Late Monday night, 19-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula took a 26-foot U-Haul truck in an attempt to ram the barriers at Lafayette Square- just a few hundred feet away from the White-House. Authorities have stated that Kandula made threats about inflicted pain upon the United States' President, Vice President, and their families. In addition, authorities seized a Nazi flag from the U-Haul truck. Kandula was charged with the following crimes: assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a vehicle, and trespassing. There is a multi-agency probe ongoing as a result of this intentional crash.
No one was injured.
The United States is currently experiencing heightened domestic terrorism- whether that is in the form of mass shootings, substation attacks, or now in the form of deliberate vehicle crashes. Most news outlets and even agencies operating within the U.S. will hesitate to call these individuals terrorists simply because they are American citizens. The United States does not want to admit it, but its authoritarian democracy is not only causing terrorists overseas, but also right in their own backyard. Many of those committing such acts are often racially motivated, displaying how deep the issue of racism is in the U.S.
More needs to be done to ensure these types of attacks are prevented, but it is hard to do that when the nation does not consider such acts to be terrorism. The U.S. needs to start recognizing its faults instead of ignoring them. Only then will the nation progress instead of regress like it is currently.
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