American Jewish Committee Outraged At Pittsburgh ShootingsAmerican Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee today expressed outrage at the shooting rampage in the Pittsburgh area, which left one Jewish woman and four others dead, and two synagogues damaged. "While we don't yet know fully the motivation for this latest carnage, yesterday's rampage by Richard Baumhammers disturbingly fits a pattern of too many recent hate crimes," said David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee.  "Various white supremacist tracts call for just this type of lone gunman-type violence, targeting Jews and other minorities. It is the kind of deadly attack we witnessed last summer in the July 4th weekend in the Midwest shooting spree of Benjamin Smith, and the August shooting by Buford Furrow in Los Angeles." Mr. Harris today expressed condolences to the families of the five Pittsburgh area victims – Anita Gordon, Anil Thakur, Thao Pham, Ji-Ye Sun, and Gary Lee – and a speedy recovery for critically wounded Sandip Patel. "We join with the African American, Asian and Indian communities in expressing our own outrage at what appears to be hate-motivated murders," said Mr. Harris. After last summer's attacks, the American Jewish Committee reiterated its call on Congress to strengthen hate crimes legislation, to pass meaningful gun-control laws, and to hold full-scale hearings into the racist far right. "We again call on Congress to act, for while we do not yet know whether hate ideologies were the genesis of this most recent outrage, we know of too many similar bloody incidents over the last few years that have been so motivated," said Mr. Harris.
For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org |
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