Downtown Dallas: Police officers shot by two or more snipers from elevated positions.

[Peter Lemkin]

Don't you need three shooters to triangulate? (triangle = tri = three)

No the "triangle" is two shooters and one target.

I'd call that crossfire, but there is NO standard definition/distinction between triangulated fire and crossfire...
That said, they originally said [the 'officials' of Dallas] that one shooter had been killed while others were firing from multiple positions. Now, it could have been an 'honest' mistake due to the confusion, but it needs to be explained how it went from them being sure of multiple shooters at high locations in tall buildings to one guy on the second story of a building. And why did they feel the 'need' to blow him up when he was then not a threat to the remaining officers and public? Increasingly, police just don't take people into custody anymore, they simply execute them...and not to save taxpayer money. It is all part and parcel of the militarization of the Police in the USA, who see any suspect or perpetrator as the 'enemy' to be 'neutralized'. Less and less are lawyers and courts needed...as those who might have otherwise have gone into the criminal justice system [sic] are instead buried. A few years back there was a man on the loose talking about wanting to kill police [I believe in N. CA] and though they had him surrounded and not a threat, they burned down the building he was in. One can site so many examples of this - and nothing happens to the police, not even a question of their tactics. The bizarre rule of engagement that it is OK for a policeman/woman to use lethal force if they feel their lives are in danger is ludicrous. Their job entails regular endangerment or ideation of endangerment - and they shouldn't just be allowed to kill anyone on that real or invented 'say so'. This specific event was not the idea of any individual officer, but apparently a well thought out plan by the heads at DPD to send in the robot with the bomb. It is the same mentality as drone strikes or that used at the Mai Lei massacre, for example. I find it a very troubling trend in police state Amerika.

[David Guyatt]

Dallas as a paramilitary action designed to cause civil war:

Corebtt Report:

[URL="https://www.corbettreport.com/dallas-ambush-follows-pattern-of-provocateured-false-flags/"]
Dallas Ambush Follows Pattern of Provocateured False Flags[/URL]

Reddit video streams HERE.

[Albert Doyle]

The main story is Philando Castile was shot 5 times because he tried to cooperate with the police.


Scanner recordings showed officer Yanez pulled Castile over because he appeared like a recent robbery suspect. They were not pulled over for a broken tail light.


Yanez's lawyer says it happened because a gun was present. Kind of dishonest since the gun had nothing to do with it.

[Magda Hassan]

I fit the description….

This is what I wore to work today.
On my way to get a burrito before work, I was detained by the police.
I noticed the police car in the public lot behind Centre Street. As I was walking away from my car, the cruiser followed me. I walked down Centre Street and was about to cross over to the burrito place and the officer got out of the car.
"Hey my man," he said.
He unsnapped the holster of his gun.
I took my hands out of my pockets.
"Yes?" I said.
"Where you coming from?"
"Home."
Where's home?"
"Dedham."
How'd you get here?"
"I drove."
He was next to me now. Two other police cars pulled up. I was standing in from of the bank across the street from the burrito place. I was going to get lunch before I taught my 1:30 class. There were cops all around me.
I said nothing. I looked at the officer who addressed me. He was white, stocky, bearded.
"You weren't over there, were you?" He pointed down Centre Street toward Hyde Square.
"No. I came from Dedham."
"What's your address?"
I told him.
"We had someone matching your description just try to break into a woman's house."
A second police officer stood next to me; white, tall, bearded. Two police cruisers passed and would continue to circle the block for the 35 minutes I was standing across the street from the burrito place.
"You fit the description," the officer said. "Black male, knit hat, puffy coat. Do you have identification."
"It's in my wallet. May I reach into my pocket and get my wallet?"
"Yeah."
I handed him my license. I told him it did not have my current address. He walked over to a police car. The other cop, taller, wearing sunglasses, told me that I fit the description of someone who broke into a woman's house. Right down to the knit cap.
Barbara Sullivan made a knit cap for me. She knitted it in pinks and browns and blues and oranges and lime green. No one has a hat like this. It doesn't fit any description that anyone would have. I looked at the second cop. I clasped my hands in front of me to stop them from shaking.
"For the record," I said to the second cop, "I'm not a criminal. I'm a college professor." I was wearing my faculty ID around my neck, clearly visible with my photo.
"You fit the description so we just have to check it out." The first cop returned and handed me my license.
"We have the victim and we need her to take a look at you to see if you are the person."
It was at this moment that I knew that I was probably going to die. I am not being dramatic when I say this. I was not going to get into a police car. I was not going to present myself to some victim. I was not going let someone tell the cops that I was not guilty when I already told them that I had nothing to do with any robbery. I was not going to let them take me anywhere because if they did, the chance I was going to be accused of something I did not do rose exponentially. I knew this in my heart. I was not going anywhere with these cops and I was not going to let some white woman decide whether or not I was a criminal, especially after I told them that I was not a criminal. This meant that I was going to resist arrest. This meant that I was not going to let the police put their hands on me.
If you are wondering why people don't go with the police, I hope this explains it for you.
Something weird happens when you are on the street being detained by the police. People look at you like you are a criminal. The police are detaining you so clearly you must have done something, otherwise they wouldn't have you. No one made eye contact with me. I was hoping that someone I knew would walk down the street or come out of one of the shops or get off the 39 bus or come out of JP Licks and say to these cops, "That's Steve Locke. What the FUCK are you detaining him for?"
The cops decided that they would bring the victim to come view me on the street. The asked me to wait. I said nothing. I stood still.
"Thanks for cooperating," the second cop said. "This is probably nothing, but it's our job and you do fit the description. 5′ 11″, black male. One-hundred-and-sixty pounds, but you're a little more than that. Knit hat."
A little more than 160. Thanks for that, I thought.
An older white woman walked behind me and up to the second cop. She turned and looked at me and then back at him. "You guys sure are busy today."
I noticed a black woman further down the block. She was small and concerned. She was watching what was going on. I focused on her red coat. I slowed my breathing. I looked at her from time to time.
I thought: Don't leave, sister. Please don't leave.
The first cop said, "Where do you teach?"
"Massachusetts College of Art and Design." I tugged at the lanyard that had my ID.
"How long you been teaching there?"
"Thirteen years."
We stood in silence for about 10 more minutes.
An unmarked police car pulled up. The first cop went over to talk to the driver. The driver kept looking at me as the cop spoke to him. I looked directly at the driver. He got out of the car.
"I'm Detective Cardoza. I appreciate your cooperation."
I said nothing.
"I'm sure these officers told you what is going on?"
"They did."
"Where are you coming from?"
"From my home in Dedham."
"How did you get here?"
"I drove."
"Where is your car?"
"It's in the lot behind Bukhara." I pointed up Centre Street.
"Okay," the detective said. "We're going to let you go. Do you have a car key you can show me?"
"Yes," I said. "I'm going to reach into my pocket and pull out my car key."
"Okay."
I showed him the key to my car.
The cops thanked me for my cooperation. I nodded and turned to go.
"Sorry for screwing up your lunch break," the second cop said.
I walked back toward my car, away from the burrito place. I saw the woman in red.
"Thank you," I said to her. "Thank you for staying."
"Are you ok?" She said. Her small beautiful face was lined with concern.
"Not really. I'm really shook up. And I have to get to work."
"I knew something was wrong. I was watching the whole thing. The way they are treating us now, you have to watch them. "
"I'm so grateful you were there. I kept thinking to myself, Don't leave, sister.' May I give you a hug?"
"Yes," she said. She held me as I shook. "Are you sure you are ok?"
"No I'm not. I'm going to have a good cry in my car. I have to go teach."
"You're at MassArt. My friend is at MassArt."
"What's your name?" She told me. I realized we were Facebook friends. I told her this.
"I'll check in with you on Facebook," she said.
I put my head down and walked to my car.

My colleague was in our shared office and she was able to calm me down. I had about 45 minutes until my class began and I had to teach. I forgot the lesson I had planned. I forget the schedule. I couldn't think about how to do my job. I thought about the fact my word counted for nothing, they didn't believe that I wasn't a criminal. They had to find out. My word was not enough for them. My ID was not enough for them. My handmade one-of-a-kind knit hat was an object of suspicion. My Ralph Lauren quilted blazer was only a "puffy coat." That white woman could just walk up to a cop and talk about me like I was an object for regard. I wanted to go back and spit in their faces. The cops were probably deeply satisfied with how they handled the interaction, how they didn't escalate the situation, how they were respectful and polite.
I imagined sitting in the back of a police car while a white woman decides if I am a criminal or not. If I looked guilty being detained by the cops imagine how vile I become sitting in a cruiser? I knew I could not let that happen to me. I knew if that were to happen, I would be dead.
Nothing I am, nothing I do, nothing I have means anything because I fit the description.
I had to confess to my students that I was a bit out of it today and I asked them to bear with me. I had to teach.
After class I was supposed to go to the openings for First Friday. I went home.

http://artandeverythingafter.com/i-fit-the-description/

[Peter Lemkin]

Interesting and widely unknown history of guns and race....

AMY GOODMAN: Joining us now is historian Gerald Horne who's looked at the history of the Second Amendment, from the founding of the Ku Klux Klan to the Black Panthers. He's author of two new books, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, as well as the book Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow. He's Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Gerald. Can you start off by talking about this past week, from the killings of black men to the killings of the police officers in Dallas?
GERALD HORNE: Well, we should not seen these events as terribly surprising. First of all, you have a society that, as President Obama noted, is awash in weapons. Second of all, we have unresolved issues of racism and inadequate discussion about the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow that helps to contribute to a situation where black people are perceived as criminals by the police authorities, which inevitably leads to their slaughter, as you saw in Louisiana and in Minnesota most recently.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about that scene of the protesters in Dallas where you had some 20 of them carrying, oh, military rifles like AR-15's. Yes you know, in the anti-police brutality rally. Now, this is legal in Texas. During the Dallas attack, police circulated a photo on Twitter identifying an African-American protester carrying a weapon as a shooting suspect. The man, named Mark Hughes, turned himself into police and was released after being detained and questioned for hours. His lawyer has said he's since received hundreds of death threats. He said later, "I can't believe it. The crazy thing about is, with hindsight, I could easily have been shot," he said.
After the Dallas attack, the Dallas Mayor, Mike Rawlings, said he supported increase gun control, saying, "there should be some way to say I shouldn't be bringing my shotgun to a Mavericks game or to a protest because something crazy should happen. I want to come back to common sense," the mayor said. Now, Ohio also has open carry laws. The RNC is set to begin in Cleveland next week. Talk about the history of gun control, from the Ku Klux Klan to the Black Panthers and when it was really put into effect.
GERALD HORNE: Well, first of all, you need to understand that the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which is the calling card for the gun lobby and Washington, D.C., has everything to do with slavery. When the Second Amendment speaks of militias and speaks also of guns, they're expressing a fear of slave revolts. The Second Amendment did not apply to enslaved Africans. The Second Amendment did not apply to the indigenous population. In fact, it could be considered a capital offense to sell weapons to the Native American population since the European settlers were seeking to take their land.
Likewise, with regard to the Reconstruction era, post 1865, one of the single reasons that the Ku Klux Klan was organized was precisely to disarm newly freed enslaved Africans. That is to say that the Second Amendment did not necessarily apply to black people in the post-Civil War era. And in fact, their Second Amendment rights were basically eliminated. Similarly, if you fast-forward to the 1960's, even the NRAand the gun lobby sought to push for gun reform after the specter of the Black Panther Party marching to the California legislature with arms in hand helped to outrage and inflame political sentiment, including the political sentiment of then Governor Ronald Wilson Reagan of the state of California. So, you cannot disconnect the history of the Second Amendment from the history of racism and white supremacy.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain that scene in Sacramento. Explain exactly what went down when you have the Republican governor at the time, Ronald Reagan, taking on, really, gun control. His reaction to Black Panthers being legally allowed to have guns and they marched on the Capitol in Sacramento of California.
GERALD HORNE: Well, as you know, the Black Panther Party, which, in Oakland, California, at least, was organized in 1966, had, as part of its mantra, as part of its principle to confront the authorities around the question of police brutality and police misconduct and police terrorism. As a result, they marched on Sacramento, California in that regard. And of course, it caused inflamed sentiments to ensue.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Philando Castile and the calls for theNRA to speak out in his case. He said his girlfriend said he had a license to carry. He told the officer that. What about this?
GERALD HORNE: Well, apparently, it has caused internal disruption within the National Rifle Association that the NRA has been relatively mute about the fact that Mr. Castile apparently had a permit to carry a weapon and yet he was shot by an officer of the state. One can easily imagine that if Philando Castile had not been black, if he had been white, for example, there would have been outrage expressed by the NRA. This helps to solidify the point that I've been making, which is that you cannot disconnect the history of the Second Amendment and lobbying for it from the history of white supremacy.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about the Ku Klux Klan, historian Gerald Horne.
GERALD HORNE: Well, the Ku Klux Klan, not only was a terrorist organization that was formed after the U.S. Civil War to deprive, in the first place, black people of the right to vote, but keep in mind, that it had a second iteration in the post World War I era about 100 years ago, and, in fact, controlled may statehouses, and, in fact, marched in the tens of thousands on Washington, D.C. It was a popular mass-based organization and I daresay that the sentiment that the Ku Klux Klan expressed about a century ago has yet to be extirpated from this society.
AMY GOODMAN: As you look at what's happening today, President Obama in Dallas. You teach at the University of Houston, then apparently gonna be holding a summit that's going to that supposedly, not clear who exactly will be included in that summit, but dealing with all of the issues here the killing of the police and also issues of police brutality. What do you think needs to happen?
GERALD HORNE: Well, first of all, we need to support Black Lives Matter, which is under assault right now. As you probably know, there is a petition on the White House website that's garnered tens of thousands of signatures that calls for United State to determine that BLM is a terrorist organization. I'm sure you're familiar with the defamatory remarks made by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani againstBLM. I think that, not only does this organization needs support domestically, but it needs support internationally, because, if you look at the history of radical reform with regard to what is antiseptically referred to as race relations, oftentimes, it's needed an external shock from the international community in order for that reform to go forward.
AMY GOODMAN: The Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said in The Times on Monday, The New York Times, that Heller, the 2008 decision establishing an individual's right to own guns was a very bad decision. What do you think is the best approach to gun control?
GERALD HORNE: Well, I think that all of us would be well advised to look at the legislation that Governor Jerry Brown of California signed a few days ago, which, among other things, calls for background checks with regard to obtaining ammunition. The Second Amendment does not speak to the question of ammunition, and I think that's a loophole that we should try to drive a truck through. We should also look in the background checks, generally. And in fact, on the California ballot in November as of now, there will be Proposition 63, sponsored by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, that attempts to go beyond the legislation that Jerry Brown authored. I think that activists in locales across the nation need to push this kind of statewide reform with regard to gun-control because, seemingly, the Republican Right-wing and Washington, D.C., will be blocking gun control in the federal and national level.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, those who criticize President Obama saying his refusal to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement led to the killing of the cops. Your response?
GERALD HORNE: That's obviously poppycock. I mean, President Obama is under a lot of criticism and a lot of pressure from the Right-wing that's distance themself from Black Lives Matter. That would be like distancing himself from his own children. I think that he should be pressured instead to give support to Black Lives Matter because they are the hope for the future.
AMY GOODMAN: Historian Gerald Horne, I want to thank you for being with us. Among the books, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America.

[Drew Phipps]

The professor's point about the Second Amendment not applying to native Americans is well taken; however, I'm not so sure about the "disarming black people" part. My take on the Second Amendment is that it was originally designed to prevent the Federal Government from interfering with the sovereignty of the States. In fact, until 1925, the Bill of Rights (which contains the Second Amendment) didn't even apply to the states, just the federal government.


The Constitution was, early on, "intended" only to apply to "citizens" of the US. In 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled that African Americans weren't citizens. In 1862, "free men of color" became citizens. In 1866, all persons born in the US were now considered citizens. Despite that, the official position was that "reservation born" Indians weren't even considered "citizens" of the US until 1924. So I'm thinking that the professor's opinion, about the intent of the Framers (circa 1776) doesn't square with the actual history of the Constitution.

Edit: It has also occurred to me that women weren't included in the original (Framer's) definition of "citizen." Women didn't get to vote until 1918. So, I wonder if the good professor believes that disarming women was a concern of the Framers in 1776....

[Drew Phipps]

Weird moments in the Dallas Massacre memorial ceremonies:


Police Chief Brown describes cops as superheroes, and quotes DC Comics, "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,..." Seems particularly insensitive at the memorial for the officers slain by gunfire.

http://www.talkradio101.com/Dallas-Polic...-/22809342

Police Chief Brown then, at subsequent service, speaks up about his unsuccessful teenage attempts to ask out girls.

(I saw that this guy has dealt with personal tragedy before, and I feel for him, but I can sorta see why this guy isn't very popular with his own men. Apparently DPD officers are leaving the force for greener pastures in high numbers, though this started before the massacre and probably has more to do with the lower pay than anything else. DPD needs a speechwriter.)


Then there was this: George W. Bush turns heads at Dallas funeral with dance moves

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/13/ge.../21431217/


He marched in place and swayed to "Battle Hymn of the Republic." I get it that everyone is going to use this event to drive their own agendas forward, or spend a minute in the glare of the public eye; but can't you guys just put that aside for the memorial service, give the departed some dignity, and let the families grieve?

[Peter Lemkin]

Three Baton Rouge, LA police officers dead as gunman fires on police there.....just happened!

Baton Rouge:
3 officers killed
1 in critical condition
1 suspect dead
2 suspects at large
http://aje.io/86y5