Political wing/violence
Overview
This page was created in response to the question of whether liberal fears of right-wing violence are exaggerated. For now, this discussion is limited to events within the United States.
First, it is necessary to decide which events are attributable to liberals, which to conservatives, and those whose participants are not clearly or overwhelmingly adherents of one philosophy or the other. "Right-wing" participants are tentatively defined as those with heavier weaponry or citing religious or patriarchal motivations, while "left-wing" is tentatively defined as those acting in defense of civil rights (or in protest of violation of same).
Events
| Event | wing | # killed | # injured | # perpetrators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles riots of 1992 | left (tentative) | 53 | 2000 | 1000+? |
| Rodney King beating (led to above) | right | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 1995 Oklahoma City bombing | right | 168 | 850+ | 2 |
| Jonestown (airstrip murders) | right | 5 | 11 | ~10 |
| 2009 shooting of George Tiller | right | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Columbine High School massacre | right | 13 | 24 | 2 |
| Virginia Tech massacre | insanity | 32 | 23 | 1 |
| 2009 Knoxville shooting | right | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| Kent State shootings | right | 4 | 9 | 29 |
| 2001 Cincinnati riots |
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Notes:
- Assigning blame to liberals for the LA riots is very dubious; the political affiliation of the individuals involved is largely unknown, and the riots did not have any particularly political goal to them -- they were mainly in anger at the King beating (or possibly just using it as an excuse). It is being accepted for now in order to see how the numbers stack up if conservative premises are used.
- Incidents of largely self-inflicted violence which I am leaving out, for now: 1995 Waco Massacre, Jonestown (the main suicide -- 909 people), Ruby Ridge