← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · kminta
Thread ID: 8384 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2003-07-23
2003-07-23 20:32 | User Profile
[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030723/ap_on_re_us/city_hall_gunfire]N.Y. Councilman Dies in City Hall Gunfire[/url]
5 minutes ago
By Timothy Williams, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - A gunman opened fire during a meeting inside City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon, killing a city councilman who has crusaded against urban violence and wounding another person.
Police swarmed the lower Manhattan neighborhood searching for the gunman. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was in his office during the shooting and unharmed, ruled out terrorism.
Metal detectors have been installed at either end of the plaza outside the building, along with barricades.
"We do not know how someone got a gun in the building," Bloomberg said. "Obviously, there was a breakdown someplace."
The gunman's motive was unknown, said the mayor, who confirmed that one person was killed. A city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Brooklyn Councilman James Davis, a former police officer, was shot twice in the chest and died.
The second victim was not identified.
"It appears to be a random act, but we cannot allow this to go on, ever. This is an attack on all Americans," Bloomberg said.
Davis, 41, an outspoken presence on the council, joined the police department in 1993, 10 years after he was allegedly beaten by two white officers.
In 1991, Davis, who was black and represented Brooklyn, started "Love Yourself Stop the Violence," a not-for-profit organization dedicated to stopping violence in urban America. He was elected in 2001, and was a minister.
At least a dozen shots echoed across the second floor of City Hall, sending people diving for cover beneath their desks as the rotunda filled with screams.
"It was so loud you couldn't hear the direction," said City Council photographer Dan Luhmann. "At first, it was absolute stillness. And then people rushed out and ducked under their desks and it was chaotic."
The shooter was one of about 100 people on the balcony inside the second-floor council chambers when the gunfire erupted after 2 p.m, according to eyewitnesses.
Joel Rivera, the council's majority leader, said Davis was in the balcony talking to the shooter when the gunman "pulled out a silver gun, possibly a revolver." Rivera told CNN the shooter may have gotten into City Hall with a Davis staffer.
An emergency worker said the two victims were lying side by side in the balcony, both with bullet wounds to the chest.
Security has been stepped up at City Hall since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In addition to the metal detectors, a uniformed police officer is posted at the gate.
Employees, reporters with current press passes and police officers are not required to pass through metal detectors. It was not immediately clear how the gunman got a weapon inside.
Police were searching for a man in a blue suit in connection with the shooting, which continued for about three minutes.
"I looked up, and I saw someone shooting downward," said City Councilman David Yassky. A security guard returned fire, according to Yassky.
Police officers, including some in riot gear, were seen running across the plaza in front of the building once the shooting stopped. The entrances and exits to the building were sealed off.
The two victims were rushed from the front of the building on stretchers, loaded into ambulances and brought to a hospital.
2003-07-23 20:41 | User Profile
Too bad it wasn't [url=http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2002/8/22/212255]Charles "I'd like to slap White person" Barron[/url].
[SIZE=2]I wonder if we'll be celebrating "James Davis Day" in the future?[/SIZE]
2003-07-23 20:47 | User Profile
Originally posted by Kurt@Jul 23 2003, 13:41 * Too bad it wasn't [url=http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2002/8/22/212255]Charles "I'd like to slap White person" Barron[/url].*
"...for [your] mental health"?
2003-07-23 21:07 | User Profile
I would say that perhaps il ragno has been busy, but I doubt it, since the shooter is no doubt black, seeing as how race wasn't mentioned at all. If he hadn't been black, I'm sure the headlines would have been blaring about the racist white gunning down the innocent African American and all.
Probably a crony that didn't get his kickback payment on time.
2003-07-23 21:53 | User Profile
It is clear that this perpetrator didn't have necessary school books and advanced computer technology that the other schools have. I immediately call for an investigation to unearth the "inequalities" this man has suffered. And lastly, we must build more basketball parks to keep our "urban" residents from a life of violence.
2003-07-24 03:58 | User Profile
Bloomberg will lobby to make the GOP even more anti-gun now.
Full Newsday Coverage Of The City Hall Shooting [url=http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-davisstorygal0724.storygallery]http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhat...24.storygallery[/url]
More on the Gunman Othniel Askew:
**Gunman Hinted At Vendetta Prior to Shooting
Photos Othniel Askew [url=http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-askew0723,0,5272919.photo]http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhat...0,5272919.photo[/url]
[url=http://www.nynewsday.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2003-07/8708479.jpg]http://www.nynewsday.com/media/thumbnails/...-07/8708479.jpg[/url]
By Joshua Robin and Daryl Khan Staff Writers
Othniel Askew presented a strange letter this week to his opponent for City Council, James E. Davis, according to one of Davis' friends.
The letter requested Davis to agree that should "something happen" to the councilman, Askew would fill his seat, said Eric Blackwell, an urban studies professor at Long Island University in Brooklyn.
It was a bizarre proposition, hand-delivered to Davis' Fort Greene office. The two men barely knew each other, and Askew was no ally of the gregarious councilman. And Askew was a political novice who recently had missed a deadline to be formally declared a candidate.
"They thought it was crazy," Blackwell said of Davis' staff, noting that the councilman rejected the proposition.
But neither Blackwell nor others in Brooklyn political circles expected Othniel Boaz Askew's competitive request to morph into a deadly vendetta.
"James had rivals, but he didn't have enemies," said Harry Kresky, Davis' attorney.
According to an e-mail Askew sent to a reporter for the Brooklyn-based Courier-Life Publications, Askew was born to "economically challenged parents" in Brooklyn, attended unspecified public schools and was honorably discharged from the Air Force in 2001.
Askew, who used Aaron as a nickname, wrote that he worked in real estate, and according to residents of South Eliot Street, where he lived in a sky blue three-story townhouse, was intellectual and politically minded.
"He had a group of young people with clipboards going around with petitions, saying he was going to challenge James Davis," said neighbor Larry Caparaso. "I signed it. I think Aaron had designs to be popular in politics. He was very bright."
He was also somewhat odd, according to other candidates in the race.
"He's been pretty much like a stalker ââ¬â every five minutes he wants to meet with you," said Anthony Herbert, who was also challenging Davis and said he met once with Askew. He said Askew unsuccessfully tried to get him to drop out of the race.
"This guy was just bad news," Herbert said.
Another candidate, Avraham Wasserman, said he also had met Askew once, but he couldn't recall where. He said they talked briefly about religion; Askew, said he was Jewish ââ¬â the son of a converted mother.
"I thought he was very presentable, business-like," Wasserman said. "He looked like an outstanding person."
According to John Ravitz, executive director of the New York City Board of Elections, Askew failed to meet a July 11 deadline to present a required candidate petition. In another e-mail to the Courier-Life reporter, Askew said he had collected 2,500 signatures ââ¬â far more than the 900 needed. But he said "last-minute circumstances" arose and "human incompetency prevented the petitions from being delivered before midnight."
The reporter, Erik Engquist, said Askew sent the second e-mail three times, correcting his own grammar.
Engquist said he sensed Askew was mad about being left off the ballot.
According to a City Council source, Askew was sharply disappointed to find out his petitions were just a few minutes too late.
"He was upset and very angry at that point," said the official, who had contact with Askew.
When Davis got word of the situation, the source said, he reached out to Askew with a prospect of "help" ââ¬â possibly in the form of a staff job or money.
Mark Taylor, a friend of Askew's, said he also sensed Askew was upset recently ââ¬â but wouldn't say why. He did, however, say that Askew indicated "over the last few days" that something akin to Wednesday's incident would unfold.
At the urging of his lawyer, Taylor declined to give details.
"I knew this was gonna happen," Taylor said, crying into a paper towel a few blocks from Davis' headquarters. "I tried to talk to him, but I couldn't talk to him for long Wednesday."
Yet if Askew was still angry when he met Davis Wednesday morning at a Fort Greene barbershop, he didn't show it. Askew asked for a ride to City Hall, so he could straighten out his candidacy, Davis' associates said.
Just before the shooting, Askew went with Davis to a news conference praising Councilman John Liu's legislative director who had gotten a fellowship and was moving on.
Liu said he saw Askew in the audience and later learned he had come with Davis.
"I was wondering who he was," Liu said.
[url=http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-ask0724.story]http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhat...c-ask0724.story[/url] **
2003-07-24 07:25 | User Profile
Guns don't kill people; niers kill people.
When will we learn?
2003-07-24 14:57 | User Profile
Guns don't kill people; niers kill people.**
Quite right, sir.
Yes, everyone involved in the shootout was a burrhead: the councilman, the would-be councilman, and the cop. (See? Blacks are the heroes here!) No doubt Jared Taylor will be excited, but, in the approximate words of A. Linder, "So what? N's did that yesterday, they're doing it today, and they'll do it tomorrow. That's not news."
We can fully expect the follow-up to follow all the judeo-forms: Questions will fly about building security, gun control, dynamic personalities, the duels in Congress of years past (really, these guys were just following a fine White tradition), the irony of Davis as a "crime-fighter," and so on. Davis, to his credit, once said that before blacks march in Bensonhurst, they should be marching in Harlem against the violence of their own people. He said something like, "nine times out of ten, the shooter is someone who looks like us."
Make that ten out of ten.
In all of it, Richard Lynn's fine work on black temperament will go unmentioned. Nobody will dare say, "yeah, I think the real problem here is that blacks are just an excitable bunch. Why should the rest of us have to walk through security because THEY go nuts all the time?" And, for the unmentioning, Whites will suffer. This has to stop. It will stop when blacks and Whites are separated.
2003-07-24 14:59 | User Profile
I forgot:
I was watching the brother of James Davis, Geoffrey Davis, being interviewed by the TV people:
"Geoffrey, who did this?"
"I don't know who did this. The SYSTEM did this."
Tell it, brother.
2003-07-25 07:28 | User Profile
Still haven't seen a photo of that dusky scamp Othniel on the One-Eyed Joo. Why, one would almost think they're trying to hide his race or something....
:afro:
2003-07-27 04:43 | User Profile
N.B. Forrest,
The Shooter was a Afro-Sodomite:
**Hours before his City Hall attack, black gunman Othniel Askew told the FBI his eventual victim City Councilman James Davis had threatened to expose him as gay and harm his family unless he dropped a political challenge, investigators say. Court records show Askew was charged with assault in 1996 and accused of beating his "domestic partner" with a hammer. Askew pleaded guilty to harassment and signed an order agreeing to stay away from the man.
url: [url=http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030725_717.html]http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030725_717.html[/url]
Pictures
Councilman Davis "strong advocate of gay rights" [url=http://www.365gay.com/NewsContent/072303nyShooting.htm]http://www.365gay.com/NewsContent/072303nyShooting.htm[/url]
Othniel Askew - photo from New York Daily News [url=http://www.newnation.org/Images/OthnielAskew2.jpg]http://www.newnation.org/Images/OthnielAskew2.jpg[/url]
James E. Davis [url=http://www.newnation.org/Images/JamesEDavis.jpg]http://www.newnation.org/Images/JamesEDavis.jpg[/url]**