violence-obsessed teenager<\/a> in Southport. A prosecutor said in court that the suspect had no political or religious ideology and that his \u201conly purpose was to kill.\u201d The young man had viewed a large quantity of videos and material relating to mass murder, violence and genocide, the authorities say.<\/p>\nExperts in <\/span>radicalization have warned of a rise in indiscriminate acts of violence of a sort once mostly associated with ideologically driven terrorists.<\/p>\nA social media account associated with the suspect in the Leeds attack on the weekend indicated an interest in mass shootings and in white supremacy, and voiced misogynistic views.<\/p>\n
The authorities have not yet decided whether to formally declare the incident a terrorist attack. Under British law, that would require a finding that the violence have been waged \u201cfor the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Investigators are reviewing two Facebook accounts that the police believe belonged to the suspect. One of the accounts was viewed by The New York Times before it was taken down.<\/p>\n
The most recent post, published shortly before the attack began at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, was titled \u201cattack information\u201d and contained photos of weapons that matched images of items discarded on the ground following the assault. <\/span>It said the targets would be \u201cstudents, night club goers, pub crawlers, Otley Run participants, society, humanity, humanitarian race, neurotypicals and police, if I need to.\u201d<\/p>\nUnder the heading \u201cattack type,\u201d the post said it was a \u201cspree killing, mass murder, terrorism, revenge, misogynistic rage, homicide\/suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Facebook user said he was a political \u201creactionary\u201d who had \u201cexplored far right ideas\u201d and had read a notorious manifesto shared by the white supremacist who carried out mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques in 2019. A separate post referred to \u201cthe great replacement,\u201d <\/span>a far-right conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced by nonwhites in Western countries.<\/p>\nAnother recurring theme on the account was a hatred of women, feminists and the political left. A Feb. 15 post accused women of causing society to \u201cdegenerate\u201d by choosing the wrong partners. A week later, another post claimed that dating apps like Tinder were \u201cdesigned for women only.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n