Army vet James Harris Jackson has hated Black people for a long time — for at least 10 years (isn’t that when Obama first ran for president?!). So he hopped on a bus and traveled from Baltimore to New York City, so he could murder a Black person and get his senseless, racist act in the headlines.
Clearly, it worked.
On Monday, Jackson murdered 66-year-old Timothy Caughman with a sword. He had been staying in a hotel since his arrival and was considering committing more acts of violence until he saw his face was already circulating in the media. From CNN:
Jackson told police that he picked New York because it is the media capital of the world and he wanted to make a statement. He had previously served in the military and deployed to Afghanistan, Aubry said police records show. Aubry also mentioned a 2013 interaction Jackson had with law enforcement.
"At this time, there is no connection of any crime involving (the) suspect here in Baltimore," T.J. Smith of the Baltimore Police Department said, adding that the BPD are keeping watch outside Jackson's home and expecting an NYPD investigation in town.
Aubry said police are working to add a hate crime or racially motivated crime to upgrade the second-degree murder charge to first-degree murder.
New York Daily News also says the killer is tied to a “known hate group,” which wasn’t specified. Rumor is the group is the Republican Party (kidding. sorta).
Considering the rise in hate crimes since Trump’s election, I am not surprised he took the leap to finally act on his hate. What’s doubly disturbing is that he didn’t want to hold in his bias or working on changing himself — he wanted to commit a hate crime to instill fear into the hearts of Black people he couldn’t get his hands on. This is what domestic terrorism looks like.
The real threat to American safety isn’t immigrants, trans folks using the bathroom, or poor people visiting Planned Parenthood. It’s men like Jackson.