#TempleShooting: Killer in Sikh Temple murders identified

To say the suspected domestic terrorist was deeply disturbed is both a vast and obvious understatement:

Wade Michael Page, the tattooed white supremacist and former Army soldier police say gunned down six Sikhs in a Milwaukee-area temple before a police officer killed him, spread his message of hate through several rock bands for more than a decade before mounting his bloody rampage Sunday.

Playing guitar and singing in various bands — including Definite Hate and End Apathy — in the obscure skinhead punk scene, the 40-year-old Page spewed his lyrics at ear-splitting volume in small underground bars and on independent record labels. In an April 2010 interview with Label 56, the label that carries End Apathy’s music, Page described the message behind his songs.

“The topics vary from sociological issues, religion and how the value of human life has been degraded by being submissive to tyranny and hypocrisy that we are subjugated to,” Page said.

White power lyrics, which frequently discuss genocide against the Jews and other minorities, are so violent and twisted that the music is typically available only over the Internet, according to experts. In a song called “Self-Destruct” by End Apathy, Page growls his dismal vision of life in the U.S.

Β Β Β Β Β “You betray your dignity for this miserable life,

Β Β Β Β  Refuse to think for yourself, you want to be led.”

On End Apathy’s MySpace page, band members call their music, β€œa sad commentary on our sick society and the problems that prevent true progress.” Other bands on the Maryland-based music label include Force Fed Hate, Final War, Absolute Terror and Spirit of the Patriot.

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s intelligence project, said Page had been on the group’s Β radar since 2000, when he tried to purchase goods from the National Alliance, a well-known hate group. She said the group has evidence that Page attended “hate events” around the country.

“He was involved in the scene,” Beirich said.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Theresa Carlson said Page was known to law enforcement authorities, but did not give details. Carlson said authorities are interested in learning what role Page’s ties to white supremacy played in his attack.

“We are looking at his ties to white supremacist groups,” she said.

Also, according to Fox News, though Page was at one time in the military, he was never stationed overseas.

Bryan Preston comments:

The man who attacked a Wisconsin Sikh temple Sunday has been identified asΒ Wade Michael Page. He is a former Army vet who was less than honorably discharged from the service in 1998. The military has three classifications of discharge; honorable, less than honorable, and dishonorable. The vast majority of discharges are honorable. A less than honorable discharge is a strong indication that Page was a troublemaker who had built up a long record of not being a very good soldier, and that his discharge was not voluntary. He was ejected from the military in 1998.

That record is relevant to establishing that Page, who was killed by police after he murdered several innocent people inside the temple, was a very troubled man. That won’t stop the left from blaming Rep. Michele Bachmann, because she has been questioning whether the US State Department has come under undue influence by the Muslim Brotherhood, but then again that’s what the left does. When tragedy strikes, many on the left strike out at the latest boogeyman or woman on the right, never letting facts get in the way. Never mind that Sikhs have almost nothing in common with the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, and have not been singled out by Bachmann or anyone else looking into the Brotherhood.

As prime examples, Twitchy.com has compiled a sampling of the far left’s (unsurprising) attempts at blaming the rampage on “the right wing”, and Gov. Scott Walker is one of their top vote-getters for being the “main” inspiration for the shooter. Β Here are a couple of random tweets:

And:

“Never let a tragedy go to waste.” -Liberals

American Sikhs are by and large peaceful, and unfortunately are often mistaken for radical Islamists stateside due to how they dress, their beards, etc. CNN reported on instances of “bias crimes” against Sikhs reported since 9-11, and the number – according to the Sikh Coalition, is in the 700 range:

(CNN) — Immediately after the September 11, 2001, terrorist acts, Sikhs came under attack.

Mistaken for Muslims because of their beards and turbans, they became ripe targets for zealots seeking revenge.

The first person murdered in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks was a Sikh — a gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, named Balbir Singh Sodhi who was shot five times by aircraft mechanic Frank Roque.

In the intervening years, the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based advocacy group, reported more than 700 attacks or bias-related incidents.

Some Sikhs had their houses vandalized; others were spat upon. In some extreme cases, Sikhs were set upon by groups of people and beaten.

As the incidents waned, the community had hoped the worst was behind them — until Sunday, when a man shot and killed at least six people at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, wounded a police officer and was himself killed by another officer’s bullets.

Though a motive has not been established as yet by the authorities, for purposes of discussion, let’s say these were “revenge”-style killings. It goes without saying that there isn’t any place in our society at all for “revenge” killings, but there’s also no place in our society for opportunistic jerk offs on either side of the aisle who use deadly tragedies in order to score political points even before the first death is reported – and in the case of the left, it’s usually by falsely portraying the perp as someone who was “immersed in right wing culture.” If they can successfully establish that, regardless of the actual facts of any given case, then their next MO is to suggest and/or imply that it’s indicative of a “right wing climate of hate” and as a result, right wing ideas should be ignored. Facts don’t matter, especially the fact that most if not all mass murderers operate by their OWN ideology independent of “left or right.”

Furthermore, there’s also no place in our society for the rank ignorance currently on display by the mainstream media and leftists when it comes to give a more complete accounting of the modern history of aggression towards the global Sikh community. Why? Because if they did, they’d have to acknowledge that Sikhs are – sadly – well-acquainted with being targeted for hate and persecution by Islamofascists. Naturally, you’ll hear next to nothing about this because it doesn’t fit the MSM’s sanitized narrative about radical Islam.

I wasn’t home yesterday at all to blog about this but I did Tweet the various reports that came through several media outlets. My heart sank as the reports that people were killed came through. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

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