I'd like to thank the Dallas shooters...(not really)

[Blue_Tires]

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2016, 01:37 PM - Edit history (2)

For making the target on our collective backs even bigger, for handing the moral high ground right back to the police forces and conservative America (something I would have thought damned near impossible), taking away any chance in the immediate future for peaceful protest, indirectly justifying the murders of Sterling and Castile, and getting the world media to talk about Dallas instead of Baton Rouge and Minneapolis...

First question for #PhilandoCastile 's mother from CNN was about her reaction to Dallas. "My son died 48 hours ago"
https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/751391134572638208

You happy now? And while you made a half-assed noble attempt to not implicate the wider BLM movement, everyone will make that connection anyway, and I guaran-fucking-tee you some congresscritter is going to try to have BLM designated as a terrorist organization...

Mission Accomplished...

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EDIT: Since some want to jump on me for denouncing the murder of five police officers, let me amend my original post:

Yes, I get the anger, and don't you dare think for a second that I'm not angry myself... I still think about what happened to Trayvon Martin on a near-daily basis. My concern is that one meaningless night of "revenge" in Dallas only makes a bad situation that much worse, and takes us farther from what we're trying to accomplish. If you think that reprisal will magically make the nation's cops treat us better than before, I don't know what to tell you.

If people don't have the brainpower to think of a real, lasting solution to this crisis other than the lowest common denominator, All-American tried-and-true method of bullets and want to go out in some desperate, futile suicide mission, fine -- More power to them (even though it makes us no better than what we're fighting against)...
But please don't do it in a manner which will almost certainly taint BLM by association, and for the love of GOD, please don't brazenly exploit a peaceful gathering of your brothers and sisters to start an ambush -- This is not only cowardly, it's dishonorable.

[CrispyQ]

1. Congressman Joe Walsh tweet:

"3 Dallas Cops killed, 7 wounded," Walsh posted. "This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks. Real America is coming after you."

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Former-Illinois-Rep-Joe-Walsh-Under-Fire-Watch-Out-Obama-Tweet-Dallas-Shootings-385965421.html

on edit: I've unfriended two people on FB already this morning.

[Blue_Tires]

29. Walsh is just whoring for attention, nothing more...

[jonno99]

2. Only an idiot would ask a grieving mother such a question. nt

[BronxBoy]

3. Oh Bullshit.....

Don't drop this in the lap of Black America. You know who you need to thank? The millions of White Americans who turn a blind eye to these atrocities time after time after time after time again. We need to stop putting the responsibility for framing the story solely on our backs.

We wouldn't be at this point if prosecutors, predominatly White, did not overwhelmingly decide to charge police officers in these situations. We wouldn't be at this point if grand juries, predominately White, did not overwhelmingly decide to no bill police officers in these situations. . We wouldn't be at this point if police departments, predominatly White, did not overwhelmingly decide to not discipline police officers in these situations.

Stop this bullshit....really. We've protested, wrote our legislators, held rallies, talked about it at the BET awards and yet we still have a situation where a law-abiding black man, one who has done everything White Ameica has said he should do is blown away while reaching for his license and registration and despite some pretty daming video, the man who shot him is now pretty much on a paid vacation.

I come from a family of LEO and I worry about them every day. But when Dylan Roof decided to slaughter 9 Black people at a Wednesday night bible study, White America didn't wring it's hands and neither should we.

[PDittie]

5. THIS

[rbrnmw]

6. ....

[craigmatic]

7. Exactly. If you talk to any black person 28 or older the main thing they'll tell you is that they

want to just get along with white people and be equal. It's been that way since the 80's and these killings have continued but now when 3-4 blacks shoot back suddenly it's all our fault. Fuck that. The power has always been in white people's hands to stop this and make things better but they haven't seen fit too. It's a wonder and incident like this hasn't happened sooner all things considered.

[Blue_Tires]

12. Holy damn that's a sweeping statement...

[BronxBoy]

19. What's so sweeping about it?....

and furthermore why do you seem so surprised that people feel this way?

If people of color had the power to unilaterally change this situation, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But we don't and here we are.

[lunatica]

26. It happens to be true though

Study American history and you'll see that it's always been the White men who made the laws, started the institutions, have control over government and the economy and still basically run things. And if you think Blacks or women had a say in it then you're woefully misinformed.

Unfortunately his statement, as sweeping as it is, happens to factual.

[NoMoreRepugs]

10. Huge thumbs up to you BronxBoy

[Blue_Tires]

11. I didn't drop this in the lap of "Black America", chief

I dropped it in the lap of those who pulled the triggers....

You want to rationalize that, be my guest -- But keep in mind I'll have a low tolerance for anyone calling for the wanton murder of police in this group...

[JustAnotherGen]

20. BronxBoy and Blue_tires - Duplicate message from a host

I love ya both! But - behave! Capice? You are both solid contributors back here and it's not worth a hide from an outsider.

[JustAnotherGen]

18. Blue_Tires and BronxBoy - Duplicate message from a host

I love ya both! But - behave! Capice? You are both solid contributors back here and it's not worth a hide from an outsider.

[BronxBoy]

21. Ok...

Sorry.

I'm in a weird space. I have a lot of family in LEO. My brother is a FED who is heading up to see his son in the NYPD. I'm also Black and very sensitive to having our people always having to bear the brunt of resolving these issues,

I'll behave

[JustAnotherGen]

23. I know - and I

DO get it.

I'm familiar with you both and your postings back here - just afraid someone is going to come in like a trickster and disrupt the conversation.

[RickHworth]

14. Very well stated!

Could not have said it better.

[MillennialDem]

15. I know as a collective it is generally white americans turning a blind eye on this

but this white sister stands with you.

And I've seen people of color turn a blind eye to these atrocities as well.

There is absolutely a racial component to this. Hell, it's even the majority component. It's not the only one though.

And I just want to say again, many of us stand with you.

[moonbeam23]

22. Well said!!

So so sick of this bullshit where some animals are more equal than others (h/t george orwell)

[raven mad]

4. I hated to "like" this.

But I'm terribly afraid it's true. I am so glad I live where I do.

Y'all be careful, please. I don't want any more innocents to die.

[markj757]

8. I seriously think you need to change the title of this post

The only thing that shows up is "I'd like to thank the Dallas shooters" on the main DU page, and its extremely offensive regardless of the points you make in your comments.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Agreed. Effectively a bait-and-switch title that is offensive and in extremely poor taste.

If a thread needs a provocative title like that to get responses or to be read, then how much of a thread is it?

The Original Post's points are good enough they don't need a bullshit title.

[Blue_Tires]

30. If Skinner asks me to do so, I will

[JustAnotherGen]

31. Post Title Is Fine

[JustAnotherGen]

32. Group Host - If it is offensive

Please trash the thread - or put Blue_Tires on full ignore - or Trash the Group.

Please don't make trouble back here today.

[markj757]

33. What are you talking about.....making trouble back here?

I see the title was already changed to include (not really), which I think is fine. Before the &quot not really)" was added, it was offensive on the day after so many police officers died, to read just that title without the "not really"

[JustAnotherGen]

35. Your response to this too

Please go. I was polite.

[heaven05]

13. I'm afrraid for America

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2016, 01:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Now we will see of what we're made.

[JustAnotherGen]

24. I am too

Something shifted last night . . .

[liberalnarb]

17. I'm afraid there was already a petition to the WH to label BLM a terrorist organization.

[JustAnotherGen]

25. I can't believe they asked that woman that

Not the time or the place - not ever. Just - that was wrong.

[redstatebluegirl]

27. I got an email this morning from one of my former students who is working in the chicago area.

She said she didn't know what to do. Three middle aged white guys in her office were standing around her cubicle making all kinds of racist comments, saying they should "round them all up and send them back to Africa", then pointing to her and saying "she is one of them". She is terrified. she has been followed home by the police at least twice in the last month, they stop her as she gets close to her home and ask her what she is doing there. She LIVES there! Yes it is a white neighborhood, but she is a professional and LIVES there!

I suggested she talk to HR, but I reminded her, as her Mother did, that the outcome could be worse than she wants to deal with. I want to go up there and kick some ass right now. This is a young wife and mother, she graduated from a top school, she is a fabulous human being I would be proud to have as my daughter.

When people want to know WHY Black people are terrified of the police, why they distrust most white people, they need to sit down and talk to my Shandra. I just want to go give her a hug and tell it will be ok, even though I know it will get a lot worse before it gets better. She has 3 little boys, she is terrified for their safety. She worries about her husband driving to and from his job as a student services administrator at a college.

Last night she called me and said "please let this not be a Black guy or this is going to be a mess"! This is a strong woman who feels helpless, I heard it in her voice last night and could sense it in her emails today.

I cannot begin to imagine what it is like for her, but my heart hurts for her and all Black people today and every day.

Not all white people are the enemy but i understand why we are seen that way. With Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and Trump how could we not be seen that way.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

28. Exactly. Even many of my white friends and colleagues have admitted that this will set the movement

and possibly race relations back decades. (As if we haven't already regressed.)

[BronxBoy]

37. And yet....

What have they done when a guy who should NEVER have been a police officer guns down a child in a Cleveland park and that cop is still on duty today? Didn't they recognize how far back that set race relations? Why is the onus always on us to do some introspection?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

40. You got it! Yep!

[lostnfound]

41. I'm not capable of changing the mind of even one bigoted person

Known someone my whole life with a significant racist streak.
How do you wake people up?

I feel helpless and sorrowful about it, but what can we do?

Write to congressmen and local politicians? It feels so ineffective against the magnitude of the problem.

I find myself wanting to wear a Black Lives Matter shirt to my office. We all don't talk about it enough. White people do need to talk with each other. But there's a divide, those who stupidly think "if you don't break rules, you'll be fine" and those who realize the pervasive white privilege (for shorthand).

We need an organization that lobbies for change and raises awareness and puts ads on TV that aims to change minds.
If we played these shooting videos on commercials over and over, would that be exploiting their tragic deaths?

I mourn. I am sad. I talk to people. I feel completely ineffective.

[treestar]

44. I know. Talking directly does not help

I think of recommending them they read some novels or other books that will show them the complexity of life. They don't know what it is like for nonwhite people because they never listen and never educate themselves and assume it is the same for everybody.

I have some family young people going right wing on race and I feel helpless to do anything and hope it just goes away with age and experience. They have elders who have been doing the white-as-victims thing - affirmative action that keeps them from getting the job they think they deserve. Allegations by the hirer that hey I want to hire you but I have to hire this black/female person. I tried mentioning that 1) is he telling you that you are the least of the white people majority considered for the job since you are the one that has to make way and 2) are you assuming the black or female hires were less qualified than you and why? (Not that I believe the story of the hirer saying such things).

[lostnfound]

45. "What's point of reading fiction if you don't learn anything from i

My teen just said that yesterday.
I told him it opens your mind, makes you understand different ways of being, makes you a more flexible thinker.

He's definitely anti-racist, though. It gives me hope to hear him. He's amazingly clear-eyed for his age about society, politics, justice.

But I do know a lot of people who don't read fiction that seem to believe that everyone has the same resources to overcome adversity or find opportunity to make something of themselves as they do.

[treestar]

46. great teen you have!

Yeah, I was thinking, say read I Am Malala to people who lump all Muslim refugees together with the terrorists. We are not in much danger, but the people there where the Taliban is are.

Likewise they could read even nonfiction, like Sundown Towns - I learned a lot about that myself and that we in the North were plenty racists ourselves when black people came North to live and work. And there are plenty of realistic novels describing life for black people in America, by black authors.

When I was that young I did not think I knew it all, which I understand is actually more the norm for teens! It's funny to see my relatives who are 20 think they know so much and I know they don't. It's like what you know for sure that is not true is not something you are always willing too question.

[xfundy]

34. I'm so damned tired of "race" dividing us.

Each of us is a unique individual with something to contribute if only we could all come together. The nation has been divided on something as stupid as color and birth heritage for the profit of the bastards who've decided they own everything, including all of us. They make sure we distrust one another so they can continue to distract us from the fact that they're stealing everything.

[JustAnotherGen]

36. Some of us don't have the luxury

Of being perceived as an individual. I get what you are saying - but the reality simply isn't true.

I can't deal with moonbeams and unicorns -I have to consider ONLY reality and what is in front of me. Wishing it away won't change it -

And I think as a country we are too far gone.

This is never going to be resolved.

[JI7]

39. No

[Ligyron]

38. Now it's all about the police and how they feel under attack

no one should go around shooting anyone else but if this guy wanted to shoot someone why didn't he shoot that jerk in Cleveland or the one's in Baton Rouge that flat out executed the poor black guy they had on the ground.

Dallas police seem to have pretty good relations w the community and are well thought of from what I've heard.

Bad move

[treestar]

43. I've already seen a self pitying

meme about how next time your drunken boyfriend beats you, I won't come. Overwrought and has nothing to do with it and makes them look petulant.

Another thing making me sick is the way they will go on about the Baton Rouge victim having a criminal record as if that has anything to do with it. It is like they are trying to say oh well it's no big loss. Except to the rule of law where your past record has nothing to do with the fact you are to be treated innocent until proven guilty, a warrant needed to stop you, etc. regardless and that the cop may not have known that at the time. Or eve if the cop knew it he has no right to use that record as an excuse to do anything less than permitted by law.

[treestar]

42. for those who make bigoted generalizations

there are a lot of white people who judge every group of color collectively by the actions of the worst of them. White people are judged by the actions of the best among them. I'd really like to ask some of these people do they not deserve to be judged as equal to Charles Manson or Timothy McVeigh. They don't even seem to notice what they are doing.

This was one crazed individual whose actions do not in any way vindicate the other white cops - the white cops he shot were not the cops that did the shooting earlier.