Hostage taker in Texas synagogue heard screaming "What the fu*k is wrong with America?"

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Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
The audio is hard to hear, but you can make out the hostage-taker in Colleyville, Texas, ranting about America: "What the frick is wrong with America?" And: "Either there’s something wrong with me or there’s something wrong with America."

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By now you have probably heard of the hostage-taking that is underway at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. CNN didn’t break the news for me. I got word of it from a childhood friend, a cantor at another Reform synagogue in Dallas, who told me she was watching the whole thing live on Facebook.

By the time the video feed was cut—like many American synagogues, it had livestreamed services because of the pandemic—there were thousands of people tuning in.

We managed to record a good deal of it. And we are sharing it here because we think it is newsworthy information.

At points, the audio is hard to hear, but you will make out the hostage-taker pinging between demands about someone he identifies as his sister (“you get my sister on the phone” and “fricking do something man or you are going to get a casualty”) and rants about America (“what the frick is wrong with America?” and “either there’s something wrong with me or there’s something wrong with America.”) At one point we hear who we think is the rabbi tell someone on the phone (presumably law enforcement or negotiator) that “no one is harmed.”

In another clip you again hear him referring again to his “sister,” saying she is "as good as dead” and that “I would rather be dead . . . and I would rather these four gentlemen be alive, so I will give you a crappy deal.”

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