Houston man charged with trying to plant bomb at Confederate statue in Hermann Park

[driftdiver]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HPD-HFD-FBI-on-scene-overnight-at-Rice-11946918.php

A Houston man has been charged with trying to plant explosives at the statue of Confederate officer Richard Dowling in Hermann Park, federal officials said Monday.
Andrew Schneck, 25, who was released from probation early last year after being convicted in 2015 of storing explosives, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez said in a statement Monday.
Schneck was arrested Saturday night after a Houston park ranger spotted him kneeling in bushes in front of the Dowling monument in the park, Martinez said.
Schneck was holding two small boxes that included duct tape and wires.
When confronted Saturday night in the park, he tried to drink some of the liquid explosives but spit it out, officials said.

Federal authorities said one of the tubes contained nitgroglycerin and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, HMTD, a "highly explosive compound" used as a primary explosive. Nitroclycerin, in its purest form, is a contact explosive.
"ln its undiluted form, [nitroglycerin] is one of the world's most powerful explosives," according to the statement.
Schneck was arrested about 11 p.m. Saturday in the park, a source said, following a day of protests that drew hundreds of people to Sam Houston Park protesting a Spirit of the Confederacy statue. The Saturday event also drew counter-protesters.

[Cripplecreek]

a day of protests that drew hundreds of people to Sam Houston Park protesting a Spirit of the Confederacy statue.

There is so much wrong with that sentence. Sam Houston was thrown out of office for refusing to join the confederacy. He also predicted that the south was going to lose the war.

[driftdiver]

The guy tried to drink his liquid explosives when they 'confronted' him.

Its it wise to drink nitroglycerin?   I bet thats even worse then bad mexican food and tequila.

[RoosGirl]

The guy tried to drink his liquid explosives when they 'confronted' him.

Its it wise to drink nitroglycerin?   I bet thats even worse then bad mexican food and tequila.

To look on the bright side, the people doing things like this don't appear very smart.

[Elderberry]

There is so much wrong with that sentence. Sam Houston was thrown out of office for refusing to join the confederacy. He also predicted that the south was going to lose the war.

They were protesting the statue that happened to be in the park named after Sam Houston.

Standing in a tranquil part of Sam Houston Park, the Spirit of the Confederacy is a bronze statue representing an angel with a sword and a palm branch. It was erected in the park by the Robert E. Lee Chapter #186 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in January 1908. Its dedication states “To all heroes of the South who fought for the Principles of States Rights.” The statue stands on a pedestal of rough-hewn granite.

The sculptor, Louis Amateis, was a native of Italy. After studying at the Institute of Technology and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, and after launching an award-winning art career there, he immigrated to the United States, living first in New York City, and then in Washington, D.C. He had a distinguished academic career and produced many works of nationally significant monumental art, including four in Galveston, and, in stark contrast to the somber dignity of Spirit of the Confederacy, a statue of a tiny elf named Brownie, which makes its home in the Houston Zoo. Amateis died in Washington, D.C. in 1913.

[Smokin Joe]

The guy tried to drink his liquid explosives when they 'confronted' him.

Its it wise to drink nitroglycerin?   I bet thats even worse then bad mexican food and tequila.

Not wise at all. Small amounts have been used as a remedy for angina for years in pill form, but the liquid would be a definite OD.
What I am seeing here, though, Nitro is difficult to handle, and HMTD is a little more difficult to make than TATP (Mother of Satan), which is a fairly common jihad explosive.

This isn't just some fertilizer bomb, but indicates some knowledge of things that go boom.

[Smokin Joe]

They were protesting the statue that happened to be in the park named after Sam Houston.

That era of monumental artwork is pretty much gone, too. Few sculptors today could copy it, much less generate that quality of statuary.

[corbe]

   Maybe it's American Artist Sculptures that they have a problem with.

[Cripplecreek]

That era of monumental artwork is pretty much gone, too. Few sculptors today could copy it, much less generate that quality of statuary.

Its not the artists who have the problem, its the lack of worthy subjects. I think the new Frederick Douglass statue at Hillsdale college is some damn fine work.

[catfish1957]

The guy tried to drink his liquid explosives when they 'confronted' him.

Its it wise to drink nitroglycerin?   I bet thats even worse then bad mexican food and tequila.

Two points to add from article.

(1) Not his first rodeo for a serious bomb making charge.
(2) He lives with his parents.

Wonder if they (parents- Andrew Edward Schneck and Cecily Earhart Horton Schneck) need to be investigated  as accessories.  (1) no basements in Houston. (2) Impossible to hide bomb making materials, smells, etc.  I find it hard to believe they didn't know.

Not bad idea to read the whole article.  Other points bring up the need to lock this mf ing whacko in jail forever.