Probably random, right?
Somebody didn’t get the memo about violence in any form being unacceptable against any group. And the word “group” here should include political parties as well as religion, gender or race. In Volusia County, Florida, on the eastern coast of the state north of Orlando, somebody shot up a Republican Party office on Sunday. Thankfully we don’t have to report news of deaths or injuries, but the serious nature of the incident should be clear. (National Review)
At least four shots were fired into a Republican campaign satellite office in Volusia County, Fla. on Sunday, police announced after a campaign volunteer reported the shooting Monday morning.
No one was injured in the shooting, which broke the front windows and displaced drywall inside the office, South Daytona police captain Mark Cheatham told the Orlando Sentinel. There were no eyewitnesses, but police are seeking surveillance footage to try and determine who is responsible.
The incident comes after a gunman murdered eleven congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning. The assailant, who eventually surrendered to police, reportedly yelled “all Jews must die” during the attack.
The usual caveats apply here. Since no suspect has been identified, it’s still possible that this is something other than how it appears. It could, in theory, have been anything from a random gang shooting gone wrong to a campaign staffer with a crazy ex-boyfriend who got drunk and went off the rails. But if it turns out to be precisely what it looks like, then somebody was trying to send a message.
Anyone care to guess how much press coverage this incident will generate? Attacks on Republican targets aren’t as popular in most of the mainstream press as other groups. Of course, the fact that nobody was injured makes it a somewhat lower profile case right off the bat, but the point remains the same. To imagine that all the violence out there is on one side was preposterous to begin with. Just look at Antifa.
Again, assuming that a suspect is identified and it was a deliberate attack based on the fact that it was a Republican office, the press shouldn’t be able to write this off as a “local news story.” The fact that nobody was injured or killed is a blessing, but this close to the election there could have been someone in that office at any hour of the day or night. The police report indicates that the gun used was powerful enough to take out the windows and still shatter the drywall at the back of the office. This wasn’t a pellet gun and the story could have ended much differently… and tragically.
