It’s getting to the point where the shootings are going on in this country faster than I can comment on them, though I’ll admit that I don’t have anything particularly brilliant to say on any of them.
I’m sure Dem Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is right to say that race played a role in the shooting death of Philando Castile, a resident of that state, particularly when, as noted here, Castile had a license to carry and notified the police officer about it, but was shot anyway when apparently reaching for identification to present to the officer (noted here – and yes, the sound of crickets from the NRA over this speaks volumes about that organization as far as I’m concerned). However, I’m not sure that Dayton should have been so quick to point that out before all of the facts were in.
(And yes, this video is graphic, particularly up to about 1:48 – NSFW of course)...
Update 8/11/17: ZOMG, the NRA FINALLY has something to say on this from their shrieking harpie Dana Loesch here (and of course, they're wrong, since they can never be right on this anyway).
And as for Alton Sterling, it apparently remains an open question whether or not he struggled with police after he was told to lie on the ground before the police shot him, though, to me, it’s telling that the cops removed the surveillance video of the encounter even though they had no warrant and the owner of the store where the shooting occurred, Abdullah Muflahi, did not consent to them removing it (here)...
Of course, none of this is justification for the shooting of the Dallas police officers at the protests over the Castile and Sterling shootings (here)...
And with all of this in mind, maybe it isn’t too bad of an idea to think about this (clip ends kind of suddenly)…
I’m sorry I don’t have anything better to say about any of this. I just wish we were better in this country at building bridges instead of walls (yeah, I know – corny, dopey liberal sentiment, but it’s all I got). And oh yeah, as far as I’m concerned, the NRA has blood on its hands for this, among other gun-related atrocities in this country too numerous to mention.
Maybe this isn’t too bad of a time for those so inclined to pray for tolerance and understanding on all sides (and by the way, I’m not trying to imply any equivalency here, since we overwhelmingly have an issue with African Americans shot by police as opposed to whites). And yes, I know this is coming from someone fortunate enough to be white and living in an area where the cops leave us alone and, when they do interact with us, they treat us with respect and we try our best to reciprocate.
But trying to talk to one another is preferable to trying to shoot each other. Right?
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