Today was a tragic day as a number of innocent people were shot killed and injured at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. The circumstances surrounding this raises alot of questions..
Earlier this week we saw a video of police in Chicago shooting a 17 year old teen 16 times as walked away from police with a small pocket knife. The incident happened last year in 2014 and was hidden from the public.. The claim was made then and even now via the police union and the lawyer of police officer Jason Van Dyke that he ‘feared for his life’ and hence had no choice but to shoot and kill Laquan McDonald.
Two weeks ago in the city of Oakland, 39 year old Richard Perkins was gunned down by police who were doing paperwork as they investigated sideshow activities. For those who live outside the Bay Area, sideshows are when drivers gather and do illegal maneuver like spins and donuts. On this particular evening, over 200 cars and motorcycles were involved…
Richard Perkins
According to Oakland police, Perkins was not involved with the sideshow or wanted for any sort of criminal activity. Nevertheless, OPD says he walked up on 3 rookie officers and a veteran sergeant and pointed his a toy gun at them. The officers said they ‘feared for their lives‘ and shot him dead..They say it was a case of suicide by cops. Witnesses on the scene see it differently. Perkins was the 5th Black man killed by Oakland police this year and the 1000th killed by police nationwide.
Earlier this year Oakland police killed their first civilian in 2 years when they attempted to wake up a sleeping man named Demouria Hogg who was passed out in his car. Police broke a back window and shot bean bags in the back off the car, Hogg remained unresponsive. Instead of waiting it out, OPD who had been on the scene for less than an hour, gathered up more than a dozen officers to swarm the car.
According to OPD, a startled Hogg finally woke up and reached for a gun. Police said they feared for their life and had no choice but to shoot him…
A couple of weeks ago Minneapolis police responded to a domestic violence call involving 24 year old Jamar Clark. According to their reports, Clark interfered with EMT workers trying to help the victim.. Police claimed they feared for their lives when Clark supposedly attempted to grab one of the officer’s gun and thus they shot him. Witness after witness noted that Clark was handcuffed when these fearful police shot him..
Jamar Clark
The Clark case is interesting because it led to nightly protest in front of the 4th Ave precinct police station.. In fact people camped out in front of the station. It was here that protesters were confronted by armed white supremacist wearing bullet proof vests who showed up on several occasions to intimidate them. In some instances, the white supremacist live streamed their aggressive antics. The last encounter ended with the white supremacist shooting 5 Black Lives Members protesters who were all unarmed.. The Minneapolis didn’t seem to fear the gun play in front of their door steps when it was white supremacist kicking up dust.. 3 were arrested and lived to tell the tale.
Andy Lopez
We can go on and on citing case after case.. From D.J. Henry to Kenneth Chamberlain Sr to Kenneth Harding to 13-year-old Andy Lopez to 12-year-old Tamir Rice to 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones to Yanira Serrano-Garcia to Kayla Moore to Akai Gurley to Alex Nieto to Rekia Boyd…. police in every one of these cases claimed they ‘feared for their lives‘..
Somehow today in Colorado Springs a man named Richard Lewis Dear, who killed 3 people including a police officer and held them off for 6 hours before he was taken away alive and well. How does that happen??
Richard Lewis Dear
Am I saying this brutal killer who committed what many feel was an act of terrorism should’ve been killed?? No, what’s being pointed out is that with all resources, training and most importantly, discretion and public trust given to police officers, they can and in many cases find ways to bring in a suspect without unloading their guns, talking about they ‘feared for their lives’…
During the press conference held after his capture,, it was noted that police spent considerable time reaching out, making contact and talking the gunman down. This is what many of us would say is ‘good police work’.
Now the public can see what was behind this act of terror. Was the person an out of control sadistic killer, someone with mental challenges or someone who was part of a larger operation designed to wreck havoc??
Again, here we have man who actually killed a cop and injured several others. He was not playing and clearly intended to kill… Such was not the case in the cases of aforementioned victims of police terror, yet they all wound up dead by highly trained officers with a sadistic police union and complicit, sensationalistic, butt kissing corporate media claiming that the victims were somehow at fault. The reasons given for Black and Brown people being killed by police are:
1-They didn’t follow police instructions. Just listen to the police is the mantra, even when some are mentally challenged and were suffering from episodes related to their mental condition, emotionally distraught or simply couldn’t hear or understand. We know the shooter in Colorado Springs wasn’t listening yet he got to live..
2-They were dressed like a thugs and thus police have lots to fear because of past situations it was hoodie wearing sagging pants wearing, menacing Black males who killed police. Such notions fly in the face of ‘plain as can see’ evidence that year after year shows the overwhelming number of police killed are done at the hands of white men…
In 2014 they were 50 police officers killed nationwide… 26 of those deaths came at the hands of white men including a number of deliberate ambushes. One was racially motivated where white guys sought to kill a Black officer.
Officers were killed 11 times by Black people and 9 times by Latinos, with half of those killings happening in Puerto Rico where the officer shot was also Latino. I looked up each of those cases myself and read the articles around them.. You can look at the various Officer Down Memorial pages which keep tabs on the number of officers killed.
The 50 shot by police is in sharp contrast to the estimated 1100+ people killed by police in 2014 and the 700+ in 2013 (please note this data is gathered from Killedbypolice.com which started tracking police killings in 2013. In 2013, they were only able to track from May-December). It’s estimated that more than 1000 were killed by police in 2013 if you add in the other months.
3-Black Lives Matter and other groups protesting police accountability are creating an anti-cop atmosphere. When you hear such rhetoric, one is supposed to believe gunmen like the one who attacked this Planned Parenthood clinic did so after watching BLM protests. That’s absolute hogwash.
If you search on line you can see there are scores of militia, biker gangs, Anti-authoritarian and white supremacist groups that call for the elimination of police. In fact if you search on line, you can find a tape of avowed racist and Neo-Nazi head Tom Metzger praising the New Black Panther Party and plainly stating that they all share a common enemy-The Police…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCer_VUT_DA
Since we know police are capable of facing the most horrific scenarios from today’s Planned Parenthood shoot out to the recent biker gang massacre and manage to keep suspects alive, then we should push and expect the same treatment when it comes to dealing with people in Black, Brown and poor communities where the acts of aggression are far less dangerous and threatening….
To those who lost their lives today, condolences to their families and may they Rest in Piece..
written by Davey D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlE4sVeN9CA