Jack & Jill Politics

An abandoned backpack bomb was discovered along the parade route of a MLK Day parade in Spokane, Washington. Thankfully, said explosive did not detonate. The FBI–who is investigating race as a possible motive for the bombing attempt–says the explosion would have been ugly. From NPR

Investigators would not disclose what kind of explosive it was, except to say that it was “potentially deadly” and could have caused “multiple casualties” had the device detonated.

While the FBI hasn’t provided direct evidence that the explosive device was connected to the MLK Day march, an agency spokesman said the backpack’s proximity to the route was “not coincidental.”

“The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive,” said Frank Harrill, special agent in charge of the Spokane FBI office.

The suspicious backpack was spotted by three city employees at an intersection in downtown Spokane about an hour before the parade was to start Monday, Harrill said. They saw wires and immediately alerted law enforcement, who disabled it without incident, he said.

The discovery before the parade for the slain civil rights leader raised the possibility of a racial motive in a region that has been home to the white supremacist Aryan Nations.

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said the attempted bombing was unacceptable.

“I was struck that on a day when we celebrate Dr. King, a champion of nonviolence, we were faced with a significant violent threat,” Verner said. “This is unacceptable in our community or any community.”

I grappled for a minute with whether I should post this bit of news, wondering if it gives it more exposure than clowns of this nature deserve. Then I remembered that if we don’t highlight bulls–t like this, people will continue to tell us we’re overly sensitive and our concerns are all in our heads because, you know, racism went extinct and ish.