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from the "All-lives-matter."-President-Obama dept.
Snipers in Dallas: [5] Cops Dead; [6] More Cops Wounded
The Atlantic reports:
Two gunmen shot eleven police officers in Dallas, Texas [at 8:58 PM July 7], killing at least four of them.
[...] At a Thursday night press conference, Dallas Police Department Chief David Brown said [...] officers had one of the suspects "cornered", but did not offer further details.
"Tonight, it appears that two snipers shot ten police officers from elevated positions during the protest/rally", Brown said in an initial statement. "Three officers are deceased, two are in surgery, and three are in critical condition. An intensive search for suspect is currently underway." The police department later said an eleventh officer had also been injured and a fourth officer had been killed.
[...] The shootings occurred during a protest against police killings earlier this week in Louisiana and Minnesota. Hundreds rallied in downtown Dallas, near the corner of Main Street and Lamar Street. Local news footage captured what sounds like several gunshots being fired, and the crowd scattering.
[...] No motive has yet been established and it's unclear whether the shooting was related to the protest.
The New York Times just broke the story about the latest in the police killings of black men. It seems the tide has been turned. [Five] Dallas police officers were killed tonight at a protest in that city over these shootings.
I am not surprised, nor am I particularly shocked. No doubt there will be more to come on this topic as the evening progresses. Hopefully something good comes out of this, but I am inclined to doubt it.
takyon: Some more details: One suspect was killed by an explosion intentionally caused by a police robot. He reportedly told a negotiator that he was upset about Black Lives Matter, the recent police shootings, and wanted to kill white people, especially police officers. He said he was not affiliated with any groups and acted alone. Other suspects have been arrested, and a "person of interest" (often identified as a suspect by the news media) was arrested early in the night after he was photographed with his unloaded AR-15. He handed his weapon to an officer shortly after the shootings, and later turned himself into the police for questioning.
President Obama spoke about the shootings shortly after arriving in Poland for a NATO conference. In part, he mentioned that, "When people say 'black lives matter,' that doesn't mean blue lives don't matter, it just means all lives matter — but right now the big concern is the fact that the data shows black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of incidents [...] This isn't a matter of us comparing the value of lives. This is recognizing that there is a particular burden that is being placed on a group of our fellow citizens. And we should care about that. And we can't dismiss it. We can't dismiss it."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Friday July 08 2016, @04:03PM
The problem with that notion is that liberals and conservatives (I'm using those terms broadly) are still being pitted against each other, and are not unified as an underclass. Those who hate BLM won't join them or identify it as a revolution.
The United States is a big country with too many differences from region to region, city to city. Much crazier and blatant events have to happen before a revolution (even a mini one?) can follow. The middle class has to erode much more, into nothingness.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2016, @05:03PM
Is people acting like the whole country has to rise up as one. All that really needs to happen is for enough people to rise up in one city or region. When the police/military crackdown happens and media gets leaked showing how they 'handled the situation' you will see all the other flickers of revolution turn into flames once they realize what the intelligent amongst us have known for years: The system will do whatever it takes to remain in place, and under no circumstances will revolution be permitted.
At that point the majority of the populace will either return to their lives, or join arms with the revolutionaries and bring about the next government(s) of the former USA. Either option will likely end badly for us, since we will either be repressed by our incumbent government, or in the case of revolution, divided and conquered by Russia, Chinese, Mexican, South American and possibly North Korean interests.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Friday July 08 2016, @06:08PM
At that point the majority of the populace will either return to their lives, or join arms with the revolutionaries and bring about the next government(s) of the former USA. Either option will likely end badly for us,
An interesting thought. cf. Revolt In 2100 [wikipedia.org].
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 08 2016, @06:29PM
There is a tremendous amount of tension in the United States (and elsewhere, but that's not germane to this discussion here) and all it takes is for the ice to be broken. Stability is an illusion that can quickly be dispelled.
If this was a group of militant blacks finally fighting back after a long string of murders committed by cops who were not punished, then it's not hard to imagine Aryan Nations nuts taking that as a green light for the all-out race war they've always fantasized about. Purely along racial lines there's a lot of violence than can erupt from this. But there are so many other legitimate and deep grievances in the citizenry that if the government does not take clear and determined steps to walk a different path from the openly sanctioning the murder of Americans, then those fault lines could be exposed too.
Enjoy your summer & hug your loved ones while you can, ladies and gentlemen, because these tensions could well continue to erupt.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 09 2016, @08:39AM
Was discussing this with a gent and from his survey (he made mention of looking at a few successful revolutions) the tipping point seems to be about 30%.
Not necessarily armed revolutions, mind, but if 30% of the population is ready to call it quits, there is too much of a disruption for the state to continue.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday July 08 2016, @11:07PM
Ahhh, so how many more months is that again? I'd like to plan my trips out of the country.... :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday July 09 2016, @09:44AM
The problem with that notion is that liberals and conservatives (I'm using those terms broadly) are still being pitted against each other, and are not unified as an underclass. Those who hate BLM won't join them or identify it as a revolution.
Should anyone appear seriously capable of uniting poor people of all stripes, they stand a good chance of ending up dead, like Martin Luther King.