@albert69 No, they don’t.
First of all, BLM was CREATED after George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin. The shooter was neither white (well, arguably white Hispanic) nor was he a cop.
You keep just posting stuff and not bothering to research it even a little bit first. Take a breath and read before you say things about mortars injuring 21 people in New Orleans and how pigs nad white privilege somehow proves your point that they only care about white cop shootings. Please.
“I do hope you are not blaming the victims - the Dallas cops - for simply being present at a place where a large scale protest was taking place, as is their duty.”
I dont see why it is at all necessary to have had a police force at a peaceful protest.
Sometimes a police presence helps keep the protest peaceful and from becoming a looting and disordered mess like Ferguson. If the cops weren’t present and there was looting and disorder, the police would surely be blamed for not being there and doing their duty.
“It’s easy to do that if your patrol beat involves the kind of Nice White Suburbia where I live (and I suspect you do too) and the most crime you will be dealing with is speeding, or maybe shoplifting or minor property damage or somesuch. It’s a little bit more difficult when you’re patrolling the South Side of Chicago.”
Yet the Minnesota shooting took place in a town way more similar to your suburb and mine then the south side of Chicago (where I did live when going to UofC.)
“As of the 2010 census,[3] there were 8,226 people, 3,848 households, and 2,054 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,656.0 inhabitants per square mile (1,411.6/km2). There were 4,098 housing units at an average density of 1,821.3 per square mile (703.2/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 85.1% White, 5.0% African American, 0.6% Native American, 5.9% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.0% from other races, and 2.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.9% of the population.”
The LA riots of 1992 became massive because there was no early, forceful response by police.
“I dont see why it is at all necessary to have had a police force at a peaceful protest.”
In my area is the corporate headquarters of a well-known fast-food company that employs many people in minimum wage jobs. A few months ago, there were protests at the headquarters by those who were advocating a $15/hr minimum wage, and protesters were being bussed in from elsewhere. The protest was peaceful, they abided by all laws, there was relatively minimal disruption to traffic, etc. I credit the police with being there to manage it all. It was absolutely their place to be there to ensure nothing bad happened and that the protesters were allowed to protest and the community remain safe.
I really am not getting this line of thinking at all that police don’t “belong” at protests.
I have not been able to respond because I am out of the country,but I have a few moments so here goes.
This is where your subconscious bias comes into play. You assume all protesters come from crime ridden neighborhoods. Here we go with the " well what about Black on black crime ?" Well what about white on white crime? Most crime is intraracial, that has nothing to do with the protests. There are countless initiatives dealing with those problems. If you listened to black radio, attended a black church, read black media you would know this. I know you may find this hard to believe but that’s not all,of our experiences. I don’t know gangs, and the drug dealing in my neighborhood is at hands of the affluent white residents.
What I do know is, I have watched(on an endless loop) five black men( Walter Scott, Tamar rice, John Crawford , Eric garner(not shot) and Castile) over the past year or so who did not deserve to die at the hands of trigger finger cops , and it needs to stop. Please dont get me started on the black females who have mysteriously been found dead in their cells(sandra bland). Honestly it seems that some non minorities act like we should just sit back and take it. What you are suggesting we do(clean up our neighborhoods) doesn’t change the fact that some cops are just dirty or scared. I don’t know which one but it needs to stop. If cops were ever held accountable you wouldn’t have these protests. One of wishes for BLM is that the system works equitably for all of us. You and others have been presented with a mountain of evidence that we are stopped more, when we are stopped we receive harsher sentences, but you refuse to believe it. I don’t care how dangerous a cops job is, as the one officer said, if you are going to be scared to death every time you encounter a person of color then you need to find another line of work. We want cops to stop lying and covering for each other. If cops thought that they would get punished maybe some of this would stop. We watched Rodney King damn near get beat to death, and pretty much nothing has changed. We want bad cops punished , it doesn’t matter their color, so I wish everyone would stop making this a white cop issue. There are fringes to every movement but they don’t speak for the majority. I’m sure you would find some way to refute this but there are Black cops who complain about being profiled and treated like crap when not in uniform.
http://time.com/3645939/nypd-black-officers-racial-profiling/
Well said, and I would add that it’s not the norm in 99.9% of the country either. 
The practice of open-carry is rare in the US, and those areas where it is more common (usually small, rural, farming-type towns with a large percentage of hunters), are some of the safest areas in the country where there is little danger of people carrying around guns in public.
Personally, I do not see the point of open-carry, unless you have a legitimate reason to do so (see above, for example). It seems like unnecessary provocation to me. I do, however, support concealed carry, so long as the person has been thoroughly vetted and permitted.
"A few months ago, there were protests at the headquarters by those who were advocating a $15/hr minimum wage, and protesters were being bussed in from elsewhere. "
the irony is that the paid protestors are paid less than $15.00 an hour.
“Open-carry is very rare in the US, and those areas where it is more common (usually small, rural, farming-type towns with a large percentage of hunters), are some of the safest areas in the country where there is little danger of people carrying around guns in public.”
45 states have open carry laws. If it is “so rare” why have these laws at all?
“In my area is the corporate headquarters of a well-known fast-food company that employs many people in minimum wage jobs. A few months ago, there were protests at the headquarters by those who were advocating a $15/hr minimum wage, and protesters were being bussed in from elsewhere. The protest was peaceful, they abided by all laws, there was relatively minimal disruption to traffic, etc. I credit the police with being there to manage it all. It was absolutely their place to be there to ensure nothing bad happened and that the protesters were allowed to protest and the community remain safe.”
So you believe these protesters would have turn violent if the police weren’t there? Really? What leads you to that conclusion?
"We watched Rodney King damn near get beat to death, and pretty much nothing has changed. "
Again, a poor poster child.
Rodney King was not a Philando Castile (guy just minding his own business, guilty of a busted taillight at most).
He was driving drunk, led police on a high speed chase that endangered others, and the reason he refused to stop for the police was that he knew a DUI would violate his parole for a previous robbery conviction.
I am not excusing the violence towards him – once they subdued him with tasering or whatever, that should have been enough and there was no excuse for continued beating – but you guys really don’t get how using these punks and low-lifes as poster children does not get the empathetic response you want.
Here is the difference when a white person open carries versus a black person.
I disagree with this one. Rodney King wasn’t a choir boy, but you shouldn’t have to be perfect to be able to trust the police to not beat the crap out of you because you made them chase you.
I believe it may have been the first widely circulated video of excessive force used by the police who were doing their regular job (unlike the civil unrest during the 60s when dogs and fire hoses were turned on people). It’s not surprising at all that it generated outrage and that the lack of justice later generated more outrage.
“So you believe these protesters would have turn violent if the police weren’t there? Really? What leads you to that conclusion?”
Maybe, maybe not. Tempers can flare over issues like this. That’s why they are contentious issues.
If nothing else, the police were necessary to ensure traffic control, to ensure that the protesters kept to the public areas where they were cleared to be at and not trespass on private property. As well, there were a lot of media trucks and personnel swarming the area.
I truly am flabbergasted you think that the police (who were headquartered like a half a block away from where this all took place) should have just stayed home. Heck, I’m on the planning committee for a 5K this fall and we get police to come out there, not because anyone’s going to beat anyone else up, but for public safety and traffic control purposes.
@Pizzagirl my point with Rodney king is that he was beat mercilessly on national tv and the cops walked.
Of the victims I named, who was a punk or low life ? I’ll wait…
As you noticed , there were victims I did not name. I wrote a very long response and the part you picked out was about Rodney king? I guess because you can’t refute the other parts?
You know, @zobroward, I hope, that people get on buses to go to protests without being paid. I went to many as a kid with my parents on buses chartered by our church. It’s a way for people to be able to attend from far away or when parking will be an issue, or simply to go as a group.
Arriving on a bus does not mean “paid” but saying “bused in” sure makes it sound sinister doesn’t it? I guess that was the intent.
Are they in riot gear at your 5k?
I saw on CNN this morning that Castile had been stopped 52 times by Police between 2012 and 2016. Think about that. I guess driving while black is not a made up thing.
Kelly Thomas a white man was beaten to death by police in Fullerton, CA a few years ago. The police were tried and found not guilty. However, unlike Rodney King, no federal charges were brought. IIRC, some of the King cops did go to prison on the federal charges.
I just watched the press conference and one surgeon, Dr. Brian Williams, admitted that he’s scared of the police and has reason to be. But he also admits that it haunts him that he wasn’t able to save the police.
He was noticeably emotional during the press conference making an impassioned plea for the violence to stop.