Several months ago I began to realize that in our recent past something strange and frightening was occurring in our town and in our corner of the U. S. — crimes of hate that in many ways mirrored those happening in the last few decades in our country. That came as surprise. Even though Bowling Green had an active KKK culture here a century ago, ask the man or woman on the street and they will say, “Hate? Not in our Town.”
In fact, at least seven crimes that recently touched northwest Ohio may represent in microcosm what has happened in the U. S. I call these seven hate crimes our Rogues’ gallery. I’ve titled this letter “In Our Town” because that title represents an irony for the place where the national human rights organization, Not in Our Town, has a strong and active chapter.
Here are seven recent hate crimes in our town: One, the Waffle House felonious attack by two young white supremist males in April of this year.
Two, truck driver Randy Linn set fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, April 2012, and was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Three, a friend and colleague of mine at BGSU lost his son during the first mass shooting in recent U. S. history. Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower shooter, August, 1966, killed 16.
Four, December 2018, Damon Joseph, 21, planned a mass shooting at a Toledo area synagogue. Joseph had expressed hatred for gays, Catholics, Jews and Christians. He had converted to Islam.
Five, February, 2018, Christian Costet threatened a mass shooting at Waite High School.
Six, in December, 2018, Elizabeth Lecron was arrested for buying explosives intended for an “upscale mass murder “ at a Toledo bar.
Seven, on May, 2019, a Bowling Green woman tried to set a house on fire with a Molotov cocktail.
The rise of hate crimes has been national news for at least two decades and most of us nervously await news of the next mass shooting. The FBI reports that there were 250 shooting incidents between 2000 and 2017. An incident is one where at a single public location four or more are killed. In that seventeen year period 799 were killed, there were 2217 casualties. Mother Jones, the Times, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Gun Violence Archive and the CDC offer very carefully compiled stats and analyses.
What I found missing from national analysis is a careful examination of their causes. Most of the studies examine single events, perhaps comparing it to a few others. When the known causes of many shooters are grouped together, one gets a fuller and more accurate picture of what’s at stake. And one can imagine some preventive measures.
Another approach is to start by recognizing that the U. S. holds two disturbing records: In the last several decades we have, first, experienced a dramatic rise in the number of gun deaths as homicides and mass shootings, and, second, the U.S. dramatically outranks other nations in the number of guns.
While there is a strong correlation connecting those two variables, there is not enough information to say that the high number of guns is the predominant cause of the mass killings. If other conditions in our country like broken families, mental illness, bullying at school and mass media copy-catting were not problematic, would there be a decrease in the expression of hate and revenge?
Perhaps. It would also be safe to conclude that with fewer, many fewer guns (the current total is well over three hundred million), there would likely be fewer mass killings.
I found only one report where multiple shooters and the resulting multiple causes were considered. The study was done at the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center. Lina Alathari, the Center’s chief, reported that in 2018 one third of attackers had a serious history of domestic violence, two thirds had mental health issues, and nearly all threatened others before they struck. Most attackers were males ranging in age from 15 to 64. Their domestic violence included serious violence like killing a spouse or mother. And more than half the attackers had a domestic or workplace dispute. Still, 22% had no known grievance. (Toledo Blade 7/10/19)
Clearly, several interacting causes besides gun availability and a grievance will explain the high rate of gun deaths.* A metaphor will help understand how the nine conditions named below might work: Rubics Cube. This three dimensional puzzle comes together only when multiple smaller cubes are moved to the right places.
Easy access to guns and a motive to kill will never solve Rubic and are not enough for mass shooting. Some or all of the following nine causes are required.
Causes of Hate Crimes
- Genetic mutations that can lead to mass killings: Psychology Today (May 2018) reports that no one really knows whether serial or mass killers “are born or made. The most likely answer, though, is that the majority of the most prolific and dangerous… killers were genetically disposed to behave anti-socially and furthermore grew up in an environment that cultivated a disregard for the lives of others. Although we do not know whether or to what extent you can be “born” a…killer of the monstrous kind, we do know that many barbarous serial killers have antisocial personality disorder (not infrequently combined with an inflated ego, or narcissism). Antisocial personality disorder is the clinical term for what colloquially is known as psychopathy, or sociopathy. The disorder is characterized by a disregard for morals, social norms, and the rights and feelings of others.”
- Home: Broken families, absent parents esp. fathers, financial problems, autocratic controls, family authority threatened by on-line worlds,antomobiles and the digital age. Ex: Stephen Paddock, Las Vegas Mass Shooter
- School: Bullying, teachers without empathy, class climate lacking compassion, inclusion and support. Shooters are often the victims of bullying rather than the perpetrators. Ex: Columbine’s Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.
- The attacker’s grievance. Personal animosity, a feared and hated group, exclusion from an important or popular group. Anger at home, at school, at work, in society.
- Mental Health: Problems like depression can be hidden (Columbine) neglected, mistreated. Persons feel abandoned, alone, rejected, excluded. Failure in search of a mate, few friendships. Ex: suicide from bullying, fear and depression–Jack Padilla suicide.
- Uncontrolled, “toxic” masculinity: the male code directs men to be tough, stoic, unemotional. Boys don’t cry, walk it off, take it like a man and keep worries and pain to themselves. Early male socialization preaches this patriarchal ideal. It usually starts in the family and is reinforced in school. It takes the form of bullying, assault, physical and verbal aggression. 90% of mass killers are male and the majority are white.
- Xenophobic, nativist and white supremicist ideology: fear of and discrimination against “the other,” e.g. minorities based on race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, and immigrant status. Also called white nationalism, white supremacy and alt-white. See Zacharia, CNN, The State of Hate. Randy Linn, arson at Mosque in Ohio.
- The spread of hate and shooting news in the media: Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point) and Mark Granovetter (Stanford U) argue that mass shootings multiply in a “slow motion riot.” Ex: The Columbine shooting was the trigger event. After that it was easier for copy-cats to jump on board with acts of violence. Many thus believe that we should not identify shooters by name.
- The American dream gone wrong: Our constitution promises us the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those 18th century words refer to public happiness, i.e. the larger good that is built based on our Constitution; when it is working, there follows the birth of private happiness. When it does not work, hate can run amok. When do globalization, robotics, automation, and digital monopolies like Amazon and Facebook reach beyond our control and threaten the powerful American myth that anyone can become prosperous?
Even if these are the major causes, all the causes or most of the causes, it is still impossible to predict who will commit a hate crime or a mass shooting. While we can identify individuals and causes that invite hate, stereotyping, narcissism, cruelty, intolerance, bullying, and exclusion, we can only make educated guesses about where danger can explode.
One thing we can say after thinking about the nine listed causes: guns never offer a full explanation. What about guns and faulty genes? Maybe. What about guns loose in broken families? Maybe. What about guns, broken families, and dysfunctional schooling? You can see where this is going. Would it be safe to guess that the more causes the potential killer has, the more likely he will kill? Even that is bad social science.
It’s clear that each of the nine groups has a piece of the answer. And each person, whether a parent, a teacher, a pastor, a cop, or a social worker has the power to open others’ eyes to a crisis in the making. Toxic environments are the result of broken communities that do not communicate across personal, class, race, ethnic, gender, or group boundaries. They should not prevent picking up a phone, calling a meeting, writing a letter for the local paper. It’s always risky to test the status quo. But saving lives requires it.
These are some of the questions that arise after some research and speculation:
When do problems within these none categories indicate real danger?
How many of the nine causes appear in our community?
What can teachers, schools, students, cities, countries do to identify dangers and act to head them off?
What organizations offer training in signs of hate crimes and possible shootings? What are some important sources for information:
Facing History and Ourselves
Southern Poverty Law Center and Teaching Tolerance magazine
Not in Our Town
Gun violence archive — the most updated and accurate record
Mother Jones Magazine
Anti-Defamation League
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Overcominghateportal.org
Harvard Center for the Developing Child
American Psychological Association
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Dyson
So You Want To Talk about Race? by Ljeoma Oluo
Trauma Recovery by Judith Herman, MD
Why the Jews? by Dennis Prager & Joseph Telushkin
Mass Killings by David Harvey
White American Youth: My Descent into America’s most Violent Hate Movement by Christian Picciolni
Why Good Kids Act Cruel by Carl Pickhard
*Gun deaths and violent crime have declined in the US over that last three decades. Between 1993 and 2017, violent crime fell by 49%. However, the FBI reports that there were increases between 2004 and 2006, and 2014 and 2016. On the other hand, mass killings have spiked dramatically in the last two decides.
Tom Klein
Bowling Green
