Free speech costs

[Gob]

Denmark is on high alert after a gunman in Copenhagen killed one person and injured three others at a debate on blasphemy and free speech attended by a controversial Swedish cartoonist.

Several dozen shots were fired at the seminar and a manhunt is now under way.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described it as a "politically motivated" act of terrorism.

Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has faced death threats over his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was unhurt.

Police initially believed there had been two suspects, but later said they were searching for a lone gunman.

They released a photograph showing the alleged attacker apparently wearing a purple balaclava and thick puffer jacket.

The three injured were police officers.

[Lord Jim]

a "politically motivated" act of terrorism.

"Terrorism"? Oh heavens to Betsy no...

I blame Denmark's lax gun laws...

[Lord Jim]

Injuries in second Copenhagen shooting

Several people have been injured after shots were fired near a synagogue in Copenhagen, Danish police say.

One person was reportedly hit in the head, and two police officers suffered arm and leg injuries. The attacker is believed to have fled.

It is not clear whether the shooting is connected to an earlier attack on a cafe in the city.

There, a gunman killed one person and injured three at a free speech debate attended by a Swedish cartoonist.

Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has faced death threats over his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, was unhurt.
Police warning

The second shooting took place on Krystalgade street.

"We cannot say anything about the condition of the injured yet," the Danish police were were quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

"The perpetrator fled on foot," they added.

Eyewitness Rasmus Thau Riddersh told the BBC he was going out for a drink with his friends at the time. He said he did not hear the shots, but later saw a man lying on the street.

Earlier, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the first attack as a "politically motivated" act of terrorism.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31475803

[MajGenl.Meade]

Police in Copenhagen say they have shot dead a man they believe was behind two deadly attacks in the Danish capital hours earlier.

Police say they killed the man in the Norrebro district after he opened fire on them.

It came after one person was killed and three police officers injured at a free speech debate in a cafe on Saturday.

In the second attack, a Jewish man was killed and two police officers wounded near the city's main synagogue.

Police say video surveillance suggested the same man carried out both attacks. They do not believe any other people were involved.

[rubato]

Denmark's gun laws appear to be working wonderfully well. We are ten times as bad. We should imitate them.

Firearm-related death rate per 100,000 population per year

Country @@@@@@@@@@@ Total (calculated) @@@@@@ Homicides @@@@@@@@@@ Suicides @@@@@@ Unintentional @@@@@@ Sources and notes

 Denmark @@@@@@@@@@@ 1.28 (2011) @@@@@@ 0.22 (2011) @@@@@@@@@ 1.09 (2011) @@@@@@ 0.04 (2008) @@@@@@ Guns in Denmark[17]
 
 United States @@@@@@@ 10.30 (2011) @@@@@@ 2.83 (2012) @@@@@@@@@@ 6.30 (2011) @@@@@@ 0.30 (2011) @@@@@@ Guns in United States[68]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... death_rate


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Too many senseless attacks using these though:

[Gob]

Danish police say the gunman believed to have attacked a free-speech debate and a Copenhagen synagogue was 22, born in Denmark and known to them because of past violence.

The presumed gunman was shot and killed early on Sunday morning by police who were monitoring an address in the Norrebro district of the city.

The man's name has not been released.

A film director and a synagogue guard were killed in separate attacks. Five police officers were also injured.

Police believe the gunman was acting alone.

He was known to them in connection with criminal gangs and had convictions for violent offences and dealing in weapons.

"It was the case that when the suspect was shot and killed during police action, he was armed with pistols," police commissioner Thorkild Fogde told a news conference.

He also said police had found a weapon which may have been used in the first shooting.

The Danish intelligence service is investigating whether the gunman was copying the shootings in Paris last month, when 17 people were killed in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

Earlier, the head of the intelligence service told reporters the man had been known to them, and police were working to determine whether he had travelled to Syria or Iraq.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the shootings as "a cynical act of terror against Denmark" and said her government would not compromise on its defence of free expression.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt later visited the synagogue and said Denmark would do everything to protect its Jewish community.

[Lord Jim]

The Danish intelligence service is investigating whether the gunman was copying the shootings in Paris last month, when 17 people were killed in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

Well, first he attacks a symposium where a person who is best known for satirical representations of Mohammed is a featured participant, and then he attacks a location where one would logically expect Jewish people to be present...

If he wasn't copying the Paris terrorist attacks, then it's the world's most remarkable coincidence...

[Lord Jim]

Denmark arrests 2 in connection with Copenhagen terrorist attacks

Danish police said Monday they have arrested two people suspected of aiding the 22-year-old responsible for the weekend murders of a filmmaker and a Jewish security guard, in a spate of terrorist attacks around Copenhagen. Previously, Danish police said they believed the gunman, killed Sunday in a shootout with police, had been working alone.

A lawyer for the two unidentified suspects denied in court on Monday that his clients had sheltered the gunman or helped him get rid of a weapon. For now, the men are being held for 10 days. The assailant, identified in Danish media as Danish-born Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein, reportedly killed documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, at a free-speech event in a cafe, and Dan Uzan, 37, outside Copenhagen's main synagogue.

http://theweek.com/speedreads/539469/de ... st-attacks

[oldr_n_wsr]

What is wrong with these people?

[Big RR]

Who oldr? Danes? Arabs? Moslems? Documentary filmmakers? Clearly some of all those groups, and any others you could name, are jerks and assholes.'

ETA: Please note, I am not trying to be sarcastic, but your post raises an important issue; a belief that "those people" are somehow different from "Us" normal people. Jerks abound everywhere, and it does us no good to marginalize any particular subset of humans as having some sort of exclusive rights to jerks.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Perhaps he means "these people who so viciously take other people's lives"? I would hope they are different to "us".

[oldr_n_wsr]

The murderous thugs regardless of their nationality, religion or color.
"jerks and assholes" are too light a term for them.

[Big RR]

If that is what you meant, I apologize for suggesting differently.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sorry I wasn't clear about it.

[Sue U]

What is wrong with these people?

That is actually a very good question and one that deserves a serious answer, for the sake of us all. Clearly, whatever "counter-terrorism" policies are being deployed are failing to avert these types of attacks. It would be much more useful to determine and address the root of what motivates these people to murder, and in almost every case to be killed themselves in the aftermath.

[Lord Jim]

It's not an either/or proposition...

We ("we" meaning the US, other Western countries, and Muslim countries as well) have to press aggressively against those who are already determined to kill us, and capture and/or kill them first...dealing with root causes is not going to do anything to change that part of the dynamic.

On the other hand, I agree that strategically we can't kill our way out of this. There needs to be a second track, one that involves a concerted effort to deal with the underlying causes that lead young men and women to find the call of these nihilistic butchering sociopaths attractive.

My strong suspicion is that there are two underlying causes; social alienation and lack of economic opportunity. (And in the case of most of the Muslim countries, a lack of basic freedoms and ability to participate in a political process as well.)

People who feel themselves to be a part of, and stake holders in, a society don't tend to try to blow it up.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Lets not forget the "power trip" (ego) they get. Nothing more powerful than holding another person life in your hand and having them beg you not too kill them.

[Sue U]

Actually, it appears that most of the assumptions we have about why people become terrorists are simply inaccurate. We just don't know what causes people to do these things, because there has been so little actual study of the issue.

What we do know is that here in the US and A we face virtually no threat from ISIS (or al-Queda, al Shabab, Boko Haram, etc.) fighters elsewhere in the world. And some of these groups are, quite frankly, creatures of our "allies," to a significant extent. And we face no existential threat from "lone wolf" terrorists at home -- except to the extent fear of attacks leads us to give up our civil liberties in exchange for a false promise of security. Because the fact very well may be that such incidents are simply not preventable, even if we become a national-security police state.

[Econoline]

I just read a a long but incredibly revealing article in The Atlantic which is, I think, important enough for its own thread.

Check it out.