After being rammed by a car at the heavily guarded northern entrance to Capitol Hill, Capitol Police Officer William F. Evans was killed and another officer was wounded, according to the Capitol Police’s acting Chief Ms Pittman. The perpetrator as it turned out was not a white supremacist but a member of the radical group, “Nation of Islam.”
Since the Capitol riots on January 6th, the security at Capitol hill, at the behest of the Democrats, was substantially beefed up. The Democrats had cited a threat from White supremacists, majorly targeting Republican supporters. But the first death of a cop since the Capitol riots was carried out by a person who was a supporter of the radical group “Nation of Islam.”
Ms Pittman said at the news conference that the attacker “exited the car with a knife in hand” and started “lunging” at the officers after ramming them. Noah Green, 25, of Indiana, was later named as the suspect by a senior law enforcement official.
The motive for the attack is unknown, but investigators do not believe it was “terrorism-related” at this time, according to Washington Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J. Contee III.
Mr Green was not identified by Ms Pittman, but she did say that the driver was not known to her department. Mr Green described himself as a supporter of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on his Facebook page, which has since been taken down, and said he had been struggling over the last few months of the pandemic.
Green recently claimed on his Facebook page, which has since been deleted, that he was unemployed and faced fear, hunger and a lack of resources. The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media and tracks online activity, captured the messages.
Green claimed on Facebook that he believes Louis Farrakhan, the father of the Nation of Islam, is “the Messiah.” “I regard him as a spiritual father to me. I would not have been able to continue without his encouragement, his work and the lessons he has taught me along the way,” he wrote.
Farrakhan has been identified as an anti-Semite by the anti-hate group ADL, who has been railing against Jews, white people and the LGBT community for more than 30 years. Farrakhan’s speeches attract tens of thousands of people, earning him the dubious distinction of being America’s most famous anti-Semite, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Law enforcement sources said, after the deadly attack, that the incident did not appear to be related to terrorism. Green’s social media activity, according to Ria Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, indicates he was troubled, but terrorism should not be ruled out.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Nation of Islam has gained a “prominent spot in the ranks of organised hate.” The SPLC was founded in 1930 and, according to its website, “has grown into one of the richest and best-known organisations in black America.”
“Its bizarre theology is of inherent black dominance over whites,” the SLPC continues.
From 1952 to 1964, Malcolm X was a leading member of the group. According to the SPLC, Farrakhan “weathered the storm” and “managed to build a powerful base inside the Country” after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965.
Farrakhan has called Adolf Hitler a “very great man” and has referred to Jews as “termites” in the past. Several members of Congress from the Democratic Party have been linked with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. In 2011, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, shared the stage with Farrakhan. Clyburn told the Nation of Islam’s media arm, the Final Call, after the event that he was “not troubled in the least bit” by the criticism of his appearance with Farrakhan.
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Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a Democrat, has also praised Farrakhan’s organisation. The Nation of Islam’s “voice has been significant for the advancement of Black theology,” according to Warnock in 2013.
While the Democrats had extensively cracked down upon so-called white supremacists, their alleged ties to a man who feeds on racial superiority is downright partisan politics. The attacker, Green, was an ardent Nation of Islam follower, a group that believes in the racial superiority of the blacks. But there has been muted sympathy for the officer or criticism of the organisation from the Democrats because selective criticism is the only way the Democrats can toe their political lines.