SocraticGadfly: #DallasPoliceShootings, Day 2

July 09, 2016

#DallasPoliceShootings, Day 2

First, here's a roundup of the basics, from yesterday.

That said, there are other angles, both civil liberties related.

First, what civil liberties issues relate to using a robot-delivered bomb, remotely guided by human control, to killl the prime suspect? Marcy at Emptywheel has good thoughts. I agree that this is a bit like Obama's drone war program.

Second is the connection between blacks being killed by police and the War on Drugs. Even if election-related, kudos to Libertarian prez nominee Gary Johnson for bringing this up. Johnson carefully did not directly link the most recent controversial shootings to the WOD, just a more general connection.

Third, Micah Xavier Johnson was not just a war vet, but served in A-stan. PTSD, anybody? (More on his background here, and here.) Or does the media only ask that about white veterans like Eddie Ray Routh, the man who killed "American Sniper" Chris Kyle?

Fourth, we now have at least one copycat.

Fifth, we have the first false-flag bullshit, complete with anti-Semitism.

Sixth, we have blind hogs, acorns and Newt halfway making sense.

Seventh, yes, Obama went straight to guns. But the issue is retributive violence:
Villager, Tevye:
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!" "Very good. That way, the whole world will be blind and toothless.
-Villager, Tevye
along with racism in some cases, classism in others.

Getting past the mindset of violence is the bottom line, with getting past the mindset of stereotyping closely linked.

Eighth, per the Green Party of Texas, we do need proper police accountability and oversight.

Ninth, we need to remember that cops needlessly shoot white people, the mentally ill, and more, and do so in rural areas. High Country News has more.

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