The Hate Crime That Wasn’t
On Tuesday, 21-yr old Michael Enright was arrested for attempting to murder a Muslim taxi cab driver in New York City. Enright had gotten into the man’s cab and after a short conversation where Enright supposedly asked the man about how Ramadan was going, Enright started attacking the man with a knife. The cab driver sustained injuries to his face and was only able to escape after he locked Enright in his cab. Enright was arrested by NYPD and charged with attempted second-degree murder.
Immediately, the incident by tied to the protests against the Ground Zero Mosque. Posters at HuffPo claimed he was a Tea Party member (which no evidence has surfaced that he is). However, details have emerged about Enright that have complicated this story and made me question whether this has anything to do with the Ground Zero Mosque or the fact that cabbie was Muslim.
From CNN (emphasis is mine):
A film student suspected of stabbing a New York cab driver after learning the driver was Muslim was described Thursday as someone who worked to build bridges across religious and ethnic boundaries.
Those who know Michael Enright, 21, a film student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, were “shocked and dumbfounded” by his arrest, said Robert Chase, the executive director of Intersections International. Enright volunteered with the nonprofit group, and it partially funded his trip in the spring to Afghanistan.
So here is a guy who volunteered time to a group that reached out to Muslims and spent time in Afghanistan (and who had a picture of himself posing with an Afghan child on his Facebook, but the FB page seems to have been taken down). Nothing in his past would suggest an association with hate groups. I also doubt that this guy would be caught dead at a Tea Party rally or anti-Ground Zero Mosque protest (he is a Film Student, c’mon…). I am sorry, but I don’t believe this guy did this for a minute because he hated Muslims. The CNN article says he was drunk when he was arrested. This seems to be a case of a dumbass who couldn’t handle his booze and who gets violent when he drinks. He should go to jail for a long time but to blame it on the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque is absurd (but not out of the realm of the supporters of the Mosque).
Category: Media
To paraphrase Forrest Gump: ” Stupid is as Liberal does”
No, I don’t buy this story at all. Too many missing pieces. Something went on here that we haven’t heard about. Either this guy was a closet psycho, or something else went on in that cab.
Now the question is: will inquiring minds ever know?
I’m with Dan, I’m betting he’s one of those that becomes dissociative when he has too much to drink.
Something else like when the hippy wannabe found out the muslim cabdriver was AGAINST the GZM?
HMMM? HMMMMMMM!????
Obviously a serious case of PTSD….
How many times have YOU ever gotten drunk, asked someone about their religion, then stabbed them in the face?
From the reports so far, the suspect lived and breathed his charity work; yet, he was supposed to go out, get tanked, and land all over a cabbie?
I’ll put dollars to donuts that there was even MORE to this situation that hasn’t been reported. Money? Drugs? Muslim bashing the white kid? Who knows….. but there are very large pieced missing from the puzzle.
Or there’s nothing missing at all.
I’ve personally known a few people who become severely dissociative when they drink to much, I personally think the whole thing is a non-story.
I say he’s a dem plant who wanted bad press for the mosque opposers.
However, knowing better, I’m going with drunk.
“I am sorry, but I don’t believe this guy did this for a minute because he hated Muslims. The CNN article says he was drunk when he was arrested. This seems to be a case of a dumbass who couldn’t handle his booze and who gets violent when he drinks.”
I’m going to disagree here. I say that he hates conservatism and the TEA Party SO MUCH that he conjured up this plan knowing full well that it would be blamed on ‘right wing wackos’ and just needed to get tanked to pull it off. None of the wounds to the cabby were life threatening, so I believe he planned not to do much damage to the poor guy and honestly really doesn’t give a s#!t about muslims, just hates GWB more.
#10
Gotta disagree Sponge. The cabbie took what looks to be between 15 and 20 stitches to the front of the throat, (definitely life threatening,) and maybe twice that to the anterior side of his right bicep. Just because the drunk idiot wasn’t competent enough to wield the knife effectively doesn’t mean he wasn’t looking for a fatal result.
I still think he was just a mean drunk and closet bigot.
#11 Jacobite:
There is another possibility.
He hates himself. That’s where the dissociative personality came in — not after the booze, but before. The alcohol was nothing more than liquid courage, not the cause of the attack.
He recently began working with veterans, and he recently returned from Afghanistan. The “charity to the noble savage” ideal was replaced with a reality he wasn’t capable of facing. Instead of being able to reconcile his ideal of charity with the reality he faced, he lashed out at a chosen target that was the “face” of his shattered ideal.
PN, I gotta admit, that’s a pretty good theory. I could accept it but I’m a big believer in Occam’s razor; ‘entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem‘, “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” . Or in military speak, K.I.S.S., ‘Keep it Simple Stupid.’ So…….he got drunk, he got stupid, now he’s gonna do time. 🙂
#13 The Latin was a nice touch! (Thank you for translating, because my Latin is very poor at best.) And I agree the K.I.S.S. principle works here, as you defined it: drunk, stupid, and doin’ time.
One important detail y’all overlooked. That group he belongs to, not only has given his new movie free press, but also SUPPORTS the Ground Zero Mosque.
http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2010/08/timely-hate-crime.html