Court documents show a Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now."

After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.

@chloroken@lemmy.ml
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He was driving a news car.

Edit: Misread this. The attacker was in a taxi I guess, the victim was driving the news car. My apologies.

tate
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?

It says the attacker was driving a taxi.

Altima NEO
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The victim, dude

@chloroken@lemmy.ml
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No actually I was wrong there. I misread the OP’s quote. I thought it was describing the victims vehicle which I found weird given his vocation. It was actually describing the attacker’s vehicle.

Altima NEO
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It’s this the kind of shit we can expect the next several years? Unhinged idiots who blindly follow the Tang in chief?

@octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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Almost certainly.

kora
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Hopefully we only have to wait for 4 years… or less

Dude missed

This is what happened the first time around in 2016.

Bias-motivated? This is the first time I’ve heard that term used. Why isn’t it just called a hate crime? It appears to be one since the perpetrator was targeting the reporter either because he’s a Pacific Islander American or that he’s a journalist, an “enemy of the people” in Trump’s America.

Why isn’t it just called a hate crime?

Because “it’s Trump’s America now”… 😐

Don’t catch you slippin’ now

TIL, along the context

This isn’t a hate crime, it’s terrorism, since it was politically motivated.

@adarza@lemmy.ca
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this one would be both.

terst = political, but also targeting a protected individual or building

@treadful@lemmy.zip
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Presumably that’s just how Colorado laws defines it.

Pistcow
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We better not charge him with terrorism!

HubertManne
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AMERICA! Suck yeah!

Reminder that the right wing is heavily armed already. Time to get ourselves armed, trained, and ready. This is just beginning.

We’ve been saying this for years, but too many people think all guns are bad.

MaggiWuerze
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Only an American would think the answer to a gun problem is more guns

@t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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This isn’t a gun problem, it’s a fascism problem.

MaggiWuerze
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You wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t allowed every bumfuck idiot to get a killing toy at fucking Walmart. Now thinking that getting more of those things into the hands of even more idiots would solve your problems is just ludicrous.

This incident is a symptom of your current system, not the beginning of a new one

@t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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Ah yes, the rise of fascism and populist authoritarians and oligarchs is definitely a uniquely American thing that hasn’t happened and can’t happen anywhere else because they don’t have privately-owned guns… how silly of me.

MaggiWuerze
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Compared to you, other countries don’t have to fear an armed uprising from their share of idiots

@t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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Our danger right now is not an armed uprising, it’s an authoritarian government with populist support.

If the US didn’t have a single (legal) privately-owned firearm the danger would be even worse, because Trump could hand them out just to his supporters, and then they’d be the only armed ones.

I would say get trained first. Buying a gun is ridiculously easy, being safe and confident takes training

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