Las Vegas mass shooting; History of manslaugter repeats itself

The Las Vegas witnessed the horrific Sunday night when 64 years old, Stephen Paddock opened gunfire at the concertgoers who were attending the country music festival. Stephen Paddock rained bullets against 22,000 people attending the concert from the 32nd floor of a hotel where he staying since Tuesday. In a tragic incident, more than 500 were badly injured and 58 people were reported to have lost their lives.

Many American Media houses denounced the tragic incident and called it the deadliest mass shooting in the history of US. However, history reveals America has witness much worst attacks. Tahsin Hyder, in an explainer to the Fusion Media Group, said ‘it wasn’t the deadliest mass shooting and recalled some catastrophic massacre from the history of United Sates of America.

The truth is since the Declaration of Independence announced the birth of a new nation (1776) America has witnessed many genocides and mass killings, which remain either distant or hidden from the general discourse. Like the Britishers tend to forget about their colonial tyranny of the past, it is evident that Americans too wish to erase the discriminations and crimes it committed on the grounds of Race and culture, be it the Blacks or the native Latin Americans.

Here are the few monstrous incidents of manslaughter and genocide against the Native Americans and Blacks and very conveniently America has sought to forget it all at once.

Bad Axe Massacre 1-2 August 1832

The Bad Axe Massacre took place on August 1-2, 1832 in which almost 150 Native Indians were murdered and many drowned. The two-day encounter by the US Army led by General Henry Atkinson was the final fight in the Black Hawk War. The reason this battle is known as a massacre is due to the fact that the United States Army and the steamboat Warrior slaughtered the Sauk and Fox tribes who were trying to retreat across the Mississippi River and surrender.

Yontoket massacre of 1853

More than 450 people from indigenous groups were shot dead by a militia organized by the American people. The civil population of Crescent city attacked the Tolowa village of Native Americans at the time of community prayer. In the massacre, many children were put into the fire and the sacred place was burnt.

Round Valley Settler Massacres of 1856 – 1859

In the series of terrorist attacks in past three years, more than thousands of Native Indians were slaughtered by white settlers. In search of gold, white settlers started migrating to Round Valley, California and soon they started implementing laws to win over the native population.

On April 22, 1850, the fledgling California state legislature passed the “Act for the Government and Protection of Indians,” which legalized kidnapping and forced servitude of Indians by white settlers. In an official letter, the civilian governor of California in 1851 shamelessly declared “This war of extermination will continue to be waged… until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected.” This leads to the genocide of Yuki people and soon white settlers started selling indigenous women to outsiders. Ironically the government happily bears all expenses of organizing lynch mobs to kill Indians.

Colfax Massacre 13 April- 1873

Historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the ‘worst instance of racial violence during the Reconstruction era’.

In Colfax, Louisiana, a mob of White Southern Democrats, including ex-Confederate and Union soldiers, led an assault on the Grant Parish Courthouse. The white insurgents with arms and ammunition started killing black citizens who were determined to safeguard the results of the state’s most recent election. In the one-sided shootout, more than 150 black citizens were brutally murdered despite the fact they surrendered their weapons to the white militia.

It is Saddening that the legal ramifications were as horrified as the violence — and certainly more enduring; in an altogether different kind of massacre. Accused were later released on bail and soon after the Supreme Court in a shocking verdict said, “The Federal government could not prosecute cases such as the Colfax killings.” All white perpetrators were protected through law itself.

East St. Louis massacre of 1917

On May 28, around 3000 white people marched into the downtown of St. Louis and began attacking African Americans. The race-related violence lasted for three days which resulted in slaughter of 40 black people, but many other documents say the killings were in the hundreds. The riot broke out because white residents feared minority community of Black citizens taking away their job.

By many, this riot has been described as the worst case of labor-related violence in 20th-century American history and among the worst race riots in U.S. history. But certainly, there is a long list of such examples of ‘worst race riots’ in U.S. history.

Wilmington massacre – 1898

The cited reason behind the massacre of black citizens was the alleged sexual relation of colored men with white women. During the month of August 1898, there were general appeal made by Rebecca Felton for the lynching of alleged black rapist against it Alexander Manly, editor of the ‘Wilmington Daily Record’ newspaper wrote that white women “are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than are the white men with colored women.” The editorial of African American editor said to be the reason for the November massacre.

The Race Riot of 10^th November lasted for several days in which around 2,000 white militia marched into Daily record office and burnt down the entire building. In the riot approx. 250 people were killed in which two were white, while official record states only 60 black citizens were killed. Aftermath, documents reveal that only black citizens were arrested for inciting riots.

These are just the couple of examples which exhibits the cruel nature of American White settlers. They first massacred Native Indians and snatched everything from them. They enslaved African American population and treated them in the same very way with hate, angst and pite

The fact is, American society inherits violence in its culture. Forget the number of bomb they drop in the rest of the world for the greed of oil, in the modern history, they would kill their own innocent people for the sake of money. This is perhaps the reason why after repeated incidents of mass shooting no reform in gun policy has ever been made. In fact, the dominance of the National Rifle Association in congress discloses the inhumane character of Americans, which they inherit from their ancestor.