified at the time of the press conference, nor was a note found. Since the incident has been labeled domestic terrorism, the FBI will be in charge of the investigation. Another news conference is scheduled at 10:00am tomorrow.

It's sad that people are not safe in their own churches, or at the movies, or at a meet and greet with their congresswoman.

:ohdear:

It looks like a hate crime against a specific group of people--probably because they look like Muslims to ignorant people. The Ft Hood shooter was mentally ill and a Muslim. I do not believe he singled out any one group but just shot other soldiers indiscriminately.

My heart goes out to the survivors of this terrible crime.

Thank you. My husband told me about the press conference scheduled for in the morning.

It seems a little strange that the police said domestic terrorism so quickly without even releasing a name or a motive. I suppose we will know more in the morning. Yes, it is beyond sad that there are evil people in this world. Peace.

So if an American Muslim is shooting "indiscriminately" at American soldiers while yelling Allahu Akbar, that's not a "hate crime" or an act of "domestic terrorism".

If someone yet unidentified is shooting Sikhs "specifically" for reasons unknown, that IS a hate crime and domestic terrorism.

I'm never going to be able to keep this straight.

He went crazy. It does not look like he was acting out of hatred towards the US. He went nuts at work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting So, the government (not Obama per se that I know of anyway) labelled this a work place shooting like when a postal employee shot up his work place probably not because he hated the US government. The postal employee went mad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill

The Sikh community in Milwaukee needs your prayers as does the police officer who is still in critical condition.

[

I guess you're entitled to you own biases.[/quote]


The Sikh people have never as far as I know did anything to harm anyone. They are Hindu and no part of their philosophy is like the Quran that wants to get rid of all infidels.. if that is what you are thinking. They are from India, they are Hindu. We had neighbors up north that were Sikh. Don't let the head covering get you confused with people who do suicide bombings. They are not the same. Not all Eastern religions are to be lumped together.

Their philosophy is one of ethics and kindness and responsibility, ...and in case you are wondering. I am a Republican and a Catholic.

Please discuss the event and leave out partisan political statements and comments directed at other members. We do not want to have to move this thread to the Political forum.

Thanks for your cooperation

FBI officials have backed down from calling this "domestic terrorism." From what I've read in the Milwaukee
newspaper:FBI: Motive in Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting unclear - JSOnline, apparently (a) tattoo(s) on the dead alleged shooter led someone to say it was "domestic terrorism." I personally think it is unprofessional, irresponsible and very dangerous to make statements like this so soon after a killing rampage without hard evidence to back it up.

I got the impression they labelled it "domestic terrorism" mainly to give the FBI jurisdiction over the investigation.

There must be something about the term domestic terrorism I don't understand. Why is it wrong to call it that? What tattoos? My immediate thought was when they said he had a shaved head was ...I wonder if he is a radical who thinks that these poor folks were the blower upper folks and he thinks he is a patriot.

It is wrong to kill groups of innocent people no matter what the motive is.

And the words domestic terrorism...feels right. But it must have a political connotation I don't understand. I am a Republican and a Catholic too. But hopefully not a radical anything. I don't much read all of those things that get people all het up.

The term was newly defined, Gracie, both legally in the US Patriot Act and in our hearts and minds after the terrorist attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001. The legal definition is here: The New Legal Definition Of 'Domestic Terrorism'.


My feeble understanding of the term is that it is used when there is "mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping used to intimidate or coerce a civilian population and to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."

If it is the case here, it would mean, IMHO, that it is a crime against the entire Sikh people, which would be about 27 million people worldwide and the nation of India. Serious stuff.

Oh.

Sikhs look like a very peaceful religion.
 

Top Ten Sikh Beliefs - The Tenets of Sikhism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh_beliefs

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/3705...ing-temple.htm

Shooting at Sikh Temple
 

Latest report on Shooter

The man authorities say killed six in a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple before police shot him was heavily-tattooed, 40-year-old ex-Army soldier Wade Michael Page. Page, who was reportedly a skinhead with a 9/11 tattoo, shot up a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee yesterday, killing six people in what police labeled an act of domestic terrorism.

Accused shooter Wade Michael Page. Page enlisted in April 1992 where he served as a sergeant, an Army public affairs officer said. Page conducted his initial training at Fort Still, Okla. The gunman was a Hawk missile system repair specialist and was later assigned to the psychological operations unit in 1994 at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was last stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, before his administrative discharge in October 1998. In the years since leaving the Army, Page reportedly became active in the white-power music scene.

As recently as 2010, he was the leader of the band "End Apathy." In an interview with the white supremacist website Label 56, Page said he enjoyed lyrics about social and religious issues.
"End Apathy began in 2005 and the concept was based on trying to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back," Page reportedly said in 2010.

Three people, including a cop, were wounded when bullets started flying at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. They including a man who heroically tried to tackle the killer. Officials said Page appeared to be a lone gunman behind the rampage, but cops did not rule out the possibility of an accomplice.