“On this difficult day, a difficult day for the United States, it is perhaps right to ask what kind of nation we are and what direction we want to go. Those of you who are black, since the evidence shows that the perpetrators were white people, may be filled with bitterness, hatred, and revenge. As a country, we can move in this direction, toward a vast division: black among blacks, white among whites, filled with hatred for each other. Or, following the example of Martin Luther King, we can make an effort to understand and embrace this, and replace the stain of bloodshed and violence that covers our country with compassion and love.”
This was perhaps the best speech of his life by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy on the evening of April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, where he announced to a largely African-American audience that a white man in Memphis, James Earl Ray, had shot and killed the legendary black civil rights leader and fled, leaving his gun behind. Kennedy calmed the mood in Indianapolis, but protests and fires erupted across America. Two months later, he too was assassinated by a lone gunman in Los Angeles.
It is no coincidence that the turbulent year of 1968, which symbolized the extreme division of America, is being recalled, along with other events, after the usual lone perpetrator of political murders shot and killed 31-year-old Charlie Kirk last Wednesday as he challenged his audience to a debate at Utah Valley University with the slogan: “Prove me wrong!” The suspected perpetrator, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody 33 hours later by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police officers thanks to a citizen's report.
The young man is not communicating with investigators and prosecutors, so they can only speculate why he killed the most famous figure of the new generation of the American Christian right. Robinson killed Kirk with a single shot, and the texts written on the bullets left behind were used to try to find a motive, but according to the interpretations, they can be linked to so-called first-person shooter (FPS) video games, in which actions are performed from the perspective of the protagonist in a virtual battlefield environment. Robinson, who allegedly lives with a transgender partner, was a passionate video gamer, according to his neighbors.
The identity of the perpetrator, and especially his motive, was still unknown when President Donald Trump found the culprits.
In a four-minute video posted on the Truth Social platform on the day of the attack, he blamed the much-vaunted “radical left” for the attack and “the terrorism unleashed in this country” because “wonderful Americans like Charlie have been compared to Nazis and the worst mass murderers and criminals in the world.” He also promised to find every single person responsible for the murder and other political violence, including the organizations that support and fund it.
