‘Gunman hated Jews, blacks; never mentioned Sikhs’
A sociologist who had interacted with the gunman who killed six Sikhs
at a US gurdwara said he was a neo-Nazi “whose primary targets were
blacks and Jews”.
Pete Simi, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, hung out with Wade Michael Page, 40, for nearly two years when he was researching for his book on white supremacists and neo-Nazis, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate.
Simi said when he learnt Page had murdered six people at the gurdwara before being shot dead by police, he felt “sick to my stomach”.
In his interactions with Simi, Page “never mentioned Sikhs”. “Blacks and Jews were the primary targets of his rhetoric,” Simi said.
Sometime after 9/11, Page had also sent Simi an email in which he expressed a lot of anger about Muslims. “He said something like ‘America should just plaster all of the Middle East’,” Simi was quoted as saying by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“We became friendly,” Simi said of his time with Page. “I wasn’t his friend but he was friendly to me. I didn’t believe it at first when I saw his picture. I had to do a double take.”
Simi said Page hung out with people who were members of well-known hate groups, including Volksfront, Hammerskins and White Aryan Resistance.
Page drank heavily, Simi said, but never used drugs. Even people Page hung out with knew he had a problem with alcohol, he added.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gunman-hated-jews-blacks;-never-mentioned-sikhs/986791/
Pete Simi, a professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska, hung out with Wade Michael Page, 40, for nearly two years when he was researching for his book on white supremacists and neo-Nazis, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate.
Simi said when he learnt Page had murdered six people at the gurdwara before being shot dead by police, he felt “sick to my stomach”.
In his interactions with Simi, Page “never mentioned Sikhs”. “Blacks and Jews were the primary targets of his rhetoric,” Simi said.
Sometime after 9/11, Page had also sent Simi an email in which he expressed a lot of anger about Muslims. “He said something like ‘America should just plaster all of the Middle East’,” Simi was quoted as saying by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“We became friendly,” Simi said of his time with Page. “I wasn’t his friend but he was friendly to me. I didn’t believe it at first when I saw his picture. I had to do a double take.”
Simi said Page hung out with people who were members of well-known hate groups, including Volksfront, Hammerskins and White Aryan Resistance.
Page drank heavily, Simi said, but never used drugs. Even people Page hung out with knew he had a problem with alcohol, he added.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gunman-hated-jews-blacks;-never-mentioned-sikhs/986791/
Comments