Dallas, Baton Rouge.......America’s battle against cultural decay and declining standards of behavior

[kscarbel2]

U.S. News & World Report  /  July 8, 2016

Life comes at us mostly as a series of simple, little decisions, more often than not binary in nature. Up or down? Left or right? On or off? Trump or Clinton? We should be grateful things can be broken down into easily digestible blocks, because if the last few days are any indication, our culture's capacity for handling anything more nuanced is rapidly evaporating.

There's a lot more to the discussion of whether black lives matter and how the police behave than a set of simple choices. Black lives matter. All lives matter. Police lives matter. Human lives matter.

Those spoiling for violence in the street, however, feel differently. To them a human life matters as mere political currency, useful in the pursuit of sociological objectives that will uproot the values upon which our republic was founded.

To them that's a good thing. Breaking individuals up into groups and then pitting one or more groups against another is the way forward, down the path leading to the destruction of our civic, political and cultural institutions. No rules, just right – to borrow a slogan from the hospitality industry – with right as might makes it. Democracy as practiced by the mob, with no space for dissent and no protection given to dissenters.

How we got as far down that road as we have is not an easy thing to explain. We've found ourselves atop thousands of slippery slopes over the last 30 years; we dodged a few but stumbled down others. Now we're picking up speed as the decline is accelerating, much as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan suggested we would when he coined the phrase "defining deviancy down."

Though others would and have argued strenuously against it, it is possible to be gravely concerned about the abuses of power and deadly force we see – or we think we see – on videos bystanders take with their phones and at the same time remain a supporter of the police and the rule of law. In fact, it is not only possible but necessary, if our common civilization is to survive and once again prosper.

It is not wrong to suggest the police have too much power, that the training they receive in handling confrontation is too often a lesson in how to provoke the very confrontation they are trying to avoid. After viewing any of the police reality shows that populate basic cable, one wonders how many of them really understand concepts like due process and probable cause.

On the other hand, the police are on the front line in the battle against cultural decay and declining standards of behavior [in the United States].

There are people out there for whom the color blue is a trigger to violence, something that was tragically proven Thursday night in Dallas. Yet when the shooting started, they didn't throw down their guns and scatter; no, they rallied to protect the demonstrators (who were themselves in a very real sense protesting the conduct of the police generally) and get them out of harm's way. Courage under fire, grace under pressure – which is what we would like to see from police everywhere and at all times, forgetting that they are all too human, just like the rest of us.

This does not excuse it when one of their own abuses what they have been given by virtue of a badge, a gun and the ability to call in reinforcements. This is a power used lightly, as a last resort whenever and wherever possible.

When the Black Lives Matter movement and others encourage active resistance to that authority, the die is cast and a vicious circle of death and destruction appears.

At the same time, we must stop pretending that those who come up short in these encounters are not innocent bystanders minding their own business and are singled out for scrutiny solely because of the color of their skin.

There is no quick, easy solution to these problems. People should be allowed to record interactions with police that involve them or occur in front of them. The police should be held accountable for their behavior at all times and these videos, even when they are misleading, help in that process. The police must show respect to those whom they stop and question, and those who are stopped and questioned must show respect to the police. Black lives in blue uniforms matter just as much as any other and pointing this out, as well as the fact that all lives matter, is not indicative of disrespect and should not be taken that way. We are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. How we exercise those rights reflects the content of our character and we must all be prepared to own it.

It will be difficult, especially with the rhetoric as white hot as it currently is and with too much blood in the streets, to revive a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation, but that is the only place true healing can begin.

[kscarbel2]

In the aftermath of the Dallas police massacre, black protesters danced with joy over the murder of five fellow Americans and the injuring of 7 others at a 7-Eleven.

Watch for it at 0:50

( A United States citizen may lose their citizenship if they are convicted for treason, seditious conspiracy, or advocating violent overthrow of the government. It may be time to begin using this path, revoking the citizenship of those whose ethics, morals and values are not acceptable within American society. )

.

 

[kscarbel2]

You were initially told by Dallas Police Chief David Brown that at least two snipers fired from an elevated position on police officers minutes before 9 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET). Authorities called it an "ambush-style" shooting.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown is no dummy. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the FBI National Executive Institute, the Senior Management Institute for Police, the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar in Tel Aviv, and the United States Secret Service dignitary protection seminar. Furthermore, he is certified by the State of Texas as a master peace officer and a police instructor.

"We believe that these suspects were positioning themselves in a way to triangulate on these officers from two different perches in garages in the downtown area, and planned to injure and kill as many law enforcement officers as they could," Dallas Police Chief David Brown said, noting that some victims were shot in the back.

But now, you’re told that just one gunman caused all the carnage.

(One can’t help but recall that authorities say Lee Harvey Oswald acted as a lone sniper in 1963 in the murder of President John F. Kennedy. They claim there was no second gunman) 

 

[kscarbel2]

Veteran charged in Tennessee highway shootings was angry about violence against blacks

The Portland Press Herald  /  July 8, 2016

A black Army veteran who shot indiscriminately at passing cars and police on a Tennessee highway told investigators that he was troubled by police violence against African-Americans, authorities said Friday.

It was one of several spasms of violence across the country this week amid boiling tension over policing and race. One woman died and three others, including one police officer, were injured in the rampage early Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, police say officers have also been targeted in Georgia and Missouri in the aftermath of two high-profile killings of black men by law enforcement and the Dallas attack, which left five officers dead and seven more wounded. Other departments reported being bombarded with threats and some implemented new policies requiring officers to patrol in pairs.

Civilians also have been caught in the fray. The woman who died in Tennessee was a newspaper carrier driving down the highway.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release that initial conversations with the suspect, Lakeem Keon Scott, 37, who is black, revealed he was troubled by the incidents in other states, hundreds of miles away. All those shot were white, police said.

Scott, armed with an assault rifle, a pistol and a large amount of ammunition – was wounded in a shootout with police early Thursday and remains hospitalized. Police were not able to interview him until late Friday morning, according to a statement from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Hours before, as Scott was in the hospital, 12 officers were shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. Police say the sniper declared he was angry about the police shootings of black men and wanted to exterminate whites. Five of the officers died.

In south Georgia, police said one officer was ambushed Friday when he came to an apartment complex to investigate a report of a break-in.

Another officer was fired upon by a motorist north of Atlanta.

And just outside St. Louis, police say an officer was ambushed during a traffic stop.

Scott, who has no criminal history, grew up in New York City and moved to Tennessee fairly recently. His cousin said he has relatives in Tennessee and likely moved there because of a lower cost of living. She said he was in the Army but was injured at some point, collected disability payments and did not have a job.

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson confirmed he served from January 1998 to June 1999. He was a private in the 5th Battalion 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, stationed in South Korea.

One of Scott’s brothers, Gerard Griffin, said Scott has three brothers and two sisters and often acted as their “protector.”

Griffin said his brother “was a little angry” when he came back from the military.

“He seemed to be getting more and more frustrated with the condition of black people in America,” Griffin said.

One of those wounded was the longtime front desk clerk at a Days Inn hotel, Deborah Watts, who was in serious but stable condition. Investigators say Scott fired first at the hotel.

“She is like a family to us,” said Days Inn owner Kiran Patel. “It’s horrible. I don’t know how to explain how horrible.”

Newspaper carrier Jennifer Rooney, a 44-year-old mother of two, was on her way to pick up papers for the morning delivery when a bullet struck her. The Bristol Herald-Courier reported that her car careened over a median and crashed through a chain link fence.

“I don’t think she had an enemy in her life,” her husband, David Rooney, told the newspaper. “She was the type of person that could have a disagreement with someone and 10 minutes later turn around and help them, and that rubbed off on everybody who she came in contact with.”

David Whitman Davis was also injured by flying glass from the gunfire, the TBI said.

Officer Matthew Cousins was hit in the leg. He was treated for superficial injuries and released.

Scott was stuck by the officers returning fire. He remains in the hospital in serious but stable condition.

Griffin said he’s struggling to understand how his brother’s frustration may have led to violence.

“Don’t get me wrong, everything he did was wrong,” Griffin said. “I ain’t condoning nothing he did, at all. But frustration, we can all understand that.”

[kscarbel2]

The cultural decay and declining standards of behavior in America. That is the situation before us. Frankly speaking, I love my country. And thus, I have been saddened for many years as I watch decay and decline. I am not alone.

The events taking place in American society today are shocking.......and shameful.

The definition of “socially acceptable morals and values” is clear to any ordinarily prudent individual.

However, unlike the automobile and truck which have “evolved forward”, from primitive machines into the highly sophisticated ones we know today, American society appears to be “regressing”, moving away from the signature morals and values that for decades defined America, and made our great country the envy of the world.

The American government, I feel, inherently bears significant responsibility in guiding the positive forward development of American society.

However, I don’t believe the U.S. government has actively tried to influence the forward development of American society since the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961).

Over the last 20 years, we have observed what to us in our youth was unthinkable. Who on this forum in their teenage years would have walked into a school and taken the life of another human being. The thought never crossed our minds.

But the minds of recent generations are clearly different, indicating that we as a people and government combined are seriously failing in our responsibility to lead society.

We have a responsibility to effectively raise the bar of morals and values for each new generation of Americans. However, and clearly so, society is plunging to a lawless state that in some aspects is already out of control. And yet, our government of the people does not speak of this crisis, nor address it.

When tragic events occur, leadership utters politically correct words like "troubling" and "heartbreaking", and then resumes their normal routine.

At some point several decades ago, the values that shaped our morals and values stopped being taught to a sizable portion of the masses, and we’re seeing the effects today in the form of senseless tragedies.

Our government refuses to speak of (acknowledge) America’s crisis in society, apparently taboo in Washington, and has taken no steps to address it.

But today, for the first time, the media (U.S. News and World Report) actually put it in print......"the battle against cultural decay and declining standards of behavior [in America]". I believe this the first time major media has spoken on this taboo subject..

An American society with strong moral principles and values is not an option........it is a necessity to safeguarding our future.

America has become unraveled more since Ferguson, when a bully and criminal was shot by police. He wove his own ending (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-evidence-supports-officers-account-of-shooting-in-ferguson/2014/10/22/cf38c7b4-5964-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html). Rather than call a spade a spade, Washington kowtowed to protesters supporting this bully and criminal, protesters unwilling to advocate that "All American Lives Matter".

As people crowed that black lives matter, they looted the stores in their own Ferguson and Baltimore neighborhoods. That speaks volumes.

Unless you state that “all lives matter”, you’ve lost all credibility with civilized society.

Being an American should no longer be a given……..it should be a privilege, because enjoying the fruits of America’s high quality of life……is a privilege.

A United States citizen may lose their citizenship if they are convicted for treason, seditious conspiracy, or advocating violent overthrow of the government. It may be time to begin using this path, revoking the citizenship of those whose ethics, morals and values are not acceptable within American society.

Why did the media fail to state the Dallas gunman was black? When an attacker(s) is white and the victim is black, the press nowadays makes a point of reporting color. For example, the tragic South Carolina church killings. However, when the attackers are black and the victims are white, the media no longer mentions color. Why the double standard? Either stop mentioning color, as people are people regardless of color (all lives matter), or mention color in any circumstance.

[hatcity]

Black lives matter ONLY when shot by a white LEO.

They are quite silent about the very high numbers of black on black shootings

[kscarbel2]

Houston police shoot dead black man pointing a gun in street

Reuters  /  July 9, 2016

Two Houston police officers fatally shot an African-American man who pointed a gun at them despite their commands that he lower his weapon, authorities said on Saturday, two days after five Dallas policemen were slain by a black military veteran.

The two Houston officers, both Hispanic, encountered a man standing in the middle of a street with a revolver around 12:40 a.m. while on a routine patrol, police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said.

The officers exited their patrol vehicle to speak to the man, who initially had the firearm pointed to the sky. The officers ordered him to lower the weapon, Silva said.

"He instead deliberately and slowly lowers his arm and allows it to come to a stop at his waist," Silva said. "Now the gun is pointed directly at officers."

Fearing for their safety and for nearby witnesses, both officers discharged their weapons, striking the man, she said.

The suspect, who did not fire his gun, died at the scene.

The incident unfolded after police came under fire in at least three states on Thursday and Friday, as protests over police use of force against black people escalated around the country.

A police officer in Ballwin, Missouri, remained in critical condition on Saturday, a day after he was shot during a traffic stop, said St. Louis County Police.

In Georgia, an officer was ambushed and shot on Friday, and in Tennessee a man grazed a police officer with a bullet on Thursday when he opened fire on a hotel and a highway, killing a woman and wounded several others.

 

[david wild]

You sure are being nice to the scum who did this, more money has been spent on trying to bring blacks forward in this nation then any other cause, it has all been but wasted, you cannot train your dog to speak and thinking you can reason with a stupid black is beyond their ability of comprehension. There are many blacks who are fine people and we all have friends that are black but the majority are not far from their tree swinging  relatives, before they were sold into slavery by other blacks (something they forget) they lived in the wild like animals, they were not civilized, are not civilized and it will be some time before evolution can do it's job. We lowered  the standard of education because the blacks could not catch up, we give them free housing, food and medical and even phones so they can make drug deals and still they claim they are the ones who are discriminated against, how about they get a job, support themselves like the rest of us and stop having kids by the boat loads. Don't give me crap about poor them, they are their own biggest problem, it is time for them to put on their big girl panties and start helping themselves, until then I don't care if some cops shoots them all, maybe not all, but the scum is fine by me, and it is easy to figure out which ones are scum, man with a job does not have time to be out protesting ?? They are their problem and they need to fix it instead of looking to us.

[kscarbel2]

WRDW 12/Atlanta  /  July 8, 2016

Protesters in downtown Atlanta have blocked part of Interstate 75/85.

An estimated 2,000 people are marching on a ramp to the interstate following a week of shooting across the country.

Atlanta’s African-American Mayor, Mohammed Kasim Reed, tweeted a warning to protesters not to block the Connector. That tweet was ignored.

Reed tweeted “If you enter the highway, you endanger your own life, the lives of innocent motorists & the lives of our officers. We are better than that,”

Earlier, he tweeted:

"Today we have had less than ten people arrested during what has been a peaceful protest. We urge anyone protesting not to enter the highway."

.

[kscarbel2]

Protesters in Oakland block I-880 in both directions

Protests started Thursday around 7 p.m. when a group of approximately 100 demonstrators gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza, in response to the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.

The group quickly grew to about 2,000 people.

As the demonstrators made their way toward 6th Street, a group of approximately 1,000 went onto the freeway and blocked traffic in both directions, police said.

Police have reported vandalism to the Police Administration Building, including paint on the doors, scratches on glass and broken glass.

There have been other incidents of vandalism reported including broken windows and graffiti at nearby businesses, and a Caltrans signboard was set on fire on the highway, police said.

.

[kscarbel2]

Baton Rouge

"We just can't allow them to block the highway for the purpose of blocking the highway," said Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr., at a press conference Sunday to explain arrests.

 

Overall, he said, the department has allowed the state police and sheriff's deputies to take the lead at protests "out of respect" to the community.

 

"My officers are human. They are tired. They are scared," Dabadie said.

.

[kscarbel2]

Interstate 94 shutdown west of downtown St. Paul.

20 police officers were injured by protesters who detonated fireworks and flung rocks, concrete, rebar, molotov cocktails and glass bottles at them.

.

 

[david wild]

Maybe if they don't like here they can return to the homeland ??? but then the libs will add in that they were brought here against their will, the jews were moved through out Europe, they went back to their homeland, why can't the blacks, oohh that's right there is no welfare or free sh*t there, having worked in Africa, both Ghana and Tanzania, those people work and work hard and don't complain they didn't get there check on time. Most blacks here are trash, the one's in Africa are no way related to the ones here.  The blacks in Africa that I worked with said they were not impressed by the actions of Black Americans.   more of team Obama's supporters.

[kscarbel2]

“Americans of all races and all backgrounds are rightly outraged by the inexcusable attacks on police, whether it’s in Dallas or anyplace else.”

President Barrack Obama

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Any president would really have to say that. Still, with respect, I disagree. I don’t see any outrage in 99.9% of Americans, because they have become numb to the ocean of violence flooding our country.

It was just the other week that an “individual’ killed 49 Americans (and/or illegal immigrants) and injured 53 others. But that was last week. It’s more or less all forgotten as we head into a new week.

School killings? Commonplace now. No one pays attention anymore except the parents who have been robbed of their children.

Government, or the unseen individuals behind it, are responsible for the management of the country. And frankly, they’re doing a pretty poor job.

 

[david wild]

And who runs everything, bleeding heart liberals, go to any government office and what do you see ?? try and register your truck in ATL. forget it, nothing but BS.  work or starve that's my motto. Maybe I'll try and get some free stuff, can't do that I'm white and married to woman, I'm privileged, I pay to support people I don't even know, and then hear I don't do enough, screw you libs, you wanna feel good feeding the lazy then you do it and leave me out.  

[kscarbel2]

"When there are 60 shootings in Chicago over the 4th of July and 14 murders and Black Lives Matter is nonexistent, and then there's one police murder of very questionable circumstances and we hear from Black Lives Matter, we wonder, do black lives matter or only the very few black lives that are killed by white policeman."

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

.

 

[kscarbel2]

On Sunday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said marchers carrying weapons and dressed in body armor had distracted law enforcement from the actual gunman on Thursday.

He said that other individuals carrying guns on the scene “took our eye off the ball for a moment”.

“You can carry a rifle legally and when you have gunfire going on, you usually go with the person that’s got a gun,” he said.

“And so our police grabbed some of those individuals, took them to police headquarters and worked it out and figured out that they were not the shooters. But that is one of the real issues with the gun rights issues that we face – that in the middle of a firefight, it’s hard [impossible] to pick out the good guys and the bad guys.”

The Dallas shooting illustrated the way people who openly carry guns can hinder law enforcement responses to active shooter scenarios. Dallas police said up to 30 people were carrying rifles during a protest on the night that a man opened fire on police officers, complicating law enforcement’s attempts to identify the gunman.

Not a single one of these people carrying firearms out there in (Dallas) Texas caught this guy in what he was doing. It drained law enforcement resources and subjected citizens to being unnecessarily taken into custody. We should all be very grateful that nobody else got hurt.

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Why would a civilian in the United States ever need to carry an assault rifle in public?  

Unless they plan to use it?

Or it makes them feel “bigger”

Last time I checked, America had not (yet) become a lawless Somalia-like place.

There's no just reason for fellow Americans to be carrying assault rifles around myself, my spouse and my children's families.

.

[HeavyGunner]

The US had just as many guns 50 years ago as they do now. They had "assault" rifles such as the M1 garand, the little 30 cal M1 from Korean War era but not many of any mass shootings. Do you think the everybodies a winner, no spanking, entitled brat parenting that continues today has anything to do with what's going on?  Do you think that race war inspiring hate mongers like sharpton and Jackson have anything to do with the racial tensions? I do. When someone (allegedly a leader of their people) continually tells you you've been wronged and that's why your poor, because of your color and everyone owes you now creates the racial divide. Everyone should be put on the same playing field and be treated equally. No special treatment for minories or whites all equal. Best man or woman for the job regardless of color, best student for the scholarship again regardless of color. I'm tired of hearing everybody thinking that everything should come easy and if it doesn't there's a government program to make it fair for them. 

[david wild]

We bid on crane and transport for new stadium in ATL. we had lowest bid, did not get job, had to go to minority owned company (black) then they ask if we can help with some problems because contractor was not qualified and was having issues, being from New Hampshire  I answered in my good old New England fashion, they have not call back. 

[kscarbel2]

Dallas Police Chief David Brown is, by his own admission, "running on fumes." His brain "is fried." And he warned that this might be the last we hear from him for a while as he sets about the grim business of burying his dead.

Brown and his family began receiving death threats almost immediately after the atrocity. “We are all worried for our safety. We are all on edge and being very careful.”

The late-called press conference was intended to provide an update on Thursday night's shooting that left five officers dead, four under Brown's command. And it did......for a moment. 

 

But Brown quickly went off script, and let the world know he is gassed and spent, yes, but also fed up and furious. 

Brown, exhausted and unguarded, echoed what protesters said in the hours before a lone gunman opened fire on cops: Enough is enough.

 

Brown said that Dallas police have been asked to shoulder every single "societal failure," from mental health to drug treatment to, even, the failure of the public school system and the fact that kids in southern Dallas are being raised by single moms.

“We're asking cops to do too much in this country' said Brown. "We are. You're asking us to do too much. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve.” 

“Seventy percent of the African American community is being raised by single women, let's give it to the cops to solve that as well' said Brown. 'Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.”

And, "here in Dallas, we've got a loose dog problem," he said. The response to that has been like the response to every other ailment that plagues the city, Brown said: "Let the cops handle it."

Which is absolutely, undeniably true: When the people at Dallas City Hall tasked with actually dealing with loose and stray dogs -- Dallas Animal Services, code compliance, assistant city managers -- proved to be under-prepared and overwhelmed, and Antoinette Brown was mauled to death in South Dallas, the city did what the city does best. It told the cops to handle it, which is how the dog problem landed in Deputy Chief Rob Sherwin's lap -- Rob Sherwin, who is also overseeing the massive investigation into Thursday night's massacre.

It wasn't even the first time Animal Services has had to call DPD for backup. When, in 2010, the manager of the city's  animal shelter was indicted on felony charges of animal cruelty when he allowed a cat to die in the shelter's walls, Scott Walton, now a deputy chief, was named interim shelter manager.

"Policing," said Brown on Monday, "was never meant to solve all those problems." Policing, he said, is hard enough without having to do everyone else's work. And it's harder still, given the low pay and the shrinking ranks as officers decamp for better-paying jobs in other cities surrounding Dallas.

Earlier this year, Brown told the City Council he's being forced to "do less with less," and reminded it the force is down 200 officers since 2010.

"Officers have been leaving because we're the lowest-paid in the area," he said. "We have a $44,000 starting pay" -- $44,658, to be precise, for a police officer trainee just putting on his newly starched uniform. Officers, he said, are "not feeling appreciated." They are "committed to their profession," he said, but also struggling to provide for their families. 

Brown demanded politicians get involved in making the country safer. He told them to "quit asking cops to do it for you."

Brown said he's often asked about gun control. Out of his hands, he said. "Ask the policymakers to do something" about guns, he said, "then I'll give you an opinion on it." 

Some took issue with Brown’s comments that protesters pick up a job application and become a cop like he did. They thought it a glib response to genuine concerns from people tired of seeing people die at the hands of police.

“We're hiring,” Brown said. “Get off that protest line and put an application in. And we'll put you in your neighborhood, and we'll help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.”

Others suggested he run for president.

Brown acknowledges the strength of feeling after the fatal shootings but urged people to do join the department rather than take to the streets to demonstrate.

“I probably wouldn't protest or complain, I would get involved and do something about it,” he said. 

"One of the most difficult jobs in the country right now is being a police chief in a major city," he said. Especially one where five police officers were just murdered.

The police chief said his own officers were so exhausted he had been forced to bring in another department to assist with security when President Barack Obama visits the city tomorrow.

Arlington Police Department will work with the Secret Service during the president's visit as Brown is concerned about “the fatigue factor” with his own officers.

Dr. Alex Eastman, deputy medical director with the Dallas Police Department, said the shootings “rocked some guys to their core that I thought were unshakable.” 

Brown said that the cops themselves were typically the last ones to complain as he considered introducing mandatory counseling for officers.

'We want to be Superman ... We are the last to ask for help.'

He had seen attitudes and racial tensions improve during his three decades as a Dallas cop.

'We're in a much better place than when I was a young man here, but we have much to do – particularly in my profession.'

After watching so many of his friends get caught up in the crack cocaine boom if the 1980s, Brown decided to join the department and worked his way up from patrol, to SWAT and internal affairs, until he landed the chief of police role.

'They took an inner city kid like me with flaws and made me their police chief,' he said. 'That's an extraordinary city and they have supported me through very difficult challenges. You don't see that everywhere.' 

Brown said he had no regrets about sending in the explosive to kill Johnson who had 'already killed us in a grave way, and officers were in surgery that didn't make it.'

His only warning was not to 'bring the building down.' 

'This wasn't an ethical dilemma for me,' he added.

Several states are currently considering 'Blue Lives Matter' bills to make killing or attacking law enforcement officers a hate crime. 

Wisconsin Rep. David Steffen, a Green Bay Republican, announced a proposal for his state on Monday following the Dallas shooting. 

Louisiana became the first state to enact such legislation in May, allowing prosecutors to seek stronger penalties when police, firefighters and emergency medical crews are intentionally targeted because of their professions. Lawmakers in nine other states and at the federal level have floated similar proposals.

Activists are criticizing the growing effort, saying professions don't belong alongside the other characteristics protected under hate crime laws, such as race, religion or disability.

[kscarbel2]

“I believe I saved a lot more black lives than Black Lives Matter,” said former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “I don't see what Black Lives Matter is doing for blacks other than isolating them.” 

“All it cares about is the police shooting of blacks. It doesn't care about the 90 percent of blacks that are killed by other blacks.”

“If you want to deal with this on the black side, you've got to teach your children to be respectful of the police and you've got to teach your children that the real danger to them is not the police, the real danger to them 99 out of 100 times ... are other black kids who are going to kill them,” said Giuliani. “That's the way they're going to die.”

“And the second reality in the black community is, there's too much violence in the black community. So a black will die one percent or less at the hands of the police and 99 percent at the hands of a civilian, most often another black.”

“So if you want to protect black lives, then you've got to protect black lives, not just against police, which happens rarely, although with tremendous attention, and which happens every 14 hours in Chicago.”

.

 

[kscarbel2]

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said on Monday that Texas state laws allowing civilians to carry firearms openly, as some did during the protest where five officers were fatally shot, present rising challenges to law enforcement, as he stepped into America's fierce debate over gun rights.

A shooting incident in Michigan on Monday underscored the prevalence of gun violence in America and the danger faced by law enforcement, even as activists protest fatal shootings by police of two black men last week in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Two sheriff's bailiffs were shot dead at a courthouse in St. Joseph in southwestern Michigan, and the shooter was also killed, Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey told reporters.

President Barack Obama and others reiterated their calls for stricter guns laws after last month's massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, but many conservatives responded that such measures could infringe on the U.S. Constitution's protection of the right to bear arms.

Conservative Texas is known for its gun culture, and state laws allow gun owners to carry their weapons in public. Some gun rights activists bring firearms to rallies as a political statement. Some did this at Thursday's march in Dallas.

"It is increasingly challenging when people have AR-15's (a type of rifle) slung over, and shootings occur in a crowd. And they begin running, and we don’t know if they are a shooter or not," Brown said. "We don’t know who the 'good guy' versus who the 'bad guy' is, if everybody starts shooting."

Seeing multiple people carrying rifles led police initially to believe they were under attack by multiple shooters.

"I was asked, well, what's your opinion about guns? Well, ask the policymakers to do something and I'll give you an opinion," Brown said.

"Do your job. We're doing ours. We're putting our lives on the line [unlike those in Washington who allegedly make policy]. Other aspects of government need to step up and help us," he added.

[kscarbel2]

The Guardian  /  July 11, 2016

Authorities in Dallas are questioning family members about how Micah Johnson was able to stockpile a vast amount of bomb-making equipment at his home, as it emerged that two more officers were wounded than was previously known.

Five police officers died and nine were wounded in the Dallas shooting last Thursday.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said on Monday that bomb technicians had been alarmed by the scale of Johnson’s collection of explosives at the house in the suburb of Mesquite that he shared with his mother, Delphene.

Delphene Johnson has been questioned, but not detained.

Asked by a reporter how it was possible that his family could “not know about him stockpiling weapons”, Brown said: “That’s my question.”

Brown said investigators were trying to establish whether Johnson, 25, had developed expertise in bomb-making online or elsewhere.

“He knew what he was doing – this wasn’t some novice,” said Brown. “We don’t think he learned it in the military.”

Johnson, an army veteran, had explosives that police said could have been “devastating” to the region.

Brown said investigators had not ruled out the possibility that Johnson was connected to a wider threat against the city.

“The concern is that we haven’t found something that’s out there,” he said.

Johnson’s family alleges that his demeanor had changed in 2015, after his discharge from the US army amid allegations of sexual assault. His mother said he had transformed from a carefree extrovert to a “hermit”. His father said he then became increasingly focused on his black heritage.

Johnson had left two separate inscriptions of “RB” on the walls of the El Centro community college from where he launched his attack. The significance of the letters remains unknown.

[41chevy]

Walking around the street is a Ego trip and stupid, no two ways about it.

BUT, Nothing. . . nothing, is going to stop a criminal, a terrorist or a mentally deficient person from obtaining a weapon to commit a murder or other violent act.There is always someone or some organization to supply the items.

The "assault weapon" spiel came up in the Dallas Shooting. It wasn't a AK-47, or a AR15, it was a conventional SKS rifle. No "High Capacity'' Magazines.just a 10 round stripper clip. So Michael Bloomberg and his Moms Against Guns want a ban on all military based rifles now.    Paul 

[kscarbel2]

5 Statistics about police officers killing African-Americans

The Daily Wire  /  July 7, 2016

The Alton Sterling and Philando Castile shootings have caused an uproar among leftists because they fuel their narrative that racist white police officers are hunting down innocent black men.

But the statistics tell a different story.

Here are five key statistics about police killing blacks.

1. Police killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015. 

According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or "were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force.".

Some may argue that these statistics are evidence of racist treatment toward blacks, since whites consist of 62 percent of the population and blacks make up 13 percent of the population. But as The Wall Street Journal writes, 2009 statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.

"Such a concentration of criminal violence in minority communities means that officers will be disproportionately confronting armed and often resisting suspects in those communities, raising officers’ own risk of using lethal force," writes Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather MacDonald.

MacDonald also points out that blacks "commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime" in New York City, even though they consist of 23 percent of the city's population.

"The black violent crime rate would actually predict that more than 26 percent of police victims would be black," MacDonald said. "Officer use of force will occur where the police interact most often with violent criminals, armed suspects, and those resisting arrest, and that is in black neighborhoods."

2. More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks. 

According to MacDonald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers.

"If we’re going to have a 'Lives Matter' anti-police movement, it would be more appropriately named "White and Hispanic Lives Matter,'" said MacDonald.

3. The Post's data does show that unarmed black men are more likely to die by the gun of a cop than an unarmed white man...but this does not tell the whole story.

In August 2015, the ratio was seven-to-one of unarmed black men dying from police gunshots compared to unarmed white men; the ratio was six-to-one by the end of 2015. But MacDonald points out that looking at the details of the actual incidents that occurred paints a different picture:

The “unarmed” label is literally accurate, but it frequently fails to convey highly-charged policing situations. In a number of cases, if the victim ended up being unarmed, it was certainly not for lack of trying. At least five black victims had reportedly tried to grab the officer’s gun, or had been beating the cop with his own equipment. Some were shot from an accidental discharge triggered by their own assault on the officer. And two individuals included in the Post’s “unarmed black victims” category were struck by stray bullets aimed at someone else in justified cop shootings. If the victims were not the intended targets, then racism could have played no role in their deaths.

In one of those unintended cases, an undercover New York City police officer was conducting a gun sting in Mount Vernon. One of the gun traffickers jumped into his police car, stuck a pistol to his head, grabbed $2,400 and fled. The officer gave chase and opened fire after the thief again pointed his gun at him. Two of the officer’s bullets accidentally hit a 61-year-old bystander, killing him. That older man happened to be black, but his race had nothing to do with his tragic death.

In the other collateral damage case in Virginia Beach, Virginia, officers approached a car parked at a convenience store that had a homicide suspect in the passenger seat. The suspect opened fire, sending a bullet through an officer’s shirt. The cops returned fire, killing their assailant as well as a woman in the driver’s seat. That woman entered the Post’s database without qualification as an “unarmed black victim” of police fire.

MacDonald examines a number of other instances, including unarmed black men in San Diego, California and Prince George's County, Maryland attempting to reach for a gun in a police officer's holster. In the San Diego case, the unarmed black man actually "jumped the officer" and assaulted him, and the police officer shot the man since he was "fearing for his life." MacDonald also notes that there was an instance in 2015 where "three officers were killed with their own guns, which the suspects had wrestled from them."

4. Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers. 

This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia Police Department, and is further confirmed that by a study conducted University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway in 2015 that determined black police officers were 3.3 times more likely to fire a gun than other cops at a crime scene. 

5. Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. 

This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of police killers are black. According to MacDonald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person.

Despite the facts, the anti-police rhetoric of “Black Lives Matter” and their leftist sympathizers have resulted in what MacDonald calls the "Ferguson Effect," as murders have spiked by 17 percent among the 50 biggest cities in the U.S. as a result of police officers being more reluctant to patrol neighborhoods out of fear of being labeled as racists. Additionally, there have been over twice as many police officers victimized by fatal shootings in the first three months of 2016.

Anti-police rhetoric has deadly consequences.