Santa Monica police have confirmed that they arrested a man after discovering assault rifles, ammunition and possible explosives in his car. He claimed he was on his way to Los Angeles Pride, which takes place today.
After receiving a call about a “prowler” at Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street on Sunday morning, authorities dispatched officers to investigate. Neighbors say the man was knocking on doors and loitering near his white Acura with Indiana plates. When they approached the still-unnamed man, he said he was waiting for a friend and was headed to the Pride festivities in West Hollywood.
The story apparently didn’t sit right with the officers, and an inspection of the man’s car led to the discovery of the weapons, in addition to tannerite, an explosive ingredient that can be used to create pipe bombs.
There is no indication that this has any connection to the tragic Orlando attack Saturday night at gay club Pulse, which took the lives of 50 people and injured 53 more.
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“They found him with weapons that were very disconcerting,” a source told the L.A. Times , adding officials are “taking the appropriate safety precautions.”
After reportedly discussing the possibility of calling off the day’s events, no plans have been made to alter L.A. Pride’s schedule, though security will be ramped up.
“We are hearing absolutely devastating news reports from Orlando this morning,” said L.A. City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath.
“Gun violence on the LGBTQ family during Pride Month makes me sick. The deadliest mass shooting in America happened to LGBTQ people on Latin night. While we mourn this heartbreaking loss, we must also rededicate ourselves to the fight for full equality for all people. No one is equal unless everyone is equal.”
Kangol
So glad they caught him in advance. Everyone who is supporting religions and religious leaders, politicians and anyone who supports hom0phobia, transphobia and other forms of hatred or who remains silent about such forms of hate needs to think about how they’re aiding and abetting potential and real murder.
When you support the conditions for hate-fueled violence, someone is going to act on it.
These terrible acts also point to how being out and gay, bi, trans, intersex and queer, especially if you are a woman or person of color or poor, remains a brave act.
Some people hate us just because of who we are, so let’s support each other and those who are struggling to be true to who they are as LGBTIQ people. That is what LGBTIQ pride is really about.
Billysees
@Kangol:
” Everyone who is supporting religions and religious leaders, politicians and anyone who supports homophobia, transphobia and other forms of hatred or who remains silent about such forms of hate needs to think about how they’re aiding and abetting potential and real murder. ”
Absolutely correct.
Masc Pride
@Kangol: Everyone who is supporting religion is aiding and abetting potential and real murder? How dramatic and totally false. That statement was just as ridiculous as the people who claim atheists are apathetic anarchists. Multiple stories have reported that the shooter in Orlando wasn’t even religious until he was radicalized. Some of you are clearly fighting hate with more hate. Those of you that are doing so have no right to be outraged.
Bob LaBlah
Had he succeeded the only response from the community would have been “spare his life”. Enough is enough. It is time to point out to these believers about a man in the sky that severe consequences will come with such acts.
Twenty-one years later OKC is still trying to get their hands on Terry Nichols and I could not agree more with them. He too was just as guilty as his accomplice.
Malcolm Forest
@Kangol: Thank you Kangol. You have summed up how I feel about this better than I ever could. The GLBT community needs to support each other and stick together when faced with religious fundamentalist haters.
Kangol
@Masc Pride: Can you read? I wrote
Everyone who is supporting religions and religious leaders, politicians and anyone who supports hom0phobia, transphobia and other forms of hatred or who remains silent about such forms of hate.
“RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS…WHO SUPPORT HOMOPHOBIA AND OTHER FORMS OF HATE.” That’s what I wrote! So you’re saying it’s OK to support hom0phobes? Why are you even on this site? I mean, seriously?
On another note, the nut arrested on his way to “harm” people at LA Pride is a gun fanatic who held right-wing beliefs and hated Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Big surprise there!
JaBourg
@Karl with a K: Thanks for the tip! I’m no fan of the ads, but I think “Queerty is the scourge of the gay community” is a bit much! I’d say the scourge of the gay community are the folks like the guy in this story who want us dead!
Josh in OR
@Masc Pride: Radicalized by….? An open mind? A loving heart? Or religious fanaticism that daily – no matter the religion – dehumanizes and makes us out to be ‘less than’?
Believing in an unprovable, unaccountable judge who condemns the different is at the heart of ALL religion, not just Islam. Religion is a poison to society. It’s not always as fast acting as radical Islam, but it’s ALL POISONOUS.
GC1985
@Kangol: I was at LA Pride. And I’m glad they arrested the guy.
But wait… I thought only Muslims do this? James Wesley Howell doesn’t sound very muslim to me.
Josh in OR
@GC1985: Just wait. It’ll come out that he’s secretly a Syrian refugee PRETENDING to be a white guy. That way, we can be justified in fearing immigrants, just like how Orlando’s shooter – a US citizen with a scary, Arabic name – is being used to gin up fear of brown people.
Clearly, the issue isn’t brown people or white people, it’s the religions they choose to align themselves with and the way they interpret folk tales as fact that is the real issue here.
Masc Pride
@Kangol: I read exactly what you wrote:
“Everyone who is supporting religions and religious leaders, politicians and anyone who supports hom0phobia, transphobia and other forms of hatred or who remains silent about such forms of hate needs to think about how they’re aiding and abetting potential and real murder.”
All those ands you added in separated these groups. If you meant something different, you made an error in your wording. Elementary English, bro.
Masc Pride
@Josh in OR: As I said earlier, as long as you so eagerly express hatred for other people and their spiritual beliefs, you have no right to be outraged by the hatred you don’t agree with.
For bigots like you and Kangol:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/12/christina-grimmie-s-church-adds-50-souls-to-its-prayers-after-orlando-massacre.html
GC1985
@Josh in OR: No kidding. And I’m against all forms of religious extremism. Mask (NON)Pride only thinks Muslims commit terror attacks.
@Masc Pride: People are criticizing religious fundamentalism of various religions, and it is exists in every religion.
Your logic stinks.
Masc Pride
@GC1985: No. People are generalizing and promoting more hatred. Just the other day you were getting quite worked up over joeyty’s comments about Colombians being violent people. You’re another one that gets outraged when generalizations are directed your way, yet you find ways to justify generalizations about others.
You also lie like a rug. I never said Muslims are the only ones who “commit terror attacks”. For people who can actually read, it’s clear to see I’m saying the exact opposite. And I know you just want to argue with me non-stop anyway you can, so just know upfront that I’m putting a three reply limit on all conversations with you.
Josh in OR
@Masc Pride: Am I a bigot for being anti-slavery? Anti-rape? Anti-child abuse? anti-hatred? No. All of those things are justified by religion. Certainly many religions try to pretend they don’t support those things, but every single one has writings in their supposedly infallible Texts that says they’re ok by God.
One church praying does nothing to negate thousands of years of bloodshed, slavery, warfare, subjugation and rape which religious thought has justified. I’m anti religion because it is demonstrably harmful to both individuals and society as a whole.
Josh in OR
To clarify, I’m not speaking against ONLY Christianity, or Islam. I’m speaking against ALL thought that removes personal accountability for atrocity by claiming that ‘God’ wills it or ‘the Devil made me do it’…
GC1985
@Masc Pride: I get worked up when people post ignorance such as what you have done. You’re a liar. A prolific one. You’re just like Donald Trump. Everything you say is a distortion. You just lied over the intentions of what two other posters said, and now you’re putting up a fuss because I called you out on your BS?
Have fun with that! I just cut your three reply limit to one.
Josh in OR
@GC1985: There’s a saying that goes something like, “To know a man, look to his enemies.” Judging by the people you’ve made enemies of, I think I can safely say that we are on a similar wavelength. We both are disgusted with bigotry and sick of being called bigots for pointing it out. And it seems neither of us likes backing down to anonymous trolls either, so…yay!
Masc Pride
@Josh in OR: Except the flaw in your logic is that every theist isn’t out killing, gay-bashing, raping, enslaving, etc. Most theists aren’t out doing those things, nor are atheists. Most people who practice the same religions as these terrorists manage to do so without ever harming anyone. The problem is clearly with the individual, not the religion. Your argument is tantamount to people equating gays with pedophiles.
@GC1985: Next time, try to make it zero.
Xzamilio
@Masc Pride: Then all that demonstrates is that the majority or religious people have evolved beyond their doctrine, as deomonstrated by the countless explanations downplaying the violent texts in the bible and the Koran/Hadith… that doesn’t remove the violent text or the fact that the fringe have the “justification” they need contained within the pages of their holy books. If there was a textbook for us as gays that said “we should rape/molest” kids that was viewed as infallible, then you’d have a better analogy. The problem is with the religion AND the individuals.
Xzamilio
@GC1985: And thus, we have a real problem here: false equivocation. Yes, there is violence and extremism in every religion, but it is NOT on the same SCALE or at the volume as Islamic violence. We could ban guns or implement gun control, but that only removes a means of violence, not the underlying cause of it.
DuMaurier
Actually, this story is looking more and more like it’s about a gay guy who was simply going to Pride and likes to carry weapons, like a lot of people (not ME)
Masc Pride
@Xzamilio: If all or most theists were out killing and molesting, you’d have a better argument. The problem is definitely with the individual. Watch Fareed Zakaria’s Blindsided. A lot of the ISIS recruits are not even that familiar with The Quran. There is no promise of 72 virgins in the Quran. It’s a known misinterpretation, but they don’t care. ISIS is a cult. The recruits are being fed lies and promises by leaders in order to easier manipulate them. Any Christian that kills to “serve God” is obviously going against what’s written because The Bible states “thou shalt not kill”.
Xzamilio
@Masc Pride: Yeah, the bible states “thou shall not kill” while giving plenty of loopholes to do so. You invoked the Old Testament, so let’s continue with the Old Testament, the testament that states that homosexuals are to be put to death, a woman who is not a virgin on her wedding night is to be put to death, a woman who does not cry out loud enough while being raped is to die along with her rapist, provides guidance on how to treat slaves, how long to keep, how to beat them… of course ISIS is a cult. Most religions are cults, feeding their followers false promises of hope in exchange for unwavering adherence with no actual proof provided.
“If all or most theists were out killing and molesting, you’d have a better argument.”
Except that’s not my argument… I clearly said: “Then all that demonstrates is that the majority or religious people have evolved beyond their doctrine, as deomonstrated by the countless explanations downplaying the violent texts in the bible and the Koran/Hadith… that doesn’t remove the violent text or the fact that the fringe have the “justification” they need contained within the pages of their holy books”
Ultimately, you have religions interpreted hundreds of thousands of ways, all claiming their subjective interpretation of badly interpreted books is the true way to go. So YES, it is the individuals and it’s the religion, namely the people justifying their actions with the religion.
GC1985
@Xzamilio: Then what do we do to remove the underlying cause of violence? (Maybe perhaps cleaning up the mess we left in Iraq by invading when we shouldn’t have?) And no, it’s not really false equivocation. A certain man used a false justification to invade a country, leveled it and killed 800,000 in the process. That man now sits on a ranch in Texas.
GC1985
@DuMaurier: Really? With explosives too? Something just doesn’t sit right with me here.
GC1985
@Josh in OR: I try my best 🙂 Yes, I was pretty upset today. But I was at Pride yesterday… and was at the Parade for a short while today. I think we need to stand up to the idiocy on here.
Xzamilio
@GC1985: I’m done. ISIS kills, it’s our fault. That kind of thinking absolves them of any wrongdoing and just allows everyone else to take the blame for them murdering thousands senselessly and without discrimination. I don’t agree with the Iraq invasion and having served there in 06-08, and while Bush’s invasion definitely created ISIS, everything after that is on them. The blood shed is on THEIR hands, not the US’s…
Giancarlo86
@GC1985: You spend your whole life trolling on gay websites. You impersonate me and others. You have multiple identities here. You talk to yourself in the comments. You need to accept that you have a mental illness. You need professional intervention. You should see your doctor and ask for a psychiatric referral. You need help.
GC1985
@Giancarlo86: Still lying as always? People know I am the real one. You are nothing more than an online predator and liar. You should be investigated by the authorities. Now run along… And stop stalking me. I don’t care for unstable psychopaths. Go back to that other site. Please avoid the kids.
GC1985
@Xzamilio: Daesh was created in the political vacuum that followed. Saddam should have been left alone. Bush’s friend Nouri Al-Maliki is primarily to blame. Now they have removed him from office and are seemingly on track to defeating Daesh. Anyways, I am in no way blaming the US or the present Iraqi government for their actions. They need to be eliminated entirely off the map. Syria is also another hotspot with far more difficult circumstances. It is either Assad or Daesh.
gayhope1990
@GC1985:You’re really dumb,spick.No wonder you’re leftist,you’re looking like warmth up
GC1985
@gayhope1990: You are an idiot who has no idea what is going on.
Masc Pride
@Xzamilio: No, I said you’d have a better argument if that was the case. I’m well aware that you’re an atheist that loves to take shots at theists and religions even when religion is not the topic at hand. There are lots of silly ideologies and group think in the gay community as well. If a heterosexual referred to the LGBT community as a cult, you’d call it homophobia. You show yourself to be no less hateful than the people you detest. Your outrage is hypocritical.
If there was no such thing as religion, people like Mateen would still kill. As I stated earlier, ISIS leaders are purposely feeding misinterpretations of the Quran to their recruits. That alone says that this isn’t really about religion or serving any deity. These are malevolent people that will find a way to justify their violence no matter what.
Masc Pride
You said that banning guns would only get rid of the means of violence, and I agree there. You could also do away with both The Bible and The Quran and all religions, and you would still have this type of violence with different excuses used for justification.
The End
@Masc Pride: Religion gets in the way of everything and causes so much. It is always the topic at hand when it is used to affect the lives of anyone but themselves.
If the idiots are allowed to use their stupid bronze age beliefs to justify their actions then they will continue to do so. Religion gets a free pass at so much. You arent even allowed to call out the stupid ideals that are the basis of it, treatment of women etc. It’s about time they ALL were called out for the crap they peddle in their books and refuse to let them use it as justification for ANYTHING that affects anyone else. Whether it’s how women should be treated, what marriage is, who should adopt, abortion, holy wars, what they see as ‘gods will’. They don’t pull all these ideas out of thin air and should not be apologised to or have excuses made on their behalf.
All the empty useless prayers are just as damaging and totally lack logic. They do literally 0 to stop things happening yet are thrown around either as an empty platitude or some cosmic bandaid. It’s like why stop these things happening in the first place when you can just pray later to fix it. If both sides are praying then one side is going to be sorely disappointed. One side prays for the killing to stop and the other prays for the killing to continue. And it has always continued. Every time.
Getting rid of religion would not solve the world’s problems but it would take away the reasoning and justification many have, and continued to be allowed to use, for causing pain to others on so many occasions.
Masc Pride
@The End: If you think prayer is useless, that’s your prerogative. You definitely shouldn’t pray. Right now #PrayForOrlando is helping a lot of people get through a tough time. Some of you obviously see this as an opportunity to vent your personal frustrations with religion, and you’re reducing this tragedy to an arguing point in the process, which there seems to be lots of with this particular massacre.
Most theists think it’s absurd to kill in the name of a deity. Theists that see murder as totally reasonable are mentally ill. Mentally ill people will always find a way to justify their actions. Take away religion and it will be something else. It’s just like an addict. Take away heroin and he’ll do meth. Take away his meth and he’ll drink. Take his liquor away and he’ll replace alcohol with sex or gambling or whatever else. The individual is broken.