I’m not surprised that the reports of multiple snipers and multiple culprits turned out to be entirely untrue. I’m sure that many of you remember the barrage of false reports after 9/11 about supposed carloads of conspirators/participants being seen and/or arrested all over the New York metropolitan area. (Not to mention all the false reports of survivors buried under the rubble.)
These revenge shootings are horrible. That shooter in Baldwin,MO sounds like a real loser. Some of the other shooters though I don’t think anyone would have guessed that they would do something like that.
As time passes by, it’s likely there isn’t anywhere that’s going to end up immune to this.
I apologized on the other thread, when it was pointed out that characterizing any police officers as ‘Barney’s’ was uncalled for. As I should have, even though the comment was made prior to knowing of the Dallas ambush, along with explaining why I used it as shorthand for a complex subject.
After a day to reflect, I’m wondering why calling police systemically racist murderers isn’t being condemned as well. And it’s that condemnation of intent that’s key to it.
There have been a number of threads on shootings over the last couple of years, some of them justified, some of them not. The question of what happens, when the police are afraid to do their jobs, has rarely been acknowledged. If it has, it’s typically been that they should be ashamed not to because the only real problem is that they need to do it better.
That 5 cops might very well be alive today, if there hadn’t been several years of BLM rhetoric, isn’t really that hard to believe. Not to mention the other entirely blameless and capable ones that are going to die before this is over.
Or is it many years of a (now) small number of racist, trigger happy, and/or otherwise low quality police officers soiling the reputation of the entire profession, and the otherwise-good police officers not being willing to dismiss the bad ones?
Disregarding Wiki, we have between 750,000 to 1,000,000 sworn peace officers in the US, and the incidents haven’t been clustered to a few jurisdictions. Blaming it on a few bad apples that no-one will throw out runs into a statistical wall.
No offense, ucb, but I’d rather stick to the point of my post: how many unlawful shootings justifies rhetoric that incites the killing of random police officers?
I do not remember if this has been posted:
Nothing justifies incitement to shoot random police officers. Most of the rhetoric does not arise to the level of inciting to kill, however. The Dallas shooter was a member of the Black Panthers and his hate may have been fomented with them.
What’s your source? All the reports I’ve read said while the sniper was following the Neo Black Panthers, none reported he was an actual member.
And again, a violent attack against LEOs which was carried out by a lone wolf who was actually angry at both BLM protestors and White LEOs is being used by those predisposed to sympathize with LEOs “right or wrong” as a means to attempt to suppress discussion and voicing of real serious issues of systemic racism and implicit biases in how Black and other minority suspects are dealt with. Issues which has been confirmed and studied for decades and which has roots going back centuries in US history.
How convenient.
Thanks you @cobrat
Its unfortunate what the sniper did, but to say BLM incited this is crazy. No different than blaming someone for Dylan Roof for murdering those poor folks in church in Charleston.
I post on a Weight Watchers forum/social media site. One member posted a picture of herself and her husband, who is a cop. It was clear that she is black and he is white. She was very kind and gracious in her post and expressed her sympathies for the situation and how grateful she is when he comes home to their family each day.
In my opinion, anyone who is legitimately blaming this on BLM is being willfully ignorant about the entire situation.
@BunsenBurner the chief’s house was shot at but they were trying to get the person next door. Mistaken identity.
As more info comes out, it seems that this guy was probably harboring white cop hatred for some time. It appears he may have just decided to take advantage of the situation since the cops would be gathered in large numbers and he could get a good vantage point due to an accessible elevated location.
It’s sadly ironic that several of the cops he shot were former military. These were men he could have been serving and defending this country with just a few years before, but now he shot them down like ducks in a row. It’s mind boggling.
“After a day to reflect, I’m wondering why calling police systemically racist murderers isn’t being condemned as well. And it’s that condemnation of intent that’s key to it.”
No one on this thread, and no normal person in real life, condones calling police systematically racist murderers. It is possible to have sympathy for black lives AND blue lives. No one of any substance “feels better” that Dallas happened. You may have missed it - the protest was peaceful and the Dallas cops even said so. This one guy ruined it for everybody.
I have certainly never understood Black Lives Matter to be inciting violence, but just the opposite. I have interpreted the movement as protesting unlawful, unacceptable, pervasive violence and murder. That is my view as a white person. Like my kids repeatedly advise me, I’m trying not to speak for anyone but myself and certainly not for any group to which I don’t belong. I have never had to worry about being pulled over for looking “suspicious”, much less killed or put in jail over a broken tail light.
Partyof5: Thank you for all your posts on this subject, here and on other threads over the last few months.
edit: I have never been pulled over for a broken tail light, but once I was pulled over because my license plate inspection sticker was expired. I can’t recall I was asked for license and registration. All I remember was the very polite policeman asking me if I knew it was expired and “Please go get that renewed right away ma’am. They are going to fine you.”
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-to-predict-which-chicago-cops-will-commit-misconduct/ indicates that police misconduct complaints in Chicago are concentrated among a small percentage of officers who each have a large number of misconduct complaints.
@alh why thank you! I love Parent Cafe!
@Catahoula --BLM speaks out against an ongoing pattern of unjustified shootings.
You are saying that this rhetoric caused the Dallas shooting.
Do you think then that everyone should stay quiet about Alton, Philando, et al–because a psycho could react horribly?
Is that a general rule of thumb we should follow?
Its ironic that the shooter chose to take his anger out on Dallas officers, as they have been praised as having a model police department, and great community relations. For a city of that size, they do a great job with crime prevention. Now sadly, those relationships between the department and communities , which took years to build, will become frayed.
The reason BLM exists is a belief that cops target blacks and disproportionally kill them. It’s a message that has been relentlessly pushed for years and if one believes it, one necessarily believes cops are racist murderers. And if not every one of them is, the rest are covering for the ones that are. All guilty by association, and it’s difficult for me to see why this isn’t considered incitement.
I can agree that the bad apple is likely to be the one that commits the crime. What I can’t agree to is the idea that they can all be found when the basket contains close to a million apples.
And, then, there are the shootings that have been done by cops without much of a discernible blemish. Darren Wilson, for instance. Even after being cleared by a grand jury, plus the DOJ, Ferguson is still very much a part of the narrative.
Catahoula, are you not following the news? The Dallas shooter, in his manifesto/writings, was ANGRY at the BLM movement. He was not a supporter of it.
Did anyone see the news coverage of what some rappers in LA did with the police community? We need more of this.