@FBM,
Quote:I'm trying to make sense of how the US got to this point.
HOW THE U.S. GOT TO THIS POINT
In late October, 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party.
"The Revolution has come, it's time to pick up the gun. Off the pigs!", helped create the Panthers' reputation as a violent organization.
On October 28, 1967,[59] Oakland police officer John Frey was shot to death in an altercation with Huey P. Newton during a traffic stop.
On April 7, 1968, seventeen-year-old Panther national treasurer Bobby Hutton was killed, and Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther Party Minister of Information, was wounded in a shootout with the Oakland police. Two police officers were also shot. Although at the time the BPP claimed that the police had ambushed them, several party members later admitted that Cleaver had led the Panther group on a deliberate ambush of the police officers, provoking the shoot out.
An influx of college students joined the group, which had consisted chiefly of "brothers off the block." This created some tension in the group.
Some members were more interested in supporting the Panthers social programs, while others wanted to maintain their "street mentality".
Significant disagreements among the Party's leaders over how to confront ideological differences led to a split within the party. Certain members felt the Black Panthers should participate in local government and social services, while others encouraged constant conflict with the police. For some of the Party's supporters, the separations among political action, criminal activity, social services, access to power, and grass-roots identity became confusing and contradictory as the Panthers' political momentum was bogged down in the criminal justice system. These (and other) disagreements led to a split.
Some Panther leaders, such as Huey Newton and David Hilliard, favored a focus on community service coupled with self-defense; others, such as Eldridge Cleaver, embraced a more confrontational strategy. Eldridge Cleaver deepened the schism in the party when he publicly criticized the Party for adopting a "reformist" rather than "revolutionary" agenda and called for Hilliard's removal. Cleaver was expelled from the Central Committee but went on to lead a splinter group, the Black Liberation Army, which had previously existed as an underground paramilitary wing of the Party
spring, 1970—the Oakland BPP engages in another ambush of police officers with guns and fragmentation bombs. Two officers are wounded.
In response to the death of Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in December, 1969 during a police raid, on May 21, 1970 the Weather Underground issued a "Declaration of War" against the United States government, using for the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO), adopting fake identities, and pursuing covert activities only. These initially included preparations for a bombing of a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey in what Brian Flanagan said had been intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory.
"If you’ve been watching cable news, reading Hollywood celebrities’ tweets, and listening to race-hustling opportunists, you might think that every police officer in America has a finger on the trigger, hunting for any excuse to gun down defenseless youths.
This hysterical nonsense must be stopped.
The Cirque du Cop-Bashing, with Al Sharpton as ringmaster, is working overtime to exploit the deadly incident in Ferguson, Mo. That means stoking anti–law enforcement fires at all costs.
Are there bad cops? Yes. Does the police state go overboard sometimes? Yes. Do the demagogues decrying systemic racism and braying about “assassinations” know what happened when teenager Mike Brown was tragically shot and killed last week? No.
Here’s a reality check. While narcissistic liberal journalists and college kids are all posting “hands up” selfies in hipster solidarity with Ferguson protesters, it’s law-enforcement officers who risk their lives in “war zones” every day across the country.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) reports that a total of 1,501 law-enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past ten years, an average of one death every 58 hours, or 150 per year. These include local and state police officers, federal officers, correctional officers, and military law-enforcement officers.
Fact: Last year, 100 law-enforcement officers were killed. On average, over the past decade, there have been 58,261 assaults against law enforcement each year, resulting in 15,658 injuries.
Fact: New York City has lost more officers in the line of duty than any other department, with 697 deaths. Texas has lost 1,675 officers, more than any other state.
Just this week, NLEOMF released preliminary fatality statistics from August 2013 to August 2014. Total fatalities are up 14 percent, from 63 last year to 72 this year. “Five officers were killed in ambushes, which continue to be a major threat to law enforcement safety,” the group notes.
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Police use of force is rare. Data gathered by the Bureau of Justices Statistics in 2008, shows less than 2% of the 40 million people who had contact with police reported the use of force or threatened use of force.
Between 1945 and 1967 annual U.S. police deaths hovered around 15o. In 1965 138 deaths were reported. That jumped to 161 in 66 and 191 in 67. By 1970 that number surpassed 200 and stayed that way until the mid 80s. The number was reduced in no small part by new training standards and tactics called, "The Officer Safety Program" Furthermore, after the disasterous police response to the Texas Tower shooting and growing civil unrest, SWAT teams were established to deal with especially dangerous situations.
Also, it was after this time that college campuses and airports formed their own police agencies.
The mentality to challenge police at every opportunity by members of the black community continues today spurred on by by the liberal press and people like Sharpton and others. This results in more shootings and the death of more blacks.
IT KEEPS THE" REVERANDS" IN BUSINESS.
Maybe if there's enough of a stir made about this, the police will take notice and make policy changes. Hopefully, anyway.
