Tuesday, December 27, 2016
On Friday, the Islamic terrorist who killed 12 innocent people and injured more than 50 in the Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, was shot dead by Italian police in the Milan area.
It was an appropriate ending given that the Tunisian fugitive, Anis Amri, produced a loaded .22-caliber gun and shot a senior officer after he was asked to show some identification. A rookie police officer killed the terrorist with a single shot.
We say “appropriate ending” because individuals like Amri who have nothing but evil in their hearts are undeserving of society’s forgiveness or understanding.
Thus, we call for the death penalty in the case of another terrorist, this one homegrown, who like Amri showed no sympathy for his victims.
On Thursday, Dylann Roof was found guilty of all 33 federal charges for the 2015 killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. After a week of heart-wrenching testimony, it took the jury just two hours to reach its verdict.
Now, the jury must decide whether Roof, who has shown no remorse for the massacre he perpetrated in the house of God, should receive the death penalty for his crimes.
There’s no question in our minds that the death of this terrorist is clearly justified – just as it was for the terrorist in the Berlin Christmas market killings.
Indeed, Roof’s lack of remorse was clearly evident in the taped interview he had with FBI Special Agent Michael Stansbury.
“I went to that church in Charleston, and I did it,” footage of the interview video reportedly showed Roof saying. He also apparently laughed after making that statement.
“I didn’t say anything to them before I pulled [a .45 glock pistol] out, not even a word. I mean they reacted after I shot them.”
In the death-penalty phase of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 3, Roof reportedly plans to defend himself.
We have no doubt that he intends to make a mockery of the criminal justice system that provided him with the chance to defend himself. That’s more than he did to the innocent black churchgoers in his demented racist act of terror.
Indeed, he confessed entering the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and sitting in on a Bible study for nearly an hour before he “executed them because he believes they are nothing but animals,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors. The cold-blooded, viciously racist nature of the crime shook the city to its core and reverberated across the country.
HIT LIST OF CHURCHES
A prosecution witness testified in the trial that Roof had a list of other black churches and their addresses with him when he was arrested for gunning down the worshippers in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In other words, he planned a spree of terror acts on American soil, making him no better than the other lone-wolf terrorists who have claimed innocent American lives.
Jurors watched as Roof, who purchased the gun used in the church shooting when he turned 21, said bluntly, “I support Hitler.”
In the Berlin Christmas market attack, Amri used a truck he had taken after killing the driver to plow into the crowd Monday night.
Despite an intense, Europe-wide manhunt, the Tunisian fled across Germany, into France and then into Italy.
An investigation into his background showed allegiance to the Islamic extremist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that is committed to creating a caliphate in the Middle East.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for numerous acts of terrorism around the world.
Although the U.S. and its allies have killed many leaders of the organization, the internet has become a powerful recruiting tool, especially with individuals who are easily brainwashed.
Likewise, white extremist organizations that advocate violence against blacks, other minorities and Jews are using the internet to gain adherents.
Roof described his motives behind the slayings in a stunning racist, manifesto-like text he published online, where he laid out his plans to start a “race war” and cited the killing of the unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin, as the moment he became “racially aware.”
This is an individual who, like other terrorists around the world, does not deserve to be treated leniently. The death penalty is demanded.