We remember the two victims of the London Bridge attack that occurred on November 29th, 2019. Five people were stabbed, two fatally, in central London. The perpetrator, Usman Khan, had been released from prison on license after serving a sentence for multiple terrorist offences. Jack Merrit, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed in the chest during Usman Khan’s deadly rampage. Merrit was working as a coordinator at a prisoner rehabilitation conference at Fishmongers Hall and Jones was volunteering at the event when Khan launched his attack,. At the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, City of London Senior Coroner Alison Hewitt opened and adjourned inquests into the victims death, according to a recent CNN article. Detective Superintendent Desmond McHugh told the hearing that police were called at 1:58pm on Friday following reports that “a male was attacking delegates at the event within Fishmongers’ Hall”.
It is a popular belief that the number of international terrorist attacks in the U.S have increased dramatically in the last ten years. In Europe, the number of deaths linked to terrorist attacks has gone from an estimate of 11,000 in 2007 to an estimate of 26,000 in 2017. In the U.S., however, international terrorism incidents have decreased since the September 11th attacks. This does not mean, however, that the U.S isn’t a target for terrorist attacks. For example, earlier this month, 3 men were attacked and murdered at the Pensacola naval base in Florida The suspected killer was identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was in a training program at Naval Air Station Pensacola. A sheriff deputy killed him during the attack Friday morning, Dec. 2. Another well-known post-911 international terrorism incident in the U.S. was the Boston marathon bombing of 2013. On April 13 of that year, 264 people were injured and three were killed by a pressure cooker bombs at the marathon’s finish line. The perpetrator was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Soviet-born terrorist.
Northwood students have different opinions on the frequency of international terrorist attacks around the world and the possibility of more attacks in the future.
“I personally don’t believe that terrorist attacks in the U.S are becoming more of a problem,” freshman Caroline Rodgers said. “I am aware of the London bridge attack and it makes me sick. I wish there was more that we could do to prevent it but we are already kind of doing a lot and if we do more then we would be overdoing it because we would just be making our country a bigger target for terrorist attacks.”
“I believe that the attacks are more advanced than they were 10 years ago,” freshman Catie Harrigan said.
“I am aware of the London Bridge attack,” Freshman Sofia Talman said. “The U.S. has been doing a lot to prevent them [international terrorist attacks] but there is only so much that we can do.”
The media covers most of what we see on the news regarding terrorism but there are of course the parts that we don’t see firsthand, like the murder of the NBC’s Today show co-anchor David Bloom, who was killed while covering the the Iraq war on April 6, 2003.
The number of international terrorist attacks that have occurred in the U.S. are lower than the number of attacks in foreign countries like France and Syria, but what does that mean for the future of said foreign countries? Are we as Americans and Global citizens going to continue to let international terrorist organizations grow through more attacks? And, if international terrorism is on the rise in Europe, will the United States be able to prevent the number of international terrorist attacks from increasing on American soil?
