3 Officers Dead, 3 Injured; 1 Suspect Dead - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

[transplant99]

The dead suspect in the Baton Rouge shooting was wearing all black and was wearing a mask, Baton Rouge Police Department Sgt. Don Coppola said. Coppola said he did not know what the mask looked like, but that it was "some type of mask to conceal (the shooter's) identity."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/17/us/bat...ing/index.html

[dissentowner]

Thoughts and prayers for the officers and their families.

[zamler]

A mask was used to conceal the shooters identity, top flight detective work right there.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by doctajones428

This far down the rabbit hole because someone simply asked "BLM related?"

It was a freaking simple yes or no question. What is going on with this forum lately?

Usually I'd agree, I could care less if all Muslim whack jobs are described as ISIS, Black Lives Matter is a different ball game, their aims are not just legitimate but wholly laudable and they will be undermined if we make a lazy and erroneous connection to these events.

[calgarywinning]

Baton Rouge is a particularly violent area in the US. I would not want to be a police officer in this area, before the BLM movement, during or after.

The violence, crime and lack of respect for all life in this region by criminals before, during and after the BLM movement would mean as an officer you are putting your life in your hands every shift you work. Which in turn causes an officer to be over vigilant propagating the deadly circle.

This is what lies behind the us and them mentality that the police have and the people have in return. It's scary to see just how different things are in these states than where we have the good fortune to live.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by doctajones428

This far down the rabbit hole because someone simply asked "BLM related?"



It was a freaking simple yes or no question. What is going on with this forum lately?

It was a poor question, because the answer is obviously "no" unless you have a vast misunderstanding of BLM and/or what exactly is going on in the US right now.

And your surprise at the reaction to the conversation flow in a topic as loaded as this one is silly.

"Gee, a conversation about cops being murdered that relates to the ongoing struggle of race relations in the US and the steady stream of murders against American civilians by the police and American police by civilians is getting kind of wound up for my taste. What's up guys?"

Come on.

[doctajones428]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

It was a poor question, because the answer is obviously "no" unless you have a vast misunderstanding of BLM and/or what exactly is going on in the US right now.

And your surprise at the reaction to the conversation flow in a topic as loaded as this one is silly.

"Gee, a conversation about cops being murdered that relates to the ongoing struggle of race relations in the US and the steady stream of murders against American civilians by the police and American police by civilians is getting kind of wound up for my taste. What's up guys?"

Come on.

"Was this BLM related?

Yes
No
Unsure

Pick one of three answers."

One super easy question, three super easy answers. Why does it always have to be more than that?

[taco.vidal]

http://www.essence.com/2016/07/17/ba...acklivesmatter

Sunday, July 17, 2016 | 03:37 PM
People Are Already Blaming #BlackLivesMatter for Baton Rouge Police Shooting

Little is known on whether the suspects were Black, but already blame is being placed on President Obama and the #BlackLivesMatter campaign:

Obama and #BlackLivesMatter are directly responsible for the deaths of these officers in #BatonRouge . BLM is a terrorist organization.

— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) July 17, 2016

Obama sponsored terrorists kill 3 more cops, others fighting for lives in Baton Rouge.

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) July 17, 2016

[transplant99]

Alex Jones ^^^....just a complete and utter lunatic.

[Street Pharmacist]

Wall Street Journal saying suspects belonged to anti government conspiracy group

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Gee, a conversation about cops being murdered that relates to the ongoing struggle of race relations in the US and the steady stream of murders against American civilians by the police and American police by civilians is getting kind of wound up for my taste. What's up guys?"

Come on.

Ok, first off, many of those shootings were justified and the officers cleared of wrong doing. Have there been murders? You're damn right there has and the best example I can think of is that POS who shot that guy running away from him then tried to plant a taser on his body. I don't think inflammatory rhetoric like "steady stream of murders of Americans by police" are helpful at all. All they do is sow more discontent and further polarize people.

[Manhattanboy]

Race of the shooter?

[transplant99]

The Baton Rouge police shooter has been identified as 29-year-old Gavin Long, two law enforcement sources tell CNN. The shooter apparently died in a shootout with police on his birthday. He was born, the sources said, on July 17,1987.

I guess this is one way to celebrate your birthday.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

Ok, first off, many of those shootings were justified and the officers cleared of wrong doing. Have there been murders? You're damn right there has and the best example I can think of is that POS who shot that guy running away from him then tried to plant a taser on his body. I don't think inflammatory rhetoric like "steady stream of murders of Americans by police" are helpful at all. All they do is sow more discontent and further polarize people.

Uh, none of the officers in the recent shootings have been cleared yet.

Here's a small list of the questionable-to-blatantly-unnecessary uses of deadly force just in the past month:

July 13 - Donald Myers
July 6 - Philando Castile
July 5 - Anton Sterling
July 4 - Delrawn Small
June 25 - Dylan Noble
June 18 - Antwun Shumpert

Let's not act like this isn't currently happening at a pretty excessive rate. It's raising a lot of questions and breaking down a lot of trust civilians have in the US (especially those of a minority) of the police force. That's six people just in the past month that have been unarmed, subdued, or straight up running from police. Is there possible justification for a few? Absolutely, but it isn't concrete, so it raises questions. And seeing that justification means you're resigning yourself to a world where the police and deadly force go hand-in-hand, and it doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of countries where it ISN'T that way, and they deal with the same situation all the time.

What the police need is training regarding relying on their sidearm less, and non-lethal takedowns more.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

Race of the shooter?

Black dude from Kansas City apparently.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Uh, none of the officers in the recent shootings have been cleared yet.

Here's a small list of the questionable-to-blatantly-unnecessary uses of deadly force just in the past month:

July 13 - Donald Myers
July 6 - Philando Castile
July 5 - Anton Sterling
July 4 - Delrawn Small
June 25 - Dylan Noble
June 18 - Antwun Shumpert

Let's not act like this isn't currently happening at a pretty excessive rate. It's raising a lot of questions and breaking down a lot of trust civilians have in the US (especially those of a minority) of the police force. That's six people just in the past month that have been unarmed, subdued, or straight up running from police. Is there possible justification for a few? Absolutely, but it isn't concrete, so it raises questions. And seeing that justification means you're resigning yourself to a world where the police and deadly force go hand-in-hand, and it doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of countries where it ISN'T that way, and they deal with the same situation all the time.

What the police need is training regarding relying on their sidearm less, and non-lethal takedowns more.

Yup but there are NO other countries that have 300 million firearms flaoting around their cities and in the hands of some with less than honorable intentions.

I will be the first to agree that there have been some heinous and aggregious
uses of force by cops in recent times (and forever really).

However there is no other place on earth where policing has the same level of danger than in the US.

[PepsiFree]

I think that's an excellent point transplant.

The politics of the US have created this beast where cops are scared of civilians, and civilians are scared of cops. This turns a disproportionate amount of interactions into "fight or flight" scenarios, which (because of how armed everyone is) turns deadly fast.

[icecube]

Originally Posted by manhattanboy

race of the shooter?

human

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Uh, none of the officers in the recent shootings have been cleared yet.

Here's a small list of the questionable-to-blatantly-unnecessary uses of deadly force just in the past month:

July 13 - Donald Myersarmed
July 6 - Philando Castilearmed
July 5 - Anton Sterlingarmed
July 4 - Delrawn Small
June 25 - Dylan Noblereported to be possibly armed
June 18 - Antwun Shumpert

Let's not act like this isn't currently happening at a pretty excessive rate. It's raising a lot of questions and breaking down a lot of trust civilians have in the US (especially those of a minority) of the police force. That's six people just in the past month that have been unarmed, subdued, or straight up running from police. Is there possible justification for a few? Absolutely, but it isn't concrete, so it raises questions. And seeing that justification means you're resigning yourself to a world where the police and deadly force go hand-in-hand, and it doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of countries where it ISN'T that way, and they deal with the same situation all the time.

What the police need is training regarding relying on their sidearm less, and non-lethal takedowns more.

I didn't know we were only talking about very recent examples as "a steady stream" seems to indicate more. Regardless, let's talk about the ones you highlited. I'm not sure why you said that these people were unarmed when half of them were and one was believed to be armed possibly. I don't have an issue with people questioning the police and their actions, I think that shows a healthy society at work. But jumping to conclusions and making blanket statements is not helpful.

Unfortunately, there will always be police shootings as long as there are guns and people willing to use them for nefarious purposes. You can't seriously be comparing the US to the UK, Australia, Europe or even Canada when it comes to policing? It's an entirely different world down there, waaaay too many guns and way too many rights for gun owners.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

I'm not sure why you said that these people were unarmed when half of them were and one was believed to be armed possibly.

Me neither, because I didn't say that.