The worst massacre of innocents in eight years occurred in peaceful Christchurch on Friday. In a 36-minute orgy in two separate mosques, 50 people were shot dead. A definitely demented but functioning man created an unwatchable Facebook video as he killed from close range. Heroes emerged from the mosque mats and in police ranks, but the worst of the killer's work was done.
The murderer had a near-insane plan. He had a 74-page "manifesto" to justify his murders, along the lines of the Norwegian Anders Brevik who killed 77 people, mostly children. He also called on people watching his sick video to watch a certain YouTube personality. Like killers in America, he cited President Trump. He shot men and women in both mosques. He had a car to get from one to the other, and at full volume blasted the 1968 song Fire by a British group, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
There will be copycats. It must be hoped that police will be able to cope with such people. Arguably worse is the victim-blaming national senator from Queensland, Fraser Anning. He actually stated that Muslim immigration to Australia and New Zealand had caused the murders. It is a new low in hate speech and must beseverely condemned.
The danger revealed in New Zealand was extremism from the right wing. Key suspect Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, is just 28, and hopefully faces the rest of his life in prison. Much remains to be revealed by this odious person, but it is already clear what white-power advocates are capable of. Such groups and lone wolves exist throughout the West.
Without reference to laws, the worst of them are armed and exceedingly dangerous. It may prove important or merely a trivial point that the shooter was an out-and-out fascist.
Extremism is a certain and often murderous danger to civilisation everywhere. But extremism from the right is almost always the most egregious. The tendency of right-wing extremism is to blame "the other" for their faults. Leftist and anarchist extremism occurs too often but it has a different face from the revenge-seeking groups or individuals on the right side of the political spectrum.
The New Zealand killer is the worst case for law enforcement -- an actual "lone wolf" with no previous run-ins with any police. In addition, he was intelligent. He had a licence to buy and sell guns and he was well versed in the use of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin. He travelled extensively for two years, although police will spend weeks or months investigating that part of his life. Before he walked into the Christchurch mosques, he was totally off the radar of national and international police.
The key to catching sick and demented men like Mr Tarrant and Norway's Breivik is not through high-profile causes such as gun control. The internet path used by Mr Tarrant should be used against those few men lurking under the rocks of the dark web, the cryptocurrency accounts, the gun sales and much more.
Law enforcement can use the very tools that the Australian employed for infamy against his ilk. Indeed, they must.
