Between 2 March and 20 March 2018, 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt of Pflugerville, Texas detonated five package bombs that killed two people and injured at least five more. He then committed suicide by blowing himself up in his own car. A 25 minute confession video was then discovered on the bomber’s phone. While the recent Florida Parkland School shooting reignited the gun debate, the Austin bombings has once again started the conversation around non-Islamic terror and the need to recognize attacks by white males for what they are: homegrown American terror.
39 year old Anthony Stephan House was killed by a package bomb on 2nd March and a similar package bomb killed 17 year old Draylen Mason on 12th March. Several others were injured in bombs that exploded at private residences or at FedEx ground facilities at various locations. One bomb was deactivated.
Using old fashioned investigative techniques and high tech surveillance, the authorities tracked down the suspect Conditt. He was discovered when his car and license plate were caught on camera; parked within view of the surveillance camera. Authorities managed to locate Conditt based on his cellphone use.
It is thought that Conditt probably knew that the authorities were closing in on him and this is the reason he made a 25 minute video the night before he died. He triggered one final explosion in his own car and killed himself and also injured one of the policemen who were present at the encounter.
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley made this statement: "he does not at all mention anything about terrorism, nor does he mention anything about hate…. Instead it is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point." He as well as the Mayor asked people to continue to be vigilant.
On Twitter and other social media, where on the one hand there was a sense of relief that the culprit was neutralized, on the other there were those paying homage to those who died or were injured and giving thanks to law enforcement authorities who managed to corner the suspect.
Discussion about motives, political and other beliefs that may have influenced the perpetrators of previous such attacks, was of course rife. Many pointed out that perpetrators of recent attacks were largely white males.
In incidents such as these, both sides of the political divide seek to dissociate themselves from criminals, extremists and deranged individuals. Where on the one hand commentators pointed out that Conditt was a conservative who was demonstrably pro-death penalty and anti gay rights and abortion, others claim that he was registered as a Democrat.
In spite of the Austin Police Chief’s coy refusal to name the series of bombings as acts of terror, there is a strongly held view that Conditt’s actions are textbook terror.
While Islamic terror acts are always recognized as acts of terror, triggered by extreme religious views and radicalization, attacks by white males are described as ‘lone wolf’ incidents by disturbed or deranged individuals. Many commentators are of the view that had the perpetrator been anyone other than a white person, there would have been no equivocation about labeling his actions as terror.
NY Times spoke about Conditt as a ‘quiet’ and from a ‘tight knit, godly family’. Some saw this only as an example of white privilege and an attempt to humanize a killer. In any case what good is it to belong to a 'godly family' if the member of that family commits the most ungodly and heinous of crimes?
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