Dylann Roof has donned shoes with hand-drawn racist symbols on them to court for the past two months, affirming that the racist killer’s white supremacist beliefs have only grown stronger since he was convicted of gunning down nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church two years ago, officials said. The 22-year-old, who is facing life in prison or the death penalty for the ruthless killings, was spotted wearing shoes adorned with runes and Celtic crosses earlier this week, FBI Special Agent Joseph Hamski testified before a Charleston jury Friday. Hamski also testified that he spotted the symbols — widely used among white supremacists — on Roof’s white slip-on sneakers as long ago as August 2015, while searching his jail cell. Dylann Roof has been wearing shoes with hand-drawn white supremacist symbols on them to court. Transcripts of Roof’s online conversations on various racist forums were also presented to the jury on Friday along with several passages from a 42-page journal found in his cell.
“I think that once white nationalists have gained control of their respective countries, we should send troops, together, into South Africa to save the remaining whites and possibly help them reinstate a new white government,” reads a segment of the journal, which Roof filled with sketches of Nazi symbols and long diatribes about the superiority of the white race. The shoes were adorned with white supremacist symbols, such as Celtic crosses. In a blog post published on a neo-Nazi site called StormFront, Roof expressed his disgust for whites who won’t stand up to “the lower races.” He also offered his take on white women romantically involved with African-American men. “Yes, they are race-traitors,” Roof wrote. “But I don’t have this hate for them that others seem to have. I actually feel sorry for them when I see them out. Because I know they are probably getting beaten.” Roof is facing life in prison or the death penalty for killing nine black parishioners in 2015.
Roof, who is representing himself, testified in his baffling opening statement on Wednesday that he has absolutely no remorse over killing nine black worshippers at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015. The racist murderer has uttered few words since his death penalty trial started, and has often stared straight into a wall without emotion during tearful testimony from victims’ relatives. He has been hit with 33 federal charges, including a slew of hate crimes, and prosecutors have said they plan on wrapping up their case on Monday. Jury members will presumably begin deliberating Tuesday to make up their minds on whether Roof should face death or life in prison for crimes that President Obama has said raise “questions about a dark part of our history.” The prosecution case has focused largely on testimony from surviving victims, as well as their friends and relatives. On Friday, Malcolm Graham, whose sister was gunned down by Roof, took the witness stand.
A jury will begin deliberating Tuesday whether Roof should face death or life in prison for crimes that President Obama said raised “questions about a dark part of our history.” “My life is empty,” Graham said. “I’m living, I’m breathing, I’m fine, I’m fit. But there’s something missing. I can’t go to the store to replace it. I can’t reinvent it.” Rex Parker in the News Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley & Joon PahkRelative difficulty: Medium-ChallengingTHEME: -ER to -A — familiar names / phrases with "ER"-ending words are reimagined as wacky names / phrases with "A"-ending wordsWord of the Day: Taiga (17A: Areas in northern forests? => TAIGA WOODS) —Taiga (pronounced /ˈtaɪɡə/, Russian: ; from Turkic or Mongolian) is a biome characterized by coniferous forests. Covering most of the inlands Canada, Alaska, Sweden, Finland, inland Norway, the Scottish Highlands and Russia (especially Siberia), as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States (northern Minnesota, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan (Hokkaidō), the taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome.
Not much time this a.m. I really liked this puzzle, despite doing it in a daze at 5:30 a.m. Because of said daze, I'm not exactly sure how tough it was, but it felt toughish. If I had known what was, perhaps it would have felt less so. Also, if I'd spelled () properly, instead of going for RAMADES, things might have moved along more quickly. At any rate, all the theme answers except the central one (blah) are snappy and even funny. And I'm always happy to end on Batman, so thumbs up.— from "Tiger Woods," who frequently sports a ()) — from "minor league") — from "experimental error"Amos had a last name? Rather than evoke the era of blackface, I'd have gone in, say, this direction:Erased "J" in JONES because I couldn't make sense of and figured no beetle started with "J" ... A car related to the (Volkswagen) Beetle, i.e. Wanted CASING at ), then got at .SW was by far the easiest part of the puzzle. Never saw any of the Acrosses except (). Got all of it from (easy) Downs.Learned (not RAMADES, which I just now mistakenly typed again...) from xwords.
Same is true for () and () — thank god for experience.) — ISP = Internet Service Provider / MSN = (originally) "The Microsoft NetWork") — in (the) Ukraine. "Dnieper" is one of those great odd-consonant-starting European cities, Like BRNO and GDANSK.) — not ringing a bell. Let's listen:) — history says: many of you did not know this. Got searched / googled like crazy last time it appeared as a clue.) that whole NW is pretty sweet, actually.) — remembered this feature from some earlier discussion we had about the word "cupule"() — completely forgot what a "howdah" was ... it's the ornamental compartment in which one might ride an elephant.) — many people know that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's original name was Lew Alcindor, but very few know that the Lew was short for "Leucippus" ... or that Kareem was an important child scientist.) — first thought: "Oh come on, didn't they all farm crops!" But then I remembered the different offerings of CAIN and Abel. Reread GENESIS recently, which helped.