National, Regional and Local News

[ponchi101]

As long as the GOP has any say, and their people are voted in to be governors and hold state senates and congresses under their control, not much you can see happening.
About posting pictures. Yes, they should be made available. Maybe some sort of shock treatment, although I suspect the people that are against gun control will only switch sides if the tragedy affects them directly.
As we have agreed before, the forum will not post them, though.

[mmmm8]

This is absurd... a woman would never be allowed to lead a meeting at Fox News

[mmmm8]

This is an actual quote from an actual elected official for the Dallas suburb where this happened (and where I have family members living)

Representative Keith Self, a Republican who represents Allen, Texas, said on CNN that critics who are calling for more than “thoughts and prayers” after Saturday’s shooting “don’t believe in almighty God, who is absolutely in control of our lives.” Instead, he said, the country’s lack of “mental health institutions” is to blame.

“Really I would like to stay away from the politics today because I want to focus on the victims, today we should be focused on the families,” he said. “Prayers are important and they are important in the families that are devastated right now.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/us/a ... oting.html

[ponchi101]

But, if god is in absolute control of our lives, why would we need mental health institutions? If god is not in control of the people in the mental health institutions, he is not in absolute control, and if he is in absolute control of our lives, then he is directly responsible for the shootings.

(Sorry).

[patrick]

Texas again. Maybe there should be a travel advisory?

Yep. Equality Florida has one for Florida due to GOP stances on drag shows, trans people, voting rights and etc…

[dryrunguy]

Last night, I was chatting with a friend of mine in Venezuela. He showed me gruesome video circulating among Venezuelans on social media of dead and maimed bodied in Texas. I didn't think it was real. Then I did some Googling and realized it was from someone who drove into a crowd outside of a migrant center near Brownsville.

He thought it was from the shooting outside of Dallas. I had to explain to him, "No, no, no. That video isn't from the shooting near Dallas. That's video from the person who drove their car into a crowd of migrants near Brownsville."

Let that sink in for a moment. Now we have to differentiate between violent acts. This is what we've become.

[ponchi101]

BTW. That is a Range Rover and, from the looks of it, a rather new one.
So this was not some "desperate poor person driven to madness by poverty". This person must have some wealth. And still, he drove a SUV into a crowd of people.
Preaching to the choir (we will all here agree) but that is the problem with words and public discourse. When the GOP demonizes migrants, people will take their words.

Travel advisory. When I used to travel, I always consulted the TRAVEL ADVISORY page from the State Dept. With the events that happen in the USA, the country would be included in the advisories for sure.

[ti-amie]

I saw the video of the Range Rover plowing into a group of people standing at a bus stop minding their own business. I screamed out loud. I also read a report that the driver of the Range Rover was taken to the hospital and was being very uncooperative giving several different names to authorities. They should trace the VIN # of the Range Rover but maybe I've seen one too many Law & Orders.

I keep emphasizing that the person was driving a Range Rover because do you know what those things cost?!

[ti-amie]

Driver Whose S.U.V. Struck and Killed Migrants in Texas Is Charged
The authorities in Brownsville, Texas, said that George Alvarez was behind the wheel and that they were still trying to determine whether the crash was deliberate.

By Edgar Sandoval
May 8, 2023
Updated 2:27 p.m. ET
A day after a sport-utility vehicle plowed through a group of migrants in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people, police officials identified the man behind the wheel as George Alvarez and said they were still trying to determine whether the crash was intentional.

Mr. Alvarez has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter, 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving, and is remaining behind bars, Chief Felix Sauceda of the Brownsville Police said on Monday.

Mr. Alvarez was seen on a video being pinned down on the ground by a group of people outside a homeless shelter that had been housing migrants, most them from Venezuela, after he tried to flee the scene of the crash. His gray Range Rover SUV struck about 20 people near a bus stop.

Chief Sauceda said the police were investigating reports that Mr. Alvarez had yelled anti-immigration epithets at the group. More criminal charges could be added, he said, if investigators determine that the crash was deliberate.

The police said they received reports of the crash at around 8:29 a.m. Sunday and found a gruesome scene when officers arrived. At least six people were already dead, and four more were badly injured and twisting in pain. Two of the injured later died, Chief Sauceda said.

Investigators said that Mr. Alvarez drove through a red light and appeared to lose control of his vehicle, which flipped on its side and struck at least 18 people, most of them men, Chief Sauceda said. He called it “a very tragic scene.”

The authorities in Brownsville were working with the Venezuelan consulate to identify victims and reunite them with loved ones, he said.

Mr. Alvarez is a resident of Brownsville who has long been known to the local authorities, Chief Sauceda said, adding that Mr. Alvarez had a record of numerous arrests on charges including driving while intoxicated, burglary of a vehicle, assault and theft among others.

The police said they were still trying on Monday to determine whether Mr. Alvarez was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

The episode took place outside Ozanam Center, a shelter where a large number of migrants have arrived recently in anticipation of the end of Title 42, a rule imposed early in the coronavirus pandemic by the Trump administration to ease the expulsion of migrants crossing the border. Title 42, which came to be seen as a major impediment to seeking asylum in the U.S., is scheduled to expire this week.

Many Venezuelans have been leaving their native country and seeking asylum to escape poverty and government oppression.

Mr. Alvarez, who has been speaking to investigators in both English and Spanish, has refused to cooperate with investigators, officials said. He has given the police several different names and has not submitted to a breathalyzer test or fingerprinting, they said.

Brownsville, a border town with a majority-Hispanic population in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, has historically received large influxes of migrants. Located in one of the nation’s poorest regions, the city has recently seen increasing numbers of people crossing the river from Mexico, with as many as 1,500 migrants arriving each day by some estimates.

Most of the people hit by the S.U.V. were believed to be migrants from Venezuela, many of whom had been coming to the border in anticipation of the end of Title 42.

Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Ozanam Center, said that video footage he reviewed showed that the driver had run a red light before crashing into the crowd of migrants. The center is frequented by migrants who stay for a few days while they work to secure travel elsewhere, Mr. Maldonado said.

“All bodies just started going everywhere, all directions,” he said of the crash.

Michael Eduardo de Aponte Fonseca, who is from Caracas, Venezuela, was still shaken hours after he saw the gray S.U.V. run over several migrants who were standing next to him on Sunday morning. He said that he and other migrants had just eaten breakfast and had trickled out to a bus stop across the street from the shelter. The next thing he knew, he said, the S.U.V. was flying toward them.

“It all happened really fast,” Mr. Fonseca said. “The truck came toward us. It hit a lot of people. All I remember is that a man fell on my legs. I was in shock.”

He ran his hands over his body to make sure he was not injured himself. “Everything became black and white in my brain.”

Cleyver Garcia, his father, who was not with him at the time of the crash, said the two men had gone through an ordeal in leaving their native Venezuela and crossing through the Darien Gap along the Colombia-Panama border, a notoriously dangerous trek for migrants. The two men are headed for Colorado, where they have relatives awaiting them, Mr. Garcia said.

He leaned to hug his son. “I thank God he was not hurt,” he said. “Imagine dying in America, the country we came to to seek safety?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/us/b ... 2afbcd939d

[dryrunguy]

I saw the video of the Range Rover plowing into a group of people standing at a bus stop minding their own business. I screamed out loud. I also read a report that the driver of the Range Rover was taken to the hospital and was being very uncooperative giving several different names to authorities. They should trace the VIN # of the Range Rover but maybe I've seen one too many Law & Orders.

I keep emphasizing that the person was driving a Range Rover because do you know what those things cost?!

Ah... So George Santos was the driver?

[ti-amie]

I saw the video of the Range Rover plowing into a group of people standing at a bus stop minding their own business. I screamed out loud. I also read a report that the driver of the Range Rover was taken to the hospital and was being very uncooperative giving several different names to authorities. They should trace the VIN # of the Range Rover but maybe I've seen one too many Law & Orders.

I keep emphasizing that the person was driving a Range Rover because do you know what those things cost?!

Ah... So George Santos was the driver?

I mean it was definitely George Alvarez but he's given them several different names...

Dry I thought the same thing.

[ponchi101]

With a last name like ALVAREZ, he is certainly a migrant himself or descendant. A very common last name in all of L. America.

[JazzNU]

BTW. That is a Range Rover and, from the looks of it, a rather new one.
So this was not some "desperate poor person driven to madness by poverty". This person must have some wealth.

FWIW, it doesn't look like a new Range Rover to me nor does it connote wealth to me outside of the name. Doesn't mean it's dirt cheap, but assuming it's purchased used somewhat recently, this was appreciably less expensive than what everyone seems to be thinking. To my eye, this looks like a late 2000s or early 2010s model Range Rover. Not cheap, but a mere fraction of what you need to spend to get a new or newer model.

[ponchi101]

Looked it up a bit more. Seems like a 2010 model, and those sell used for $11-$15 (depending on trim).
Sure, a new one is unaffordable for most people.

[ti-amie]