Breaking: A British Member of Parliament has been assassinated

[Zixinus]

Or it could have been an old gun as one witness described. He could have also produced a crossbow, which is easier task if more difficult to hide. Or if he was smarter and more cold-blooded, a bomb.

But the method in this case is barely material, because even in the absence of any such devices he could and did just stab her with a knife. A hunting knife that could also could have been easily a sturdier kitchen knife as brought at any supermarket.

Can we please leave the usual roundabout gun debate to the other threads that currently have them?

[Thanas]

Any further discussion about guns in this thread will be flushed.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It gets worse:

Jo Cox killing: Nazi regalia discovered at house of suspect

Special police units who searched the house of the man arrested after the killing of MP Jo Cox are believed to have found samples of Nazi regalia and far-right literature.

Thomas Mair was also known to have bought books from a US-based neo-Nazi group, including guides on how to build homemade guns and explosives, according to an anti-hate campaign group in the US. Among them was a manual on how to make a homemade pistol.

Sources say that the suspected killer was lucid when first questioned. A picture is now emerging of a deliberately targeted attack in which Mair lay in wait for the MP as she emerged from her constituency meeting on Thursday. Witnesses have confirmed that he shouted “Britain first” or “Put Britain first” as he attacked Cox, who was 41 and had two children. Britain First is the name of a far-right political party.

The developments came as David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Cox’s her constituency town of Birstall in West Yorkshire. In an emotional tribute, Corbyn said she was killed by a “well of hatred” and announced that parliament would be recalled.

Cameron said it was time for the UK to think about the need to “treasure and value our democracy”.

in the US, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published receipts that appeared to show Mair bought, among other books, a manual on how to make a homemade pistol from the National Alliance.

The receipts, some of which date back to the 1990s, showed Mair spent more than $620 (£436) on literature from the group, which advocates the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people.

He bought books that instructed readers on the “chemistry of powder and explosives”, “incendiaries”, and a work called Improvised Munitions Handbook. The handbook included detailed instructions on constructing a pipe pistol using parts available in DIY stores.

Receipted items also included Ich Kämpfe, an illustrated handbook issued to members of the Nazi party in 1942.

Heidi Beirich, the leader of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said the group had obtained transaction records from members of the National Alliance.

The far-right political party Britain First said after the attack on Cox that it was not involved in it and “would never encourage behaviour of this sort”.

There were also reports that Mair was named as a subscriber to SA Patriot, a South African magazine published by White Rhino Club, a pro-apartheid group. The club describes the magazine’s editorial stance as being opposed to “multicultural societies” and “expansionist Islam”.

The National Alliance was founded in 1974 by William Pierce, from an earlier group called the National Youth Alliance, which emerged from the support of the segregationist demagogue, Alabama governor and three-time presidential candidate George Wallace. A book by Pierce, who died in 2002, was an inspiration for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, according to the bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

[Zaune]

You shouldn't, though.

I dare say I shouldn't do a lot of things I do, and don't do a lot of things I should.

And as far as I'm concerned, any faction that unconditionally repudiates the use of armed force even as an absolute last resort puts itself at a grave disadvantage against factions that don't. Sometimes refusing to resort to violence just sends the message that your enemies can get away with being even more violent because they don't have to fear reprisals.

And I'm not such a hypocrite that I think only people I agree with are allowed to think and behave that way.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

You shouldn't, though.

I dare say I shouldn't do a lot of things I do, and don't do a lot of things I should.

And as far as I'm concerned, any faction that unconditionally repudiates the use of armed force even as an absolute last resort puts itself at a grave disadvantage against factions that don't. Sometimes refusing to resort to violence just sends the message that your enemies can get away with being even more violent because they don't have to fear reprisals.

And I'm not such a hypocrite that I think only people I agree with are allowed to think and behave that way.

Case in point being the SNP and UKIP re: Trident.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, I do accept that violence may be acceptable as a last resort in some circumstances, i.e. self-defence or defence of others. But that's neither here nor there, as it doesn't include "shooting politicians whose ideas I find offensive", regardless of what side they're on.

[Lord Revan]

Well, I do accept that violence may be acceptable as a last resort in some circumstances, i.e. self-defence or defence of others. But that's neither here nor there, as it doesn't include "shooting politicians whose ideas I find offensive", regardless of what side they're on.

well at least it shouldn't. The moment you bring weapons and violence into politics as a viable means furthering your agenda (and lets be honest all political factions have en agenda of some sort or another, even if it's as simple as "don't change anything at all") you end up with a dictatorship eventually once the people with the best enforcers comes out on top and before you essentially have a civil war, neither of which is a desireble outcome.

to summerize violence has no place in modern politics.

[Beowulf]

EDIT: never mind

[Broomstick]

So... is it just that I'm an ocean and half a continent away, or is there a segment of the UK political body that is bending over backward to say this is anything BUT a political assassination and/or right wing white boy terrorism? Because, really, it's those things.

[Lord Revan]

So... is it just that I'm an ocean and half a continent away, or is there a segment of the UK political body that is bending over backward to say this is anything BUT a political assassination and/or right wing white boy terrorism? Because, really, it's those things.

Well the thing is that guys was clearly in the "leave" camp from the upcoming election. Basically (the extremist right wing side of) the "leave" camp doesn't want to be seen as supporting political assasinations or terrorism but at same time cannot condem this as such without loosing their core supporters or at least that's how I see it.

[Thanas]

Well, Nigel Farage has already described this as an act of terrorism.

[NecronLord]

Farage is far from the most extreme, in fairness to Revan.

[mr friendly guy]

So... is it just that I'm an ocean and half a continent away, or is there a segment of the UK political body that is bending over backward to say this is anything BUT a political assassination and/or right wing white boy terrorism? Because, really, it's those things.

Not the political establishment per se, but I have seen people post on YT comments with links to tweets that the "Britain first" line that was heard at the shooting was misquoted and hence its just the Remain camp smearing the Brexiters. Unfortunately for them the perp then goes "death to traitors, freedom for Britain" in the court which kind of makes these Brexiters look stupid, since he said in court where its recorded and less chance to be mistaken. This line has been reported both in the left leaning Guardian and the right leaning daily fail, in case anyone wants to try and spin leftist bias or some shit.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... l-activist

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... court.html

And when Nigel Farage himself calls it an act of terrorism, anyone denying it just smacks of desperation.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/06 ... .html?_r=0

Farage did not apologize for the provocative image, but he conceded that the Cox killing, which he called an act of terrorism, may have blunted the "leave" campaign's momentum at a key moment just days before the vote.

[Zaune]

Well he would say that, wouldn't he? Even the neo-Nazi organisation the perpetrator belongs to is disavowing him in public. If he's upset about anything it's the fact it makes him look bad by association.

[Lord Revan]

Well he would say that, wouldn't he? Even the neo-Nazi organisation the perpetrator belongs to is disavowing him in public. If he's upset about anything it's the fact it makes him look bad by association.

did perpetrator even belong to said Neo-Nazi organization or was he just a wannabe trying to impress them to allow him to join.

Eitherway it's not that odd that the sane right-wing people condem this outright and even the less sane don't want to give the impression that they approve of this even if they can't outright condem it without loosing their core supporters. While political assassinations are never a good thing, from a PR-standpoint this incident happened at worst possible time for the "leave" campaign, since they now have to engage in massive amounts of damage control or loose votes because people associate the leave campaign with terrorists and bullies.

[Broomstick]

Given evidence of his leanings date back nearly 20 years I don't think he should be called a "wannabe". He may not have been a member of an organization, either.

[Elheru Aran]

Given evidence of his leanings date back nearly 20 years I don't think he should be called a "wannabe". He may not have been a member of an organization, either.

There are always going to be independent assholes. He might have thrown Nazi salutes all his life and never actually filled out the paperwork. There were a lot of hella racist Southerners that were never members of the Klan before the Civil Rights movement. It doesn't mean his leanings were any less atrocious.

[Zaune]

And it seems he's not quite such a lone-wolf as all that after all, if the Southern Poverty Law Centre is to be believed.

Thomas Mair, accused of murdering British parliamentarian Jo Cox last week, attended a 2000 meeting of British white supremacists that was aimed at building a leading American neo-Nazi’s white power music empire, Hatewatch has learned.

In late May of that year, Mair was one of between 15 and 20 racist activists who convened in a private room at a pub near the Strand, a major thoroughfare in central London, according to Todd Blodgett, an American who was then a paid informant for the FBI and also met with MI5. Blodgett had helped arrange the meeting at the request of William Pierce, then head of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, and paid close to 800 pounds for the space and the food and alcohol that was served...

[Sea Skimmer]

Its pretty high on the lone wolf scale when a government information had to pay for the beer, and still didn't get anything out of the meeting to arrest anyone on.

[Zaune]

Well, looks like he got what he wanted.

[madd0ct0r]

I think forced deportations at gunpoint and concetration camps were more what he wanted. This is not something that the far right will go, "Oh, perfect, lets stop boys, everything's been fixed in our areas now".