Daniel Navarro's mugshot.
A Hispanic man has been charged with a hate crime after ramming and killing a man on a motorcycle in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. WBAY. Daniel Navarro, 27, was charged with 1st degree murder with a hate crime modifier after he rammed into Phillip A. Theissen, a retried Marine and police officer. Navarro did not know that Theissen was a former cop but targeted him because he was a white man riding a motorcycle. Navarro claimed to be a victim of racism from white people and accused his neighbors and coworkers of "poisoning him". Navarro claimed to have political motivations for the attack as well as personal ones. He said that if white people and President Trump were going to create the world we are living in then people would have to die. However, he also said that he didn't want to have his parents take care of him.
My Comment:
It's not often I comment on local stories (I live in Wisconsin, but not in the Fond Du Lac area), but this one was fairly disgusting to me. It's very telling of the current political climate that this kind of thing can happen. I mean there has always been racism but it's pretty clear that actual racist attacks are increasing and the victims are often white.
Ironically enough, Navarro, at least from his mugshot, looks like he's pretty white himself. He may be Hispanic and have some native blood, but if I had seen him in a gas station or something I wouldn't have noticed him as anything other than a regular guy. I mean, I guess if he was speaking Spanish or something I could have picked him out as Hispanic but he doesn't really look that different than the white guys around here.
And do I buy his claims of being discriminated against? Maybe? It's not something I'm familiar with myself. Some people might say things about Hispanics in private but it's pretty rare for me to see a white guy trashing a Hispanic one face to face. And I work at a place that's majority Hispanic and everyone mostly seems to get along.
My guess is that Navarro was just kind of an idiot and was likely mentally ill. A lot of time people tend to think there is a racial motivation when sometimes people are just jerks for no reason. And it's very possible that Navarro's grip on reality wasn't all there so he was seeing things that weren't there.
I do think that the media is partially responsible for this attack. They have always been hyping racial tension but ever since George Floyd died they have totally abandoned any kind of responsibility. They are really pushing the idea that it's white people against everyone else and that all minorities are discriminated against constantly.
This is probably less true today than it has ever been. I do think that racism against minorities still exists but it's not anywhere near the problem that the media makes it out. And it's also very clear that the media is not interested in actually solving racism. They just want white people to be the victims instead of anyone else.
When this is the environment is it any surprised when a disturbed individual like Navarro takes it seriously and ends up killing someone? The media was feeding him a steady diet of poison into his mind and he ended up snapping. I think that these kinds of attacks are going to continue and the media will continue to ignore it. While this story is pretty big locally, I doubt any major national media will cover it, even though I think their role in this was clear.
This case obviously hits close to home for me. I have family and friends who live and work in Fond Du Lac and it could have easily been them instead of Phillip Theissen. And by all accounts it seems like Theissen was a decent person who was helping his community. His loss will be missed and this entire event was a terrible tragedy.
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