Thanks to Robert Bowers’ horrific massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Saturday, we now finally know what it takes to be charged with a hate crime in Trump’s America. Beating up a Black man in a bar while shouting racial epithets isn’t enough. Even murdering two Black people in a grocery store and telling a white bystander “Whites don’t shoot whites” won’t do the trick. But executing eleven white Jewish people in a synagogue while screaming “All Jews must die!” is apparently sufficiently blatant to spur the FBI to action, if only to protect what is left of their own legitimacy.
Meanwhile, Trump is ascending to new heights of hypocrisy, claiming “That is something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on.” and decrying anti-Semitism, while ignoring the fact that Bowers’ social media posts echoed many of Trump’s own dog whistle talking points about “globalists”. On Tuesday Trump upped the ante, traveling to Pittsburgh to drum up votes in next week’s midterm election by exploiting a mass murder he himself inspired. Pittsburghers were having none of it. Over 35,000 residents signed Bend the Arc’s open letter demanding Trump stay out of their city. Bend the Arc and If Not Now organized demonstrations in Squirrel Hill that drew thousands of protesters, and at one point may have forced the rerouting of Trump’s motorcade.
From It’s Going Down: On Tuesday, October 30th, thousands of people took to the streets of Pittsburgh to mourn the passing of 11 people at the hands of an Alt-Right white nationalist, who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue several days ago for their work in supporting refugees and immigrants. The gunman, 46 year old, Robert Bowers, stated his intent to attack the synagogue to not only “kill Jews,” but also to make a murderous statement about the caravan of Honduran refugees that he, along with Donald Trump, refers to as “an invasion.’
According to Raw Story, due to the size and scale of the protests, Trump’s motorcade had to be redirected as to avoid the protests. As various news outlets reported, there were two massive marches organized, and these two demonstrations came together in the streets and then marched on the Tree of Life synagogue where Trump visited for several hours after touching down in Pittsburgh. Police kept protesters away from the President, as thousands chanted against Trump and white nationalism.
The demonstrations showed both an outpouring of anger at President Trump, but also in a way that drew a direct political line between Trump’s political ideology and policies and the neo-Nazi attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. At a time when people across the US are pushing back against Trumpism, such resistance shows that we are united in resisting the regime despite the color of our skin, our religious beliefs, our sexuality, or our gender.