The wave of hate crimes following Donald Trump’s election continues. James Harris Jackson, a white supremacist with connections to a documented hate group in Maryland, has been arrested and charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of Timothy Caughman, a black man, in New York City. According to NBC 4 New York, authorities want to upgrade the charges against Jackson to a hate crime and first-degree murder, with police saying that Jackson traveled from Baltimore to New York to specifically attack black men:
"He knew what he was doing when he was coming up here," [NYPD's Chief of Detectives for Manhattan William] Aubrey said.
"We’re very fortunate it started at one and wasn’t more. His intention was to come here and harm male blacks."
Aubrey said Jackson's recent actions and information from interviews led police to believe the crime was "clearly racially motivated." NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill called the killing "extremely distressing."
Jackson chose his victim at random, repeatedly stabbing Caughman in the back and chest as he was going through trash bins looking for recyclables. The victim stumbled into a nearby police station for help, but later died at the hospital from the injuries.
Police recovered a 26-inch mini sword, which they believe to be the weapon used in the stabbing, authorities said.
Two days after the stabbing, authorities said Jackson walked into the same station house just after midnight and allegedly told officers "I'm the person you're looking for" after a uniformed station officer recognized him from a wanted flyer.
He allegedly boarded a New York City-bound Bolt Bus from Baltimore Friday and booked a room at a Midtown hotel from Friday to Monday afternoon, police said. Following the stabbing, he wandered through the city before deciding to turn himself in.
The Maryland resident had been harboring feelings of hate toward black people for "over 10 years," police said.
The fact of the matter is that white supremacists have been emboldened by Trump. He’s fomented and encouraged this wall of hate but has then refused to forcefully condemn it when people act out in his name. When a white man recently shot two Indian men inside a Kansas bar after yelling a Trumpian “Get out of my country!” at them, it took Trump nearly a week to respond to it.
As for Caughman’s tragic death, don’t be shocked if there’s no official White House response at all. But just imagine for one second if the roles has been reversed: an undocumented immigrant or Muslim man with connections to an anti-white group expresses a long-held desire to kill white people, and then travels out of state to do it, targeting a random white woman to stab.
The result would be wall-to-wall cable news coverage, a nearly-instantaneous Trump tweet—"Appreciate the congrats for being right on illegals,” it would probably read. “I don't want congrats, I want toughness and vigilance. We must be smart!” A new draconian executive order or two would follow, along with an addition to the government’s new VOICE office targeting crimes by immigrants.
But, that would only happen if it were a white victim.