“Yes, a majority of Americans said they were against such measures, but let’s not brush past the obvious point: a third of the country is an alarming number of people.”
The problem with making a point like Steve Benen’s is not that it is somehow wrong or grotesquely exaggerated. Rather, the problem is that such straightforward, dramatic statements find themselves anywhere near the realm of American reality.
Figure this one out, if you can:
A man who described himself as a “patriot” confessed to placing homemade bombs in a Georgia park to help people realize “that this type of activity could happen anywhere,” according to court documents obtained by TPM on Tuesday.
Michael Conrade Sibley, a resident of Marietta, Ga. was charged last week in a federal court in Atlanta with attempting to damage federal property ....
.... He said he purchased a backpack at a garage sale and, according to the documents, wrote the name “Mina Khodari” inside the backpack because he said “it looked foreign.”
Along with the bombs, Sibley put print-outs of the Atlanta Falcons’ schedule as well as public transportation timetables and the locations of Marcus Jewish Centers into the backpack because he thought officials would see those as “soft targets,” the documents said.
Sibley told the agents he also placed a copy of the Quran and a book titled “The Rape of Kuwait” in the bag.
Sibley said he placed the bombs in the park because he’s a “patriot.” He said he regretted that people weren’t “paying attention to what was going on (sic) the world” and he wanted to remind people “that this type of activity could happen anywhere,” according to the documents.
(Garcia)
While “patriot” may well be the wrong word to describe Mr. Sibley, the term apparently still has certain benefits. That is to say, Why isn’t this person charged with attempted terrorism?
We might speculate that apparently he’s just not Muslim enough to be a terrorist.
Or, you know, hell, too patriotic an agent provocateur.
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Image note: Police and federal agents investigate a suspicious package at Vickery Creek Park, 4-5 November 2014. (Photo: Duffie Dixon/11 Alive)
Garcia, Ahiza. “‘Patriot’ Allegedly Confesses To Leaving Two Homemade Bombs In Georgia Park”. Talking Points Memo. 24 March 2015.
This Is 