A terrorist or patriot by any other name…
16th October 2017 · 0 Comments
In the midst of vigorous debate by mainstream media organizations, NFL team owners and executives and elected officials about the refusal of some Black NFL players to stand during the presentation of the national anthem and media coverage of the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, very little is being said or written about the man arrested recently at a North Carolina airport after filling a Mason jar with explosive chemicals and nails and vowing to “fight a war on U.S. soil.”
But a war for and against whom?
According to court documents released Tuesday, a criminal complaint written by an FBI agent said investigators found the improvised explosive devices on Oct. 6 at the Asheville Regional Airport in western North Carolina near a terminal entrance.
Thankfully, Asheville police found the homemade bomb before it could be detonated.
The complaint accuses Michael Christopher Estes of attempted malicious use of explosive materials and unlawful possession of explosives at an airport.
According to the complaint, Estes was arrested on Oct. 7 and admitted that he left the explosive device at the airport. It also said that Estes “claimed he was getting ready to fight a war on U.S. soil” but didn’t provide authorities with any additional details about what that war would entail.
The Augusta Chronicle reported that Estes was being held at the Buncombe County jail without bond after a brief court hearing on Oct. 10. Although the suspect appears to be white, he is listed as a 46-year-old Native American.
According to court documents, the homemade explosive device contained ammonium nitrate, Sterno fuel, nails and a .410 gauge Winchester shotgun cartridge.
An alarm clock was reportedly taped to the outside of the Mason jar with matches attached to the arm that strikes the bells. Court documents indicate that the alarm had been set for Oct.6, the same day the explosive device was found.
Surveillance video showed Estes dressed in black pants, a jacket and black hat approaching the terminal entrance shortly after 12:30 a.m. Friday and appearing to leave behind a bag, the FBI agent wrote. In nearby woods, investigators later found a backpack and tool kit containing similar items to what was used in the explosive device: tape, Sterno fuel and more shotgun shells. Investigators determined such items had been purchased at nearby stores earlier in the week, providing more surveillance video.
Authorities released a photograph made from the video, and tips from the public led them to Estes, who was arrested on Saturday, Oct. 7, near one of the stores. The complaint said Estes waived his Miranda rights, answering questions and admitting to building and planting the device.
“Estes described how he created the device … and then rigged the alarm clock to strike the matches and cause the flame necessary to trigger the device,” the complaint states. “More specifically, the alarm clock would go off, the matches would strike, the Sterno would heat up, and then the Ammonium Nitrate would explode.”
However, Estes also claimed that he hadn’t actually set the device to go off, the complaint says. He told investigators that he had staged himself in the woods near the airport in the days before planting the device.
As was the case in the Las Vegas mass shooting involving white gunman Stephen Paddock, there was no description of Estes in mainstream media as a domestic terrorist. And there was little to no coverage of his arrest on national media outlets last week.
There was also no mention of Estes’ arrest or what he was trying to do in local newspapers or on mainstream television news stations in the New Orleans area.
Despite his vow to keep America safe and crack down on terrorists in the U.S., President Donald Trump didn’t bother to tweet any of his thoughts about the incident.
Meanwhile, as he continues to criticize NFL team owners for not crushing the movement by athletes to raise awareness of racial injustice, inequity and bigotry by taking a knee during the national anthem, Trump himself was criticized for failing to conduct himself properly.
While Estes was cooling his heels in a North Carolina jail cell last week, a Louisiana sheriff who knows all too well how much he and others in the criminal justice system who depend on slave labor to meet their personal and administrative was busy putting his foot squarely in his mouth.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator, who probably thinks of himself as a freedom-loving American, law-abiding citizen and a Christian, made what some have called very offensive remarks at the end of a press briefing on Oct. 5.
The Sheriff is up in arms about the pending release of some nonviolent offenders when a series of new state laws take effect Nov. 1.
“In addition to the bad ones — and I call these bad — in addition to them, they’re releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change oil in our cars, to cook in the kitchen, to do all that, where we save money,” Prator told reporters without batting an eye.
A spokesman for the sheriff said later that his comments were taken out of context and that he never referred to race in his comments.
He didn’t have to.
This, after all, is Louisiana, home to both the “Prison Capital” and the “Mass Incarceration Capital” of the world. It isn’t a coincidence that Black unemployment is so high in this state or that so little is spent on public education. The priority here is raking in huge profits from the Black slave labor being used in the state’s penal system and ensuring that Black and Brown people never gain equal economic footing with white Louisiana residents.
No state has done a better job of using the slavery provisions of the 13th amendment than Louisiana.
Sheriff Prator’s only mistake was thinking that he could get away with telling the truth.
Anybody who knows anything about Louisiana’s criminal justice system knows all too well that Prator was telling the truth and that it goes much deeper.
The racial oppression in Louisiana, like the heat and humidity, is merciless and stifling.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who dissed Sen. John McCain and all former U.S. prisoners of war when he said infamously last year that he liked his military heroes uncaptured, proved again recently why he should be the last person to question or challenge anyone else’s respect for military veterans, love for this country or reverence for the flag.
Trump, who has urged NFL team owners to fire players who refuse to stand during the national anthem and referred to athletes that take a knee as “sons of b*tches,” showed just how little he knows about patriotism and reference for the nation and its traditions.
Daily Mail reported that Trump, who has not served in the U.S. Armed Services, failed to honor the U.S. flag during a traditional military ceremony.
During the ceremony at an Air National Guard hangar, Trump talked and joked with those around him, Daily Mail reported. He appeared baffled and asked why “nice music” was playing in the back during an interview.
While speaking with Sean Hannity, Trump joked, “They’re playing that in honor of (Sean ]) ratings. Did you see how good his ratings are?”
Members in the audience showed their respects and could be seen standing in the background during the bugle call.
“Are they playing that for you, or for me?” Trump asked Hannity.
He then confidently joked: ‘They’re playing that in honor of (Sean Hannity’s) ratings. Did you see how good his ratings are? He’s beating everybody,” he turned and asked the audience.
“I think they’ll be higher tonight,” Hannity replied. “…I’m just guessing.”
Trump’s failure to recognize or participate in the centuries-old military tradition last week has prompted many to question his sincerity in harassing and criticizing NFL players for taking a knee while he himself refused to stand to honor the flag, a cherished tradition and military men and women who sacrificed so much in defense of this nation.
As he continues to fan the flames of racial division and stoke white fear and anger, he has become the poster child for mediocrity, incompetence, hypocrisy and white privilege.
So much for the idea of the “leader of the free world” leading the way for all of humanity and serving as a beacon of enlightenment, hope and inspiration for historically oppressed and repressed groups.
This article originally published in the October 16, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
