Terrorism. Terrorist. What comes to mind when you hear those words? Well, for many Americans and much of the media, the image is of someone who looks like this:
However, as may of us here realize, the most dangerous terrorists we face these days seem to all be white males, old and young. Some have a right wing ideology of hate and others we have no idea why they plan to kill innocent people. Like Jared Cano of Tampa, 17 years old, who was arrested with bomb making materials before he could perpetrate a Columbine incident against his former high school:
Police in Tampa say they uncovered a 17-year-old’s catastrophic plot to blow up an area school. Jared Cano is accused of trying to kill former teachers and schoolmates.
Inside this Tampa apartment, police found materials to make pipe bombs and a diary allegedly written by Cano that had minute by minute details on blowing up Freedom High School on the first day of classes next week.
“There were two individual faculty members that were specifically targeted. And then he also mentioned his desire to cause more casualties than were suffered in Columbine,” said Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor.
Here’s a video of the local police press conference:
(cont.)
He wrote a manifesto. Where have we heard about that before? Another report about Cano’s plan to kill more people than at Columbine:
Castor also said they recovered bomb making material from his home including fuses, timers, shrapnel, accelerant and plastic tubing. No firearms were found in his family’s apartment, police said.
“The plot very serious. He could have done all the damage he intended to do,” Castor said.
The arrest on Tuesday came just hours after someone alerted police about Cano’s alleged plot, Castor said. After a tip came into Tampa Police Department’s call center that Cano was plotting to bomb the school, detectives immediately called a bomb squad to his apartment. The tipster’s identity has been kept confidential but that person was praised today as a “hero.” […]
The manifesto detailed his minute-by-minute plan of attack, starting at 5 a.m. next Tuesday. It included the layout of Freedom High School and where exactly Cano was planning to place bombs in the school, Castor said.
She also said that the “materials found at [his] home were serious enough to do the job he wanted to do,” and added that everything was purchased legally.
Imagine if Jared had been a Muslim. This story would be playing 24/7 on our Cable News Networks. By the way, the picture of the Muslim man at the top of this diary is of Imam Zaid Shakir. He is a well respected scholar and a man who has worked to improve his community. You can read more about him here. Sadly, if you showed most people Cano and Shakir’s pictures side by side and asked them to pick out the terrorist who planned to bomb and kill over 30 people, I suspect a majority Americans would choose the photo of Imam Zaid Shakir before they picked out Jared Cano.
