Focus on Domestic Violence

Let's have a general discussion of recent highly public violence in the US.

1 - The Baton Rouge police shooting in a convenience store parking lot of a recently released sex offender felon who seems clearly to have been shot repeatedly by a couple of policemen who had him pinned down on the ground.  He was armed but panic among the police seems to me to have been a major factor in this killing.

2 - The Minnesota shooting by a policeman of a man halted for a traffic violation who informed the policeman that he was armed and had  a permit for concealed carry of a firearm.  He was then shot several times by the cop while he tried to pull his identification from a pants pocket.  Once again, police fear and panic seem to have been a major factor in this killing.  There is video filmed from within the car while the man was dying.  The policeman can be seen outside the car and he seems very fearful and panicked.

3 - The attack on lightly armed Dallas, Texas area police by one or more assailants armed with rifles who managed to kill 5 policemen and wound seven others.  One of the attackers was killed by police after some discussion between the shooter and hostage negotiators.  In the course of the discussion the shooter told the police that the attack on the police was retribution for police killings of Blacks and that he was racially motivated by hatred of white people.

4 - Presidemnt Obama took the opportunity presented by the Dallas attack to agitate for his gun control obsession.

5 - The US MSM is doing its best to ignore the role it has played in the last couple of days in whipping up sentiment against police.

6 - Perhaps in discussing this we might consider the MSM led drive since Ferguson toward disarming and de-militarizing police tactical forces.  pl

Comments

[Istanbul Guy]

And when we understand that in most film and tv series, individuals of African American decent are often portrayed as gangsters or thugs...(a representation which surely aids in police not keeping their nerves) the MSM is even more responsible.

[jonst]

with all the appropriate caveats that should accompany any claimed 'objective' data....I put this out for the SST Committee as we start this discussion

http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/democrats-black-lives-matter-problem/

[LondonBob]

I am sure there is more to come out about both 1 and 2. The media have a habit of being selective in their reporting. Impressed by the linked interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxJaP23SHUQ

[jonst]

This is, I fear, going to get worse before it gets better. If this is simply another chance by the media/academia and SOME racial entrepreneurs to lecture white people, we will have missed a chance to head off, SOME, of the trouble that is coming.

The media and the Obama Admin has to bear SOME responsiblity for the climate we find ourselves in.

[John Minnerath]

The police forces in major cities are overwhelmed with "sensitivity" training that somehow means everyone is to be treated equally. The person with a long rap sheet of violent crimes and the totally innocent bystander are all the same. Along with constant propaganda about the evils of civilians with guns and the absolute danger of any sort of weapon.
On top of all this they are also drilled to instantly respond with all force till any threat has ended.
The MSM has constantly fueled the controversy by falsely reporting all police as enemies of the public, in particular any people of color.
It's a catch 22 and I'd certainly like to hear some ideas about turning this cycle around.

[Cee]

Col. Lang,

I'm glad you brought this up.

NO MORE revenue enhancing police stops over freaking tail lights and crap like that.
NO MORE harassment of people trying to get their hustle on by selling loose cigarettes, or anything else they can think of.

Are we really supposed to believe that some lone knucklehead fired down on a crowd with such precision that ONLY police were killed? I don't believe this for a minute. This was planned long ago and an opportunity presented itself. Now, who planned it, what are we supposed to be distracted from or lead to support?

Oh, this some bullshit here!! A robot killed him.

http://wtvr.com/2016/07/08/dallas-shooter-killed-bomb/

[tim s]

Panic/fear among the police in these tense situations is rarely talked about, but seems a highly significant issue. The Minnesota cop who shot the man in the car seemed to be highly agitated with a fear more than anything else. There are probably many who are not in possession of the nerves of steel needed for such a job. That being said, policing our society as it is today is no cakewalk. It would be like herding cats in better times. Now more like herding rabid cats.

[Tyler]

1) Was a giant (6'5, 300+lbs) with one arm free reaching for the pocket with a gun. Police were called because he had threatened a homeless man with a gun.

2) Said he was reaching in one direction, reached in another. Guy matched the description of a bank robber from 3 days ago. Not clear cut as one but there it is. Probably the fact that the killer was a 5' Hmong had something to do with it the nervousness.

[Grizziz]

FWIW these violent street episodes are a reflection or maybe an incantation of the larger power struggles which is reflected in our national politics. There is a palpable dissatisfaction with how the country operates. The accumulation of rewards and power to people controlling our important institutions has corrupted the leaders and trust in the institutions has been shaken. The frustration and anger is being played out with gunfire at the lowest rungs of society. The police and the citizen are now at odds.
The simple argument is that in the city all guns be confiscated and destroyed. This will eliminate the immediate effect of gun deaths. Neither the police nor the citizen will agree. Either one seeks dominance over the other.
Deep suspicion of authority seems embedded in the human character even when the benefits are overwhelming. Arming everyone would level the playing field, but too much attention would be spent defending against the first move advantage of a deadly one on one fight to the degradation of civility. The blood will continue to flow in contested cities (like Chicago where I live) until a trusted institution (not the Mayor’s office or the Police Union) appears in which a large super-majority of the citizens will freely give up a portion of their liberty in return for their safety.

[Harper]

Do not underestimate the potential consequences of the Dallas shootings, especially in the context of the MSM hype over the recent police killings of African-Americans in Minnesota, Louisiana, etc. First, the paucity of information on the Dallas shootings could be temporarily explained away by the fact that a big segment of downtown Dallas is roped off as a crime scene and there should be adequate time to get a really precise map of what happened. I was living in New York City in the 1970s, when the Black Liberation Army was on a cop killing binge all over the city. Are we looking at a replay of that profile, meaning an emerging organized domestic terror cell? Black Lives Matter is heavily funded by George Soros, so I am infinitely skeptical about their motives, regardless of the seriousness of the police brutality issue. Clearly, this whole situation is creating conditions where police are walking the streets in a state of constant psychological fear--hence the over-reactions and other psychological responses, seen in some of the shootings that were clearly unjustified. The fact that this is all taking place in an already highly polarized election year, where, on top of it all, President Obama is fanning the flames with his obsession with commenting immediately after every such incident. I agree with Col. Lang that we need a measured, thoughtful, comprehensive dialogue on this whole issue to hopefully shed some light on a very shadowy situation.

[Tyler]

Some more info about the MN shooter.
http://freedomdaily.com/black-hates-whites-blown-away-falcon-heights/

BTW, this is what a race war looks like.

[Iron Knee]

Items 1-2 are spot on. It's clear that a big slice of the white American population are simply afraid of black Americans. Most American white folks have spent their entire lives living in complete, and convenient, isolation from the "multiculturalism" that scares them so much...

Item 3. During the 5 seconds or so after Baton Rouge and Minnesota, there was an opportunity to step back and perhaps discuss what items 1-2 might mean in the longer run. Any reasonable observer can tell that there was no reason to smoke the guy in either LA or MN. But the shooters in Dallas weren't thinking about the bigger picture, clearly. Revenge! National news!

Item 4. Yeah, maybe Obama is obsessed with gun control. I suspect that mostly he's a bit stunned by the tempo of black dudes getting wasted by white cops. Is it different now than it was 40 - 50 years ago? I suspect the major difference is that now everyone has an iPhone. Obama's got to sound profound, but it's hard to be both introspective and publicly available at the same time, when cops are panicking like inexperienced school kids and shooting people that scare them.

Item 5. Probably.

Item 6. Hmm. The "MSM" has been coordinating its response since Ferguson? Is it possible to obtain an invite to one of the coordination meetings?

[bks]

Over 500 citizens of the USA have been killed by LE so far this year:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/

In the past decade less than 20 German citizens have been killed by LE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_Germany

[Fredw]

This feels like a sea change event. Until now neither killings by police nor killings of police have been happening at unusual rates. what has been different is the amount of coverage, the attention being paid to the events that have occurred. This feels completely different. The sheer quantity of blood brings the word "professional" to mind. Professional training at a minimum, but also possibly professional planning and organization. We don't know yet. The shooter (alleged) is dead. Even his identity is not yet known to the likes of us. But it is clear that this is not like the other incidents that have been polluting our public discourse.

[Eric Newhill]

A large armed experienced felon shot while fighting with police and a large (larger than the cop at least) armed wannabe thug shot. The witness for the latter had the usual "dindu nuttin" rap, but the dead guy's social media profile suggests that other possible scenarios exist: http://freedomdaily.com/black-hates-whites-blown-away-falcon-heights/

In fact, perusing social media quickly shows a large, vocal, angry community of Blacks that have been increasingly organized around the idea of killing whites, especially white law enforcement. Also revealing is that law enforcement social media shows an awareness of the black anti-white organization and calls for violence. Battle lines have been drawn. Both sides are becoming increasingly entrenched and paranoid.

MSM fuels the fire. Obama fuels the fire. Community leaders fuel the fire. Everyone is hooked up to social media 24/7 (tweets, etc) and social media fuels the fire.

All of the combustion is absorbed by a generation of people that can barely speak English, let alone read and write and engage in reasoned analysis. It's all emotional reaction to bombastic sound bites.

And LEOs get more nervous.

[505thPIR]

A Rubicon has been crossed here. An insurrection may have been born last night. Dallas could quickly become the new normal.

[shepherd]

"Are we really supposed to believe that some lone knucklehead fired down on a crowd with such precision that ONLY police were killed?"

Have you ever been to a protest like that? Groups of police usually stand massed at a distance from the protesters. Someone could have accomplished that easily. We're lucky more aren't dead.

[SmoothieX12]

The media and the Obama Admin has to bear SOME responsiblity for the climate we find ourselves in.

Actually, both are directly culpable and bear a large share of responsibility in creating the atmosphere. Word "some" doesn't apply.

[turcopolier]

Iron Knee

There are no coordination meetings. they are unnecessary. there is a general consensus across the Borgist mind world. pl

[ISL]

Dear Colonel,

Interestingly, despite all pervasive data collection of American communications, this all came as a surprise. One might surmise that the primary interest of the big white house is playing politics than worrying about the serfs (or peasants or little people, - i.e., the ones for whom laws are written).

That leaves it to the media whose interest of course is "if it bleeds let it lead."

[Fred]

Istanbul,

Yes, why oh why is liberal Hollywood such a cesspit of racism.

[Harry]

I disagree with many of the contents here. Perhaps it was obvious that I would. But I see two sides to this story.

1. I live in an area with a large minority of black people who live in project housing. Generally the area is very safe and adequately policed. There seems little trouble. However if there was sufficient tension between the black population and others in the neighborhood my family and I would suffer. We would probably have to move away and would lose money on our real estate.

2. The videos of black people being shot that I have seen have terrified me and raised questions regarding how much I should trust law enforcement. I can see video is not truth, and one might misperceive events on video. But I should draw my own conclusion, and what I saw looked like a very fat man shot point blank in the chest with two other fat men rolling around on top of him. You might ask me to reconsider what I thought I saw and that is fair. However I have seen other videos which have shown similar questionable scenarios.

3. The data seems suggestive of a problem. However the data does not slat to be well collected.

I will admit I myself would prefer to avoid interacting with the police. Trying to weigh the evidence i have seen suggest that small errors in such interaction can be fatal. That is without considering whether anyone ever acts in bag faith, or illegitimately. Would you really say I have no reason to come to the conclusion that they do?

There is no substitute for law and order. However if those charged with maintaining it lose the public trust the environment will become more dangerous for everyone including the police.

[oofda]

If the cop was a 5' Hmong, that may go a long way to explaining his fear, which seems to have played a major role in the incident. Didn't there used to be size requirements for police? I recall being in Norway when I was a midshipman and was impressed with the size of police- one had to be 6' minimum to be a politimann.

[Fred]

Eric,

Do not leave out the complicity of the social media companies and their executives in the propagation of a specific narrative.

[SmoothieX12]

Item 4. Yeah, maybe Obama is obsessed with gun control. I suspect that mostly he's a bit stunned by the tempo of black dudes getting wasted by white cops.

Oh goody! He is not maybe obsessed, he is obsessed. Obama exhibits all traits of an amateur, caught in mildly tough situation, who cannot think rationally and cannot hide anymore own dubious nature. It is not the tempo of black dudes being wasted, these are social media and modern information technology which shape and amplify perceptions. Well, that plus, of course, a tectonic cultural problem of blacks in the US, which is merely a derivative of even bigger issue which is US NOT being a nation--the formation process successfully arrested by cultural left and their pseudo-"conservative" (GOP) shills. No nation--no country and I have an ample first hand experience with that--got almost killed while "experiencing" it in other lands 26+ years ago. Multiculturalism doesn't work, never worked and never will.