TX - Multiple Dallas Police Officers shot during downtown protest, 7/7/16

[Elley Mae]

The Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest group of sworn law-enforcement officers, is asking the Justice Department to “immediately” investigate the killing of five Dallas police officers as a hate crime.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ate-dallas-police-killings-as-hate-crime.html

“A hate crime is simply a crime that is committed based on the bias of the offender,” Canterbury also told NPR. “In the Dallas case, it's obvious that it fits within the umbrella because the individual has made statements to police that he wanted to kill white policemen. … That's why we've asked for a change in the federal hate crime law.”

 

[Everyday Grace]

If the Dallas Police Department has now become a poster child for police reform due to Brown’s efforts to increase transparency and train officers to reduce the lethality of interactions between police and the community, that was not always the case. Dallas was once notorious for police violence. For years, the third largest city in Texas has had a higher per-capita rate of police-involved shootings than Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles.

In the wake of this near catastrophe [2012 shooting of James Harper], Dallas embraced a new model of community policing which Brown announced over Facebook. “The citizens of Dallas have shown great trust and confidence in the Dallas Police Department,” Brown wrote at the time. “My pledge is that we will continue to work as hard to maintain and improve citizens’ trust as we did to earn it.”

But crime statistics seem to validate Brown’s work. In 2014, Dallas had its lowest murder rate since 1930. Overall crime decreased by 4.5 percent last year while violent crime dropped at a similar clip. There have been ups and downs, including a dramatic uptick in murders this year, but the trend line appears to hold true: Dallas is a less violent city than it was five years ago.

Some point out that police reform may not be responsible for plummeting crime rates. But, at the very least, Dallas police appear to have cleaned up their act. Excessive force complaints against the department dropped by 64 percent over a five-year period. Arrests are decreasing by the thousands each year.

“So far this year, in 2016, we have had four excessive force complaints. We’ve averaged between 150 and 200 my whole 33-year career. So this is transformative,” Brown told a crowd of his fellow officers and policymakers at the White House in April. His department is a member of President Obama’s Police Data Initiative. “And we’ve averaged between 18 and 25 police involved shootings my whole career. We’ve had two so far this year.”

Much more (including links to other articles to consider) at the link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/490583/

 

[Everyday Grace]

When the nation turned its eyes to Dallas after five of its police officers were gunned down, it saw a white mayor and a black police chief working together.

It was a quiet moment of unity amid tragedy and a heated national debate about race and the relationship between black Americans and law enforcement officials.

The city's diversity of leadership was hard-earned: Decades of racial strife preceded a change in the face of the city and how it interacts with the community.

Now, leaders hope, those painful steps will help provide a path forward for healing.

The cruel irony of Thursday's horrific killings occurring in Dallas at all — where police have largely avoided the controversial shootings that have roiled places like Ferguson, Mo. — has not been lost on elected leaders here.

But they are confident the city can ease the friction between police and black residents, while recognizing the contributions of effective and courageous law enforcement. And instead of division, Dallas has a chance to showcase unity and inclusion.

More from Dallas about Dallas:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/loca...may-help-city-heal-after-police-shootings.ece

 

[faw720]

This man is in a unique position. He is black. He is a cop. His son killed a cop and his black son was killed by a cop.

People should really listen to him. He has lived EVERY SINGLE SIDE of these issues and then some.



Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Absolutely couldn't agree more!! Chief Brown has lived with situations that most of us cannot even imagine. I also believe that one of his partners was also killed by a black man. Perhaps the pain & sorrow that Chief Brown has personally experienced has given him a special insight & ability to rationally handle a situation like this. My admiration for him knows no bounds!!!!!!!!!!!!! I so wish other police departments had more people like him!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dogface]

Driving out my neighborhood today, was on my way to get blue ribbon to make a wreath for my door, and all our stop signs and street lights had blue ribbons on them. Very heart warming to see. Our friends are already reporting back to duty, but really struggling. Saying they can't stop hearing the radio calls coming in.

 

[Everyday Grace]

According to police, gunman Micah Xavier Johnson told negotiators that “he was upset about the recent police shootings,” but Dallas officers have not fatally shot anyone this year. Johnson said he was “upset about Black Lives Matter,” but the police chief in Dallas, who is black, is a national leader in the effort to reduce officer-involved violence.

“We don’t have a perfect department. But if you want to look at our peers, cities of over a million people, we very well can claim to be number one,” said Philip Kingston, the city council member who represents the downtown district where Johnson targeted white officers Thursday night before being killed by police.

Civil rights activists, national police leaders and Dallas officials say the department is a model of the reforms sought by the Black Lives Matter movement since a white officer shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014. Although Dallas police have a dark history of brutality against minorities, two decades of fresh leadership have transformed the department’s reputation and dramatically improved relations with the black community.

Dallas police fatally shot five people in 2015, according to a Washington Post database of such shootings. The department has yet to have a fatal shooting in 2016.

Among those killed last year was James Boulware, a 35-year-old white man who shot at Dallas police headquarters from an armored vehicle laced with explosives.

Much more:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...81a0fa-4548-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html

For reference purposes -- the 2015 Boulware event:
http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2016/dpd-shooting/

 

[animlzrule]

It's incredible how hard it is for people to accept this. What's it going to take?

Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks

"The study of thousands of use-of-force episodes from police departments across the nation has concluded what many people have long thought, but which could not be proved because of a lack of data: African-Americans are far more likely than whites and other groups to be the victims of use of force by the police, even when racial disparities in crime are taken into account."

“The dominant narrative has been that this happens to African-Americans because they are arrested in disproportionate numbers,” said Phillip Atiba Goff, a founder and president of the Center for Policing Equity, based at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “But the data really makes it difficult to say that crime is the primary driver of this. In every single category, the anti-black disparity persists.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/u...-of-force-is-more-likely-for-blacks.html?_r=0

 

[Everyday Grace]

Happening now.

@rlopezWFAA

DPD SWAT has been deployed to DPD headquarters after they received a threat which is being taken seriously. https://t.co/IOynqf2MiG

 

[animlzrule]

BRBM Surely you jest?

Of course not. Black Lives Matter has consistently denounced violent attacks throughout their existence. They aren't saying that ONLY black lives matter, or that black lives matter MORE than others. They want to matter ALONG with everybody else. It's not a hard, or controversial philosophy of life. At least, it shouldn't be.

 

[Everyday Grace]

Also happening now.

@wfaachannel8

Procession underway taking fallen DART officer Brent Thompson to his hometown WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/X5yI9EYAa9 https://t.co/VAWdXYtWxE

ETA: WFAA has switched their live feed to DPD headquarters.

 

[Viper]

It's incredible how hard it is for people to accept this. What's it going to take?

Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks

"The study of thousands of use-of-force episodes from police departments across the nation has concluded what many people have long thought, but which could not be proved because of a lack of data: African-Americans are far more likely than whites and other groups to be the victims of use of force by the police, even when racial disparities in crime are taken into account."

“The dominant narrative has been that this happens to African-Americans because they are arrested in disproportionate numbers,” said Phillip Atiba Goff, a founder and president of the Center for Policing Equity, based at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “But the data really makes it difficult to say that crime is the primary driver of this. In every single category, the anti-black disparity persists.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/u...-of-force-is-more-likely-for-blacks.html?_r=0

Hmm... But I just read two well researched articles that say the exact opposite. Check the previous page for the links.

 

[ohreally]

Happening now.

@rlopezWFAA

DPD SWAT has been deployed to DPD headquarters after they received a threat which is being taken seriously. https://t.co/IOynqf2MiG

From your link: Rebecca Lopez ‏@rlopezwfaa · 9m9 minutes ago

Multiple sources say Dallas SWAT deployed after a threat was made by a group from Houston that claims they are armed

 

[Tillicum]

Why Dallas????

 

[Everyday Grace]

From your link: Rebecca Lopez ‏@rlopezwfaa · 9m9 minutes ago

Multiple sources say Dallas SWAT deployed after a threat was made by a group from Houston that claims they are armed

@realAustinYork (reporter with KRLD)

BREAKING: ATF has received credible threat against @DallasPD headquarters. SWAT has been activated @KRLD @CBSDFW

 

[Dogface]

Honestly, these people think they will achieve anything?!? What is wrong with them? Bad storms rolling through too.

 

[perfectingpink]

Why Dallas????

I was shocked at how many people on SM sung praises to the shooter which makes me wonder if this could be idiotic retaliation.

 

[human]

Remember Beirut?I used to wonder how people lived like that. Seems we might be heading that direction.

 

[Tillicum]

raying: :grouphug:

 

[ohreally]

The threat says a group from Houston. I wonder if they have anything to do with the killing of the police officers. He may of said that he acted alone, but iirc he said it was only the beginning.

 

[perfectingpink]

Remember Beirut?I used to wonder how people lived like that. Seems we might be heading that direction.

I certainly hope not. The Pollyanna in me wants to believe we can rise above all of the hate.