Micah Xavier Johnson was angry about police shooting black men and decided to retaliate. He killed 5 police officers and wounded 9 others, along with 2 civilians, during a shooting spree in Dallas two years ago. Prior to the attack, he had been a member of the NBPP and “liked” the Facebook group African American Defense League. He wrote racist screeds about white people and even told negotiators during the incident that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. It was a clear-cut case of political violence IMHO. Despite that, the GOA report says:
It seems obvious to me that the ECDB represents a rather incomplete set of data, at least on the violent left-wing side of things.
Yea, though I walk through the dark valleys of whataboutism
I will fear no minority: for thou art with me;
thy gun and thy police staff, they comfort me
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil ofinstitutional forbearance
Thou cup of tax cuts and equivocation runneth over
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of the individualism, forever.
Let’s make a bet. How much would you wager that I cannot find a case of right wing political violence, in my opinion, that isn’t in the database?
Well, forget it. You’re basically devolved into the Fox News Viewer fallacy: if a source I don’t know and like doesn’t say what I want it to, it is incompetent or biased.
Nothing at all, I’m the one arguing that the dataset is incomplete. IIUC, you’re saying that you think you can prove that, and asking me to bet against the prospect?
That would be more convincing if I hadn’t already provided a handy, high-profile example of it’s incompetence / bias. Simple question: Do you agree that the 2016 Dallas police shooting was an example of far left extremist violence? Yes or no?
Do you have evidence that the FBI opened a counterterrorism investigation into the murders? If they did, then I defer to the FBI. But if they didn’t, then maybe there’s a reason why. Maybe that is why it isn’t in the database. You should go figure it out.
I didn’t use the T-word in my simple question to you. While I’m trying to figure it out, could you find the time to answer that with a “yes” or “no”? I’d even settle for a one-character response: Y/N
There is no evidence that Mr. Xavier is a far-left extremist. Mr. Xavier’s motives for his reprehensible actions was the outrageous killings of black men by the military arm of white folks. In short, you’re conflating his motives with left-wing ideology (and this is a big problem). It doesn’t wash. Mr. Xavier’s motives are diametrically opposed to left-wing ideology (or right-wing ideology, for that matter). I don’t believe police brutality is a pillar of either the Democratic or Republican party. At least officially.
You don’t see him as part of the “military arm” of the #BlackLivesMatter movement? After all, that was the protest he started shooting cops at - a #BlackLivesMatter event.
Now, it’s true that it was later “expanded to include information on crimes by the far-left, religious extremists and single-issue extremists”, but it’s hardly surprising that a database that spent the first phase of its existence exclusively cataloging right-wing violence would have more listings of that type than any other, now is it? I suppose you’ll want to hand-wave this all away as “the Fox News Viewer fallacy”, but I think you’re smart enough to realize, when you lay down for bed tonight and mull it over, that that reality doesn’t quite square with your initial description of it as “stats from a respected, non-partisan agency”.
Well, it is a research organization that supports the Department of Homeland Security. We all know how conservatives believed that the Obama DHS was out to get them.
Plus a lot of the work done by the center involves professors at dozens of major universities all across the country - the sort of non-real Americans who try to brainwash good kids into believing in science and stuff.
I can see why you want to criticize the research. Now if they had more research showing how the BLM/antifa boogeyman is the biggest threat to #MAGA, well, then that would be a different story.
Theleadersof Black Lives Matter are a bunch of college kids whom you’ve never heard of. Literally. There’s not one person on that list you know. Not. A. Single. One. Black lives matter is neither a political or unified movement, it is a declaration of fact and truth: black lives matter just as much as any other life.
You are assuming BLM possesses a “military arm” in the first place. They do not. BLM is a slogan, but it is hardly a unified or organized political group. There is no defined membership or hierarchy.
Unfortunately, this is the reality of the situation: A sympathizer committed violence at a BLM protest. You immediately assume that he is (a) a member and (b) that the violence reflects a deliberate policy decision that reflects on all BLM members and (c) that this violence discredits their claim.
All three of these points are blatantly false. BLM does not have an organized membership or hierarchy. And black lives do matter, regardless of who perpetrated the act of violence.
To refer to the point I made in a different thread, how am I supposed to have a productive conversation with someone whose reasoning is so distorted and so antagonistic?
My post about ‘the “military arm” of the #BlackLivesMatter movement’ was an aside intended for Huey Freeman because he frequently makes mention of “the military arm of white folks” and I think it’s an idiotic claim worthy only of mockery and derision.
I never intended to claim that Micah Johnson’s “violence reflects a deliberate policy decision that reflects on all BLM members”. If that’s what you inferred from my post, allow me to clarify: Frankly, I think #BLM is so vague and amorphous that, like OWS before it, it is largely incapable of making deliberate policy decisions (to their credit, at least they don’t do the stupid “jazz hands” thing).
Likewise, I don’t think that “this violence discredits their claim” either. Micah Jonnson was a nutty fringe asshole but he was a nutty fringe left-wing asshole, agreed?
