Blue Collar Muse

While the crowd around him went peacefully about their business in Salt Lake City’s Trolley Square mall, 18 year old Sulejman Talovic had less than pleasant plans. Armed with a shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol and a backpack full of ammunition he entered the mall, heading for Cabin Fever, a greeting card store, packed with people shopping for Valentine’s Day. Inside, he opened fire killing 5 and wounding 4. An off-duty police officer confronted Talovic, keeping him contained until police arrived, or the body count would have been much higher. Salt Lake police chief Chris Burbank said, “There is no question that his quick action saved the lives of numerous other people”, adding, “The suspect in this particular circumstance had one thing on his mind, and that was to kill a large number of people.”

It was later reported that Talovic, killed by police during the incident, was a Muslim. Since that report, my question has been, “Was this an act of terror?”

Across the continent, earlier that very same day a man killed 4 others and then himself in a Philadelphia office park. Vincent Dortch and others may have lost as much as $500,000 in a failed real estate investment deal. Dortch organized an investor’s meeting. Minutes after it began, he drew the assault rifle and .40 caliber handgun he brought along and gave the group, “a minute or two to say your prayers.” He then opened fire.

To my knowledge, Dortch was not a Muslim and no one has suggested the killings in Philadelphia have anything to do with terrorism.

Two atrocities in two cities with one major difference - one player is Muslim. Should we seriously consider the events in Salt Lake to be terror related? Law enforcement has not decided and their investigations continue. Hopefully, they will take into account that, in two crucial aspects, Talovic’s behavior is more closely aligned with that of terrorists than that of lunatics. In comparison, consider Columbine High School and Jerusalem’s Sbarro Pizzeria homicide bombing.

In Philadelphia, as in Columbine, the killer had connections to his victims - a defrauded investor assigned blame and peers were given the role of tormentors. In Jerusalem and Salt Lake, the victims were unknown to their murderers. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In Philadelphia and Columbine, the actions had purpose. Vengeance was sought for a slight or a wrong was being punished. While we cannot excuse their actions, we understand the emotions playing a part in them. Talovic and the Sbarro bomber were out to kill as many people as possible. Murder was their purpose. No sane or normal person understands that.

In today’s world, when senseless, anonymous violence is done, more often than not, terrorism is rearing it’s ugly head. The final evidence may show Talovic had no ties to terrorism. Things are not always what they seem. Until that time, however, terrorism remains my explanation of choice. After all, as the old saw goes, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck!”

With apologies to Dickens …

BCM

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Israel, Muslim, Terrorism, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.