White Supremacist Planned Mass Shooting At Largest Hindu Temple In Chicago Suburb, Authorities Say

In today’s episode of Not A Muslim, Not A Trans Person, Not An Immigrant, Not Antifa, a reportedly self-proclaimed white supremacist was arrested Wednesday in Illinois, and the local authorities say they prevented him from perpetrating a mass shooting at the largest Hindu temple in the city of Aurora.

According to the Associated Press, 19-year-old Taco Bell employee Alexandros Paporakis is facing felony charges of making a terrorist threat and unlawfully possessing weapons. Investigators believe, based on text messages and accounts by his coworkers, that he was planning on targeting the largest Hindu temple in the city, although the exact temple he allegedly had in mind is still under investigation.

From AP:

The defendant’s co-workers told police they had received concerning digital communications from Paporakis, including a document outlining an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting and photos of tactical gear. They said Paporakis openly identified as a white supremacist at work and told them he couldn’t wait to kill Indian people, according to prosecutors from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The Mount Prospect and Palatine police departments coordinated to locate and arrest Paporakis while he was leaving his home on Sunday afternoon, the same say detectives believe he may have been planning to carry out an attack, Palatine police said. He had allegedly told his Taco Bell co-workers that Sunday was going to be “a special day.”

Prosecutors said Paporakis called one coworker earlier in the day Sunday, saying that his gun had jammed and he left “super fast” without being seen.

“The seriousness of this alleged threat cannot be overstated,” Palatine Police Chief William Nord said, adding that protecting places of worship is a law enforcement priority.

It also cannot be overstated that while conservatives claim it’s “the left” that is responsible for the most political violence — which, of course, ignores the abundance of data that indicates the opposite is true — the only reason they can convince themselves that their narrative holds water is that they ignore people like Alexandros Paporakis. Mass shooters like Dylann Roof and Payton Gendron simply don’t count, despite the clear right-wing ideological rhetoric that can be found in their manifestos and online communications, which, in Gendron’s case, includes the Great Replacement Theory, which, as I wrote previously, “is championed by white conservatives and  Republican legislators and political candidates, and Republican officials across the MAGA World, including President Donald Trump, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), and, of course, MAGA’s favorite totally-not-racist martyr, Charlie Kirk.”

So, when young, white men shoot up a mosque, it doesn’t count. When a white ex-cop plans to target Black people in a mass shooting, it doesn’t count. When white nationalists are indicted in plots to kill federal officers, it doesn’t count. When a white man murders Democratic lawmakers and leaves behind an extensive list of other Democrats he planned to kill, it simply doesn’t count.

White supremacist terrorism doesn’t count because white supremacy is what this nation was founded and built on. It’s really that simple.

As for Paporakis, prosecutors say he sent one of his coworkers an eight-page document titled, “Why I fought: A.K.A. (Aurora Shooter’s Manifesto),” which described Indian, Jewish, and Black people as “subhumans” and outlined a plot to kill as many of them as possible. In that manifesto, Paporakis reportedly described himself as “a sociopathic white supremacist Neo Nazi filled with hatred, fantasizing about mass murder nearly every day.” Detectives searched his home and recovered an AR-style rifle without a serial number, loaded magazines and ammunition, a gas canister labeled with a slur typically used to describe South Asians, and several items depicting Nazi symbolism, according to police and prosecutors.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered Paporakis to remain in lockup until pretrial. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 30.

SEE ALSO:

Ex-Cop Arrested For Allegedly Planning Mass Shooting Of Black People

White Man Plotted ‘Race War’ Against Blacks, Feds Say

A White Man Gets Away With Plotting To Kill Black People [Op-Ed]