This Is Exactly How We Shouldn't Respond to Major Incidents or Accidents
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Curt Schilling — the retired Major League Baseball pitcher who is becoming known more as a purveyor of controversial tweets — made a dramatic and unsubstantiated assumption on Twitter about the train tragedy in New Jersey: that it's an act of terrorism
Schilling tweeted the following about a train crash in Hoboken even as events continued to unfold.
Twitter/@gehrig38 - twitter.com
He wasn't alone: Twitter was quick to assume the devastating crash was an act of terrorism.
There is no initial evidence to suggest terrorism caused the train crash that killed at least one person, authorities repeatedly said.
"There's no evidence at this time, Brian, that it was anything other than an accident," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told MSNBC's Brian Williams. "But, you know, in my previous job as U.S. attorney, I used to say to my folks all the time, 'Don't jump to conclusions. Let the facts draw you to the conclusions.'"
Christie brought up an important point as his region is already on edge about terrorism.
The New York and New Jersey area has seen two suspected terror acts recently. An improvised bomb went off in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood two weeks ago, the same day pipe bombs exploded in a trash can near a U.S. Marine Corps footrace in New Jersey.
No one was killed in either incident, but dozens were injured in New York. Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested in connection with the two bombings after a shootout in New Jersey, according to CNN.
Schilling doubled down on his blog.
Schilling didn't back down on his tasteless tweet when critics slammed him for jumping to conclusions. "If anyone took the tweet regarding my thoughts on the train wreck being a potential terrorist act as 'cool if I’m wrong' in a way that trivializes pain and or suffering? You’re a douche," the combative athlete posted on his official blog.
The investigation into the train crash continues. Here are some things to consider before panicking about terrorism.
As ATTN: previously reported, it is still extremely rare to be killed in a terror attack. The odds of an American dying from a terror attack are somewhere between one in 3.5 million and one in 4 million.
Americans are still much more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, firearms, or an accident involving a home appliance.
