Baton Rouge

The three police officers shot dead in Louisiana were deliberately ambushed, authorities said on Monday, by a gunman who carried two semi-automatic rifles and a pistol as he went looking for officers to kill with “chilling, sheer brutality”.

  Guardian

Much like police officers have been taking down unarmed black men.

Long, who had served in Iraq, carried out his attack on the morning of his 29th birthday. He left behind a trail of incoherent online postings railing at perceived injustices against black Americans.

"Perceived" - not real. This is what my narcissistic mother says after she gaslights or verbally snipes you. That's just your perception.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Baton Rouge Again

Things are going South.

Baton Rouge staggered into a new week of violence as a black separatist killed three police officers, including a black officer who recently pleaded with friends online: “Don’t let hate infect your heart.”

[...]

By Monday, key details started to emerge about both the shooter, 29-year-old Gavin Long of Missouri, and his victims.

He grew up in Kansas City and served as a US marine from 2005 to 2010, including about seven months in Iraq. More recently he spent time in Africa, traveling throughout the east of the continent.

[...]

Long’s personal history is marked by radical twists: he was a military veteran who took a series of ideological turns, and eventually joined a fringe group called the Washitaw Nation of Mu’urs.

  Guardian

Or, as the Native American name is actually spelled in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma: Ouachita.

And the Guardian has the wrong link in this article, because their Washitaw Nation of Mu’urs link goes to the "Official Empire Washitaw de Dugdahmoundyah" which has the tag line "Our Emperial Law is Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom, Justice". Oops. Well they're Brits. What do they know? Anyway, I suspect they will get some letters.

This is perhaps the link they should have provided:

Long’s final word was a YouTube video, since taken down, that served as something of a suicide manifesto. He referred to himself in past tense and said: “I thought my own thoughts, I made my own decisions.”

But we can still blame Black Lives Matter, I bet.

There's a witness mentioned who seems to be testifying that the police shot first.  But you know how first reports are. Another report says Long ambushed police who arrived to check out a phone call reporting "a suspicious person walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle."

Wait for the videos.

A video posted two days earlier is a bit more cryptic, but makes more sense in the aftermath of his shooting rampage.

"I just wanted to let y'all know, don't affiliate me with nothing," he says. He says he wanted people to know that his actions were his alone.

He then goes on to list organizations he may be affiliated with -- including the Nation of Islam (which he says he was a member of), Floyd Mayweather's The Money Team (he's wearing their hat) and terror groups like ISIS.

"I thought my own stuff; I made my own decisions; I'm the one who gotta listen to the judgment," Long added.

  CNN

We have a choice now. We can say he was radicalized by ISIS (a terrorist) or Black Lives Matter. And when right wing politicians have their way and BLM gets listed on the US terror watch list, we can choose both.

An official said the belief is that Long identified as being associated with the black separatist movement in some capacity but there is no indication he was directed by it. The law enforcement official said the FBI has no indication any black separatist or other domestic terrorist groups are supporting or sending people to kill cops.

That can be fixed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Lawsuit Against Baton Rouge PD

An earlier post showed stills from a video clip where an officer is drawing down on protester(s) with a large weapon and suggested there ought to be a lawsuit. Well, now there is. And it includes a whole list of violations.

The Baton Rouge Police Department and state law enforcement officials were sued in federal court on Wednesday for violating the First Amendment rights of dozens of protesters detained at demonstrations in the city last weekend.

The suit, which asks for a restraining order to prohibit officers from arresting or intimidating protesters rallying to express their anger at the killing of Alton Sterling, was filed by a coalition of rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild.

[...]

The lawyers note that a litany of violations can be seen in video recorded by protesters and journalists as more than 180 arrests were made over the weekend by heavily armed police officers, including:



  The Intercept

We'll see. At least it was filed in federal court, so there might be a chance.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Irresponsible Journalism - Part Eleventy Million

This is from the New York Daily News online:

“We have been questioned repeatedly about our show of force and why we have the tactics we have, this is the reason,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said.

[...]

“I think [arrested suspect Thomas'] statement was to get bullets to harm officers in the Baton Rouge area,” Dabadie said.

  NY Daily News

You "think".


This is from The Advocate:


You'd "think" if there had been a threat to kill cops, they would have put it in the police report, wouldn't you?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Baton Rouge P.S.

Some police were struck in the head by the concrete, said State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson, but no one was injured because police were wearing helmets.

[...]

By 5:30 p.m., a large crowd of at least 1,000 people had formed at the corner of France Street and East Boulevard, in the Beauregard Town residential neighborhood just south of downtown Baton Rouge. Police in gas masks, riot shields and body armor responded to the area with armored police vehicles and ordered the protesters off the roadway.

Police immediately began making arrests, focusing on people who were standing in the road. Protesters responded by gathering in two large groups on private property, one of which was owned by a woman who allowed the protesters to stand in her yard. The protesters stood chanting at police slogans like "you are not the uniform" and "no racist police" until two more lines of police in riot gear moved in to flank the line of officers.

  NOLA

That's the language that incited violence?

Boxed in, protesters stood firm in the yards of the two properties and police began yanking people out of the crowd and marching them to awaiting police vehicles. The rest of the crowd began fleeing north on France Street, and police pursued them in armored vehicles. A few blocks away, some protesters began moving toward Interstate 10 and were arrested. That was when they began to throw concrete, Edmonson said.

[...]

When asked whether the protesters were arrested because of what they were saying, Edmonson said no.

"The whole time when you sit there listening to them, their words were not conducive to a peaceful-type demonstration," he said.

No, but yes.

A police spokesman, Maj. Doug Cain, said in an interview after Edmonson's comments that the superintendent meant to say "actions" instead of words.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Baton Rouge

Here's another look at the militarized police assault on protesters on private property in Baton Rouge.

After 50 demonstrators were taken away, Lisa Batiste, the woman whose front yard was raided by the police, told the CBS News correspondent David Begnaud she was shocked and disappointed by the behavior of the police.

[...]

State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson later blamed the protesters, telling the New Orleans Times-Picayune that when ordered to disperse, “They seemed to have no intention of doing so in a peaceful manner.” Some of those who fled the scene then tossed lumps of concrete at his officers, he added.

“The bottom line is, this group was certainly not about a peaceful protest, because they could’ve easily left on their own,” Edmonson said.

  The Intercept

And why should they? They weren't doing anything illegal.

People "who fled the scene." Why did they need to flee rather than simply disburse? Lumps of concrete vs. assault rifles and riot gear.

He also called their anti-police chants a form of incitement. “The whole time when you sat there listening to them, their words were not conducive to a peaceful-type demonstration,” he said.

Apparently not. They drew a violent police response.

At the very end of the above clip, take notice of this officer drawing down on someone. No matter what he has that rifle loaded with, at that range, it's going to be seriously injurious or fatal.

That ought to be a lawsuit. Fortunately, members of the ACLU were on hand.

The ACLU stands with the protesters in Baton Rouge and urges the police to honor our constitutional rights instead of stomping on them.

UPDATE

FURTHER UPDATE 7/14/16:  Now, there is a lawsuit.

This Is What (American) Democracy Looks Like

Last night in Baton Rouge...



Click the picture for the video link. Police charge peaceful protesters in someone's yard, and appear to drag some away.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.