title:  A Racist Massacre In Milwaukee This Week Shows Where The Politics Of Hate Will Lead America
text: This week, a racially-motivated massacre took place at an apartment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The triple homicide shows where the politics of hate will lead America.Three people were slaughtered in horrifying circumstances this week, because their white neighbor was enraged by their ethnic origin and grasp of the English language. The terrifying scenes unfolded at a four unit apartment complex. One unit was occupied by Dan J Popp, one by the Manso-Perez family, and one by Phia Vue, his wife Mai, and their four children.The Journel-Sentinel reports that 40-year-old Jesus R. Manso-Perez and his son passed the apartment of their 39-year-old neighbor Dan J. Popp on their way to the basement laundry room. Popp invited them into his home with the offer of a neigborly beer, which they declined. Popp then cut short the niceties and got straight to his point, asking the pair where they were from. At their response, he reportedly said: Oh, that s why you don t speak English. You re Puerto Rican. The father and son bid their goodbyes and went on to do their laundry. However, when they made their way back up to their apartment, Popp was waiting for them on the stairs, rifle in hand. You guys got to go,  Popp said, according to police, before shooting Jesus in the head, killing him. He then fired at his son, but missed.Hearing the gunshots, Phia and Mai K. Vue hid in the bedroom with their four children and a 25-year-old relative who had been watching the children that day. The couple had just returned home from a day trip. When Popp began hammering at their door, they called the police and stayed in their hiding places. But Popp kicked down their door and searched the home until he found them. He demanded 36-year-old Phia leave the room, took him into the bathroom and shot him dead. Then he returned for Mai, dragging her and two young daughters out of the apartment while the rest of the family ran out in front and around them.The couple s young son was first to reach the police and told them: He shot my father; he s in the bathroom. A further shot then rang out from the apartment complex as Popp shot and killed 32-year-old Mai.Popp then surrendered himself to police. He has no previous criminal record, and is detained on bail of $150,000, while mental health assessments are completed.The explosion of violence is however, the terrifying end game of the ever escalating racist rhetoric and violence we are seeing in the current political climate. The very worst elements of white America are being unleashed. The bitter hatred of difference, the idea that non-European immigrants to the United States are the root of all evil and that everything wrong with the nation can be traced back to those groups.There is very good reason why, at home and abroad, the rise of the racist right in modern America is being compared to the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1930 s Germany. That reason is simple: the comparison is accurate.Depressed wages, a perceived crisis of masculinity, the demand for a  tough  leader who would drive through his agenda as an authoritarian, an obsession with a perceived dent to national pride which must be remedied with a show of economic and military force at home and abroad   and pure, unadulterated racism.When you unleash this level of anger at a scapegoat, people set out to hurt and kill that scapegoat.This is the vision of America that the racist right represents. And it is a vision of hell.The victory of such forces would be a disaster for America as a nation, but also for the international community in which she sits. This is not some television show where we sit back and watch the fall-out from the safety of our couch. This is real life. The racist right is a real and present danger, and it must be confronted with relentless and unwavering opposition by everyone who has a stake in a progressive, free, and hopeful America.Featured image via Gawker