Yeah I just replaced the 0 with o.
Let's Talk About the Radicalization of Young White Males Online
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Dylann Roof says he chose Charleston, Emanuel AME for massacre because they were historic, meaningful
By Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Abigail Darlington22 min ago
In a bizarre taped two-hour confession, Dylann Roof told the FBI he selected Charleston and the Emanuel AME Church to carry out a mass shooting because they were historic and would resonate with people as he tried to avenge perceived black injustices against whites.
Roof said he had to carry out the massacre that killed nine parishioners in June 2015 because "somebody had to do something because, you know, black people are killing white people every day on the street, and they're raping white women." He said his shooting rampage was "minuscule" compared to the damage done by blacks.
"I had to do it because no one else is brave enough to do anything about it," the self-avowed white supremacist said during a two-hour video confession taped after his arrest in North Carolina the day after the shooting.
During the chilling confession, Roof, then 21, nonchalantly described to two FBI agents how he walked into Mother Emanuel, the oldest black AME church in the South, carrying a high-powered pistol and a bag full of bullets that he unleashed on worshipers who had welcomed him to their weekly Bible study. He spoke in carefree tones, sometimes scoffing or snickering, while describing the horrific massacre.
Roof said he used a Glock .45-caliber pistol and a pile of ammunition he had purchased from Wal-Marts in the Columbia area as he had spare money. He began the interview quickly telling the agents that he "went to that church in Charleston and, uh, I did it."
When the agents asked what he'd done, he initially demurred, saying he didn't want to come right out and say it, even though he wasn't concerned about implicating himself. They encouraged him to just come right out and say it.
"Well, I killed them, I guess," Roof said with a chuckle.
"Did you shoot them?" the agent asked.
"Yes," Roof replied matter-of-factly.
One agent asked how many people he shot, and Roof seemed unsure. "If I had to guess ... five. Maybe. I'm not sure. Four or five."
When they later told Roof he had killed nine people, Roof didn't believe them.
"There wasn't even nine people there!" he said, pausing. "Are you guys lying to me?"
As Roof rubbed the conference table in front of him with one finger, an agent said that eight people died inside the church and one at the hospital. Roof paused for several seconds and answered softly, "Oh well."
When they asked how the deaths made him feel, Roof paused again.
"Well, it makes me feel bad," Roof added.
The comment seemed odd given he'd just detailed his white supremacist views and calmly described why he killed targeted black people in an historic church. An FBI agent then recapped the white supremacist views Roof had laid out and his plans to go to Emanuel AME because only black people would be at the Bible study. The agent asked Roof why he did it.
"Uh, uh, I don't know," Roof answered.
The three adult shooting survivors crammed into the prosecutors' side of the courtroom, along with other victims' loved ones and church members, listening stoically as Roof described in carefree tones why he gunned down nine people they knew and loved. Tyrone Sanders, whose 26-year-old son Tywanza died in the attack and whose wife and young granddaughter survived, got up as the confession played in court and stalked out whispering angrily to himself. Other family members took notes, and a few wiped their eyes.
No family members sat on the two benches reserved behind Roof as the confession played. Clad in the same charcoal-grey sweater and khaki slacks he wore yesterday, stared without expression at the defense table in front of him as he has throughout testimony.
Roof gave a detailed account of how he walked into the Bible study carrying a military-style bag with seven magazines full of ammunition. Counting the bullets in his gun, he was armed with 88 rounds, FBI Special Agent Michael Stansbury said.
Roof said the bag was heavy and he paused for a moment before taking his place at the table. "I was just sitting there thinking about whether I should do it or not, because I know I could have walked out," he said.
Roof decided to stay. He told the FBI agents he said nothing about his plans to the black parishioners who had welcomed him that night.
"Did you say anything to them beforehand?" Stansbury said.
"No, I didn't say anything to them," Roof replied.
"What about after?"
"Um, well, like during I said 'Don't talk to me' or something like that," Roof said.
Did they react to him being in the church, the agent pressed.
"I mean, they reacted after I shot, right," Roof said with a chuckle.
Roof also showed the agents how he pulled the gun from his bag while seated at the table, whipping his right arm up in a fluid motion. He thought he had been at the gathering for about 15 minutes at that point. It was more like 50. Once he started shooting, he said, "it was very fast."
Authorities have said Roof intended to start a race war. But in his confession, Roof said he thought a race war would be "pretty terrible" and "sort of unrealistic." Perhaps, he said, a better answer would be a return to racial segregation. He said he also he considered himself more of a "white nationalist" than a white supremacist, but he later expressed his view that the white race was superior to others because "we invented a lot more things than them."
At one point when agents asked why he wore black clothes, he joked: "Black is a nice color -- for clothes."
Roof also denied being a neo-Nazi, despite an affinity for movies such as "Made in Britain," a 1982 film about a foul-mouth and racially abusive skinhead who refuses to conform to authority. Agents found a copy of that movie that he had left behind in his father's home. Roof said he didn't consider the film racist. When pressed about his believes about the Nazis and their infamous leader, Roof said: "No, I support Hitler, sure."
Roof said he first latched onto this line of thinking after reading about Trayvon Martin, a black teenager gunned down by a community watchman in Florida in 2012. White supremacist groups have used Martin's killing to advance a racially-fueled - and false, experts say - narrative about black-on-white crime.
Roof said he picked a church to make his violent statement because it posed little risk. He chose Emanuel AME in particular after researching AME churches and learning about Emanuel's history on sciway.net, a large directory of information about South Carolina. "I didn't want to go to another church because there could have been white people there," he said, indicating that he didn't want to harm white people.
In scouting out the site, he stopped an Emanuel parishioner at one point and inquired about the time of their services and Bible study meetings, he said.
"I just knew that would be a place where there would be a small amount of black people," he said. "I thought about a black festival or something like that, but they have security," he said.
Agents asked him if he wished there had been more people inside Emanuel that night. "Noooooo," Roof said with a laugh. "If that was the case I would have shot everyone in there."
Three people in the fellowship hall that night survived the shooting - one authorities say that Roof let live to tell his story, and two others who played dead. Roof said he didn't want to shoot one woman left alive because she was looking at him.
Agents asked Roof how he felt about what he had done, Roof replied: "It makes me feel bad."
One of the agents questioned why, given that he had set out to kill black people. Roof had no answer.
After shooting 77 times in rapid fire, Roof said he was "pacing around because I was kind of freaking out." He left the church with bullets left in one magazine in case police awaited him outside. He slipped out the door he'd come in and peeked out into the darkness, surprised that no law enforcement officers had arrived. He'd planned to shoot himself if they were there.
"To be honest, I was in absolute awe that that nobody was out there after I shot so many bullets. What were these cops doing?" he asked.
Instead, he slipped back into his car parked beside the door and drove away onto an interstate. He had no real planned destination, instead driving to Charlotte and pondering whether to head for Nashville given he'd never been there before. Along the way, he decided suicide was a bad idea.
When asked if he'd commit the crime again, Roof laughed. "I might walk out (of the church). I'm not gonna lie."
Roof spent time leading up to his confession handcuffed and munching a meal from Burger King after his arrest in Shelby, N.C., following his arrest the day after the massacre, police officers testified Friday.
Shelby investigator Matt Styers said he sat with Roof for hours in the station's interview room, a small space that once served as a library. Police bought Roof a burger, as they would any suspect who was hungry, and waited for FBI agents to arrive to take Roof's statement. Roof didn't seem to be under the influence of any substance or medications, and he didn't seem tired or distressed, Styers testified.
Roof basically just stared straight ahead the whole time, Styers said. When asked if Roof got any special treatment, Styers said: "Absolutely not."
Prosecutors plan to play that confession in its entirety, marking the first time the public has heard extensively from the self-avowed white supremacist.
Before testimony began, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told the court the confession would show Roof was cooperative with investigators - even effusive at times - as he detailed what had happened. "He was eager to explain what he was trying to do," he said. "He had a relaxed demeanor, almost jovial."
In court, Roof has remained staunchly stone-faced, scarcely moving or looking up from the defense table in front of him, even when the victims' loved ones' sobs filled the gallery and horrific images from the massacre displayed on TV screens around the courtroom. Until yesterday, when he wore a grey cable-knit sweater and slacks, Roof had showed up in his striped jail jumpsuit.
Dylann Roof says he chose Charleston, Emanuel AME for massacre because they were historic, meaningful
By Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Abigail Darlington22 min ago
In a bizarre taped two-hour confession, Dylann Roof told the FBI he selected Charleston and the Emanuel AME Church to carry out a mass shooting because they were historic and would resonate with people as he tried to avenge perceived black injustices against whites.
Roof said he had to carry out the massacre that killed nine parishioners in June 2015 because "somebody had to do something because, you know, black people are killing white people every day on the street, and they're raping white women." He said his shooting rampage was "minuscule" compared to the damage done by blacks.
"I had to do it because no one else is brave enough to do anything about it," the self-avowed white supremacist said during a two-hour video confession taped after his arrest in North Carolina the day after the shooting.
During the chilling confession, Roof, then 21, nonchalantly described to two FBI agents how he walked into Mother Emanuel, the oldest black AME church in the South, carrying a high-powered pistol and a bag full of bullets that he unleashed on worshipers who had welcomed him to their weekly Bible study. He spoke in carefree tones, sometimes scoffing or snickering, while describing the horrific massacre.
Roof said he used a Glock .45-caliber pistol and a pile of ammunition he had purchased from Wal-Marts in the Columbia area as he had spare money. He began the interview quickly telling the agents that he "went to that church in Charleston and, uh, I did it."
When the agents asked what he'd done, he initially demurred, saying he didn't want to come right out and say it, even though he wasn't concerned about implicating himself. They encouraged him to just come right out and say it.
"Well, I killed them, I guess," Roof said with a chuckle.
"Did you shoot them?" the agent asked.
"Yes," Roof replied matter-of-factly.
One agent asked how many people he shot, and Roof seemed unsure. "If I had to guess ... five. Maybe. I'm not sure. Four or five."
When they later told Roof he had killed nine people, Roof didn't believe them.
"There wasn't even nine people there!" he said, pausing. "Are you guys lying to me?"
As Roof rubbed the conference table in front of him with one finger, an agent said that eight people died inside the church and one at the hospital. Roof paused for several seconds and answered softly, "Oh well."
When they asked how the deaths made him feel, Roof paused again.
"Well, it makes me feel bad," Roof added.
The comment seemed odd given he'd just detailed his white supremacist views and calmly described why he killed targeted black people in an historic church. An FBI agent then recapped the white supremacist views Roof had laid out and his plans to go to Emanuel AME because only black people would be at the Bible study. The agent asked Roof why he did it.
"Uh, uh, I don't know," Roof answered.
The three adult shooting survivors crammed into the prosecutors' side of the courtroom, along with other victims' loved ones and church members, listening stoically as Roof described in carefree tones why he gunned down nine people they knew and loved. Tyrone Sanders, whose 26-year-old son Tywanza died in the attack and whose wife and young granddaughter survived, got up as the confession played in court and stalked out whispering angrily to himself. Other family members took notes, and a few wiped their eyes.
No family members sat on the two benches reserved behind Roof as the confession played. Clad in the same charcoal-grey sweater and khaki slacks he wore yesterday, stared without expression at the defense table in front of him as he has throughout testimony.
Roof gave a detailed account of how he walked into the Bible study carrying a military-style bag with seven magazines full of ammunition. Counting the bullets in his gun, he was armed with 88 rounds, FBI Special Agent Michael Stansbury said.
Roof said the bag was heavy and he paused for a moment before taking his place at the table. "I was just sitting there thinking about whether I should do it or not, because I know I could have walked out," he said.
Roof decided to stay. He told the FBI agents he said nothing about his plans to the black parishioners who had welcomed him that night.
"Did you say anything to them beforehand?" Stansbury said.
"No, I didn't say anything to them," Roof replied.
"What about after?"
"Um, well, like during I said 'Don't talk to me' or something like that," Roof said.
Did they react to him being in the church, the agent pressed.
"I mean, they reacted after I shot, right," Roof said with a chuckle.
Roof also showed the agents how he pulled the gun from his bag while seated at the table, whipping his right arm up in a fluid motion. He thought he had been at the gathering for about 15 minutes at that point. It was more like 50. Once he started shooting, he said, "it was very fast."
Authorities have said Roof intended to start a race war. But in his confession, Roof said he thought a race war would be "pretty terrible" and "sort of unrealistic." Perhaps, he said, a better answer would be a return to racial segregation. He said he also he considered himself more of a "white nationalist" than a white supremacist, but he later expressed his view that the white race was superior to others because "we invented a lot more things than them."
At one point when agents asked why he wore black clothes, he joked: "Black is a nice color -- for clothes."
Roof also denied being a neo-Nazi, despite an affinity for movies such as "Made in Britain," a 1982 film about a foul-mouth and racially abusive skinhead who refuses to conform to authority. Agents found a copy of that movie that he had left behind in his father's home. Roof said he didn't consider the film racist. When pressed about his believes about the Nazis and their infamous leader, Roof said: "No, I support Hitler, sure."
Roof said he first latched onto this line of thinking after reading about Trayvon Martin, a black teenager gunned down by a community watchman in Florida in 2012. White supremacist groups have used Martin's killing to advance a racially-fueled - and false, experts say - narrative about black-on-white crime.
Roof said he picked a church to make his violent statement because it posed little risk. He chose Emanuel AME in particular after researching AME churches and learning about Emanuel's history on sciway.net, a large directory of information about South Carolina. "I didn't want to go to another church because there could have been white people there," he said, indicating that he didn't want to harm white people.
In scouting out the site, he stopped an Emanuel parishioner at one point and inquired about the time of their services and Bible study meetings, he said.
"I just knew that would be a place where there would be a small amount of black people," he said. "I thought about a black festival or something like that, but they have security," he said.
Agents asked him if he wished there had been more people inside Emanuel that night. "Noooooo," Roof said with a laugh. "If that was the case I would have shot everyone in there."
Three people in the fellowship hall that night survived the shooting - one authorities say that Roof let live to tell his story, and two others who played dead. Roof said he didn't want to shoot one woman left alive because she was looking at him.
Agents asked Roof how he felt about what he had done, Roof replied: "It makes me feel bad."
One of the agents questioned why, given that he had set out to kill black people. Roof had no answer.
After shooting 77 times in rapid fire, Roof said he was "pacing around because I was kind of freaking out." He left the church with bullets left in one magazine in case police awaited him outside. He slipped out the door he'd come in and peeked out into the darkness, surprised that no law enforcement officers had arrived. He'd planned to shoot himself if they were there.
"To be honest, I was in absolute awe that that nobody was out there after I shot so many bullets. What were these cops doing?" he asked.
Instead, he slipped back into his car parked beside the door and drove away onto an interstate. He had no real planned destination, instead driving to Charlotte and pondering whether to head for Nashville given he'd never been there before. Along the way, he decided suicide was a bad idea.
When asked if he'd commit the crime again, Roof laughed. "I might walk out (of the church). I'm not gonna lie."
Roof spent time leading up to his confession handcuffed and munching a meal from Burger King after his arrest in Shelby, N.C., following his arrest the day after the massacre, police officers testified Friday.
Shelby investigator Matt Styers said he sat with Roof for hours in the station's interview room, a small space that once served as a library. Police bought Roof a burger, as they would any suspect who was hungry, and waited for FBI agents to arrive to take Roof's statement. Roof didn't seem to be under the influence of any substance or medications, and he didn't seem tired or distressed, Styers testified.
Roof basically just stared straight ahead the whole time, Styers said. When asked if Roof got any special treatment, Styers said: "Absolutely not."
Prosecutors plan to play that confession in its entirety, marking the first time the public has heard extensively from the self-avowed white supremacist.
Before testimony began, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told the court the confession would show Roof was cooperative with investigators - even effusive at times - as he detailed what had happened. "He was eager to explain what he was trying to do," he said. "He had a relaxed demeanor, almost jovial."
In court, Roof has remained staunchly stone-faced, scarcely moving or looking up from the defense table in front of him, even when the victims' loved ones' sobs filled the gallery and horrific images from the massacre displayed on TV screens around the courtroom. Until yesterday, when he wore a grey cable-knit sweater and slacks, Roof had showed up in his striped jail jumpsuit.
Before court began Friday, Roof's defense team filed a motion asking to submit "relevant evidence of the defendant’s state of mind and personal characteristics." U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel has warned defense attorneys from trying to slip in that kind of evidence during this, the guilty phase, of the trial.
That type of evidence often is included during the next part of the trial, when jurors will decide if Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Defense attorneys typically offer evidence that shows a defendant's mental illness, history of abuse and other potentially mitigating factors in killings in an effort to garner a life sentence instead of death.
However, Roof will take over his defense at that point, acting as his own attorney, and will decide what evidence gets presented on his behalf.
His attorneys, who are representing him only during the guilt phase, argued in their motion to offer evidence regarding his state of mind and personal traits and that denying their ability to do so violates Roof's constitutional rights. They contend that prosecutors opened the door to that evidence when Richardson, chief prosecutor in the case, said Roof has "a cold and hateful heart" and when survivor Felicia Sanders called Roof "evil as can be."
Richardson said the defense can certainly probe Roof's state of mind during the crime and confession, but they are seeking to go well beyond that scope and into areas that are not allowed, such as how he behaved in middle school. "That is beyond what we think is appropriate," he said, adding that this line of inquiry would risk "confusing and misleading the jury."
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel agreed, saying that the defense wants to stray into territory that is meant for the penalty stage. Whether Roof was an impulsive 21-year-old or was contemplating suicide after the shooting - as the defense has indicated - has nothing to do with rebutting his guilt, he said. "This has nothing to do with whether he committed these 33 counts," he said.
Meanwhile, the presentation of Roof's confession today will follow harrowing evidence presented yesterday that included graphic images of bodies, blood and bullets, which flashed before a jury and families of the dead as federal prosecutors built their case against the 22-year-old accused of turning a cherished Charleston sanctuary into a gruesome tomb.
Roof sat still and expressionless throughout, staring down at the defense table, as federal prosecutors in his hate crimes trial showed 360-degree image scans from inside the historic church's fellowship hall where 12 people had gathered for their regular weekly Bible study. The chilling images showed the nine dead lying on a white tile floor smeared with blood and littered with spent shell casings and emptied magazines that had been cast aside when their rounds were exhausted.
Brittany Burke, a former State Law Enforcement Division crime scene technician, methodically walked the court through the visual display, identifying the fallen and pointing out evidence left in the killer's wake. Despite a warning from the presiding judge "that there's no shame in stepping out for this," about 50 victims' loved ones filled half of the courtroom as the horrific images appeared on two TV screens in front of them. One family member left the courtroom, while soft cries wafted through the gallery.
In all, SLED collected 74 shell casings from the room, and 54 rounds were pulled from the victims' bodies during autopsies, Burke said.
The victims were peppered with bullets. Susie Jackson, an 87-year-old parishioner and family matriarch, took the most rounds, with 11 shots to her body. Doctors also recovered four rounds from Tywanza Sanders; three from the church's pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney; six from Cynthia Graham Hurd; seven from Ethel Lance; eight from the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor; four from the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr.; five from Sharonda Coleman-Singleton; and eight from the Rev. Myra Thompson.
After he died, Sanders lay on his back, one arm stretched to touch his elderly Aunt Susie, who he had crawled across the floor to try to rescue. He died touching her short, curly hair. Others lay near or beneath tables covered with white cloths and open Bibles. Many looked as if they'd died while hiding under those tables, which they had used to study Scripture just minutes before being killed. Away from the rest, Pinckney lay face-down on the tile, a stream of blood stretching from his body, which was facing the fellowship hall's altar.
One by one, these nine had arrived at the stately white church on June 17, 2015, some chatting on phones or sharing a moment of fellowship before entering through a tall wooden door along the side of the building. Despite the heat of a muggy day, they wore bright dresses and business suits as they flocked to Mother Emanuel for a series of meetings and the weekly Bible study.
A video surveillance camera above the doorway recorded each of their arrivals, just as it had on many other occasions. But in a matter of hours, this doorway would transform from a warm welcome point for a tight-knit church community to a threshold for tragedy.
The video footage showed a black Hyundai pull into a parking space by the side door at about 8:17 p.m. A young man with a bowl haircut stepped from of the car, clad in a gray long-sleeve shirt and toting a fanny pack. At 9:07 p.m., the motion-activated camera captured him leaving the Calhoun Street church as well.
This time, he cautiously eased out the door and carefully looked both ways before slinking to his car. At his side, he gripped a black pistol.
This footage would prove critical in identifying Roof as the prime suspect in the killings. It's now a crucial piece of evidence in the federal hate crimes trial that could send him to his death. The jury that will decide his fate in the coming weeks watched the footage this morning as the death penalty trial entered its second day.
The day began with a judge denying a last-minute defense motion to declare a mistrial, ruling that a survivor's emotional comments on the witness stand the previous day were not unduly prejudicial.
The defense argued that prosecutors overstepped in eliciting testimony on Wednesday from survivor Felicia Sanders describing Roof as "evil," and that her comments on the stand veered into the territory of suggesting an appropriate sentence for Roof before guilt has been established.
"After the Court overruled defense counsel’s objection to this testimony, the witness later continued on cross-examination, 'He’s evil. There’s no place on earth for him except the pit of hell,'" the motion stated. "The strength and authenticity of the witness’s emotion was both apparent and entirely understandable. But the law is well-established that such statements simply do not belong in a courtroom."
The motion also stated that Roof's mother was rushed to a hospital on Wednesday and admitted for treatment of a heart attack following opening statements in the case, "highlighting the emotional nature of the proceedings."
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel, however, said it was Roof's lawyer, David Bruck, who elicited the "pit of hell" comment on cross-examination. This was in response to Bruck's asking Sanders if Roof had indicated during the attack that he was just 21 years old and that he planned to take his own life after the shooting. Gergel said neither of those factors were relevant during the guilt phase of the trial. "That's not an element to the crime, it's not a defense to the crime," he said.
Gergel also said he would not strike Sanders' comments from the record. But he said he would remind the jury that the question of punishment is their decision alone. "I will instruct the jury that the sentencing decision is always theirs and not the responsibility of any of the parties or any of the witnesses," he said.
Prosecutors spent much of the day continuing to lay the foundation for their case, detailing the extent of the carnage and introducing evidence linking Roof to the crime.
Charleston police Sgt. Dan English testified about finding the first images of the gunman on the church's video surveillance system, along with footage of the suspect's car, a black Hyundai Elantra. English used the images to create a wanted poster that led to Roof being identified as the man they were seeking.
English also narrated a video timeline he created from Emanuel's surveillance footage showing each of the nine victims arriving at the church that day and entering through a side door, beginning with Coleman-Singleton at 1:06 p.m. The timeline ended with Roof leaving with the gun clutched in his hand.
Burke, the former SLED crime scene investigator, then set the scene for the jury, describing what the killer left behind. She said she found shell casings and ammunition magazines strewn about the hall where the Bible study had been taking place, along with bullet holes piercing the walls, ceiling and furniture, Burke said. "It was indicative of someone moving while shooting and changing magazines" as they went, she said.
Roof faces 33 federal charges in all, including violations of hate crime laws and religious freedoms. While Bruck and his team are handling the guilt phase of trial, Roof has indicated that he intends to represent himself during the penalty phase of trial, when the jury would decide on sentencing him to death or a life term in prison.
Roof's attorneys have offered for him to plead guilty and serve life in prison, but federal prosecutors are seeking the ultimate punishment instead.
Meanwhile, state prosecutors also are seeking the death penalty. They have charged Roof with nine counts of murder and other charges. That trial is to begin Jan. 17.
That type of evidence often is included during the next part of the trial, when jurors will decide if Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Defense attorneys typically offer evidence that shows a defendant's mental illness, history of abuse and other potentially mitigating factors in killings in an effort to garner a life sentence instead of death.
However, Roof will take over his defense at that point, acting as his own attorney, and will decide what evidence gets presented on his behalf.
His attorneys, who are representing him only during the guilt phase, argued in their motion to offer evidence regarding his state of mind and personal traits and that denying their ability to do so violates Roof's constitutional rights. They contend that prosecutors opened the door to that evidence when Richardson, chief prosecutor in the case, said Roof has "a cold and hateful heart" and when survivor Felicia Sanders called Roof "evil as can be."
Richardson said the defense can certainly probe Roof's state of mind during the crime and confession, but they are seeking to go well beyond that scope and into areas that are not allowed, such as how he behaved in middle school. "That is beyond what we think is appropriate," he said, adding that this line of inquiry would risk "confusing and misleading the jury."
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel agreed, saying that the defense wants to stray into territory that is meant for the penalty stage. Whether Roof was an impulsive 21-year-old or was contemplating suicide after the shooting - as the defense has indicated - has nothing to do with rebutting his guilt, he said. "This has nothing to do with whether he committed these 33 counts," he said.
Meanwhile, the presentation of Roof's confession today will follow harrowing evidence presented yesterday that included graphic images of bodies, blood and bullets, which flashed before a jury and families of the dead as federal prosecutors built their case against the 22-year-old accused of turning a cherished Charleston sanctuary into a gruesome tomb.
Roof sat still and expressionless throughout, staring down at the defense table, as federal prosecutors in his hate crimes trial showed 360-degree image scans from inside the historic church's fellowship hall where 12 people had gathered for their regular weekly Bible study. The chilling images showed the nine dead lying on a white tile floor smeared with blood and littered with spent shell casings and emptied magazines that had been cast aside when their rounds were exhausted.
Brittany Burke, a former State Law Enforcement Division crime scene technician, methodically walked the court through the visual display, identifying the fallen and pointing out evidence left in the killer's wake. Despite a warning from the presiding judge "that there's no shame in stepping out for this," about 50 victims' loved ones filled half of the courtroom as the horrific images appeared on two TV screens in front of them. One family member left the courtroom, while soft cries wafted through the gallery.
In all, SLED collected 74 shell casings from the room, and 54 rounds were pulled from the victims' bodies during autopsies, Burke said.
The victims were peppered with bullets. Susie Jackson, an 87-year-old parishioner and family matriarch, took the most rounds, with 11 shots to her body. Doctors also recovered four rounds from Tywanza Sanders; three from the church's pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney; six from Cynthia Graham Hurd; seven from Ethel Lance; eight from the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor; four from the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr.; five from Sharonda Coleman-Singleton; and eight from the Rev. Myra Thompson.
After he died, Sanders lay on his back, one arm stretched to touch his elderly Aunt Susie, who he had crawled across the floor to try to rescue. He died touching her short, curly hair. Others lay near or beneath tables covered with white cloths and open Bibles. Many looked as if they'd died while hiding under those tables, which they had used to study Scripture just minutes before being killed. Away from the rest, Pinckney lay face-down on the tile, a stream of blood stretching from his body, which was facing the fellowship hall's altar.
One by one, these nine had arrived at the stately white church on June 17, 2015, some chatting on phones or sharing a moment of fellowship before entering through a tall wooden door along the side of the building. Despite the heat of a muggy day, they wore bright dresses and business suits as they flocked to Mother Emanuel for a series of meetings and the weekly Bible study.
A video surveillance camera above the doorway recorded each of their arrivals, just as it had on many other occasions. But in a matter of hours, this doorway would transform from a warm welcome point for a tight-knit church community to a threshold for tragedy.
The video footage showed a black Hyundai pull into a parking space by the side door at about 8:17 p.m. A young man with a bowl haircut stepped from of the car, clad in a gray long-sleeve shirt and toting a fanny pack. At 9:07 p.m., the motion-activated camera captured him leaving the Calhoun Street church as well.
This time, he cautiously eased out the door and carefully looked both ways before slinking to his car. At his side, he gripped a black pistol.
This footage would prove critical in identifying Roof as the prime suspect in the killings. It's now a crucial piece of evidence in the federal hate crimes trial that could send him to his death. The jury that will decide his fate in the coming weeks watched the footage this morning as the death penalty trial entered its second day.
The day began with a judge denying a last-minute defense motion to declare a mistrial, ruling that a survivor's emotional comments on the witness stand the previous day were not unduly prejudicial.
The defense argued that prosecutors overstepped in eliciting testimony on Wednesday from survivor Felicia Sanders describing Roof as "evil," and that her comments on the stand veered into the territory of suggesting an appropriate sentence for Roof before guilt has been established.
"After the Court overruled defense counsel’s objection to this testimony, the witness later continued on cross-examination, 'He’s evil. There’s no place on earth for him except the pit of hell,'" the motion stated. "The strength and authenticity of the witness’s emotion was both apparent and entirely understandable. But the law is well-established that such statements simply do not belong in a courtroom."
The motion also stated that Roof's mother was rushed to a hospital on Wednesday and admitted for treatment of a heart attack following opening statements in the case, "highlighting the emotional nature of the proceedings."
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel, however, said it was Roof's lawyer, David Bruck, who elicited the "pit of hell" comment on cross-examination. This was in response to Bruck's asking Sanders if Roof had indicated during the attack that he was just 21 years old and that he planned to take his own life after the shooting. Gergel said neither of those factors were relevant during the guilt phase of the trial. "That's not an element to the crime, it's not a defense to the crime," he said.
Gergel also said he would not strike Sanders' comments from the record. But he said he would remind the jury that the question of punishment is their decision alone. "I will instruct the jury that the sentencing decision is always theirs and not the responsibility of any of the parties or any of the witnesses," he said.
Prosecutors spent much of the day continuing to lay the foundation for their case, detailing the extent of the carnage and introducing evidence linking Roof to the crime.
Charleston police Sgt. Dan English testified about finding the first images of the gunman on the church's video surveillance system, along with footage of the suspect's car, a black Hyundai Elantra. English used the images to create a wanted poster that led to Roof being identified as the man they were seeking.
English also narrated a video timeline he created from Emanuel's surveillance footage showing each of the nine victims arriving at the church that day and entering through a side door, beginning with Coleman-Singleton at 1:06 p.m. The timeline ended with Roof leaving with the gun clutched in his hand.
Burke, the former SLED crime scene investigator, then set the scene for the jury, describing what the killer left behind. She said she found shell casings and ammunition magazines strewn about the hall where the Bible study had been taking place, along with bullet holes piercing the walls, ceiling and furniture, Burke said. "It was indicative of someone moving while shooting and changing magazines" as they went, she said.
Roof faces 33 federal charges in all, including violations of hate crime laws and religious freedoms. While Bruck and his team are handling the guilt phase of trial, Roof has indicated that he intends to represent himself during the penalty phase of trial, when the jury would decide on sentencing him to death or a life term in prison.
Roof's attorneys have offered for him to plead guilty and serve life in prison, but federal prosecutors are seeking the ultimate punishment instead.
Meanwhile, state prosecutors also are seeking the death penalty. They have charged Roof with nine counts of murder and other charges. That trial is to begin Jan. 17.
These alt-right cats are the epitome of p*ssy.
On another board I engaged two such types...one was trying to talk about how white males are "victims" and how racism towards white males is accepted. I told him to get the fukk out with that alt-right white supremacist bullshyt and told him to pull up....he gets all
and starts going into a long paragraph I didn't read.
Another said to me "you sir are a google"..
And ofcourse, thanks to this thread, I knew google = black person in alt-right vernacular...so I blasted him with it. told him I knew that was alt right terminology and he wasn't impressing anybody with that weak white supremacist beta male bullshyt and backtracked on that comment...saying his phone autocorrected...but I knew what was up.
I tell these cats to pull up and then they like
but then continue to harass defenseless targets like women and children using internet trolling. I be telling them I'm willing to see them in real life for that ass whooping and they like
How can you pop so much shyt online and not be prepared at all to back it up in real life?
That's how I know I'm dealing with privileged beta bytch boys, that's how I know I'm dealing with "men" that get beat up by boys and girls./..these cats are garbage and will never see a black man or a man of color that rivals them or surpasses them physically, cause they ain't built like that.
On another board I engaged two such types...one was trying to talk about how white males are "victims" and how racism towards white males is accepted. I told him to get the fukk out with that alt-right white supremacist bullshyt and told him to pull up....he gets all
and starts going into a long paragraph I didn't read.Another said to me "you sir are a google"..
And ofcourse, thanks to this thread, I knew google = black person in alt-right vernacular...so I blasted him with it. told him I knew that was alt right terminology and he wasn't impressing anybody with that weak white supremacist beta male bullshyt and backtracked on that comment...saying his phone autocorrected...but I knew what was up.
I tell these cats to pull up and then they like
but then continue to harass defenseless targets like women and children using internet trolling. I be telling them I'm willing to see them in real life for that ass whooping and they like How can you pop so much shyt online and not be prepared at all to back it up in real life?
That's how I know I'm dealing with privileged beta bytch boys, that's how I know I'm dealing with "men" that get beat up by boys and girls./..these cats are garbage and will never see a black man or a man of color that rivals them or surpasses them physically, cause they ain't built like that.
Y'all know who Matthew Heimbach is, right?
They're on this christian-national-white movement.
Casey Michel is a dope writer on this topic. He's been writing about this for years. Russia has been funding a lot of right-wing separatist movements in America :
The Rise of Russia's Traditionalist International
Why Vladimir Putin Hates Us
@KidStranglehold @bdizzle @Poitier @CashmereEsquire @Akan @Sagat @Trajan @EastCoastNaga @Raul @Kotal Kahn @wickedsm @SmokyQuartz @KidStranglehold @Akan @Malik Wright @tater @Athenna @BocaRear @SuikodenII @Heatle @The Sharingan @Kane @spaceXjamzZ @Vauxhall Bridge @Mowgli @Ghost Utmost @Hollywood Hogan @Dap Monster @Rusty$hackleford @AV Dicey @Celerii @ezrathegreat
They're on this christian-national-white movement.
Casey Michel is a dope writer on this topic. He's been writing about this for years. Russia has been funding a lot of right-wing separatist movements in America :
The Rise of Russia's Traditionalist International
Why Vladimir Putin Hates Us
@KidStranglehold @bdizzle @Poitier @CashmereEsquire @Akan @Sagat @Trajan @EastCoastNaga @Raul @Kotal Kahn @wickedsm @SmokyQuartz @KidStranglehold @Akan @Malik Wright @tater @Athenna @BocaRear @SuikodenII @Heatle @The Sharingan @Kane @spaceXjamzZ @Vauxhall Bridge @Mowgli @Ghost Utmost @Hollywood Hogan @Dap Monster @Rusty$hackleford @AV Dicey @Celerii @ezrathegreat
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-connections-to-the-alt-right-2016-11
'A model for civilization': Putin's Russia has emerged as 'a beacon for nationalists' and the American alt-right
Natasha Bertrand
Russian President Vladimir Putin has emerged as a hero of several prominent alt-right figures. Getty Images/Sean Gallup
Russian President Vladimir Putin has emerged as a hero of several prominent alt-right figures, raising new questions about the Kremlin's influence on the far-right, white nationalist movement that has asserted itself as a new force in American politics.
Whether Russia has played a direct role in awakening the American alt-right, whose resurgence as a crusade against establishment politics coincided with the rise of President-elect Donald Trump, is debatable.
But the extent to which the alt-right has found a natural ally in Russia's current zeitgeist — which perceives the US as a globalist, imperialist power working on behalf of liberal elites — is hard to overstate.
Self-described white nationalist Matthew Heimbach, who said he identifies as a member of the alt-right, has praised Putin's Russia as "the axis for nationalists."
“I really believe that Russia is the leader of the free world right now," Heimbach told Business Insider in a recent interview. "Putin is supporting nationalists around the world and building an anti-globalist alliance, while promoting traditional values and self-determination."
Heimbach described the US' current foreign policy as aggressive and imperialistic, and he criticized NATO's military buildup in eastern Europe as an example of how the US is trying to promote a "global conflict" with Russia.
Self-described white nationalist Matthew Heimbach gives a speech titled "Primed for the Fight" at the st0rmfr0nt Smoky Mountain Summit in 2013.Screenshot/YouTube
And while he views Russia as a "model for civilization" and "a beacon for nationalists," Heimbach emphasized that the movement goes beyond Russia and traditional left-right politics.
"This isn’t just a European or a right-wing movement," he said. "We're trying to position ourselves to be a part of this worldwide movement of globalism versus nationalism. It's a new age."
Like Heimbach, alt-right leader Richard Spencer — the head of the white nationalistthink tank the National Policy Institute — has argued that the US should dispense with its globalist policies by pulling out of NATO, resetting its relationship with Russia, and courting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he has described as "a civilized person" and "source of stability in this chaotic world."
National Policy Institute director Richard Spencer speaks at the 2015 American Renaissance conference. Screenshot/YouTube
Spencer's ties to Russia, which he has called the “ sole white power in the world," go deeper. He was married until October to Russian writer and self-proclaimed "Kremlin troll leader" Nina Kouprianova, whose writing under the pen name Nina Byzantina regularly aligns with Kremlin talking points.
For example: Byzantina recently described reports that thousands of civilians in rebel-held east Aleppo, Syria, are under siege by the Russia-backed Syrian government as "fake news."
The webzine Spencer founded in 2010 — called Alternative Right — accepted contributor pieces from Aleksandr Dugin, the far-right, ultra-nationalist politician who encouraged Putin's incursion into Ukraine and whose work has been translated into English by Byzantina on her blog. (It does have a caveat: "The views of the original author do not necessarily reflect those of the translator.")
Dugin also recorded a speech titled "To My American Friends in Our Common Struggle" for a nationalist conference organized by Heimbach last year in California.
'The greatest enemy of tradition everywhere'
A right-wing conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, organized last year by Russia's nationalist Rodina, or Motherland, party offered a safe space for fringe thinkers — including white supremacists and anti-Semites — to gather and rail against the US-led status quo.
There, American "race realist" Jared Taylor called the US " the greatest enemy of tradition everywhere." Klu Klux Klan attorney Sam dikkson also attended, and he joined Taylor in calling for the preservation of "[the white] race and civilization."
Heimbach agreed that the US has "poisoned" traditional values, but he insisted that his brand of white nationalism is distinct from white supremacy.
"We work actively with other ethnic groups to support their right to self-determination," Heimbach said, listing black nationalism and the full autonomy of Native Americans as two causes that his party actively supports.
David Duke, former KKK grand wizard Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Still, white supremacy — manifested frequently as anti-Semitism — is inextricably linked to the worldview of many alt-right admirers of Putin's Russia.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has traveled to Russia several times to promote his book "The Ultimate Supremacism: My Awakening on the Jewish Question." The book has been sold openly in the main lobby of the State Duma (Congress) for the equivalent of about $2, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Preston Wiginton, a white supremacist from Texas who sublets Duke's Moscow apartment when he travels to Russia, has written that his "best friends" in Russia — "the only nation that understands RAHOWA [Racial Holy War]" — are "leading skinheads."
Last year, he invited the ultranationalist Dugin to speak at his alma mater, Texas A&M University. This year he invited Spencer, who spoke there on Tuesday.
Texas A&M University. Facebook/Texas A&M University
Kevin MacDonald — who gave a speech at Spencer's NPI in late November about how "Jews remade America in their interests ... to make white America comfortable with massive non-white immigration and its own dispossession" — has written that the "demonization of Russia in Western media and political circles" is a Jewish campaign to undermine Putin.
"Russia under Vladimir Putin," he wrote, "has proved to be far more nationalistic than is good for the Jews or for Israel."
Heimbach, whose Traditionalist Workers Party was deemed an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, pushed back against claims that he is anti-Semitic. But he said he believes "the organized Jewish community" is heavily involved in "supporting movements that want to destroy nationalism."
"We call out those who are doing things that are hurting our people and are hurting the planet," he said, including "Jewish conglomerates" who are "ruthless cosmopolitans" and "don’t have a home anywhere."
'Putin as the savior of Christian civilization'
The perception of Putin as a "lion of Christianity" is another prominent feature of the alt-right's affection for the Russian leader.
Christopher Stroop, a scholar whose work centers around modern Russian history, has characterized many of today's alt-right figures as 'Traditionalist International" — a movement centered around the supremacy and "shared blood" of white Christians inspired largely by Russia's religious, nationalist turn spearheaded by Putin at the start of his third term.
Putin has stirred up Russian nationalism by cultivating a closer relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, which in turn has helped "project Russia as the natural ally of all those who pine for a more secure, illiberal world free from the tradition-crushing rush of globalization, multiculturalism and women’s and gay rights," The New York Times' Andrew Higgins wrote in September.
'A model for civilization': Putin's Russia has emerged as 'a beacon for nationalists' and the American alt-right
Natasha Bertrand
Russian President Vladimir Putin has emerged as a hero of several prominent alt-right figures, raising new questions about the Kremlin's influence on the far-right, white nationalist movement that has asserted itself as a new force in American politics.
Whether Russia has played a direct role in awakening the American alt-right, whose resurgence as a crusade against establishment politics coincided with the rise of President-elect Donald Trump, is debatable.
But the extent to which the alt-right has found a natural ally in Russia's current zeitgeist — which perceives the US as a globalist, imperialist power working on behalf of liberal elites — is hard to overstate.
Self-described white nationalist Matthew Heimbach, who said he identifies as a member of the alt-right, has praised Putin's Russia as "the axis for nationalists."
“I really believe that Russia is the leader of the free world right now," Heimbach told Business Insider in a recent interview. "Putin is supporting nationalists around the world and building an anti-globalist alliance, while promoting traditional values and self-determination."
Heimbach described the US' current foreign policy as aggressive and imperialistic, and he criticized NATO's military buildup in eastern Europe as an example of how the US is trying to promote a "global conflict" with Russia.
And while he views Russia as a "model for civilization" and "a beacon for nationalists," Heimbach emphasized that the movement goes beyond Russia and traditional left-right politics.
"This isn’t just a European or a right-wing movement," he said. "We're trying to position ourselves to be a part of this worldwide movement of globalism versus nationalism. It's a new age."
Like Heimbach, alt-right leader Richard Spencer — the head of the white nationalistthink tank the National Policy Institute — has argued that the US should dispense with its globalist policies by pulling out of NATO, resetting its relationship with Russia, and courting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he has described as "a civilized person" and "source of stability in this chaotic world."
Spencer's ties to Russia, which he has called the “ sole white power in the world," go deeper. He was married until October to Russian writer and self-proclaimed "Kremlin troll leader" Nina Kouprianova, whose writing under the pen name Nina Byzantina regularly aligns with Kremlin talking points.
For example: Byzantina recently described reports that thousands of civilians in rebel-held east Aleppo, Syria, are under siege by the Russia-backed Syrian government as "fake news."
The webzine Spencer founded in 2010 — called Alternative Right — accepted contributor pieces from Aleksandr Dugin, the far-right, ultra-nationalist politician who encouraged Putin's incursion into Ukraine and whose work has been translated into English by Byzantina on her blog. (It does have a caveat: "The views of the original author do not necessarily reflect those of the translator.")
Dugin also recorded a speech titled "To My American Friends in Our Common Struggle" for a nationalist conference organized by Heimbach last year in California.
'The greatest enemy of tradition everywhere'
A right-wing conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, organized last year by Russia's nationalist Rodina, or Motherland, party offered a safe space for fringe thinkers — including white supremacists and anti-Semites — to gather and rail against the US-led status quo.
There, American "race realist" Jared Taylor called the US " the greatest enemy of tradition everywhere." Klu Klux Klan attorney Sam dikkson also attended, and he joined Taylor in calling for the preservation of "[the white] race and civilization."
Heimbach agreed that the US has "poisoned" traditional values, but he insisted that his brand of white nationalism is distinct from white supremacy.
"We work actively with other ethnic groups to support their right to self-determination," Heimbach said, listing black nationalism and the full autonomy of Native Americans as two causes that his party actively supports.
Still, white supremacy — manifested frequently as anti-Semitism — is inextricably linked to the worldview of many alt-right admirers of Putin's Russia.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has traveled to Russia several times to promote his book "The Ultimate Supremacism: My Awakening on the Jewish Question." The book has been sold openly in the main lobby of the State Duma (Congress) for the equivalent of about $2, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Preston Wiginton, a white supremacist from Texas who sublets Duke's Moscow apartment when he travels to Russia, has written that his "best friends" in Russia — "the only nation that understands RAHOWA [Racial Holy War]" — are "leading skinheads."
Last year, he invited the ultranationalist Dugin to speak at his alma mater, Texas A&M University. This year he invited Spencer, who spoke there on Tuesday.
Kevin MacDonald — who gave a speech at Spencer's NPI in late November about how "Jews remade America in their interests ... to make white America comfortable with massive non-white immigration and its own dispossession" — has written that the "demonization of Russia in Western media and political circles" is a Jewish campaign to undermine Putin.
"Russia under Vladimir Putin," he wrote, "has proved to be far more nationalistic than is good for the Jews or for Israel."
Heimbach, whose Traditionalist Workers Party was deemed an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, pushed back against claims that he is anti-Semitic. But he said he believes "the organized Jewish community" is heavily involved in "supporting movements that want to destroy nationalism."
"We call out those who are doing things that are hurting our people and are hurting the planet," he said, including "Jewish conglomerates" who are "ruthless cosmopolitans" and "don’t have a home anywhere."
'Putin as the savior of Christian civilization'
The perception of Putin as a "lion of Christianity" is another prominent feature of the alt-right's affection for the Russian leader.
Christopher Stroop, a scholar whose work centers around modern Russian history, has characterized many of today's alt-right figures as 'Traditionalist International" — a movement centered around the supremacy and "shared blood" of white Christians inspired largely by Russia's religious, nationalist turn spearheaded by Putin at the start of his third term.
Putin has stirred up Russian nationalism by cultivating a closer relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, which in turn has helped "project Russia as the natural ally of all those who pine for a more secure, illiberal world free from the tradition-crushing rush of globalization, multiculturalism and women’s and gay rights," The New York Times' Andrew Higgins wrote in September.
In July, Putin outlawed religious proselytizing in a crackdown on non-government-aligned churches. The Russian Orthodox Church was exempted from the ban.
"As the Russian Federation has drifted back to its Soviet roots more and more over the past 25 years, it has increasingly sought to harass, persecute, and destroy any religious organization that it might consider competition to its own 'state church,'" said Archbishop Andrew Maklakov, the administrator of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church of America.
Heimbach, who said he was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church with his wife two years ago, views Putin as fighting for the same values — "faith, family, and folk" — that guide his own party.
"To rebuild a nation, you have to be able to build up the people," Heimbach said."And that requires having a strong moral foundation. Putin is fighting for faith, family, and folk. The fact that he's rebuilt tens of thousands of churches, allowed religious services to be broadcast on national television — all of that has been crucial to rebuilding Russia."
It has also been crucial to exporting Russia's "Slavophile version of moral superiority to the world," Stroop said, through figures like Alexsandr Dugin and institutions like the World Congress of Families (WCF).
The WCF, a US coalition that promotes right-wing Christian values, played a leading role in advocating for Russia's 2013 anti-LGBT law that makes it illegal to expose minors to LGBT "propaganda."
Larry Jacobs, WCF's managing director who first traveled to Russia in 2010 to attend a conference hosted by the Russian Sancity of Motherhood organization, has said that “the Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world."
Former Fox News producer Jack Hanick, who serves on the WCF planning committee and spoke at the third Sanctity of Motherhood conference in Moscow in November 2013, was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church earlier this year along with his wife and son.
"Modern Russia has returned to its Christian roots," Hanick wrote in an article for the New York Observer last year.
"There is a revival in Russian Orthodoxy with over 25,000 new churches built in Russia after the fall of Communism," he said. "On any Sunday, the churches are packed. Over 70% of the population identifies themselves as Orthodox Christians. Combine this religious revival with renewed Nationalism and Russia is growing in self-confidence."
Stroop noted that Americans involved with the World Congress of Families "have been looking to Russia as having the potential to 'save' Western civilization for a long time."
"Based on quotations from white nationalists and racists like Matthew Heimbach and Pat Buchanan," Stroop added, "I'd say they've certainly looked to Putin as the savior of Christian civilization."
For Heimbach, Putin's brand of orthodoxy, which opposes same-sex marriage, abortion, and globalism, "is the last institution standing for traditional values."
And he's happy to see Putin working hard to export those values, even if that may be perceived as meddlesome and globalist in its own right.
"Putin is supporting traditionalism and self-determination, so meddle away," Heimbach said, laughing. "He is giving nationalists an opportunity to fight for the best interests of their nations, which in my view is a positive thing for everyone."
Stroop said that while Putin's embrace of traditional values in his third term "may have been initially about turning to Russian populism, it's really hard to separate foreign from domestic policy in this context" — something the Kremlin hasn't tried to do.
"Putinism is heavily influenced by the ideas of Dugin and that old Slavophlie/Pan-Slav Russian nationalist tradition at this point," Stroop said, pointing to the soft-power Russkiy Mir Foundation established by Putin in 2007. It was started, in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church, to promote the idea of a "Russian World" of compatriots.
As of today, the foundation has a presence in 29 countries.
timothy_strickland
BRUHZ
They really look like basement cornball lames 
Word, with all the homo's and feminization of men, real brehs are eating....almost wish I was single again
