Police officers outside Micah Johnson’s home in Mesquite, Tex., on Saturday. Mr. Johnson, who shot and killed five officers in Dallas on Thursday night, had conducted training in his backyard. --- Photo Credit William Widmer for The New York Times
We are actually face to face with a potentially 'healing moment'. It would be wonderful to think that we could take advantage of the situation, as horrible as it is, and make meaningful social gains from the wreckage. But, we've been here before, in this exact same spot.
For one example, during the 'sixties' and the 'civil rights movement', we all watched as the TV cameras recorded the police breaking up marches, beating the marchers and setting their dogs on peaceful protesters. Similarly, today one can watch on social media as the police beat, and in many instances shoot indiscriminately, killing unarmed, incapacitated people. |
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"Growing up, I hated the police. They abused me for no reason. It's just because I was in the neighborhood and a person of color." PEDRO SERRANO |
In response to the disruption of the 'sixties' we passed some social improvement legislation to ease the burden of inequality, and then over a few decades we gradually removed the benefits of those laws, leaving things, in many situations, worse than they were in the first place.
We are now all focused, again, on the same problem. Can anyone realistically imagine that we intend to fix the problems, or will we apply short term, stop-gap measures to relieve the current pressures?
We are now all focused, again, on the same problem. Can anyone realistically imagine that we intend to fix the problems, or will we apply short term, stop-gap measures to relieve the current pressures?
Looking at the Mesquite, Texas home that Mr. Johnson lived in, we can see that he did not live in abject poverty. So, at least on some level, the tired old formulas will not fit this situation. That he was reacting to inequality and injustice, as he himself states, means that his reaction was not rebellion against his own personal situation as much as against the systematic circumstances of race. He struck out at the police because he viewed them as brutal enforcers of those systematic circumstances.
Are we ready as a nation to alter our systems so as to allow the possibility of realizing the grandiose ideals of the Declaration of Independence... "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If we could finally try to govern ourselves as if we were aiming to attain the goals as stated, we would solve virtually all of our problems. But, as our history has shown, these are hollow words having nothing to do with our national direction.
Can we learn from the current events and benefit from the lessons? To see where we may be going as a nation, one can review our path as described by the New York Times.
The Raw Videos That Have Sparked
Outrage Over Police Treatment of Blacks
By DAMIEN CAVE and ROCHELLE OLIVER
Raw video has thoroughly shaken American policing. Grainy images of questionable police behavior, spread through social media, have led to nationwide protests, federal investigations and changes in policy and attitudes on race.
“A lot of white people are truly shocked by what these videos depict; I know very few African-Americans who are surprised,” said Paul D. Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former prosecutor. “The videos are smoking-gun evidence,” he added, “both literally because they are very graphic, which generates outrage, and figuratively, because people believe their own eyes.”
These videos include graphic scenes of violence.
The video record as shown is but the 'tip of the iceberg'. One needs to view at least some of this evidence to understand the sequence of events.
Outrage Over Police Treatment of Blacks
By DAMIEN CAVE and ROCHELLE OLIVER
Raw video has thoroughly shaken American policing. Grainy images of questionable police behavior, spread through social media, have led to nationwide protests, federal investigations and changes in policy and attitudes on race.
“A lot of white people are truly shocked by what these videos depict; I know very few African-Americans who are surprised,” said Paul D. Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former prosecutor. “The videos are smoking-gun evidence,” he added, “both literally because they are very graphic, which generates outrage, and figuratively, because people believe their own eyes.”
These videos include graphic scenes of violence.
The video record as shown is but the 'tip of the iceberg'. One needs to view at least some of this evidence to understand the sequence of events.
from the NY Times
There was a time when he was known as a well-mannered young man — a regular at his church and a pleasant presence on a tree-lined, suburban, multicultural street in a neighborhood called Camelot. He grew up to serve his country in Afghanistan.
But on Thursday night, 25-year-old Micah Johnson, an African-American, drove his car to a rally against police violence and began killing officers in downtown Dallas, hoping to single out the white ones. In the process, he also managed to bring his war back home, killing at least one fellow military veteran and heightening fears that the nation he had been deployed to protect overseas was now failing to address its growing racial divide at home.
But on Thursday night, 25-year-old Micah Johnson, an African-American, drove his car to a rally against police violence and began killing officers in downtown Dallas, hoping to single out the white ones. In the process, he also managed to bring his war back home, killing at least one fellow military veteran and heightening fears that the nation he had been deployed to protect overseas was now failing to address its growing racial divide at home.
(He) had kept an extensive journal and described a method of attack... Although it did not seem to be a precise plan for Mr. Johnson’s ambush, it was strikingly similar to the tactics he used... “It shows that he’s well prepared.”
President Obama said it was “very hard to untangle the motives” behind the shooting... “By definition, if you shoot people who pose no threat to you — strangers — you have a troubled mind. What triggers that, what feeds it, what sets it off, I’ll leave that to psychologists and people who study these kinds of incidents.”
In San Antonio, the police were investigating reports late Saturday that gunshots had been fired at their department’s headquarters, Chief William McManus said at a briefing.
Officers said that they heard gunshots hitting the building just before 10 p.m. and that “a number of shell casings” were recovered, |  |
Mr. Johnson spent some of his childhood at the home of his father and stepmother in their neighborhood, Camelot, is a collection of one- and two-story ranch-style houses of late-20th-century vintage, and their house is set in the middle of a tree-lined block, where a number of neighboring homes this weekend still displayed American flags from the Fourth of July weekend. The neighbors walking by or working on their lawns were black, white, Hispanic and Asian.
(He) recalled Mr. Johnson as a “well-mannered” youth who was active in church events and the typical pursuits of a teenager.
“Video games, the whole nine yards,” Mr. Johnson showed no interest in weapons, “He was just a quiet kid,” Mr. Williams said. “No attitude, no trouble with school. Just a normal kid.”
(He) graduated from John Horn High School in Mesquite, Tex., where he had shown some interest in the military, going so far as to participate in the school’s Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program. He was not, it seemed on Saturday, a standout: former J.R.O.T.C. instructor said he had little recollection of Mr. Johnson.
He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2009 and was assigned to a unit — a component of the 420th Engineer Brigade — near Dallas. More than four years later, the unit deployed to Afghanistan.
... a female soldier in Mr. Johnson’s unit accused him of sexual harassment. When the Army considered kicking him out, he waived his right to a hearing in exchange for a lesser charge.
(He) recalled Mr. Johnson as a “well-mannered” youth who was active in church events and the typical pursuits of a teenager.
“Video games, the whole nine yards,” Mr. Johnson showed no interest in weapons, “He was just a quiet kid,” Mr. Williams said. “No attitude, no trouble with school. Just a normal kid.”
(He) graduated from John Horn High School in Mesquite, Tex., where he had shown some interest in the military, going so far as to participate in the school’s Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program. He was not, it seemed on Saturday, a standout: former J.R.O.T.C. instructor said he had little recollection of Mr. Johnson.
He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2009 and was assigned to a unit — a component of the 420th Engineer Brigade — near Dallas. More than four years later, the unit deployed to Afghanistan.
... a female soldier in Mr. Johnson’s unit accused him of sexual harassment. When the Army considered kicking him out, he waived his right to a hearing in exchange for a lesser charge.
from the NY Times
It felt like a watershed moment for a scattered and still-young civil rights movement.
Inside Black Lives Matter, the national revulsion over videos of police officers shooting to death black men in Minnesota and Louisiana was undeniable proof that the group’s message of outrage and demands for justice had finally broken through.
Even the white governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, in a pained public concession, embraced the movement’s central argument. “Would this have happened if those passengers — the driver and the passengers — were white?” he asked. “I don’t think it would’ve.”
Then, in an instant, everything changed.
Black Lives Matter now faces perhaps the biggest crisis in its short history: It is both scrambling to distance itself from an African-American sniper in Dallas who set out to murder white police officers and trying to rebut a chorus of detractors who blame the movement for inspiring his deadly attack.
Inside Black Lives Matter, the national revulsion over videos of police officers shooting to death black men in Minnesota and Louisiana was undeniable proof that the group’s message of outrage and demands for justice had finally broken through.
Even the white governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, in a pained public concession, embraced the movement’s central argument. “Would this have happened if those passengers — the driver and the passengers — were white?” he asked. “I don’t think it would’ve.”
Then, in an instant, everything changed.
Black Lives Matter now faces perhaps the biggest crisis in its short history: It is both scrambling to distance itself from an African-American sniper in Dallas who set out to murder white police officers and trying to rebut a chorus of detractors who blame the movement for inspiring his deadly attack.
For those who have harbored doubts or animosity toward Black Lives Matter — among them police unions and conservative leaders — the Dallas attacks are a cudgel that, fairly or not, they are eager to swing....
In Texas, several state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, lashed out at the group, directly linking its tone and tactics to the killings. Mr. Patrick acknowledged that the demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night had been peaceful until the gunman struck, but he accused the movement of creating the conditions for what happened. “I do blame former Black Lives Matter protests,” he said. “This has to stop,” Mr. Patrick said, adding of the police officers, “These are real people.” State Representative Bill Zedler, a Republican, was equally blunt in his assessment of the group’s influence on the 25-year-old gunman, Micah Johnson. “Clearly the rhetoric of Black Lives Matters encouraged the sniper that shot Dallas police officers,” he wrote on Twitter. In the days before the Dallas massacre, Aesha Rasheed, 39, an activist in New Orleans, felt that at long last, white and black America were watching the same images with the same horror: two Louisiana police officers tackling and then shooting Alton Sterling, 37, at point-blank range; the slumped, blood-soaked body of Philando Castile, 32, after a Minnesota police officer shot him through a car window, with his girlfriend and her daughter sitting inches away. |
Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, blames Black Lives Matter Protests... and he points out that the dead police officers "are real people"
Apparently all of these dead who were executed by the police are not 'real people'. We can see that Dan Patrick is now and will continue to be part of the problem. 
State Representative Bill Zedler also falls into the delusion of denial, wanting to believe that protesting the murder of unarmed people is the problem.
 |
“It seemed like a national consciousness was sinking in,” Ms. Rasheed said.
After the massacre in Dallas, she said, “it turned on a dime.”
The police have said Mr. Johnson — a military veteran who told the authorities that he had hunted down white police officers as retribution for their abuses — had no direct links to any protest group.
After the massacre in Dallas, she said, “it turned on a dime.”
The police have said Mr. Johnson — a military veteran who told the authorities that he had hunted down white police officers as retribution for their abuses — had no direct links to any protest group.
Undeterred, several activists rebuffed the view of the carnage in Dallas as a potential setback to their cause. Ja’Mal Green, another activist, said the killings were, in their own grisly way, a powerful wake-up call.
“It’s not a setback at all,” Mr. Green said. “That’s showing the people of this country that black people are getting to a boiling point. We are tired of watching police kill our brothers and sisters. We are tired of being tired.”
He insisted that he was not encouraging violence. But he said there “comes a time when black people will snap.”
He added: “It only takes a couple to get past that boiling point. You saw that in Dallas.”
“It’s not a setback at all,” Mr. Green said. “That’s showing the people of this country that black people are getting to a boiling point. We are tired of watching police kill our brothers and sisters. We are tired of being tired.”
He insisted that he was not encouraging violence. But he said there “comes a time when black people will snap.”
He added: “It only takes a couple to get past that boiling point. You saw that in Dallas.”
As conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh assailed Black Lives Matter as “a terrorist group committing hate crimes,” activists like Wendi Moore-O’Neal saw echoes of repeated attempts throughout American history, including efforts by the federal government, to discredit civil rights groups and leaders.
“It’s just made up,” she said of those who held Black Lives Matter responsible in any way for the Dallas attack. “It’s not true.” “I can’t think of any of the justice or liberation organizations that I know,” Ms. Moore-O’Neal said, “that have an investment in shooting cops.” |
And then from the lunatic fringe we have conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh claiming that Black Lives Matter is “a terrorist group committing hate crimes”
 |
from the NY Times
In a televised interview, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations blamed President Obama for waging a “war on cops.”
On social media, others confronted the discrepancies in the everyday lives of black and white Americans, hoping understanding would lead to conversations and action.
|
straight from the silly farm, the police association director claims that Obama is waging a "war on cops"... like the bad cops, he'd probably shoot Obama, a black man, if he thought he could get away with it
|
At an outdoor food stand on the Strip, three co-workers — black, white and Asian — debated whether the bloodshed would lead to healing or deeper divisions as they talked about their own experiences with the police.
Martin Clemons, 28, said he and other black friends had been frisked for jaywalking across the Strip. Zach Luciano, 23, who is white, said he had never been stopped or had a negative run-in with law enforcement, and had considered becoming a police officer.
“There’s more good cops than bad cops,” Mr. Luciano said. “I wanted to be one of those good ones.”
What the three co-workers shared was a grim view that the country’s divides would not heal anytime soon.
“It’s sad, but this is what the world’s coming to,” Mr. Luciano said.
Martin Clemons, 28, said he and other black friends had been frisked for jaywalking across the Strip. Zach Luciano, 23, who is white, said he had never been stopped or had a negative run-in with law enforcement, and had considered becoming a police officer.
“There’s more good cops than bad cops,” Mr. Luciano said. “I wanted to be one of those good ones.”
What the three co-workers shared was a grim view that the country’s divides would not heal anytime soon.
“It’s sad, but this is what the world’s coming to,” Mr. Luciano said.
Martin Clemons, left, and Zach Luciano, co-workers in Las Vegas, recounted very different interactions with police officers --- Photo Credit Ivan Kashinsky for The New York Times
In New York, Monifa Bandele has spent the past 17 years working to get citizens to video record police interactions, yet as the Facebook Live recording of Philando Castile’s shooting in Minnesota coursed across social media on Wednesday night, she could not bring herself to watch.
“I literally thought I would have a stroke. I could feel my blood pressure going up,” said Ms. Bandele, 45, a Brooklyn native. “I work day and night to end police brutality, and no matter how much responsibility I felt, I just couldn’t do it.”
Ms. Bandele and her husband, Lumumba, helped found Copwatch after the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in a hail of bullets fired by New York City police officers who mistook a wallet in his hand for a gun. She is frequently called upon to comment on police killings, and so watching these videos is part of her work.
The night before the Castile video posted, Ms. Bandele had to watch the recording of a police officer in Baton Rouge, La., shooting Alton Sterlingas he lay pinned to the ground. But the back-to-back videos, after what has felt like a constant cycle of videos of police killings of black Americans, proved too much.
“It was just a breaking. I have spoken to people who are broken, and they just can’t take any more,” Ms. Bandele said. “Those images visit me at night. The impact is emotional and it is physical.”
Instead, she rushed upstairs to try to take the phones of her two teenage daughters before they could watch the video. But her oldest, Naima, 17, met her on the stairs, distraught, her eyes filled with tears. Ms. Bandele had to take off from work Friday to comfort her girls, to help them deal with the pain they were feeling.
“I literally thought I would have a stroke. I could feel my blood pressure going up,” said Ms. Bandele, 45, a Brooklyn native. “I work day and night to end police brutality, and no matter how much responsibility I felt, I just couldn’t do it.”
Ms. Bandele and her husband, Lumumba, helped found Copwatch after the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in a hail of bullets fired by New York City police officers who mistook a wallet in his hand for a gun. She is frequently called upon to comment on police killings, and so watching these videos is part of her work.
The night before the Castile video posted, Ms. Bandele had to watch the recording of a police officer in Baton Rouge, La., shooting Alton Sterlingas he lay pinned to the ground. But the back-to-back videos, after what has felt like a constant cycle of videos of police killings of black Americans, proved too much.
“It was just a breaking. I have spoken to people who are broken, and they just can’t take any more,” Ms. Bandele said. “Those images visit me at night. The impact is emotional and it is physical.”
Instead, she rushed upstairs to try to take the phones of her two teenage daughters before they could watch the video. But her oldest, Naima, 17, met her on the stairs, distraught, her eyes filled with tears. Ms. Bandele had to take off from work Friday to comfort her girls, to help them deal with the pain they were feeling.
Ms. Berry, the teacher in Iowa, said she worked hard to raise her two boys, Dallas, 15, and Amari, 11, to make a good impression. Square your shoulders, she has always told them, look people in the eyes when they talk to you, and stand up for what is right. But that advice comes with a painful exception: Do none of these things if stopped by the police.
“That is the hurting part,” said Ms. Berry, 37. “Because that is the part that Dallas doesn’t quite get. ‘Why are you telling me to comply if I am not doing anything wrong?’ I am trying to teach them to be men and stand up for themselves, but at the same time I am telling them to back down and not be who they are.”
This past week has only made that tightrope walk all the more difficult, trying to balance protecting her children’s innocence with preparing them for what feels like an eventuality. She sat down with her sons to watch the news coverage of the shootings and said she struggled with how to simultaneously caution her boys and comfort them.
Dallas is about to turn 16, that age when the chests of teenage boys swell with bravado, when they obtain that quintessential American rite of passage — the driver’s license.
“This is something we should be celebrating,” Ms. Berry said, “but I am terrified.”
“That is the hurting part,” said Ms. Berry, 37. “Because that is the part that Dallas doesn’t quite get. ‘Why are you telling me to comply if I am not doing anything wrong?’ I am trying to teach them to be men and stand up for themselves, but at the same time I am telling them to back down and not be who they are.”
This past week has only made that tightrope walk all the more difficult, trying to balance protecting her children’s innocence with preparing them for what feels like an eventuality. She sat down with her sons to watch the news coverage of the shootings and said she struggled with how to simultaneously caution her boys and comfort them.
Dallas is about to turn 16, that age when the chests of teenage boys swell with bravado, when they obtain that quintessential American rite of passage — the driver’s license.
“This is something we should be celebrating,” Ms. Berry said, “but I am terrified.”
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