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You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Guess The Complexion Of The Shooter

Guess The Complexion Of The Shooter

by Tom Levenson|  January 18, 20154:13 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Gun nuts, Post-racial America

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Here’s all you need to know:

A Sentinel, Okla., man on Thursday shot the town’s police chief four times and was then released from custody after questioning.

All lives matter and I’m glad no one was killed in this bit of 2nd Amendment insanity — but if after Martin and Brown and Rice and Crawford you still somehow wondered if white privilege were a thing, just give it up.

Graveyard_in_the_Tyrol_1914-1915_JS_Sargent

More detail:

Sentinel Police Chief Louis Ross was shot in the chest three times and once in the arm Thursday morning after breaking down the front door and entering a house at 205 S 4, Sentinel Mayor Sam Dlugonski said.

The chief was wearing a bulletproof vest that was loaned to him by a sheriff’s deputy minutes before the raid on the home. He survived the shooting, and authorities said the vest saved his life.

Dlugonski and a neighbor on S 4 both said the man detained in the shooting was Dallas Horton, who lives at 205 S 4. Investigating authorities did not release the man’s name.

Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the man who shot the chief was released after hours of questioning when they determined they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him.

“Facts surrounding the case lead agents to believe the man was unaware it was officers who made entry,” OSBI wrote in a news release.

Well, yes.  But then there’s this:

Chief Ross said Washita County 911 received two calls from a man who identified himself as Dallas Horton, and claimed to have a bomb inside the head start school….

Chief Ross told News 9 he called for county back up before entering Horton’s home.

Up to this point, Horton claimed he never knew any officers were in his home.

“Don’t know what he heard or didn’t hear screaming from five officers of the law announcing our presence, requesting to see hands,” said Chief Ross.

I’m going to go way out on a limb here and state (a) it’s amazing, just flat out gobsmacking, that anyone could shot a cop four times and not face a gazillion bullets coming the other way; and (b) that I simply cannot imagine the circumstances in which a non-white cop-shooter who did survive the initial event would be back on the street the same day.

That conclusion could just reflect my biases.  It certainly involves an inference beyond the facts known to me as I write this.  Still, American history and our recent past seem to tell a pretty consistent story to me:  African Americans, and especially black men, face the threat of violence under the cover of law to a degree that a middle class white guy like me cannot begin to fathom.  So I’m prepared to make the leap that the color of the shooter here made a difference in his treatment by law enforcement.  I certainly could be wrong:  any individual case can be an outlier in any direction.  But if I had to bet…

Again, I want to repeat something really important:  it’s a great thing that neither the police chief nor the suspect are dead.  That’s what we would want to see come out of moments of crisis in law enforcement.

I’m just noting here that I want that outcome for all those confronting the sudden presence of armed cops:  toy wielding shoppers, kids on a playground, young men walking, anyone.   Such happy endings shouldn’t be reserved only for a gun nut who can be distinguished from those less fortunate individuals by — among other things I’m sure — the fact that he happens to be white.

Image:  John Singer Sargent, Graveyard in the Tyrol, 1914-1915.

 

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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Time Travelin'

    January 18, 2015 at 4:18 pm

    Guess the complexion of the cop.

  2. 2.

    MDW

    January 18, 2015 at 4:21 pm

    Radley Balko must be trying to pick his jaw up off the floor. The “I didn’t know it was police, honest!” defense almost never works in court, and here someone shoots a cop and doesn’t even get charged?

  3. 3.

    Violet

    January 18, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    @Time Travelin’: Yep. That’s relevant to the discussion.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    January 18, 2015 at 4:28 pm

    That conclusion could just reflect my biases. It certainly involves an inference beyond the facts known to me as I write this.

    This seems to be a pretty confusing case, IMO. What are you saying, Cole?

  5. 5.

    JaneE

    January 18, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    Another textbook example of white privilege.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    January 18, 2015 at 4:33 pm

    I’m trying to think of another example where a no-knock raid ended with a cop being shot and the shooter wasn’t charged. Anyone else have an example?

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 18, 2015 at 4:36 pm

    @Corner Stone: Cole isn’t saying anything. Tom Levenson is.

  8. 8.

    Tom Levenson

    January 18, 2015 at 4:37 pm

    @Corner Stone: By Cole, do you mean, well, me?

    I’m saying that I think the police in this case approached the live-fire situation with a restraint not shown in many cases involving African American suspects. I’m also saying that the deference to the “I was just defending my home” defense is one much more readily available to white shooters than non-white ones. Whether those, I think pretty well documented presumptions applied in this specific instance, I cannot know.

    That is: would this police chief and force have reacted the same way to shots fired (and cop hit) in a black neighborhood? Don’t know — can’t run the control. Would an African American man have been released in the same circumstances. See above. But as someone who has lived in American for more than half a century, I have historical evidence to weigh. And weigh it I do.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 18, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Yes, this raises a flag for me, too. The guy shoots a cop four times and there are no charges filed, period?

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    January 18, 2015 at 4:39 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Dammit, the art should have done it for me. I have no excuse, I suck.

  11. 11.

    currants

    January 18, 2015 at 4:41 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Also, as Time Travelin’ and JaneE suggested, the photo of the police chief in the linked article should be a not-insignificant factor in your analysis.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    January 18, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    Is he the type of citizen that Sarah called real Patriot?

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    January 18, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    I’m saying that I think the police in this case approached the live-fire situation with a restraint not shown in many cases involving African American suspects. I’m also saying that the deference to the “I was just defending my home” defense is one much more readily available to white shooters than non-white ones.

    I’m not making any judgments or excuses for this specific event. But, I remember a white man shot dead in his own home for holding a golf club a nanosecond too long. So, not clear on how they did or did not approach this specific situation.
    And, personally, if someone no-knocks my house I would really enjoy not going to jail for defending myself and my child against who the fuck knows what.

  14. 14.

    Time Travelin'

    January 18, 2015 at 4:43 pm

    @Violet: It is. A black cop is shot by a white guy and…nothing.

  15. 15.

    Steve from Antioch

    January 18, 2015 at 4:43 pm

    From the little bit I’ve read, seems like a good shoot.

    If there were more incidents like this, the police might think twice about busting into a house just to investigate a telephone call. I’ve read nothing to suggest that they had any reason to believe that anyone was in danger at the house where the calls supposedly originated.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    January 18, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Oh, Cole is saying something alright. It just happens to be about puppies, and not police raids.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    January 18, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
    There was a Hmong guy here, cops got the wrong house. I believe he was either not charged or charges were dismissed. Its a few years back so the details are fuzzy.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    January 18, 2015 at 4:59 pm

    @Time Travelin’: Exactly. If the shooter had been black or the cop had been white, charges would have been filed.

  19. 19.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 18, 2015 at 5:03 pm

    @Time Travelin’:

    Wow! How did you guess? When I read the post, it didn’t cross my mind that the police chief was Black (or that the shooter was a White Supremacist).

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/17/3612884/white-survivalist-shoots-police-chief-no-charges/

    I didn’t click on the links in the post. My bad.

  20. 20.

    Bystander

    January 18, 2015 at 5:08 pm

    This whole situation is a great illustration of the converse of the dilemma noted by the Fox commentator. What happens when the bad guy looks like a good guy?

  21. 21.

    c u n d gulag

    January 18, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    12 year-old boy carrying a toy gun in a park?
    DEAD!

    White Yahoo’s in cammo, armed with long semi-automatic weapons marching around the street?
    The police drive by, take a look, and go to the nearest donut shop.

    An armed white loon shoots a cop with a bullet-proof vest.
    NO PROBLEM!
    Do not go to jail. You get to go.

    A 12 year-old boy carrying a toy gun in a park?
    DEAD!

    Yeah.
    Racism is dead.
    Yeesh…

  22. 22.

    louc

    January 18, 2015 at 5:20 pm

    Here’s an excellent compare-and-contrast of two no-knock cases where homeowners killed cops invading their houses. Guess which guy is facing capital charges despite the fact that the cops were raiding through a window?

  23. 23.

    drkrick

    January 18, 2015 at 5:25 pm

    Remember when “the sheriff’s a ni-CLANG” was a joke?

  24. 24.

    Laertes

    January 18, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    That is: would this police chief and force have reacted the same way to shots fired (and cop hit) in a black neighborhood? Don’t know — can’t run the control. Would an African American man have been released in the same circumstances. See above. But as someone who has lived in American for more than half a century, I have historical evidence to weigh. And weigh it I do.

    Cory Maye. Black man mistakes white cop for an intruder*. Gets a death sentence.

    * struggling with how to phrase that. He didn’t “mistake” Officer Jones for an intruder. Officer Jones was an intruder. Jones (and the rest of the task force) hadn’t announced themselves as police and in any event had no right to enter Maye’s dwelling. Still, he did mistake Jones for a criminal… okay, again. Since the task force was entering without a valid warrant or probable cause, their behavior was criminal. So it’s confusing.

    Point is, Cory Maye shows us what happens when a black man with a gun uses it to defend his home against invading police officers that he doesn’t know to be police, and it’s not “released without charge that afternoon.”

    Post-postscript: And obviously, since Maye killed his target and our guy here didn’t, the cases really aren’t all that similar.

  25. 25.

    ruemara

    January 18, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    It feels distinctly, to me at least, that this was a white supremacist who was trolling for some cop shooting action. And he got it, and got to sleep in his own bed at night. This whole thing is bullshit.

  26. 26.

    karen

    January 18, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    @Time Travelin’:

    Guess the complexion of the cop.

    Voila!

  27. 27.

    another Holocene human

    January 18, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    We do have a class system in the US and it’s based on race. So caste. In a class system one class, the knights or warriors may carry weapons and use them while the lower class or caste may not. That’s why they keep talking about 2nd amend.

  28. 28.

    maeve

    January 18, 2015 at 8:48 pm

    It is really “interesting” that in a town of population 901 (88% white, 0.12 % black according to the 2010 census via wikipedia) in a county o population less than 12,000 (Washita, 96% white, 0.7% black) that the sheriff would be black – kudos to them but when he is shot by a local white resident (presumably whom everyone in town knows) its all a misunderstanding.

    The “small town” aspect probably explains why the police (a combination of town and county) weren’t as well versed in the SWAT techniques of breaking in and shooting everyone it sight who moves.

  29. 29.

    Patrick in Michigan

    January 19, 2015 at 10:05 am

    Oh Please, your nothing more than a race-baiting idiot. Always wanna make race out of something. This is why the Democratic Party is not being taken very seriously by the rest of America anymore. Least of all by me.

    Based upon your name, you are most likely some self-hating white guy who feels the need to debase your own race because of something that happened over 300 years ago. Get real.

    Obama was failure, and his time is almost up. Get over it, and quit bringing race into every fucking thing under the damned sun.

    You’re welcome, liberal retard.

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