Three of the men accused of opening fire at a Black Lives Matter protest last month in Minneapolis appeared in court Tuesday with their attorneys, and they want us all to know that they’re not racists.
Well, that certainly clarifies things, doesn’t it?
Four men–Allen Scarsella, Joseph Backman, Nathan Gustavsson, and Daniel Macey–have been charged in the November 23 shootings that left five people wounded. All of the victims survived their injuries
Ryan Garry, the attorney for Daniel Macey, told the court he wanted to make one thing perfectly clear about his client:
“Mr. Macey is not a white supremacist, he is not a racist.”
No, he just enjoys opening fire into crowds of peaceful black protesters. How could that possibly be racist?
Meanwhile, an attorney for Backman adamantly insisted his client was not a white supremacist. And Gustavsson’s lawyer claimed prosecutors cannot even prove his client had a gun.
However, a close look at Gustavsson’s social media profile shows him holding and shooting guns, and one of the other men can clearly be seen holding a gun in a video which was recorded as they drove to the Black Lives Matter protest.
A hearing for Scarsella, who is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of riot, was postponed until January at the request of his attorney.
On Tuesday, a judge set bail at $250,000 each for Backman, Gustavsson, and Macey, who are charged with riot. Bail for Scarsella was set at $500,000.
If you’ll pardon my confusion for a moment, perhaps someone can explain to me how a four white guys who go to a Black Lives Matter rally toting guns–which they later fired while at the protest–can dare to stand in court and declare that they aren’t racist? What would they prefer to be called? Pacifists?
Frankly, whether or not any of these guys considers himself to be a racist or white supremacist is irrelevant to the case at hand. All that remains to be determined is whether or not they committed the crimes they are charged with. That is what they ultimately must answer for.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.