Hate to hear of such things. Law enforcement carries a special set of risks, and I am thankful to the folks who make the decision to serve. I hope the authorities in Iowa are able to locate and apprehend the person(s) responsible here. It does no one any good to go all vigilante, if that is what happened. LE in this nation needs a serious reboot, most of us agree, but harming or killing officers is not the answer … though I do understand (and feel) how frustrating and long-term the issues have been and are to this day.
Yeah, that pretty well sums up my feelings too.
Policing is like every other profession: most cops are good people, a few are not and a few get placed in a position where they can make a wrong decision that leaves two (or more) lives shipwrecked. The problem (as with physicians, nurses, professors, engineers and the list goes on and on) is identifying the bad ones and getting rid of them.
The bigger problem is to make sure that police departments understand that there is a reason that serve comes first in their motto – “To serve and protect”.
As someone else pointed out on TPM yesterday, the usual cop analogy – “We’re the sheepdogs and the citizens are the sheep” is wrong-headed. Sheepdogs move sheep around by frightening them, and that’s the last thing we should want our police doing. No, if we must have a canine analogy, “You cops are the guard dogs and we’re the masters” is much closer to how it should be.
Ah, jeez.
Yeah probably Ferguson effect or BLM…
Well, since the perp appears to have been an angry-eyed middle aged pickup-driving white guy, this one doesn’t count. And neither do his politics. Because, after all, he’s just a poor, misguided, mentally ill fellow, so what possible bearing could any political beliefs he has have? No need to go digging for such things. Stochastic terrorism? Never heard of it. Nor will we ever have heard of it the next fifty times over the next four years.
So, the suspect is a middle-aged white guy in an Ford F-150, but AP has to talk about BLM rather than, say, the armed militia group that just got acquitted of conspiracy?
People in the know break it down like this:
On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with.
Link to article: http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
If it does end up being an angry, middle-aged white dude, you just know someone is going to be checking to see if he is registered to vote … and if he’s a Democrat. Also, don’t rule out the possibility he may be a BLM sympathizer.
Our disproportionately white rural states are coming apart at the seams!
Where are the family values in the white community these days?
On twitter I’ve seen pics of the suspect with a confederate flag at a football game sitting right in front of black people blocking their view.
But as with the KKK “really” being Dems (because of the 1950’s) he is of course really a liberal (because he hates cops) or a paid plant by HRC.
Wish I was joking about the twisted logic.
I blame rap music.
Oh wait, that was already used for the reason Trump said the grabbing pussy comments on tape.
I shake my head … then hang my head. There is no way to reason with these people. It’s like being alive during a zombie apocalypse and realizing your loved one or a good friend has become infected with the zombie virus. Once infected, there is no reaching them or changing it back – so you don’t even try.
Economic anxiety.
Buzzfeed has more information including a picture of him holding American and Confederate flags.
When will the “White Community” condemn these attacks upon our brave police officers?
It just proves the moral breakdown of the White Family that all of these uncontrolled White Men are running around rural America killing White People with impunity. If only Police Officers were allowed to carry guns they would be safe from this scourge.
It is all the fault of the Republican Party and it’s coddling of the Rural White Male via Farm Subsidies that has made them dependent on the Government and morally unfit to live in a civil society.
We need Law and Order in Rural America Now!
Crack down on these thugs in their rusted out pickup trucks, blaring loud, obnoxious country music and listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity all day while getting high on Beer and Slim Jims.
It’s a Disgrace I tell you and it’s all Donald Trump’s fault!
I wonder, why did the police ask him to leave that school event? – Was it related to his waving the Confederate flag around, and being an all-around jerk? (that’s my suggestion, not something I read, etc.). I also find it ironic that he waves that flag around (right in front of African-Americans), gets roughed up by the police (his telling of it), then gets so angry that he goes off and kills police personnel. I mean, I wonder if it even dawns on him–or any of them–just how similar what he is claiming is to what happens (and been documented over and over) to minorities?
And he’s WHITE!!!
When will the “White Community” condemn these attacks upon our brave police officers?
Yep. In this case, he was troubled and needed help.
In the case of “D-Money”, “Smoothie” and “Shifty” it’s cold blooded murder and needs the electric chair.
In normal times, I would say that Clinton supporters should not demagogue this tragedy to their political advantage. But these are not normal times.
Of course, the campaign itself should stay as far away as possible from this, other than to offer condolences to the officers’ families.