Shooting Spree In Georgia, Alabama Motivated By Race

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Everywhere we turn, all we hear about is how white supremacy is the greatest threat facing this nation. At least until it goes back to climate change or something. This is especially true if they can link a shooting to white supremacy in any way.

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Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no use for white supremacy. I’ve known way too many stupid white people to believe white is some kind of master race or anything. However, all the harping on this gets more than a little tedious.

Then, of course, you have all the talk of mass shootings. The media trips over itself to call anything and everything a mass shooting because that is also some significant threat to our nation. They trip even harder when they can link it to white supremacy. They get a two-fer then.

But what about when it turns out to be race-related in a different direction?

A black man accused in a 20-hour, two-state shooting spree that wounded five strangers told cops he was motivated by race and intentionally targeted “military-looking” white men he believed wronged him, police said.

Justin Tyran Roberts, 39, was arrested Saturday by police in Columbus, Georgia, where cops say he wounded four people — including two white men — during separate attacks late Friday and Saturday afternoon.

Roberts is also accused of shooting a white man in the back at a hotel in Phenix City, Alabama, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported.

Detective Brandon Lockhart testified Monday that Roberts told police following his arrest that he “had to have” one victim who was shot in the back as he got into a car under the Oglethorpe Bridge in Columbus.

“Basically, he explained throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him, and also what he described as ‘military-looking white males’ had taken from him,” Lockhart testified, recalling what Roberts allegedly told investigators.

Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon said Saturday that all of the victims were expected to recover. Investigators also found no evidence that Roberts knew any of the shooting victims, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

Roberts also claimed that white men had been “shooting at him in a wooded area with a slingshot,” but police found no evidence to back up that assertion, Lockhart testified.

Roberts, a convicted felon, was found with a Taurus 9mm pistol that had been stolen Thursday when he was arrested, Lockhart said.

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Look, if a group of white men was shooting at him with a slingshot, that would indeed be a crime. Had he shot those men in self-defense, we’d have a different conversation, one in which I’d have at least some sympathy for him.

That’s not what happened. If the slingshot incident took place–and there’s zero evidence that it happened–Roberts still opted to leave the vicinity, get a gun, then go on a shooting rampage. Thankfully, his aim sucked.

Still, this isn’t getting much attention in the media. Part of that is likely because no one was killed. Truth be told, I’m not likely to write about a shooting unless there’s a death toll in most instances either, so I get that. However, I think we all know if that if the racial component had been a bit different, if a white man was trying to hunt down a certain kind of black man, then we’d see it all over the news regardless of a body count.

That’s a bit of a problem.

Thankfully, all of Roberts’ victims are expected to make a full recovery. Another thing to be thankful for is that more people weren’t injured. It should be noted that Columbus, Georgia is the home of Fort Benning, so there were a lot of military-looking white guys running around.

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Honestly, something has to be done to settle things down or we’re going to start seeing a whole lot more of this kind of thing.

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