RantCrush Top 5: May 30, 2017

On Friday, a white man stabbed two men to death on a Portland train after they defended two teenage girls. The suspect, Jeremy Joseph Christian, was arrested and authorities are still determining whether he will be charged with a hate crime. One of the girls was wearing a hijab. Christian was allegedly shouting “hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions” at the girls. Three men attempted to get between Christian and the teenagers. Two were killed after Christian stabbed them in the neck–an Army veteran and father of four named Ricky John Best and a recent college graduate named Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche. A third man, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, was also stabbed but is expected to recover.

One of the girls, Destinee Mangum, 16, expressed her gratitude for the men that intervened. “I just want to say thank you to the people who put their life on the line for me. Because they didn’t even know me and they lost their lives because of me and my friend and the way we look,” she said. The stabbings caused outrage on social media and many have questioned why authorities hesitated to call it domestic terrorism.

They did not die because of you. They died because of a hateful, ignorant, pathetic, EMBOLDENED piece of trash. https://t.co/Slieadp763

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 29, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.