MSNBC’s Roberts: Maybe Nice Attacker Was Just Crazy, Wanted to ‘Challenge Society’

MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts had an interesting take on the Nice terror attack Friday, wondering aloud whether the killer of 84 people was only mentally ill and wanted to “challenge society” by driving a truck through a crowed Bastille Day celebration.

“But what if this is a one-off?” Roberts asked MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance. “If we get out of the analytics of potential terrorism and think about this, what if this is just a person with mental illness that took a moment to challenge society in a horrific way and we’re not talking about that?”

“Yeah, we’ve seen that,” responded Nance. “We call them ‘EDP’s’: Extremely disturbed persons, or emotionally disturbed persons.” He cited the example of a French man who beheaded his boss and placed it on a stake, claiming that he did it for jihad.

Nance remarked that even if the killer was just mentally ill, Islamic terror groups would still take credit for the attack. “They don’t care if you’re emotionally disturbed. If you’re willing to carry out an act, they will even take claim for that act even if you had no political component as part of that…”

French media have identified the Nice attacked as 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. Witnesses report that Bouhlel yelled “Allahu akbar” before the attack began.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[Image via screengrab]
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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