A little over a month ago, there was a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A Pennsylvania man stormed the Tree of Life Synagogue, a little before 10 in the morning, and opened fire, killing eleven people. He also injured six people, where four of them were police officers who responded to the scene, and thankfully, no children were killed. The shooter, Robert Bowers, who is forty-six, surrendered to authorities after the shooting. Robert Bowers made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting and targeted many Jews on social media. Robert Bowers was charged with eleven counts of using a firearm to commit murder and multiple counts of two different hate crimes. The hate crimes he was charged are obstruction of the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and obstruction of the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in bodily injury to a public service officer. If Robert Bowers is convicted of a hate crime, he could face the death penalty. This attack on the Jewish community is believed to be the deadliest in US History according to the Anti-Defamation League. Both Scott Brady, the US Attorney, and Bob Jones, the FBI Special Agent who is in charge of the official Pittsburgh office stated that, “The crimes of violence are based upon the federal civil rights laws prohibiting hate crimes.” This shooting shocked the historic Jewish community of Squirrel Hill and the rest of the nation. Scott Brady also stated that, “The actions of Robert Bowers represents the worst in humanity.”

 

In Robert Bowers social media posts leading up to the shooting, he wrote, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw you optics, I’m going in.” Bowers rampaged the Tree of Life Synagogue just a few moments after he posted about how he could not sit by anymore. The post was made only five minutes before the police were notified of the shooting. Bowers believed that all the immigrants and the refugees that we are letting into the United States are slaughtering his own people. He believed that these immigrants were violent because they were attempting to leave countries with high levels of violence. Bowers also repeatedly called the immigrants, “invaders,” and “illegals” and liked the change when those terms caught on.

 

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 2017, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States surged sixty percent where they found 1,986 cases of harassment, vandalism, or physical assault against Jews and Jewish Institutions. According to one of the videos in the CNN article talks about the social media platform, Gab, which is the platform that Robert Bowers was able to post most of his racist and specifically, Anti-Semitism thoughts. In the video, one of the people on the panel, talks about how posts like Bowers influence people to think like him and commit acts of violence just like Bowers did.

 

There has been previous religious, and immigrant hate shootings before. Three previous cases are the shootings that happened in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in Charleston, South Carolina, and in Sutherland Springs, Texas. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, there was a dispute over parking, and that dispute escalated into a shooting where three Muslims were shot in head, dead. The three people that were shot, were a newlywed couple and the woman’s sister. Their neighbor, a middle-aged white man, was put under arrest and charged with three counts of murder. The middle-aged white man, Craig Hicks, posted on social media often about his dislike in all religion and support in atheism. The victim’s families believe that this shooting was committed because of the hate for their religion and faith rather than a simple parking dispute. In Charleston, South Carolina, there was a shooting at a historic black church where nine people were killed before the shooter fled the scene but was later caught. The shooter was later found to be a young white man and was convicted of thirty-three federal hate crime and murder charges. Dylann Roof is a white supremacist who admitted to the shooting in the hopes of starting a race war. Roof published a website manifesto before the shooting about his racial hatred and then wrote in his journal about his racial hatred in jail after the shooting. In Sutherland Springs, Texas, there was a shooting at the First Baptist Church where twenty-six people were killed, and twenty people were injured. The shooter was a young white male named Devin Patrick Kelly and he was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds including a self-inflicted shot to the head after a crash during a high-speed car chase. However, not to take away from the fact that Devin Patrick Kelly killed twenty-six people and injured twenty people, Devin Patrick Kelly did not commit this shooting because of hate for religion or another race. Devin Patrick Kelly committed this shooting because of a family dispute which ended up with Kelly going to the First Baptist Church to kill his mother-in-law, but she was not there. In two of these shootings, it has been believed that the shootings were hate motivated just like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

 

All these shootings have affected the whole nation as hate crimes and shootings have been on a rise. Hate crimes have been a problem for the US for many years as some people have a problem with another religion or race. However, not all of them act on their beliefs or tendencies, but when they do, drastic things can happen like these shootings. Out of all four shootings, only one has been believed to be motivated by a personal dispute and intention. The other three shootings have been motivated by a hate of a certain religion or a hate of a certain race. The other two shootings which were motivated by hate, one was motivated by race and one was motivated by both, religion and race. The Charleston Church Shooting was motivated by race instead of religion like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. However, these two shootings and shooters were similar because both expressed their hatred of people that are different from themselves not just religion or race. In the one of the videos in the CNN article about the shooting, there was a panel of people that were explaining the social media posts leading up to the shooting. During this, one of them mentions that he has posts about hate on immigrants and racism, but the core of his hate was his deep Anti-Semitism. The Chapel Hill Shooting was motivated by religion and race unlike the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting which was motivated by only religion. However, these shootings were similar because the main motivating point was religion rather than race. Not all shootings that happen in a religious place is not because of hate towards that religion; however, when it does happen it is because they have a strong hatred for anyone that is not the same as themselves. These shooters who are motivated by religious hate are usually supremacists who believe they are people like them are the supreme in society. All four of these shootings had someone who died, someone who was the shooter, someone who was telling the world what happened, but we all were affected by each and every one. Everyone should be able to practice their own beliefs without being subjected to hate or violence.

 

However, the media coverage in all these shootings have led to major consequences and benefits. There are more people that now believe that mass shootings that happen at religious places are motivated by religious hatred. However, this is false, most mass shootings that happen at religious places are not because of religious hatred, but because of the ease of access to these places. Many of these religious places do not tend to have a high security presence as well as basic security protocols set in place. Also, most shootings that occur are because of a mental illness rather than hatred. The benefits of the media coverage of all these shootings is that it raises awareness to the racism and religious hatred that is present all throughout the US. Since the media can raise awareness to the racism and religious hatred, we need to band together in order to help quell the hatred and racism. In all these shootings, the shooter is the one committing an unspeakable and evil act while the first responders and officers are committing the good act. The general coverage of all these shootings was that the freedom to practice any religion is important but can lead to violence in extreme cases. The coverage of these shootings is not just to show the nation what happened, but also show the nation how all the politicians will respond to the terrible news. The media coverage attracts many people because religious hate and racism are two very important issues today.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dakin Andone, Jason Hanna, Joe Sterling and Paul P. Murphy, “Hate Crime Charges filed in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 dead.,” CNN, 11/29/18 (https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/27/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-active-shooter/index.html)

Jonathan M. Katz and Richard Perez-Pena. “In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive.,” NY Times, 02/11/15 (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/muslim-student-shootings-north-carolina.html)

Matt Zapotosky. “Charleston Church shooter: ‘I would like to make it crystal clear, I do not regret what I did.’,” Washington Post, 01/04/17 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/charleston-church-shooter-i-would-like-to-make-it-crystal-clear-i-do-not-regret-what-i-did/2017/01/04/05b0061e-d1da-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html?utm_term=.ee4b5de6d883)

Corky Siemaszko and Alex Johnson. “Texas Church Shooter Had ‘a Purpose and a Mission’ in Family Feud, Investigator says.,” NBC, 11/06/17 (https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/texas-church-shooting/texas-church-shooter-may-have-been-targeting-his-mother-law-n817961)