Wednesday, August 30, 2006

"Madman" In Car Mows Down 14 In Streets Of San Francisco

Live Blogging: UPDATED AT BOTTOM

Scroll Down For New Posts


He was a "madman." I think he also might have been a "youth." Quite possibly an "Asian."

But, we can rest assured, terrorism has been ruled out:


(08-29) 15:56 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.

Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Ohmeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.

Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over and killed a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That crash scene is just blocks from Popal's Fremont address, where he had most recently been living.

Popal was arrested at a Walgreens at Spruce and California streets.

In San Francisco, the attacks began around 1 p.m., but it was unclear in what order:

• Two people, one of them a child, were critically injured around by a sport-utility vehicle on the 3500 block of California Street in Laurel Heights.

• Three people were hit at California and Fillmore streets. Witnesses said they included a man with a broken hip and a woman with a gashed head.

• Two people were seriously hurt at Bush and Pierce streets and one person was seriously injured at Bush and Buchanan streets, police said. One person suffered minor injuries in an incident at 1850 Fillmore Street.

• Two other people suffered minor injuries when they were hit at Pine at Divisadero streets, and another two were hit and suffered minor injuries at Divisadero and Bush Street.

"It was like 'Death Race 2000,' " firefighter Danny Bright said at California and Fillmore streets, as an ambulance stood nearby. "Guys were walking down the sidewalk and the guy just came up and ran them over. The guy went crazy.''



UPDATE: Six hours later, neither CNN nor Fox are reporting on this huge story.

It's a media blackout.

You can see why bloggers are becoming more and more popular.

The other day, I warned that if our governments and media do not stop lying to us about Islamofascist terrorism, the people will stop believing that authorities understand the problem.

If the people don't believe that those who run our society understand what we are up against, then the people will begin to take things into their own hands.

The government and the media are playing with fire.


UPDATED: From Hugh Hewitt

A caller to the program who stated he had lived in the neighborhood where the attacks occured asserted that this is a heavily Jewish neighborhood. I have not found that confirmed in the media accounts yet.

Four callers have confirmed that without doubt this is a Jewish neighborhood, and that one of the victimns was run over in front of the Jewish Community Center in the area.

From an e-mail:
Look on the web! the JCC located at 3200 California St. Site of one of the attacks: 3250 California ST.


UPDATE:

And here's the inevitable big lie:

Here's the video of Mayor Newsom's press conference. In it he calls the attacks "road rage," and states that "there seems to be no pattern" to the victims in terms of ethnicity or age, and he says "We made no assertions that this was a hate crime, though that is being investigated." The attacker is "relatively young," Newsom stated, and that "it doesn't look in any way shape or form" like an attack related to "international relations."

I repeat myself, the government and the media are playing with fire.

UPDATE

From Jihad Watch:

Omeed Aziz Popal has, like Muhammad Reza Taheri-azar several months ago, driven his SUV into people, clearly trying intentionally to hurt or kill them. Like Taheri-azar, he seemed completely calm and at peace with himself after the incident.

After mowing down as many people as he could, Popal was boxed in by police and arrested. According to
this video, he then identified himself as a terrorist (this bit comes right at the end of the report). Police, however, have already ruled out the possibility that these were acts of terrorism -- again, as they did in the case of Taheri-azar.

UPDATE

One attack has been identified by the media as having happened in front of the Jewish Community Center.

UPDATE

Three people have been taken in for questioning. Why three?

18 comments:

Pastorius said...

Oh no, ROP, it most assuredly is not terrorism.

No, no, no, no, no.

Did I say "It's not terrorism?"

Yes, that's right, it's not terrorism.

Anonymous said...

Well it's not organised terrorism. It seems to come out of an individual Muslim's adherance to the Koranic instructions to kill the infidels wherever he finds them.

See

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/003071.php

for an instance of SJS before it had even been given a name.

Pastorius said...

ROP,
I'm just kidding around, you know.

Actually, I would argue this is organized terrorism.

Here, I'll make my argument:

Organized terrorism would be defined as acts of murder and mayhem directed at civilian populations which are coordinated and/or funded by more than one person.

This man more than likely has been inspired and motivated by the Koran and Jihadi activity throughout the world.

What is the difference if he got the order directly from a higher up in a terror cell, or if he got the order from the Koran, and various Muslims speaking out in the media and in pamphlets at his local mosque.

He still got the idea from other people.

Therefore, it is organized by more than one person. Therefore it is organized terrorism.

Anonymous said...

The earliest instance of SJS recorded in the West is

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/18/egyptair/

At the time this was a complete abberation, though with the benefit of hindsight we would now recognise it as classic Sudden Jihad Syndrome.

Pastorius said...

Yeah, that's kind of my point. I think you and I are in agreement on this one.

There is some speculation, by the way, that the Egypt Air flight was brought down specifically to kill some Saudi officers who were on board.

Epaminondas said...

Those pesky south asians are always popping up when you leat expect it !

Isn't it great the way they are so full of energy?

Anonymous said...

While awaiting updates on this latest case of SJS, ponder this little tidbit: Today I dropped by my local Boarders Books to reserve copies of "Because They Hate" (Brigitte Gabriel) and "Debunking 9/11 Myths" by the PM editors. The latter showed up not in stock until the word "myths" was removed -- then they found the right book, but it had been listed as "Debunking 9/11 LIES". Just a typo by someone at HQ I was assured, it'll be corrected. Don't understand why the damn book isn't out on the shelves instead of having to be ordered anyway.
Maybe I should have driven that couple extra miles out to the local B&N instead...

Pastorius said...

RRA,
I will never buy anything at Border's again for the rest of my life. When they refused to carry Reason Magazine because of the Cartoon Jihad, they lost me for life.

Nowadays, I do drive the extra miles to go to Barnes & Noble, and I always will.

felix said...

It will be interesting to hear this guy's background and asssociates, etc.

Pastorius said...

Yeah, if the media lets any info out. I just heard a caller on the Michael Savage Show say that the media is referring to this as "The SUV Murders."

Now, of course, that's the Savage Show, so who knows?

Anonymous said...

Charles Johnson links to a picture of one of the victims in front of the Jewish Community Center.

Meanwhile, MSM and all politicians place fingers in ears and go "Na..na...na...na...na...na...see reality is optional."

Pastorius said...

Thanks for pointing to that, Grant.

mts said...

I'm holding my breath until CAIR and the Moderate Muslim Majority comes out and decries this barbarous act, and proves how it is contrary to the True Islam, Religion of Peace.


[deep breath]

[60 seconds]

urp....ooof....

[thud]

Crud. Second issue I've done this for. Same result. I need an asprin.

Anonymous said...

shame on MSM - shame,shame, shame!

and they talk about connecting the dots - how about getting a search warrant before this guy's family gets rid of all evidence. someone should also find out what visa did this guy's family use to get to usa - i wouldn't be surprised if uncle sam opened its arms wide to welcome this family as a refugee on account of religious persecution in their home country - how sad, how ironic, how cruel to the 15 families grieving today.

Anonymous said...

So this is a nervous reaction to the arranged marriage, is it? I notice nobody in the MSM has paused to consider the fact that in the course of getting married the guy spent a month in Afghanistan. Where, of course, his relatives instilled him with the newfound virtues of democracy, tolerance and non-violence.

Uh-huh.

Somebody over on Malkin pointed out that, had this been a deliberate attack on gay citizens, San Francisco would quite rightly be in an uproar against such an act of "bigotry". I'm not holding my breath waiting for that word to show up in the MSM in relation to this case -- unless, of course, it's in the company of the word "Islamophobia".

Anonymous said...

This same thing happened a couple of weeks ago in Calgary, Alberta (Canada).

A guy, who moved to Canada from Lebanon 3 years ago, "accidently" ran over a dozen people in downtown Calgary when he "accidently" drove down the sidewalk.

He stated that his car malfunctioned, so rather than hit other cars he decedided to drive down the sidewalk. The thing was the police could not find anything wrong with the gas pedal and the brakes were workign fine. He was charged with dangerous driving, but since one of the victims is still in hospital with serious injuries, he should have been charged with attempted murder. Of course the police also stated that this had nothing to do with terrorism. Ya, right.

Pastorius said...

Candian Who Can See,
Jeez, man. We never got that news here. Thanks for letting me know.

Pastorius said...

Canadian Who Can See,
I can find no news on that at all. If you can provide me with a link, I will post on it.