Here’s President Obama’s reaction to the Dallas sniper attack:
The president also referenced the gun issue:
“We also know when people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately it makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic. And in the days ahead we are going to have to consider those realities as well.”
Investigators in Dallas are still trying to sort out what happened last night. It’s unclear how many people were involved in the sniper attack on the police and what the motivation was. The only thing that’s certain is that it was an awful tragedy and will make an already bad situation worse.
Open thread.
UPDATE: Dallas Police Department now saying that the gunman told the police negotiator that he was upset about police shootings, wanted to kill white people and was specifically targeting white police officers. Cops are saying it’s still unclear if other people were involved in addition to the dead suspect. But it sounds like a lone nut to me. DPD killed the suspect with a remote bomb after negotiations broke down.
Chris
Good words from the Prez.
Baud
Jim, Foolish Literalist
On the one hand, I want to keep up with this story, on the other, I think this would be a good day to stay away from the internet.
Cermet
The Prsident always has good words – he isn’t a bushwack …. But this, like the Orlando shooting will change nothing relative to control of such weapons of mass destruction (yes, fire arms kill far, far more people than nukes and are the most common weapon in war.)
Cermet
@Baud: Good news for a possible restart of “Brad’s” campaign?
Baud
Press conference with DPD.
Baud
@Cermet:
WhoTF is Brad? Another Rocky de la Fuenta? That bastard.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
We are so lucky he’s POTUS. For the 735th time it’s been noted here this year.
Baud
Some OT good news
LA Times tweet.
Baud
Lone wolf guy, but targeting cops.
magurakurin
Why do we still know nothing about the identities of the people in custody and the man who was shot and killed in the shootout with police? Is it standard procedure because it is an ongoing thing…maybe more suspects still out there?
Patricia Kayden
Based on what the Dallas Police Chief is saying, one of the suspects (now deceased?) appears to have been a disgruntled man aiming to kill White police officers.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
Like the Dallas chief a lot. Sounded like a no bilullshit presentation in really awful circumstances.
What I worry about now is copycats.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: That’s great news. Thanks Obama.
Otherwise, what an awful day.
Geeno
@magurakurin: I think you’re just used to the normal shoddy investigations into things like this that tend to leak like sieves. DPD is keeping things close to the vest right now – at this early time, it’s still possible to discover there are additional suspects to go out and get.
OzarkHillbilly
@magurakurin: I think they are waiting until they have all the available facts put together in a narrative.
Mary Jo
Credit to the Dallas PD for being cautious and careful. The last thing they need to do now is throw gas on the fire.
cmorenc
Meanwhile, over on Faux News the commentators were blaming the divisiveness caused by Obama over the past seven years, and about how wrong his comments last night were about the problems of the black and latino communities with police encounters. Of course, Newt Gingrich got on Faux to spew his bullshit.
In short, the Faux crew was going out of their way to demonstrate what clueless assholes they are this morning
About the one perverse benefit of the two shootings of black civilians in Baton Rouge +Minneapolis, and especially the shootings of the Dallas police officers, is that it has totally eclipsed the GOP house shitshow over Comey and Clinton. Of course, it’s not worth the price of the loss of the two young black men OR the Dallas police to achieve this end, but nevertheless, it has had that accidental benefit.
Brachiator
@Baud: Your post got cut off. Here is the info again.
Mixed news, though largely positive. But there is also this.
Technocrat
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
It sounded like tamped-down emotion to me. As a black man, and a police chief, he has to know how this will affect things going forward. I’m sure he’s sick about it.
Baud
Dallas PD seem like they have their act together.
magurakurin
@Geeno: @OzarkHillbilly: @Mary Jo:
These all sound like reasonable explanations.
JPL
@Baud: Yes they do.
The murderer was angry. If the perp is Muslim all Islam is suspect. If the perp is black, all blacks but especially Obama is the blame. If the perp is white, he’s mentally ill.
Punchy
A lone nut? I thought 4 peeps were involved?
Barbara
@magurakurin: Because it would be criminal to identify them before it is clear that they participated in the mayhem. Carrying high powered weapons is not by itself proof of anything other than they live in the state of Texas where every third person is carrying similarly deadly weapons. The fact that they aren’t talking seems a little suspicious, but some people are, you know, so suspicious of the police they won’t talk even if they are totally innocent.
Barbara
@JPL: Mentally ill but still eligible for the death penalty. I should probably stay away from the Internet today. I keep having visions of Republican members of Congress lining up at the NRA’s door and asking Wayne LaPierre which orifice he wants to penetrate first.
D58826
Oh we have to hear from the President on this. What can he say that he hasn’t already said a dozen times before. And on Faux news anything Obama says is considered incitement to kill police.
Cermet
@Baud: Oops; my bad, Brad … I mean Brud … I mean Baud.
Punchy
@JPL: I think that makes the whitey a persecuted Christian angry that gheys can marry box turtles and wedding cakers have to bake for pedophiles and rapists.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
Of course, an alternative spin is that perps were engaging in second amendment, ammo box solutions when the ballot box broke down.
Make the right eat its rhetoric.
O. Felix Culpa
@cmorenc: From Obama:
We have a great president. A pox on Fox.
JPL
The one thing that we know, is that lots and lots of guns will be sold today.
This is good news for the NRA
Face
I saw the post’s title and thought this would be about Trump.
cmorenc
@Barbara: I am rather curious how the NRA is going to respond to the Dallas police shootings – I want to hear their attempted explanation how open carry by civilians would have helped in this situation.
MomSense
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
We are so lucky but how much can we expect one man to handle? Dear god. He has been criticized for being too fair and open to working with Republicans by the left and too divisive (which is BS) by the right. His accomplishments are written off as luck or not enough. He is blamed for everything. Through it all he is steady and gracious. We. Are. Not. Worthy.
Cermet
@Brachiator: Talk about mixed news – Germany and Switzerland both now have Treasury bonds sell at NEGATIVE interest; that is, people are paying these countries to buy their bonds! US bonds have also nose dived. This tends to say investors are absolutely desperate to park funds where they think it will be safe; that the stock market isn’t (????)
Technocrat
@MomSense:
These are the days Michelle is probably reciting “just a few more months” over and over.
Face
@cmorenc: The NRA will likely advocate shooting all black men within 50 ft. And Stand Yer Ground will give them CYA.
Tripod
One of three mass shootings yesterday.
Six killed, sixteen wounded.
Not any of them will be politically transformative – or even remembered after the next news cycle.
This nation is fucking gun nuts.
Betty Cracker
I didn’t know doodley-squat about the DPD before today, but it sounds like a department that took the lessons of Ferguson seriously by implementing deescalation training, etc. It’s a fucking shame that this happened at all, of course, but it seems especially awful that it happened in Dallas.
Gimlet
Just think if this incident had happened when the Republican convention was at its peak. Even better if one of the shooters was wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap.
Cermet
@Tripod: Not remembered? Maybe but if it was a black man or Islamic (or both) it will be remembered endlessly. If a white man, yeah, forgotten by the news cycle in a few days at most.
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
Okay, four lone nuts.
Kryptik
@Tripod:
My fear is that it will be politically transformative, but only because the apparent targets were cops and the now-dead suspect’s apparent motives. It’s not going to matter what the other ones in custody say or don’t say. This is going to be the narrative because “Blue Lives Matter” and “blacks want a race war to kill all good white people”.
In other words, it’s gong to be jumping off point for ugliest amount of racial bullshit in decades, and it’ll soak into the election season in a way that will be impossible to wash out.
Poopyman
@efgoldman:
And Officer J.D. Tippett.
Dork
I have to believe that, while the Dallas PD is professional and well-disciplined, that this wont play out well for black motorists or citizens in smaller TX communities. I suspect the revenge factor is very strong among those cops that are already racist, and I suspect that this will manifest in some very ugly beatings, shootings, and general mistreatment.
I’d be scared shitless if I were a young black male in a small east TX city right now.
Technocrat
@SiubhanDuinne:
A lone quartet?
Barbara
@cmorenc: Well, for one thing, it means the police have to preoccupy themselves trying to figure out which of the open carrying members of the public constitute the real threat.
Kryptik
@Betty Cracker:
I’m still not happy with the way they handled Mark Hughes (the guy they tweeted out pictures of as a possible suspect), since I imagine the poor guy is going to get vigilantes after him now who never heard that the DPD cleared him of any relation to the shootings. Everything else has been well handled, but that’s one serious misstep that may have terrible consequences.
Cat48
@magurakurin:
I think.the police are making sure there are not more suspects. He said this morning that names were not being released as far as dead suspects or live suspects, bc Safety was his primary concern. They can do that for about 48 hrs I think, since FBI & ATF are assisting. That’s the way I understood the press conference, but I could be very, very wrong. I do remember, no Names, bc Safety 1st.
This all is.like a Flashback to the 60’s & it makes me nervous. Really, God, a repeat of the,60s? Let’s not! They were very bloody.
raven
DC on lockdown
PaulWartenberg2016
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
I worry about escalation. someone’s going to think this attack on cops will justify increased attacks on blacks or other minorities.
I don’t want cops dead. I don’t want black people dead. I just want the fucking violence to stop.
D58826
MSNBC reporting US Capitol on lock down. Report of woman with a gun
Kryptik
@SiubhanDuinne:
What I read is that the DPD have 4 suspects in custody who are not cooperating or speaking, who they haven’t connected quite yet to the dead shooter. It’s all a mess, and they’re not releasing info about those suspects in order to do further due diligence.
PaulWartenberg2016
@raven:
shit. something from Dallas must have set off an alarm.
Peale
@SiubhanDuinne: actually four lone wolves is a bit disturbing. I’d rather that there would be a conspiracy.
rikyrah
When I first heard about there being snipers attacking police, the image of my mind is what I grew up with in tv and movies – the sniper, perched alone, waiting for the opportunity to shoot.
Then, I remembered that this was Texas.
Texas, with their Open Carry Gun Laws.
Last night, 5 Dallas Policeman lost their lives. They lost their lives because those that meant them harm, used a peaceful protest to get up close and personal to their intended victims.
The NRA and gun nuts built this. In most states, the sight of someone with a rifle would be cause to ALERT AUTHORITIES. Not in Texas. Because they can walk in broad daylight with a rifle and nobody could say shyt. The police had to trust on faith that those rifles were not loaded. This is the summer. You just couldn’t have a rifle with you and not be noticed.
Without open carry, the sniper could never have gotten that close to their target. They would have had to hide and set up. By having to do so, the likelihood of someone seeing something and calling 911 goes up. The sniper was literally able to hide in plain sight and get up close to the intended target because of open carry.
Open Carry made the Dallas Police Department SITTING DUCKS for those that meant them harm.
Dork
@Barbara: That’s good comedy. The negros, Katie. And maybe some shifty-eyed beaners. Never the pale-faced.
Betty Cracker
Someone muzzled Trump. Here’s what he posted on the Dallas incident:
He’s scaremongering about crime, of course. But still, that’s pretty tame for Trump.
Cermet
The release that the suspect who is dead said he wanted to kill “white people” is not good and speaks volumes. This will be part of the election if the man was black – count on it. Hope he is foreign and related to ISIL then but not likely considering that statement – ugh.
Cat48
The suspect they killed is sorta mentally ill too. I don’t care what color he might be. He wanted to kill white people, policemen, and he was very angry at Black Lives Matter. Hmmm.
Punchy
I would like this opportunity to remind everyone that starting next year, KU will allow guns on campus. If just one woman with a gun can shut down a whole city, just how many of these per day will manifest as students dial 911 to report every gun they see in someone’s belt holster? How does a university function if they’re in perpetual lockdown?
manyakitty
@Gimlet: Hey, give it time. The Cleveland PD is starting to panic.
Cermet
@rikyrah: Outstanding points!!!!
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
Time to buy some gun company shares and shares of companies in the Armalite supply chain, as the ‘baccy-chawin’, camo-clad, puffy, pasty crowd starts buying up again…
Shalimar
@Tripod: 5 cops dead. This one will be remembered 50 years from now as a turning point. Hopefully not towards hell.
Poopyman
@Punchy: Curiously, nothing yet on WaPo or WTOP websites.
Cat48
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t remember Trump speaking of people being shot in cars by the police before. He definitely didn’t write this.
bemused
@MomSense:
Different manufactured standards for Dem presidents. Always.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
The NRA built this cannot be said enough.
Kryptik
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
Completely related: Smith and Wesson poised to open near all time high.
EDIT: Do yourself a favor too, and Don’t Read the Comments.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
@Cat48:
I don’t know that he’s mentally ill – there was a real divide in the 50s and 60s between those who favored non-violence and those who preferred direct action.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: Probably written by his daughter Ivanka or her husband. They were probably determined not to have a reprise of his self-congratulatory tweeting over the Orlando massacre.
MomSense
@Technocrat:
I would be but they are obviously operating on a different level than the rest of us. They have been living with constant threat and pressure. I don’t know how they manage it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: if Ivanka didn’t write that, I’d bet she hired the person who did, and is the only reason that person is still on staff
bemused
If I had a police officer in my immediate family, I’d be even more fearful for his/her safety due to so many military weapons in the hands of idiots and lax gun laws.
Betty Cracker
@Kryptik: I hope Hughes isn’t targeted by vigilantes too, but it’s not surprising the cops named him as a suspect since he was photographed at the scene carrying a weapon similar to what the suspect was using. One of the hazards of being an open carry asshole is that if bullets start flying, people are going to naturally assume you are involved.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
@Kryptik:
I keep saying that it is time for S&W to turn to encouraging departments to return to the .357. Whole new round of sales, no real new development needed, and the design is as reliable as reliable can be. Plus, fewer police liability problems for trigger-happy shoots.
FlipYrWhig
@Betty Cracker:
Love and compassion, thy name is… Trump?
scav
@Shalimar: Turning point? Remains to be seen. I’m nor sure if it’s going to change many minds, but rather re-enforce whatever people were already thinking. As a populace, we seem able to swallow a lot of violence with an initial spasm of talktalk and nothing later.
raven
@scav: What else is new?
The Ancient Randonneur
@Betty Cracker:
True. Trump has been made to sound reasonable when someone else speaks for him. We’ll See the real rat-bastard Donald soon enough. No way he stays on message once he’s back in front of the cameras. That is how these things have played out over the last few months. Donald is, as Donald does.
dm
I can’t help but think that all those prosecutors who failed to prosecute policemen who were involved in shooting civilians contributed to incidents like this and those two New York policemen who were killed last year: people who feel like they have no recourse to justice are tempted to do terrible things, and those with weak self-control may give in to those temptations.
Our police would be better served if the public thought they were trustworthy and responsible, instead of a public that views them as unaccountable for their actions.
scav
@raven: Exactly.
Cat48
Morning Joe weirdos & Chuck Toddler say Obama must give a Speech that will soothe everyone bc this is Big! I don’t think he could please everyone as they want.
They were whining bc he was in Poland.
He’ll need a few days.
Emma
@Cermet: Temporary reaction to Brexit. It scared the masters of the Universe out of their wits.
Bill
Repeated from thread below:
We hear all the time from gun advocates that guns are necessary to fight against an oppressive government. Dallas is what that looks like. People who feel oppressed by the government killing representatives of the government.
In the real world “second amendment remedies” means people with grievances killing cops.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Betty — I swear that is straight from the Nixon ’68 playbook. Maybe lifted whole.
oldgold
The common denominator in all the recent madness is: gun.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: Truth. And this is why most police oppose open carry laws and such nonsense and support gun restrictions. Exactly this. They are brave fallen heroes when they are shot, but when they are telling legislators NOT TO ALLOW GUNS EVERYWHERE they are ignored.
amk
@Betty Cracker: tricky dicky redux.
Run, Lillian!
@Betty Cracker:
No way Trump wrote that, way too measured. But, it still echoes the themes I have seen voiced on Twitter by the gun nuts and right wingers- that this is Obama’s fault because he is the most divisive president in history. Obama is to blame for worsening race relations, as is BLM- hell, many even credit him with the creation and rise of BLM. So this is the party line- Obama is to blame, not guns. Trump’s ghost writer didn’t mention Obama, but all the other themes are there, albeit subtly.
Oh, and people who want gun control are “gun bigots”. No seriously.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cat48: the desire for the president to be our national Daddy is completely alien to me, but it feeds on itself when they all go on TeeVee and insist that what we need is some good, reassuring, speech like the paterfamilias of you favorite ensemble TV show gives at the end of a Very Special Episode. If we make a drinking game out of the number of times Mrs Greenspan refers to what the President needs-to-do-now, and the slightly shocked and very disapproving passive aggressive “why hasn’t he yet…?” intonations as she interviews John McCain, Ruth Marcus and Chris Cillizza, we’d all be passed out by lunch time.
Cat48
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
That’s true. I keep thinking of all the Leaders lost MLK, Malcom X, President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and even racist old Wallace. Kent St, SC State Police assassinated activists in Orangeberg SC, etc. I didn’t think it would ever end.
Technocrat
@Bill:
I’ve had that conversation with a 2nd Amendment absolutist. What they will tell you, is that the cops (and the military) will rise up with We The People. It’s all very neat that way.
hovercraft
@cmorenc:
Regardless of what Obama said, the right was always going to blame him for the police deaths. Whenever an innocent black person gets killed the first thing they do is check for a criminal record. Yesterday I wanted to smack Ari Melbur when he reported that Philando Castile had a police record and the proceeded to say that he had hundreds of traffic misdemeanors. But this is how the process of demonizing the victim and blaming them for their death. FOX does not believe there is a problem of blacks getting killed, the problem is police being killed by the “thugs”. Joe Walsh was the first out there with the sentiment but it is shared by most of the right. If they would abide by the law and listen to the cops everything will be fine. They are authoritarians. For them the cop is always justified.
Immanentize
The fastest path to gun regulation is a black man with a gun, See, Panthers, California. OK, I think I will just leave this here because it had a profound effect on me when I was in law school in the ’80’s:
— Opening argument excerpt by Angela Davis – March 29, 1972 (on trial for murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy – verdict: not guilty)
(Sorry, I have a copy of the whole, but could not find it on the intertubes.)
schrodinger's cat
@Cat48: Second amendment as a defense against tyranny makes about as much logical sense as tax cuts reduce budget deficits.
Barb2
Here’s an article by military experts after viewing the video of of the murder of a cop. A few hours ago I viewed that video as well, several times to study the body language of the killer.
The military guys put names to the physical movement of the killer. I was seeing a body that had been trained to kill. Anyway their take on the actions of one of the killers is enlightening.
But that video is hard to view – avoid viewing and read what the military guys habe to say
Cat48
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
True abt Greenspan. I’m not ready for a speech. I’m ready for the cops to be well trained & not be afraid of POC. It angers me how slow that goes. DPD does seem well trained. The city I live in is 40% black, but the police here haven’t done that. They are very well trained & friendly even when they issue tickets. There’s about 70,000 people living here.
Betty Cracker
@Run, Lillian!: Gun bigots! Well, firearms are holy fetish objects and a blameless category of products, so why not go ahead and anthropomorphize them completely by making them a protected class of citizens? Gunfire could then be interpreted as a Second Amendment citizen exercising its First Amendment rights.
Cat48
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’m tired of hearing about Second Amendment Rights. Just give everyone Voters Rights first.
liberal
@cmorenc:
Billmon (billmon1 on twitter) claims dumb-dumb Trump did that himself because he brought up the Star of David thing, and made an own-goal by knocking out the Hillary emailgate stuff out of the news cycle.
Technocrat
@Betty Cracker:
CorporationsGuns are people too!rikyrah
The sniper thing is something I can’t get past. That’s a certain skillset that, even in gun crazy America, is not easy to acquire. Is it easier to acquire than I think?
liberal
@Cat48:
IMHO a part of the problem is that they don’t pay cops enough in many places, and hence don’t get better people. In a few of the places where cops have executed black people, it was clear that they had a questionable record from previous employment in other towns and yet were hired anyway.
MomSense
@hovercraft:
Black men have hundreds of traffic misdemeanors because they are stopped more frequently! As a middle aged white woman I could drive 15 over the limit in a school zone and would likely just have the cop wave at me to slow down. My son’s roommate was pulled over and the cop said it was because he wanted to check and see how long he had been in the state because he had out of state plates and you only have so much time to re-register vehicles. My son figured the real reason was that a young black man driving a Lexus was unpossible to that cop unless he was a drug dealer.
patrick II
@cmorenc:
I too was watching Faux news last (they actually had a good street reporter, I assume from the local Faux station, and I can’t stand the unctuous Brian Williams on MSNBC) and, when the subject of blacks being shot by cops came up, he said that (paraphrase) “young black men will get more respect when they respect themselves more”.
So, when a young man who works with children gets shot in front of his child, or a man laying on the ground gets four bullets in him, or a young man walking in the middle of the street in Chicago gets shot 12 times (the other four in the clip missed) or when a man buying his son a BB gun in WalMart gets shot in the back, or a child with a BB gun gets shot down in Cleveland, it is because each of those people did not have enough self respect and deserved to be murdered.
It’s Faux news that could use a little self respect. They continue to incite racism and spread poison throughout this country.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Trump or Nixon — you decide:
Technocrat
@MomSense:
WTF. That’s like getting pulled over because your taillights are working…but might need to be changed soon.
Immanentize
@liberal:
That is a real problem exacerbated by all the mini-forces throughout the country. When I was a P.D. in Miami, every little sub-city had a police force (even El Portal for fuck’s sake!) and they often employed those who were trained but rejected or later suspended from the bigger, better Metro-Dade force which was a pretty fine law enforcement outfit.
One solution I’ve heard discussed is the consolidation of all these entities (kinda like city annexation of land, but including their many police forces)
Cacti
@liberal:
I’d say that’s more true of police in smaller areas. For police departments in major cities, the starting salary is usually a lot higher than other work requiring only a high school diploma. In Dallas, the entry level salary for DPD is $42,900.
liberal
@Technocrat: AFAICT it really is a rule that you need to register in-state, but also AFAICT no one is ever pulled over for it (unless they happen to be the wrong color, of course).
liberal
@Cacti: I do think that when I’ve heard of that situation, it’s often in small towns, though IIRC the entry-level pay in New Orleans sucks, or at least did awhile back.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: I’d guess Nixon because the cadence strikes me as beyond Trump, but the theme is eerily similar.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: You are right. The complete sentences were the tell.
Exurban Mom
@Shalimar: If 20 dead babies at Sandy Hook wasn’t a turning point, and it wasn’t, this won’t be, either. I have zero confidence at this point.
liberal
@Immanentize: Hah hah…I’m living the small city dream now in MA. Don’t have any trouble at all with cops—they’ve very polite etc, but it seems crazy that every tiny town here has its own school system, town government, assessor’s office, etc. That simply can’t be efficient. Of course, it allows lots of segregation. MA seems pretty white to me (compared to the DC area, which at least in MD was pretty multiethnic), but there seems to be tons of class segregation among whites. (MD, at least near DC, the smallest political unit for most people was the county. Montgomery County has a few incorporated towns within it, but not many.)
Can’t say I’m unhappy, but definitely some things are screwed up here…they don’t seem to believe in widening intersections or installing additional traffic lights.
liberal
@Exurban Mom: IMHO it won’t change until the relatives of victims hold the executives of the arms companies directly responsible.
MomSense
@Technocrat:
Exactly.
Procopius
@Barbara: That’s the advice lawyers give. Especially if you’re innocent. Don’t say anything except that you want a lawyer and will not say anything until you have consulted with one, and then do exactly what he/she tells you to do. Nothing more. Don’t talk, because the police can and will twist your words to make you guilty of something.
Gin & Tonic
@Barb2: How do all those military experts align their stories with the fact that the police chief said it was one shooter?
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
When that first came out….
what instantly came to my mind was…
of course, he did…
DRIVING.WHILE.BLACK.
Cat48
@liberal:
I think you’re right about,the money part. The small town I live in has an excellent revenue stream so they have to have well trained policemen. I don’t pay that much, but there is a lot of new development and really expensive homes in the newer developments.
Cacti
@rikyrah:
My thought also.
Sounds like he got pulled over on pretext stops A LOT.
D58826
Liastening to the mostly white VSP’s on MSNBC talking about the need to (re)establish trust between the police and the local community. Fine sounds like a plan.
On Twitter just now a man in N. Carolina was arrested after waving a shotgun at passing cars and firing a pistol at a deputy. This happened the day after the man was shot in Minnesota after a traffic stop for a broken taillight. The difference in outcome – the guy in North Carolina is white while the man in Minnesota was black.
Now two incidents hardly constitutes an open and shut case but when this kind of difference in outcome is repeated over and over, is it any wonder that the POC communities distrust the police?
Nelle
@Punchy: Are you here in Lawrence, Punchy?
Wapiti
@rikyrah: I think that there might be a vast distance between a trained military sniper and what will be reported as a sniper in the news (or even by the military when *they’re* under fire). Any shooter with a long gun, firing from a concealed position is probably a sniper. From my slight contacts with trained snipers, much of their training involved getting to their concealed position and spotting concealed targets. They already knew how to shoot well; they didn’t get into sniper school without that ability.
Tenar Darell
I was down by the waterfront yesterday to decompress with the Boston ICA’s weekly free summer concert series. Had a couple pork carnitas tacos, a Harpoon Golden Ale, listened to Lula Wiles (bought a CD!), then did a walk through the galleries. (Yes, getting to the point…).
Anyway, I decided to walk back over Fort Point Channel to South Station and went by the Courthouse. It’s covered in square monumental plaques with famous jurists’ & activists’ quotes. After the killings in Baton Rouge & Minneapolis the quote below made me look, & stopped me in my tracks.
—-
Douglass wrote that informed by his own experiences. He knew John Brown. David Blight notes, he had actually met with him before Harper’s Ferry (when Brown tried to convince him to go). Douglass knew personally what the “organized conspiracy” could drive people towards.
LAO
This piece on Redstate, is shockingly coherent and thoughtful. http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/07/08/uncomfortable-reason-came-dallas-yesterday/
LAO
Thanks to whomever got me out of moderation! I promise to link properly from now on.
Barb2
@Gin & Tonic:
The military guys who are posting their take on the video use the pronoun “they”.
The military guys also mention 3 shooters using tap tap pause which is the result of military training. The article has insights that most of us civilians wouldn’t think of. They could be wrong about some details. But I know that the guy in the video, moved like he was military. I’m using my military brat intuition after seeing thousands of sailors and marines with that military style gait.
Remember Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing? Exmilitary and he was responding to the Waco mess, he claimed. Not all exmilitary are bad – we know this. But for the very rare sociopath the killer monster switch is flipped.
The cop’s are going to have to do a lot of detective work and not jump to conclusions without facts.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
This. All of it.
Mnemosyne
@Bill:
Also, this.
Betty Cracker
Looks like the shooter was a US Army vet. That may explain the marksmanship.
liberal
@Tenar Darell: great quote from FD.
Related Corey Robin blog post here, including relevant quotes from Dead White European Male John Locke, e.g.:
(Locke, Second Treatise)
liberal
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, many commenters on the web said that was likely.
pseudonymous in nc
@Barb2:
15 years of large-scale active deployment is going to have 50 years of repercussions. It can be a fraction of a per cent of those who trained up and served, and that’s still going to be like abandoned landmines in a grassed-over field. It’ll usually be manifest on a small, terrible scale — domestic murders, murder-suicides — but sometimes it’ll be larger, especially with access to near-milspec hardware.
Paul in KY
@Punchy: How about when some bozo is in his room & accidently fires gun thru wall into next room?!
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: If you are a good shot at hitting a deer or something like that, people (if you can get past that) are about the same. Probably scatter more after they realize they are being shot at.
Lynn Dee
Anybody know how to stop that damned autoplay ad? It plays repeatedly. I can’t even have this page up if I want to listen to anything, let alone listen to any of the clips on this page.
Betty Cracker
@Lynn Dee: AdBlock.
Matt McIrvin
@MomSense:
That is hilarious. What state was this? Are out of state plates actually unusual there? Do they warn every traveler who comes across the state line?
Procopius
@Betty Cracker: Good Lord, you think nobody but veterans learns how to shoot well? In Iowa my grandfather’s next door neighbor (about a half mile away) used to shoot crows with a .22 rifle at a range of a couple hundred yards. He was exempted from the draft because he was a farmer. Thousands of Americans who have never had military training indulge in “varmint shooting.”
Procopius
@Matt McIrvin: I remember it happened to me in Los Angeles back about 1963. I had actually been in state almost up to the deadline, but I don’t know how the cop knew that.