More Dead Police In Baton Rouge

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 11:26am

Breaking news:

Three police officers have been shot dead in Baton Rouge, La., and four others were wounded, authorities said Sunday.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/17/reports-baton-rouge-police...

Tags:

#Baton Rouge #Police Violence

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Comments

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 11:34am

So sad

I understand the rage, but hate the outcome. An eye for an eye till we're all blind.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:35pm

Easily predictable

On the bright side, if this keeps up we'll finally get some gun control passed.

However, it will be in the context of a more totalitarian state.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 11:58am

Police are big fans of gun control

They just don't put any muscle behind it. This just might do it.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by PriceRip on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:09pm

I do not doubt your knowledge, but . . .

None of the police that I know are "big fans of gun control" as everyone emphasizes the need for more training. Training, discipline, and accountability are the themes I keep hearing from the field officers I encounter in my travels.
But as we used to say, "your mileage may vary."

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:33pm

most police are pro-gun according to study

http://www.secondcalldefense.org/police-gun-control with additional info
http://humanevents.com/2013/04/09/police-officers-disagree-with-gun-cont...
'Contrary to what the mainstream media and certain politicians would have us believe, police overwhelmingly favor an armed citizenry, would like to see more guns in the hands of responsible people, and are skeptical of any greater restrictions placed on gun purchase, ownership, or accessibility."

I'll bet most police are uninformed of Australia's approach.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/gun-control-in-australia/
...murders using firearms have declined even more sharply than murders in general since the 1996 gun law.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by PriceRip on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 1:09pm

Lest we forget, police officers are human . . .

the "yea but" response is strong in the good ol' USofA. I tend to take the "teacher" role in my encounters because I find the "just tell them" approach to be distasteful. I didn't use it in 35 years of teaching and I don't see any reason to break with my usually successful approach this late in my life.
I am treating this like a long con. Success my come long after I am out of the game, and I can only hope the sting happens before it all blows up in our faces.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:55pm

My mistake

I seem to recall the "Chiefs of Police" or something that favored gun control. I appreciate the clarification.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by PriceRip on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 1:17pm

That's the story I read.

I think it was some association or union of police chiefs that favored some national legislation of some sort. The story was filter through the MSM so I read it with a bit of distrust.
I think progress will come only as good quality information drives supervisors to the conclusion that the Australian approach can work in this country. But my opinion is grounded in the knowledge of how only a handful of upper level police officers think.

Submitted by duckpin on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 1:28pm

The International Association of Chiefs of Police was (is?) in

favor of restricting armor piercing bullets and clips that carry a high number of rounds. The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Bill Clinton partly because at that time Clinton favored certain restrictions on firearms.

The rank and file officers, particularly in rural sheriff's departments, have the same attitude toward guns as their neighbors.

—

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Submitted by Big Al on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:02pm

This is going to turn into a war.

The more the police state cracks down, the more people are going to fight back. The right answer is to remove the police state, but that won't happen, it will only tighten the noose. Like with the war OF terror, more conflict is inevitable.

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:12pm

From Huffpost

“There was multiple gunshots going back and forth and back and forth before any police ever showed up. This was not a come-at-police situation,” Vancel said. “They weren’t targeting police at first, I don’t assume so, because these were men out here shooting at each other in an empty parking lot until the police showed and then it turned into a gun battle, I’m guessing to try to get themselves free or get out of the situation.”

—

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 12:53pm

More Will Be Revealed

Thx. Waiting for the full story or as much as gets released.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 1:11pm

The linked article stated

The linked article stated that the gun-man shot dead had not been identified and was also not mentioned as being Black - yet we all leapt into wondering if this was associated with the ongoing apparent police War On People Of Colour. Sad as well as horrendous situation in so very many respects... not even directed at police, but will the corporate media inform people of this? Are they? (I don't watch TV/voluntarily listen to radio at all.)

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Miss SPED on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 4:40pm

Hmmm. The Facebook feed said 'black.'

Not leaping to anything, there are multiple sources reporting.
Gavin Long, black male from Kansas City, died on his birthday. NBC.

Submitted by riverlover on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 4:58pm

And early FB responses

called it the fault of a "feral black". How hateful, judgemental can you get? Maybe surmise Muslim, too?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by Shirley on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 4:52pm

Bill Maher stated on Stephen Colbert on

Thursday night something like as long as cops keep assassinating innocent black people, cops will suffer the consequences.

I think he's right.

Submitted by Alex Ocana on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 5:41pm

Ex-marine...

"The gunman suspected of killing three cops in Baton Rouge today is an ex-Marine who appears to have carried out the attacks on his 29th birthday."

"The deceased suspect was likely the only shooter."

"Barack Obama addressed the killings from the White House on Sunday afternoon, saying they were "an attack on all of us." (Note -- has Barack Obama called the killing of unarmed civilians by police "An attack on all of us."

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From the Light House.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 6:41pm

If it's true, Alex, that the killer was another ex-military,

then scenarios such as these have been brewing for some time.

This is exactly what a black cop from NYC said, and I bet it's true for the broader country. Listen to Democracy Now's interview with Graham Weatherspoon, a black retired detective with the New York City Police Department and also a board member of the Amadou Diallo Foundation.

"...it took me back to a conversation I had with Ray Kelly a few years ago, when I asked him, I said, "Do you want urban warfare in the City of New York?" Because people had come to me years ago, after Amadou had been killed—and these were ex-military personnel—and they said they were tired of it. And they said, "We’re going to start killing these cops." And I said, "That’s not a good thing to discuss or even recommend." But it is a reality. There are people out here who—and we’ve seen it just in the political spectrum over the last few months with comments that people have made and just the fanning of the flames. We now know that whoever these individuals were—and I had said this to Ray Kelly—a bullet-proof vest is not going to protect a police officer, not from someone who is using a high-powered weapon.

Young black folks, who are enticed by massive marketing campaigns and the prospect of so few available jobs and stability in their communities, join the military and then come back home to see gratuitous, merciless killing of their innocent and defenseless brethren, one after another after another, be broadcast all over the internet and have had it.

Remember Chris Dorner? Former LAPD officer whose complaints about institutional racism and brutality in the ranks went unheeded. He wrote a manifesto explaining what was going on, then went on rampage killing corrupt and racist cops. CNN predictably sought to sensationalize the whole tragic murder spree by turning into an OJ-stye live-in-progress Breaking News, ending with the massive police manhunt burning the house down to the ground that Dorner was allegedly holed up in. On the scene interviews with residents who encountered him while he was on the run, since scrubbed from the internet, say he was calm, polite and in no way a threat to them, saying he wasn't after anyone else (found one second-hand video of the interview with the couple he took hostage).

Dorner was also ex-military.

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 6:30pm

Good Coverage from Atlantic wire

Nothing really new:

Obama stressed the gunman’s motive wasn’t yet known. But he condemned the killing of law-enforcement officials. “Attacks on police are attacks on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible,” he said.

No. This was not an attack on me. No, it was not an attack on the rule of law.

Fuck you very much Obutthead.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by dancingrabbit on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 7:46pm

The Guardian has a piece up about Long's online trail,

including material posted under an alias that the author links to him.

A recent posting by the account’s owner had stated: “Violence is not THE answer (it is a answer), but at what point do you stand up so that you and your people dont become the Native Americans...EXTINCT?”
...
He compared the fighting of oppression by black people to the efforts of American revolutionaries.

“But when an African fights back, it’s wrong,” according to mainstream thought, he said. “You gotta fight back –that’s the only way a bully knows to quit.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/17/baton-rouge-gunman-gavin...

—

Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 8:29pm

Excellent Editorial about BLM

Thx dancingrabbit.

There are seismic flaws in America’s ideological foundations, and the increased agency of black Americans has made it far harder to paper over these cracks. BLM and black activists point out the unjust and oppressive structures in our society. They can no longer be ignored. It seems that the process of coming to terms with them, if the past few weeks are a guide, will be beset by violence. There is some hope that this won’t be the case.

I suspect that a weeklong Republican quest to glorify a past America that was somehow better than today will not dampen the tension and violence. But after that, the ball will firmly be in the Democrats’ court. They need to glorify instead a peace and equity that is possible but which we have never known. We shouldn’t underestimate the communal will required to achieve the complex but vital task at hand.

Here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/17/baton-rouge-deadly...

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by dancingrabbit on Sun, 07/17/2016 - 9:13pm

The Baton Rouge Advocate

has a long, detailed write-up of the day's events, including links to videos of some of the shoot-out and audio of the police scanner (at the end of the article).

I found the following details particularly interesting:

Around noon, L’Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge police spokesman, said the shooting scene was near the B-Quick Convenience Store on Airline Highway.

He said one shooter was dead somewhere near the store, and police sent a robot inside to determine whether there were any explosives in the store.

During the morning news conference, McKneely asked the public to notify law enforcement if they spotted someone wearing all black or all camouflage.

The two men stopped in West Baton Rouge Parish and taken into custody were initially spotted at the Wal-Mart in Port Allen wearing black t-shirts and camouflage pants, a source said. They were stopped after traveling down LA-1 South and had stopped at a gas station in Addis by police officers, according to the source, which also noted their vehicle had Texas license plates

http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_70595fc...

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Submitted by dancingrabbit on Mon, 07/18/2016 - 1:57am

Long's possible associates

are detailed here:

MSNBC's Pete Williams reported one person of interest in the current investigation may be a member of the sovereign citizen movement, a far-right movement alleging they are exempt from most U.S. laws. The Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source, reported Long may have been affiliated with an organization called the New Freedom Group.

https://m.mic.com/articles/148961/gavin-eugene-long-named-as-suspect-in-...

I know nothing about this site - first time I've run across it - so ... take this information as more grist for the mill.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster