Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez has been arrested for firing his rifle in the direction of the White House, putting a hole in an exterior window and embedding the bullet in the interior ballastic glass.
In trying to determine why he traveled to the nation’s capital from the western part of the country, investigators also found no connection between him and the Occupy D.C. protest, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said Ortega-Hernandez’s alleged motive may have been anger. “He hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society,” the official said.
Jonathan S. Tobin is quick to note how quickly the media rushed to establish that there is no connection between Otega-Hernandez and the Occupy DC protest, even though the shooter spent some time at the Occupy DC encampment.
But imagine just for a moment if a man who was described by police as being filled with anger at Washington and the president and who had a predilection for violence had, prior to losing a shot at the White House, lingered in the vicinity of a Tea Party demonstration, let alone an encampment of the group. Though they were routinely depicted as a threat to democracy, there was no Tea Party violence, just an occasional rude remark to members of Congress at town hall meetings. The notion of the Tea Party as a band of violent racists is a trope that was repeated endlessly by the same news outlets that are rightly endeavoring to make sure there is no guilt by association link established between the White House shooter and OWS.
Let’s also compare the rush to absolve OWS of any connection to Ortega-Hernandez with the stampede to tie Jared Loughner, the mentally disturbed man who attempted to assassinate Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to conservative critics of President Obama and the Democrats. Though that supposed connection was almost immediately proved to be utterly false, the fact that some Republican groups (including one led by Sarah Palin) sought to “target” Giffords (as in, attempt to defeat her re-election bid) is still spoken of in many quarters as being somehow responsible for the attack.
Unlike the Occupy Shooter, the Tea Party weapon of choice is the vote. The Tea Party ambush is set for election day 2012, and I expect it will be devastating. It was in 2010.
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