Saturday night is Hockey Night in Canada. But at this time of year, other games are played too. The Canadian Football League [12 on a side, 110-yard field, only three downs. You're welcome. Ed.] is in mid-season. In Edmonton, at 2015 local time, the hometown Eskimos [Isn't that name kind of racist? Ed.] were losing to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And outside Confederation Stadium, a militant Muslim was revving up his engine to ram his car into the crowd of football fans and bar patrons. Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht tells what happened next.
For those who prefer to read the news (or couldn't quite get what the Chief was saying)... A uniformed police constable was working traffic control outside the stadium, standing behind a barricade, when a Chevrolet Malibu crashed into it, hit the officer and sent him flying 15 feet into the air. "A male believed to be 30 years old then jumped out of his vehicle", the Chief continued, "and viciously attacked the Edmonton Police Service member with a knife. A struggle then ensued, during which the male suspect stabbed the officer several times before fleeing the scene on foot." The officer was taken to hospital, but his injuries are not critical.
Pause here to think about why Chief Knecht identified the perp only as a 30-year-old male -- no name, no citizenship status, no ethnicity, no religion -- even though the Mohammed (just my guess) was already in custody. Perhaps the Chief didn't want to fan the flames of Islamophobia?
How did the suspect come to be in custody? Here's the rest of the story. The first attack happened at about 2015 on Saturday. At a presser about two hours later, the cops said not to worry, there was no threat to the public, and a manhunt was under way. Not two hours after that, just before midnight, a white U-Haul van was pulled over at a "checkstop" on the north side of town. When a police officer checked the driver's name, he recognized it as being similar to the name -- Mohammed? -- of the registered owner of the car that had struck the officer at Commonwealth Stadium.
The U-Haul immediately sped off toward downtown Edmonton. In a scene reminiscent of the Great Chase in the Blues Brothers, the van barrelled down Jasper Avenue with up to 20 police vehicles following, at speeds of up to 50 mph in the 30 mph zone. A witness said police cars began to block streets that connect to Jasper Avenue. The U-Haul eventually doubled back and drove the opposite way down Jasper Avenue.
"Throughout the chase, the U-Haul truck deliberately attempted to hit pedestrians in crosswalks and alleys in two areas along Jasper Avenue," said Chief Knecht. And sure enough, near 107th Street the van struck at least two pedestrians, before flipping and landing on its side. "We believe the individual acted alone," the Chief told the meeja, adding that police would investigate the possible involvement of others.
"Based on evidence at the scenes and the actions of the suspect," he explained, "it was determined that these incidents are being investigated as acts of terrorism." Knecht said.
What "evidence"? What "actions of the suspect"? Chief Knecht didn't say anything about that until the Q&A session, when a reporter said he had a picture of the ISIS flag found on the front seat of the Malibu. Only then did the head cop confirm that a black ISIS flag was seized from "a car" where the police officer was attacked.
No-one asked the Chief if the suspect said or yelled anything. Like "Allahu akbar!" And, as Walt told you above, the police have not been forthcoming as to the suspect's identity.
In recent years, thanks to the liberal immigration policies of the Canadian government, Edmonton (like Minneapolis, only colder) has become "home" to a sizable community of Somali "refugees" and asylum-seekers, 99% of whom are followers of the Prophet. Of course not all of them are Islamic extremists, but suppose 1/10th of 1 percent of the 50,000 or so Muslims admitted to Canada in 2016 alone are fanatics, that would work out to... do the math... 50 actual or potential terrorists running around loose. Makes you think, eh!
Footnote: This is not the first terrorist attack in the Great Not-so-white North. On 22 October 2014, at the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa, an self-proclaimed "ISIS soldier" named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau fatally shot Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian soldier on ceremonial sentry duty. He then entered the nearby Centre Block of the parliament building, where members of parliament were attending caucuses. After wrestling with a constable at the entrance, M Zehaf-Bibeau ran inside and had a shootout with parliament security personnel. He was shot 31 times by six officers and died at the scene. See "'Radicalized Muslim' calls Cirillo killing an act of retaliation", WWW 9/3/15.
Longer, more relevant footnote: Just two days before the Parliament Hill terrorist attack, on 20 October 2014, another "homegrown" Islamic terrorist by the name of Martin Couture-Rouleau deliberately rammed a car into a pair of Canadian Armed Forces soldiers in a shopping centre parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu QC. Warrant officer Patrice Vincent died in hospital the next day. Another unnamed soldier sustained non-life-threatening injures.
Witnesses said M Couture-Rouleau had been seen sitting in his car and watching for over two hours before the attack. During the police chase which ensued, he called 911 during the chase to say that he carried out his acts in the name of Allah. The chase ended when the killer lost control of his car, rolling it into a ditch and onto its roof. He then exited the vehicle (as cops say) and charged a policewoman with a knife. Police shot him up to seven times and he was pronounced dead that evening in hospital. He is now believed (by Muslims) to be in Paradise where he is being serviced by 72 virgins -- another soldier of ISIS getting his reward.
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