All this sounds much more premeditated than “angry protestors”, especially the sniping and possible use of explosives.
I was under the impression that this protest was relatively spontaneous, triggered by recent events. If so, were the culprits just waiting for a large scale event like this that would require police presence with guns and bombs ready?
This won’t seriously change the politics around guns in this country. It won’t even displace the “good guy with a gun” talking point. Some things are too ingrained.
My early profiling wag from watching this all night, unable to sleep, is that the suspect(s) went there prepared for a rioting crowd besieged by riot police and were disappointed and even more enraged by a peaceful protest and police response.
He could be taking his cue from some media outlets in these early hours. I’ve seen at least one say the same thing in its headline, that it was an anti-police protest.
The protest was against, or in response to, recent shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, according to everything I have read. To call it anti-police seems like a partial misrepresentation, not a total lie.
It’ll be interesting to find out what the motives of the shooters were - whether they were virulently anti-police or were hoping to stir up shit by killing cops during a riot to put the blame on the rioters. Or maybe they were just assholes.
Well the last part is not in question. They may indeed have been opportunistic shit-stirrers who had expected a riot as has happened a couple of times. Or as I mention in another thread, more deliberate provocateurs seeking to perpetuate further hostility to “fan the flames”.
No, the “entire US” has not gone insane, the “entire US” was not involved in shooting police last night. In fact, everyone but a few outliers are pretty damn appalled at the events.
Up until now the protesters have been entirely peaceful. There are some people who don’t like peace and want to upset the apple cart.
I wanted to jump in and pre-emptively remind everyone to keep this thread from devolving into a generalized debate about BLM, gun control laws, LEO, etc.
Let’s keep things civil, too.
This is, by any metric, a horrible situation and feelings are running understandably high. But let’s keep this thread on track.
Are you claiming that what was going on in Dallas? Because all the reports I’ve heard are that it was a peaceful protest. So much so that some of the officers were posing and taking pictures with the protesters.
I just got the Morning Joe podcast. They pointed out the local police asked people not to live-stream video showing their positions. This is much like the “radio silence” asked for after the Brussels attacks. I am still very impressed by the new instant-posting-of-video apps.
The Dallas police chief said an attacker told authorities “he was upset about the recent police shootings” and “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”* Washington Post