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The prosecution presented FBI and expert witness testimony Tuesday to make its case that the defendant Robert Bowers established a clear online trail of antisemitic hate leading up to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.WARNING: Some of the testimony may be graphicThe bottom line of the message appeared to be that the deadly attack that took eleven lives from three Jewish congregations and wounded others, including police officers, was the hate crime culmination of hate displayed online.In the afternoon, an expert on extremism and hate crimes testified to his analysis of Bowers’ social media posts.Professor William Braniff works at the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. That work includes the prevention of hate crimes. He’s testified in his personal capacity as an expert who has trained law enforcement about racially and ethnically motivated extremism, including hate crimes motivated by white supremacy ideology.Braniff confirmed he found Bowers used specific derogatory terms for Jews and antisemitic derogatory images on Gab, a far-right social media website.The prosecution again showed deleted photos recovered from Bowers’ phone — selfies of Bowers making a hand gesture. Braniff confirmed the photos show Bowers gesturing what has become known as a white power symbol.Braniff also confirmed Bowers’ references on Gab to the Holocaust were about attempts by Nazi Germany, motivated by antisemitism, to exterminate Jews.Braniff explained references to ovens and the Holocaust on Bowers’ Gab account are references to Nazi Germany’s mass execution of Jews.The witness also identified the content of a reading list image posted by Bowers that included books by Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s top Nazi propagandist.The prosecution asked about Bowers’ Gab references to “the great replacement.” Braniff explained that it is a white supremacist theory that immigrants and immigration are a means of “white genocide.”Bowers’ posts made claims that Jews were helping immigrants as “invaders.”Earlier, Day 10 testimony began with the jury continuing to hear from a tactical specialist for the FBI who reviewed computer file records of Bowers’ use of Gab.The FBI’s Evan Browne testified to the defendant’s numerous antisemitic expressions on the social media platform, spanning months, days, and weeks and culminating in the synagogue shooting.The last post was at 9:49 a.m. on the day of the shooting, when Bowers wrote, “screw your optics, I’m going in.”The prosecution had Browne read aloud the many antisemitic posts by the defendant, including Bowers’ sharing an image with the caption, “The only good Jew is a dead Jew,” and a comment that Jewish people “should be gassed and baked.”Another post spoke of “absolute hatred” for Jews and called Jewish people “filthy, vile, and degenerate.”In another Gab post, Bowers wrote, “Call me a racist or a nazi, I don’t even care anymore. “The cumulative evidence presented to the jury illustrated Bowers’ Gab account as an ongoing stream of antisemitic rants.The posts include Nazi swastika images.Bowers is on trial for federal charges of hate crimes in the synagogue shootings. His defense attorneys previously admitted to his committing the killings but have suggested they were not motivated by religious hatred.The agent testified Bowers “liked” a post by a Gab user who wrote that Hitler and the Nazis “are the good guys,” as well as another Gab post that said, “Nuke Israel.”At one point, the FBI tactical specialist’s tally of word occurrences in Bowers gab posts showed the word “Jew” occurred 152 times, “refugee” three times, and “immigration” once. Bowers’ defense attorney Judy Clarke suggested in her opening statement to the jury that Bowers’ killings were not motivated by religious hatred but because of Jewish support for aid to immigrants, who Bowers called “invaders.”The final witness of the day was Erich Smith, a physical scientist with the FBI firearms lab. He is an expert on shooting incident reconstruction.He responded to the synagogue on October 27th, 2018, and spent days there documenting each bullet hole and impact physically left on the synagogue.Smith’s final example was a prayer book that was hit during the shooting, which Smith documented on scene. The book was shown to jurors earlier in the trial.Rabbi Jeffrey Myers previously testified that it’s customary in the Jewish faith to bury damaged prayer books out of respect, but he kept the book, saying it bore “witness to the horror of that day.”
The prosecution presented FBI and expert witness testimony Tuesday to make its case that the defendant Robert Bowers established a clear online trail of antisemitic hate leading up to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
WARNING: Some of the testimony may be graphic
The bottom line of the message appeared to be that the deadly attack that took eleven lives from three Jewish congregations and wounded others, including police officers, was the hate crime culmination of hate displayed online.
In the afternoon, an expert on extremism and hate crimes testified to his analysis of Bowers’ social media posts.
Professor William Braniff works at the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. That work includes the prevention of hate crimes. He’s testified in his personal capacity as an expert who has trained law enforcement about racially and ethnically motivated extremism, including hate crimes motivated by white supremacy ideology.
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Braniff confirmed he found Bowers used specific derogatory terms for Jews and antisemitic derogatory images on Gab, a far-right social media website.
The prosecution again showed deleted photos recovered from Bowers’ phone — selfies of Bowers making a hand gesture. Braniff confirmed the photos show Bowers gesturing what has become known as a white power symbol.
Braniff also confirmed Bowers’ references on Gab to the Holocaust were about attempts by Nazi Germany, motivated by antisemitism, to exterminate Jews.
Braniff explained references to ovens and the Holocaust on Bowers’ Gab account are references to Nazi Germany’s mass execution of Jews.
The witness also identified the content of a reading list image posted by Bowers that included books by Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s top Nazi propagandist.
The prosecution asked about Bowers’ Gab references to “the great replacement.” Braniff explained that it is a white supremacist theory that immigrants and immigration are a means of “white genocide.”
This content is imported from Twitter.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Bowers’ posts made claims that Jews were helping immigrants as “invaders.”
Earlier, Day 10 testimony began with the jury continuing to hear from a tactical specialist for the FBI who reviewed computer file records of Bowers’ use of Gab.
The FBI’s Evan Browne testified to the defendant’s numerous antisemitic expressions on the social media platform, spanning months, days, and weeks and culminating in the synagogue shooting.
The last post was at 9:49 a.m. on the day of the shooting, when Bowers wrote, “screw your optics, I’m going in.”
The prosecution had Browne read aloud the many antisemitic posts by the defendant, including Bowers’ sharing an image with the caption, “The only good Jew is a dead Jew,” and a comment that Jewish people “should be gassed and baked.”
Another post spoke of “absolute hatred” for Jews and called Jewish people “filthy, vile, and degenerate.”
In another Gab post, Bowers wrote, “Call me a racist or a nazi, I don’t even care anymore. “
The cumulative evidence presented to the jury illustrated Bowers’ Gab account as an ongoing stream of antisemitic rants.
The posts include Nazi swastika images.
Bowers is on trial for federal charges of hate crimes in the synagogue shootings. His defense attorneys previously admitted to his committing the killings but have suggested they were not motivated by religious hatred.
The agent testified Bowers “liked” a post by a Gab user who wrote that Hitler and the Nazis “are the good guys,” as well as another Gab post that said, “Nuke Israel.”
At one point, the FBI tactical specialist’s tally of word occurrences in Bowers gab posts showed the word “Jew” occurred 152 times, “refugee” three times, and “immigration” once.
Bowers’ defense attorney Judy Clarke suggested in her opening statement to the jury that Bowers’ killings were not motivated by religious hatred but because of Jewish support for aid to immigrants, who Bowers called “invaders.”
The final witness of the day was Erich Smith, a physical scientist with the FBI firearms lab. He is an expert on shooting incident reconstruction.
He responded to the synagogue on October 27th, 2018, and spent days there documenting each bullet hole and impact physically left on the synagogue.
Smith’s final example was a prayer book that was hit during the shooting, which Smith documented on scene. The book was shown to jurors earlier in the trial.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers previously testified that it’s customary in the Jewish faith to bury damaged prayer books out of respect, but he kept the book, saying it bore “witness to the horror of that day.”
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