This Wasn't Any "Road Rage" Incident (Pt. 2 of 2)

(Cont. from Part 1) The Mississippi police have to realize this has all the superficial look of a racial and/or xenophobic shooting. The two-car technique seems stikingly similar to that used by Klan types in the 1960s, for instance in the notorious murder of the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, MS, in 1964.

It seems awfully public for an organized crime hit. It could be a personal grudge, but having a second car ready with an automatic weapon makes that less likely. But if they've got politicals whacking people on public highways in broad daylight because they think they look like "A-rabs" or something, I would think that would be something the police would want to publicize.

For one reason, as a warning to the public. For another, to try to get people with some knowledge of the creeps involved to rat them out. While I wouldn't want to underestimate the problems they can cause, these white-supremacist types generally operate with something less than al-Qaeda levels of secrecy and discipline. So publicizing this and asking for the public's help might yield some promising leads.

So, unfortunately, it looks like we've had at least one death from terrorism in America over the holidays. And it doesn't look like the perps were either Iraqis or al-Qaeda.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also carried the story, but their reporter (or editor) didn't consider the "road rage" theory serious enough to mention. Their reporter did question Sgt. Gazzo about a possible ethnic-racial angle:

The family of Indian immigrants apparently was not targeted because of their ethnicity because they were traveling in a car with tinted windows, Gazzo said.

"I don't think you'd really be able to tell who was inside, so that possibility is slight," he said.

That sounds pretty thin to me. Other than limosines, I've rarely seen cars with tinting that thick. And if the perps stalked them from the casinos - a possibility that the cops discussed - then the window tint wouldn't matter. I hope they get to the bottom of this one.