{"id":126587,"date":"2015-06-20T06:59:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T06:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=126587"},"modified":"2015-06-20T06:59:13","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T06:59:13","slug":"obama-condemns-blight-of-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=126587","title":{"rendered":"Obama condemns blight of racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Racism remains “a blight” on society, US President Barack Obama says, in the wake of the killing of nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church.<\/p>\n

Police are treating the killings at the church in Charleston on Wednesday night as a hate crime.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Dylann Roof, 21, appeared in court to face nine murder charges.<\/p>\n

He showed no emotion as relatives of the victims addressed him directly. “I forgive you” said one victim’s daughter, fighting back tears.<\/p>\n

Speaking in San Francisco, Mr Obama said: “The apparent motivations of the shooter remind us that racism remains a blight that we have to combat together.<\/p>\n

“We have made great progress, but we have to be vigilant because it still lingers.<\/p>\n

“And when it’s poisoning the minds of young people, it betrays our ideals and tears our democracy apart.”<\/p>\n

But the president praised the families of the victims for the forgiveness they had shown.<\/p>\n

He said it was “an expression of faith that is unimaginable but that reflects the goodness of the American people”.<\/p>\n

Charleston vigil<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Obama also called for a new debate on gun control, and pushed Congress to follow public opinion.<\/p>\n

“It’s not enough for us to express sympathy; we have to take action,” he said.<\/p>\n

A previous proposed bill banning assault weapons failed to win backing in the Senate.<\/p>\n

At a Charleston sports arena, thousands gathered on Friday evening to remember the victims with prayers. They joined hands to sing We Shall Overcome.<\/p>\n

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Mr Obama praised the forgiveness of the local community<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Thousands attended a vigil at a local arena, singing We Shall Overcome<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ahead of the vigil, Mayor Joseph Riley said: “A hateful person came to this community with some crazy idea he’d be able to divide, but all he did was unite us and make us love each other even more.”<\/p>\n

A steady stream of people also brought flowers to place at a memorial in front of the church.<\/p>\n

The Roof family earlier released a statement through their lawyer.<\/p>\n

“Words cannot express our shock, grief and disbelief as to what happened that night. We are devastated and saddened by what occurred,” the family wrote.<\/p>\n

“We have all been touched by the moving words from the victims’ families offering God’s forgiveness and love in the face of such horrible suffering.”<\/p>\n

In court in Charleston on Friday afternoon, Mr Roof spoke to confirm his name, age and address and said he was unemployed.<\/p>\n

Then relatives were invited by the judge to come forward and speak.<\/p>\n

A woman who identified herself as the daughter of Ethel Lance said: “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her ever again.<\/p>\n

“I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you. And [may God] have mercy on your soul.”<\/p>\n

Anthony Thompson, a relative of Myra Thompson, told Mr Roof to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ. “I forgive you and my family forgives you,” he said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking in court was Felecia Sanders, who survived the attack on Wednesday night by playing dead. Her son, Tywanza, was fatally wounded.<\/p>\n

“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms.<\/p>\n

“You have killed some of the most beautifulest people that I know. Every fibre in my body hurts … and I’ll never be the same,” she said to Mr Roof, who appeared via a video feed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, one of Mr Roof’s friends, Christon Scriven, told the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan that Mr Roof had considered a university as a potential target.<\/p>\n

Mr Scriven said Mr Roof “wanted to shoot that school up, UCA University of Charleston. It’s three miles up the street from that church”.<\/p>\n

But Mr Scriven, who is black, did not think Mr Roof would actually follow through.<\/p>\n

“So how do you take it serious?” he said. “How many friends do you have in your lifetime that’s killed somebody?”<\/p>\n

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Many prayer services have been held since the attack<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Court documents have revealed new details about the shooting.<\/p>\n

Mr Roof entered the church just after 20:00 local time (01:00 BST) on Wednesday night and remained with the worshippers for nearly an hour before launching his attack.<\/p>\n

All of the victims were hit multiple times, the documents said.<\/p>\n

Before leaving, Mr Roof stood over one person who was not shot and “uttered a racially inflammatory statement”.<\/p>\n

That person has not been named, and has been described only as a “witness” in the court documents.<\/p>\n

Mr Roof has been remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said the state would “absolutely” look for the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Cornell William Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said: “This was not merely a mass shooting, not merely a matter of gun violence, this was a racial hate crime and must be confronted as such.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racism remains “a blight” on society, US President Barack Obama says, in the wake of the killing of nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church. Police are treating the killings at the church in Charleston on Wednesday night as a hate crime. Earlier, Dylann Roof, 21, appeared in court to face nine murder charges. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-126587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}