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| Broward County Sheriff's Office |
Cesar Sayoc Jr. is the name of the 56 year old man who was arrested near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a suspect in the attempted bombing spree that struck the country just before mid term elections.He was caught after a quick investigation in which authorities said they were able to pull a fingerprint from one of the bomb packages and collect. Mr. Sayoc’s DNA from two others. Mr. Sayoc, an outspoken Trump supporter, sent 14 pipe bombs to at least 12 critics of Trump, The most prominent of which including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, a former CIA director and actor Robert De Niro. He was an avid poster on multiple right-winged Social media groups and published pictures of himself at a Trump rally wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. President Trump praised law enforcement official for their quick arrest, later stating that "These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country." Cesar is a registered Republican whose arrest record in Florida goes back to 1991 which includes felony theft, drug and fraud charges, as well as allegations that he threatened to use a bomb,all of which can be seen in public records.
Discussion Questions
1. Do you think this will have any effect on the outcome of the mid term elections, or just be past off as another case of a mentally ill extremest? Why?
2. Do you think there has been an increase of events similar to this in recent times? Why or why not?
3. Do you think the timing of this was too perfect? Why would someone who could plan all this out, carry it out right before an important election?
To answer your 3rd question, I feel the attempted bomber orchestrated this plan to purposely be close to the mid term elections. He clearly targeted fairly liberal victims so it could be some sort of party attack. He may be doing so to scare America in general, or to be swaying the elections. But He must of had some confidence due to the lack of control over these mass attacks but I am glad he was captured and no one was hurt.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kai that this stunt was purposely done during the midterm election, and it was likely to display Mr. Sayoc's hatred towards liberals. However, I don't know that they will have any sort of impact on the actual midterms. It seems like the people are fairly divided on their political views currently and the outcome of events like these won't really spark anyone to switch sides. Liberals will likely demonize this person while Trump supporters will likely point to it as "one bad apple".
ReplyDeleteI think that people will just dismiss this man as a mentally ill extremist. It is unfair to generalize all Republicans as bomb-sending lunatics. However, it is quite obvious that this man purposely timed this because it can't be coincidence that this would happen right before an election.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually poor timing to commit such a horrendous act because the emotional factor is now swaying in favor of the Democrats. That's why before Sayoc was arrested, there was even speculation that Democrats themselves had sent the bombs to evoke sympathy. Either way, what may have been an attempt to spread fear or show dominance failed, and it will probably backfire, as the Republicans will be seen as erratic. If anything, I believe there will be a slight decrease in support of the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe this will effect the midterms at a noticeable level, there may be some sympathetic votes favoring democrats now, but I truly don't see this making a big change in the midterms. You could tie this mail bombing spree to the original Mail Bomber, Ted Kaczynski; Although the Unibomber didn't exactly have a radical political agenda backing his attacks. I definitely believe that the timing was intentional, but I don't believe he got the outcome that he expected. If anything,its pretty impressive that nobody got hurt in these attacks.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this could've been planned as mid-term elections are coming up very soon. I remember hearing about attempts like this in the recent past, however this one differs as he only sent the bombs to democrats. While this may have a slight impact on the votes, it won't affect the elections that much.
ReplyDeleteThis would probably not affect the midterm elections at a level where it will make a difference. The bomber was probably targeting the midterm elections to try and prove his radical views. However, this could go either way as some could give their votes to the Democrats as a hero while some could take this in the way that change is needed and could go against the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't think this will affect the midterm elections since someone sending packages isn't really a statement on why they chose to vote or not vote for someone. I think this incident would just bring in more publicity over someone being an extremist and really disliking the other party. People would probably pay more attention to who it is and their motive, rather than be influenced to want to go vote.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this will effect the outcome of the midterm election; however, I do believe that this was planned in theory that it would effect the midterm election and benefit Trump and the Republicans. It was definitely a party attack because he was targeting liberals.
ReplyDeleteI think that Sayoc purposely intended to arouse controversy before the midterm elections and send a message that Democrats are unwelcome in the government. Given that Sayoc seems to be politically motivated, he probably purposely planned his actions right before the midterms to try to sway people to vote for Republicans. However, even with the sympathy these prominent Democrats are receiving, I do not think that Sayoc’s actions will have a noticeable difference in the midterm elections. While I think many people will dismiss his extremist actions, I think that this unfortunate event is an example of how polarized politics have become or how people will go to extreme lengths just to voice their radical opinions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this will have any impact on mid term elections, however, I believe this is contributing to the tense political climate. There were past events that involved packaging bombs and sending them around. I feel this might spike a re-occurrence of this issue but it is hard to say. I don't believe that there was an intended timing of this and that it was just an act of aggression that happened to be tied to politics.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the bomber identifies as a Republican, it is unfair if we were to generalize him to embody the entire Republican party. While the public may perceive the bomber as an mentally ill extremist of the Republican party, it will nonetheless affect the outcome of the midterm elections. Perhaps the bomber intended to terrorize the liberals by threatening the high profiled leaders; however, the outcome instead swayed many people towards the liberals rather than away as it exemplifies the chaos under the Republican controlled government. That being said, this incident is not really the fault of the Republicans albeit any party in charge would probably bear the blame for the chaos that ensues. Rather, I would say such similar incidences since recent years could be attributed to the increasingly divided and polarized country.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I think that this incident with the pipe bombs is evidence of the polarization in the US, and has furthered this trend. Although I wouldn’t say that there has been an increase in specific events like targeting high-profile politicians, I think that party polarization has definitely been increasing in recent years. People on both sides are pointing fingers at the opposing party, blaming the other side for everything that’s wrong with the US instead of proactively looking for solutions to bridge the political gap. I’m worried that this might further the trend of partisan violence, with the Congressional baseball shooting about a year ago followed by this incident. Although the perpetrators were identified, and in this case detained, the issue of polarization has largely been ignored. Until we address this issue and enforce harsh repercussions on domestic terrorists, I think the chance of an incident like this occurring again is somewhat likely.
ReplyDeleteI think that many will take this event into consideration during the midterm election. Also, I believe that there may be more depth to this plan other than gaining support for the election. I agree with Mayuko as well. Until we address polarization and try to decrease its severity, issues like these will continue to grow.
ReplyDeleteI think that this situation will not greatly impact the midterm election because stories like these tend to be news for a little while and slowly people lose interest. Also, I don't think people will connect this incident directly with the midterm election.I think that the timing has a strong chance that there was thought with the midterm elections in mind, because this could be a way to send a message to the president or the presidents critics. Also, given his strong support of Trump it could also indicate that his was a politically motivated act before the midterm elections.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that this act will have any big effect on the midterm elections. Even though the act was connected to the elections, it doesn’t have any political basis besides its connection to Cesar Sayoc Jr who is known to be political. I do however think that this act was planned based around the midterm elections. Cesar Sayoc Jr. is definitely politically active and has a preference for Republicans and president Trump. The fact that he sent these bombs specifically to Trump critics and only a short amount of time before midterm elections illustrates a strong connection to political reasoning. The circumstances were all too perfect for it to be a coincident; this bombing was definitely planned to try and sway the important election results based on Cesar Sayoc Jr.’s bias.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that this event will have an effect on the outcome of the mid term elections. Although it might be a threat to the Democratic party, I think people won't give in to it and will simply think of him as a mentally ill extremest. The timing of this event was defiantly planned out. Like I said before, this was orchestrated right before the mid term elections to scary the Democratic party. The bombs were simply a threat to attempt to scare voters into voting for the Republican party.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe this bombing incident will have an effect on the midterm elections. This incident doesn't necessarily put one party in a worse situation, due to the fact that there were no actual injuries. I believe this story will quickly get lost in the news because there was no drastic outcome. I think he carried out this attempted attack simply to show his extreme political beliefs.
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