Alleged Jersey City Killers Connected to Same Group That Sparked Covington Outrage but Media Basically Ignored
Tragedy struck Tuesday in Jersey City, New Jersey, when two shooters opened fire at a kosher supermarket, killing three civilians and engaging in an hours-long standoff with local authorities.
That standoff eventually resulted in the deaths of both alleged shooters — identified by authorities as David Anderson and Francine Graham — who had also taken the life of Jersey City Police Department Detective Joseph Seals at a nearby cemetery before their attack on the Jewish supermarket.
Citing a law enforcement official, The New York Times reported that Anderson had on several occasions espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric online.
According to CNN, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said at a news conference Thursday both suspects had expressed interest in a black supremacist movement known as the Black Hebrew Israelites — an organization that even the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group.
Grewal did say neither suspect appeared to have a formal connection to the anti-Semitic group.
According to the SPLC, Black Hebrew Israelites “advocate the superiority of the black race and that African Americans represent God’s true ‘chosen people.’ As God’s ‘true’ Jews, BHI adherents believe that Jews who self-identify with Israel are ‘scam artists’ and imposters. BHI adherents believe they are divinely empowered by God with superiority.”
“Some BHI adherents have been prone to violence, which they feel is justified by God, as long as it helps rid the world of evil,” the SPLC says.
If the BHI name sounds familiar, it’s because members of the group popped up back in January as the main agitators of an incident that the establishment media wrongly blamed on a group of underage Catholic high school students from Kentucky.
Of course, the media did try to provide cover for a few of the group’s D.C.-based demonstrators when they confronted and intimidated Covington Catholic High School students outside the Lincoln Memorial.
The media was remarkably silent about racial, ethnic and religious hate coming from the BHI protesters on that occasion, opting instead to figuratively tar and feather Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann by focusing on selectively edited footage of the confrontation to make it appear that the young man — who had been wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat — had somehow been to blame.
Officials slow to name Jersey City shooters but those w/knowledge identified them as David Anderson & Francine Graham. Anderson was part of Black Hebrew Israelites, a black nationalist anti-Semitic sect. He had extensive anti-police & racist posts online. https://t.co/TxPDmNnjlE
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 11, 2019
The Black Hebrew Israelites were the same guys who started the altercation in DC that the media blamed on the Covington kids. Media covering for this hate group again by not emphasizing the shooter’s association with them. https://t.co/t1Er1MMJQp
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) December 11, 2019
Now, this is the same media establishment that can immediately turn an alt-right or white supremacist act of vandalism into a lengthy, national dialogue on the importance of fighting anti-Semitism.
Unlike back in January, when the media tried its best to ignore the Black Hebrew Israelites’ role in sparking the incident outside the Lincoln Memorial, they are covering the reported BHI connection to Tuesday’s shooting.
But will this tragedy be reported as emblematic of a larger problem?
I seriously doubt it.
Put simply, it’s because the media is generally only interested in discussing anti-Semitism when it furthers the left’s narrative.
And in this case, the narrative is that right-wing white supremacists are solely responsible for anti-Semitic sentiment.
As Tuesday’s tragic events show, this narrative is clearly false.
But that didn’t stop Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib from the shooting blaming white supremacy in a since-deleted tweet.
To the left, characteristics like race and religion are simply a tool used to divide politically dissimilar Americans, demonize conservatives and win votes.
When such matters cannot be used as an effective weapon, they fall to the wayside and something more divisive becomes the new point of focus.
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