Slain Dallas Cop Might’ve Been A White Supremacist: Still A Hero?

More evidence that liberals hate the Constitution and want to violate everyone's rights.

Note that the Constitution specifies that militiamen have the right to retain possession of their arms.

(This doesn't even get into the fact that militiamen have the right to have machine guns, grenades, and Stinger missiles.)

A vote for Trump is a vote to preserve civil rights.

Why is my request for all you wannabe militia types to actually organize a real militia and demonstrate your real commitment to the US so poutrageous to you? You love the Constitution so much? Than prove it.

You do not need an AR-15 or M-16 or M-5 or SKS or AK-47 for home protection or to freaking hunt. Its a malitia weapon. Know how I know? When ever I see militia, I see those guns, and worse, If you drunk wannabes want to be a militia, then actually form a real community driven, American founding fathers' kind of militia??????? Do like what those Christian sportsmen did. Build an armory, put your non hunting weapon into it and report to the civil authorities.

Because of all the Constitutional violations that you called for. I counted at least three:

1: denying assault weapons to non-militiamen

2: denying militiamen the right to have machine guns and grenades (among other military weapons)

3: denying militiamen the right to keep their weapons at home.

I'd be delighted to see a militia organized in the US. Militiamen have the right to have machine guns, grenades/grenade launchers, anti-tank bazookas, and Stinger missiles, and have the right to keep all of them at home.



I do that every time I hit the post button.



I don't have to need them. The Constitution protects my right to have them.



No it isn't. Militia weapons are machine guns, grenades/grenade launchers, anti-tank bazookas, and Stinger missiles.



Liberals like to denigrate people who defend civil rights.



Sounds good to me. If you can get the government to allow the formation of an actual armed militia, you'll be my hero.



No armory. The Constitution specifies that militiamen keep possession of their own weapons.

Militiamen get to store all those machine guns and Stinger missiles in their own homes.

Bob Wrote:


My commitment to the Constitution was when I raised my hand as a member of the US Army and as a police officer and swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States... To protect your very right to expouse your idiotic musings. As a veteran and a police officer I signed a check payable to the US government and to the people of the United States for any price up to and including my life.

I did serve in the military as did a large number of those who are gun owners. Why do you think the AR-15 is one of the most popular rifles in the US?

My commitment to the Constitution was made when I enlisted in '73, doink, you aren't even close to the only one who's done that.

Secondly Big deal. You were a cop. BFD.

So wannabes can pretend they are carrying M-16s and be "soldiers". Why do you think that AK-47s are so popular with the militias? Because they do everything an M-16 does.

Which militias carry AK's? Besides the SCOTUS disagrees with your mention of a militia being needed to own guns.

Yeah but I was honorably discharged I believe yours was a bad conduct discharge wasn't it?

Yeah that's right, that's why I am being treated for cancer right now at a VA hospital. You're an idiot.

There Is No War On Cops – The Right Wing Myth
Last Updated on January 4, 2016


Everyone’s heard about the war on cops, yes? The right wing constantly goes on about how horrible the war on cops is, and how criminals are making our brave men and women in blue drop like flies without repercussion.

That President Obama, the Obama administration, and liberals in general further that war means it’s time for America to stop this war on cops in its tracks, right?

Wrong. Sorry to burst your bubble, America, but the war on cops isn’t real, according to Media Matters. The figment of the conservative, rabid right wing media’s imagination is a particularly dangerous figment at that – and it’s never existed.

2015 Safest Year On Record

The truth is that 2015 was the second safest year on record since the Prohibition in 1933, according to blogger Christopher Ingraham from the Washington Post.
http://i0.wp.com/news.groopspeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/trendline-web-e1451955600991.jpg?resize=640%2C399

Trend of Officer Fatalities Image by National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund

Conservatives might think this is the “liberal media” slanting a story, but it’s not. Numbers don’t lie.

These numbers came right from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which is a non-profit organization that tracks these issues and is far from partisan.

http://i2.wp.com/news.groopspeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/shooting-circumstances-web-e1451955730309.jpg?resize=640%2C569

War On Cops Deaths Attributed To Guns Car Accidents


Cause Of Death by National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund



According to that data, 124 police officers died in the line of duty in 2015, as compared to 119 in 2014. However, it’s not just the numbers you have to look at – the manner of death is also important.

According to the NLEOMF, only 52 police officers were killed in the line of duty as a result of criminal activity. This is an overall decrease from the 61 who died as a result of criminal activity in 2014.
http://i2.wp.com/news.groopspeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/traffic-circumstances-web-e1451955839403.jpg?resize=527%2C700

Accident Type by National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund
War On Cops Or Citizens?

The number one cause of death of police officers in the line of duty was… Car accidents.

Unfortunately, the conservative media and the rabid right wing could care less. Both continue to run with the false narrative that the “war on cops’ is getting worse, and “liberals” are to blame. Nevertheless, according to the NLEOMF,

“Of the 52 officers feloniously killed this year, 39 were shot and killed; 11 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents and two officers were killed in incidents unrelated to traffic or firearms.”

In December of 2014, New York Police Department officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed execution style by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who killed himself afterwards. The New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, and the Sergeants Benevolent Association, NYPD unions, blamed these officers’ deaths on Mayor Bill DeBlasio, and Black Lives Matter because both protested the increase in police violence against citizens.

The blood of 2 executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor de Blasio. May God bless their families and may they rest in peace.

— SBA (@SBANYPD) December 21, 2014



The NYPBA and SBA, along with conservatives everywhere, believe BlackLivesMatter to be a hate group targeting police. To put the two different narratives in perspective,

“[September] alone saw 103 people killed by law enforcement. In the first week of September, police killed more civilians than the total number of police officers killed so far this year.“

Even 58 percent of Americans actually believe the right wing narrative about the “war on cops,” while Republican Governor Chris Christie from New Jersey blames President Obama and his administration for making criminals want to hunt police officers and Ted Cruz wasted taxpayer money on a Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate what he calls “The War On Police.”

It’s easy to understand why the conservative media would run with the “war on cops’ scenario as Fox News does. Officers getting killed is a tragedy, but 52 officers dying doesn’t qualify as war on cops.

These officers are making the ultimate sacrifice, which is a very real and dangerous part of the job for which every cop signs up and trains. Officers who take the oath to protect and serve are confirming their preparedness to make that sacrifice. If any officer isn’t prepared for that part of the job, that officer should find another line of work.

The false narrative fabricated in response to the Black Lives Matter movement that is the “war on cops” is an attempt to take the focus off our militarized police departments killing unarmed, non-violent citizens of color by the barrel-full. That’s what needs to stop.

Do you think there is a war on cops? What about a war on unarmed citizens?



Featured Image by Robb “Doc” Wilson via Flickr/CC by ND-2.0

Well Bob it's hard to take whatever you say seriously because you're so full of bullshit but if you are a veteran and you have cancer you have my deepest sympathy and wishes for a speedy recovery... Now if we can just figure out why you are so angry at the police... I'm suspecting at one point you were busted and felt you were unfairly treated. So why don't you just tell us what happened get it off your chest and maybe you won't be so angry.

You tarnish a murdered person with the word 'might'? Coward.

You have the courage to anonymously call someone else a coward??????

Some Augustine you are.

A majority of those weapons are the AR-15 platform. Very few AK platforms there. Besides, those look like personally owned weapons and not something that would be issues by a "militia". Your assertion was that the AK was primarily used by militias. Your own picture refutes that.

Seriously? Would you like to watch a dozen or so militia youtube video on how to make a SK or AR full rock and roll? Bing it. There were AKs in some of those photos as well as at least one bolt action hunting rifle.

What does that have to do with your false premise that militias issue AKs? Besides, you do know that it is illegal to convert a semi-auto into a full auto?


They were the minority of guns in the photos's which once again refutes the premise of your post.

Hell yes I do, but showing how to do it falls under the First Amendment.

The rest of your post: BULLSHIT!

What Obama's Dallas Speech Missed: Police Brutality Is Rooted in Race-Based Housing Segregation and Economic Inequality
Physical separation makes white Americans unable to empathize with the fear people of color experience every day.
By Chauncey DeVega / Salon
July 20, 2016

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Photo Credit: Susan Melkisethian / Flickr

The president of the United States should provide moral clarity and leadership for the country. This responsibility is most important in a time of crisis, insecurity, fear, uncertainty, or worry. The series of recent video recorded police killings of black men and a subsequent attack on a “Black Lives Matter” march in Dallas, which itself left five police dead, sent shock waves across the American public. In response to these tragic events, President Barack Obama gave a series of talks and interviews that were models of maturity, intelligence, heartfelt wisdom, and calm. They would culminate with the president delivering a eulogy for the officers who were slain in Dallas.

Because it was so widely praised, Obama’s eulogy has not been subjected to a large amount of critical scrutiny.
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There, Obama summoned facts about how the United States’ legal system discriminates against blacks and Latinos while also being reverential of the good work done by many police officers. He spoke directly about the reality of the color line and persistent racism in the United States. Obama embraced his identity as the United States’ first black president as opposed to a president who just happens to be black. Obama also signaled to how the repeated killings of African-Americans by the country’s police, and the loss of five officers in Dallas, are part of a cycle of violence that must end.

During the Dallas eulogy, President Obama also made the following observation:

"We also know what Chief Brown has said is true: That so much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves. As a society, we choose to underinvest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book — and then we tell the police “you’re a social worker, you’re the parent, you’re the teacher, you’re the drug counselor.” We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs, and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience. Don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when, periodically, the tensions boil over."

This claim is challenging while also being problematic.

It is problematic because Obama’s logic surrenders to an ethical framework and politics which rests up a basic assumption that people who live in poor and working class black and brown neighborhoods should not receive the same level of respect and fair treatment from the police as those who reside in wealthier white communities. Obama’s observation also plays dangerously close to the belief that poor black and brown people who are abused by the country’s police are somehow responsible for their own victimization.

President Obama’s observation is challenging because it is calls attention to how structural class inequality and systemic racism help to create and legitimate the very circumstances in which African-Americans (and Latinos) are subjected to excessive force, violence, and killing by police as compared to whites.

Police are enforcers of the color line in America. This role has deep historical origins in slavery and Jim and Jane Crow. America’s police continue as enforcers of the color line in the post civil rights era and the Age of Obama.

Consider the following facts.

Cities and suburbs in the United States are racially segregated.

Chicago and Milwaukee have such high levels of racial segregation that they are best described as being “hyper-segregated”.

Baton Rouge is the second most racially segregated city in the American South.

Minneapolis-St. Paul also has very high levels of racial segregation.

Race and class overlap in the United States. Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be of a lower socioeconomic standing than whites and consequently to have diminished life chances. This is a function of racism and classism.

Social scientists have determined that “middle class” and “upper class” black neighborhoods have public services and other metrics that most closely resemble those of poor and working class white neighborhoods.

This is the macro level context for the individual level tragedies seen in such recent cases as the killings of Alton Sterling and Philip Castile in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis.

Racially motivated “pretext stops” (or what is commonly known as “driving while black”) are one of the primary ways that police intimidate and harass African-American (as well as Latino and First Nations) motorists.

Philando Castile was stopped 52 times in 14 years by Minneapolis-area police. Jeronimo Yanez, the police officer who killed Castile, evoked ugly racial stereotypes and caricatures about black people as he somehow was able to see Castile’s “wide set nose,” which in turn meant he “resembled” a robbery suspect.

The Washington Post examined racial profiling and the Castile case and found that:

"The Castile video “is pretty horrific,” said Gavin Kearney, who in 2003 co-authored a report to the Minnesota Legislature on racial profiling in the state. “There are things we don’t know about it. But we know there are certain assumptions and biases — whether explicit or implicit — about black men that affect how police officers interpret their actions. And we know white drivers are less likely to be pulled over…No recent information is available on the racial breakdown of drivers stopped or ticketed by police in Falcon Heights, the mostly white suburb where the shooting occurred, or in other Minnesota towns. Minnesota is not among the handful of states that require police to keep such data.

But in 2001, the Legislature asked for a racial profiling study and it fell to Kearney, then at the Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School, to conduct it. His study, using information supplied voluntarily by 65 law enforcement jurisdictions in the state, found a strong likelihood that racial and ethnic bias played a role in traffic stop policies and practices. Overall, officers stopped minority drivers at greater rates than whites and searched them at greater rates, but found contraband in those searches at lower rates than whites."

Myron Orfield, the director of the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota provided some additional context in an interview with The Atlantic:

Indeed, St. Anthony, the city where the police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Philando Castile last week, was on the police force, is a “tightly guarded white enclave” surrounded by more racially diverse communities, Orfield says. St. Anthony has a poverty rate of 5 percent, compared to 11 percent for Falcon Heights, where Castile was pulled over. The nonwhite population of St. Anthony grew from 3 to 16 percent between 1980 and 2010; Falcon Heights’ nonwhite population grew from 11 to 28 percent during that time. Another Minneapolis suburb, Brooklyn Center, saw its nonwhite population grow from 4 to 54 percent over that time period.

Alton Sterling was supplementing his income by selling music CDs outside of a business owned by a friend. Like Eric Garner in New York, Sterling’s need to earn extra income in the “gray economy” is an indicator of how a broken labor market has left many black and brown communities with extremely high rates of both underemployment and unemployment. It is also a signal to how the Great Recession in 2008 devastated the black middle and upper class—a group that has still not recovered under President Barack Obama.

As in Minneapolis, Baton Rouge’s police patrol a racially and class-segregated city. While they are supposed to “serve and protect” equally, Baton Rouge’s police have been the focus of repeated complaints about brutality and racism against black residents.

The abuse is so rampant, that during Hurricane Katrina police officers from other states actively complained about the racism they witnessed against black refugees seeking aid and comfort in Baton Rouge.

A particularly heavy shadow of slavery and white supremacy hangs over Baton Rouge as well. It is the site of “Angola” prison, a prison that is notorious for its brutality and violence against inmates, and which was built on one of the largest slavery plantations-slave labor camps in the United States.

Housing and residential segregation, and the police’s role in maintaining it, is one of the key mechanisms for sustaining the extreme amounts of wealth and income inequality that exist across the color line in the United States. These factors also have a severe impact on individuals’ interpersonal networks: 75 percent of white Americans do not have a friend of another racial background.

The sum effect of these dynamics is that too many white Americans are unable to empathize with the human suffering and fear experienced by people of color at the hands (and batons, guns, tasers, and fists) of the country’s police. Unfortunately, many white Americans know that the United States’ legal system is racist and unfair to black people but they continue to support it anyway.

Substantive police reform will involve stopping the many ways that cops in the United States do the work of maintaining a racist and classist social structure. This is not likely to happen because too many people are psychologically, economically, and politically invested in protecting the status quo.



Chauncey DeVega’s essays on race, politics and popular culture can also be found at Chaunceydevega.com/. He is a regular guest on Ring of Fire Radio and TV, and hosts a weekly podcast, The Chauncey DeVega Show. Follow him on Twitter.