Is our FLAG flying more at HALF-MAST than ever before ? Given the STATE OF OUR UNION… should we just leave it at HALF-MAST ?
White lives matter
Blue lives matter
Black lives matter ONE NATION UNDER GOD ?
Pained lives matter
ad nauseam lives matter
26 police killed so far in 2016, up 44% from 2015
SHOULD THIS BE CONSIDERED A EPIDEMIC ?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/08/nationwide-police-shooting-deaths/86861082/
The number of police officers shot and killed in the USA is 44% higher than at this time last year following the Dallas ambush Thursday night that left five officers dead, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
The deaths of four Dallas police officers and one Dallas transit officer from sniper fire during a protest in the city Thursday raised the national total of firearm deaths among police to 26. This compares with 18 at this point in time in 2015, said Nick Breul, director of research for the fund in Washington, D.C.
Breul said it was also the latest of 11 ambushes of police officers so far this year across the country, already outpacing the eight ambushes of law enforcement that occurred last year.
“That’s certainly a concern for us. It’s troubling and it’s something that we watch,” Breul, a former Washington, D.C., police officer, said about the shootings. “It’s really an assassination. You’re taking advantage of an officer and you’re ensuring that you’re able to kill them through them either being vulnerable or through a complete surprise attack.”
Breul said the last major ambush targeting police occurred at a coffee shop in Lakewood, Wash. on Nov. 29, 2009, when a gunman walked in and opened fire on four city police officers working on their laptop computers preparing for their work shifts. All four were killed. The gunman died two days later in a shootout with police.
Forty-one officers were killed with guns last year. The largest, annual number of police officers shot and killed nationally in the past ten years was 70, who were killed in 2007, according to the memorial fund website.
Filed under: General Problems
Just a quick thought or three. People in general are exhibiting many levels of discontent with the oligarchs that presume to rule over us, along with the policies, the laws and the general attitude that these “rulers” have towards us, the mundanes. This is not new. It’s not just the current administration or the previous or the one before that. This has been simmering for a while…probably going back at least 50 years. It’s coming to a head. The State’s enforcers, the public face of the presumed ruler’s muscle, aka the compellers of the mundanes to obey the various seemingly arbitrary and capricious edicts of the ruling class, are simply the easiest and most convenient targets of the pent up frustration and anger. They serve as a proxy for the kinds of things that these angry, frustrated people would do to the ruling class, were such as easily and conveniently accessible.
Now I do not condone this. I’m frustrated too. However, I don’t see doing lethal violence on unsuspecting police officers as an acceptable way to voice ones frustrations and grievances against the words, deeds and attitudes of the ones who ultimately are directing the law enforcement apparatchik against the population, or against certain segments of the population, as real or perceived.
Just the same, I expect the State, aka the Federal Government to do what it always does when such situations develop. That is to assess the situation and to sit down to have a sincere, agenda-free, meaningful dialog, determining the what real problems are and then to do whatever is necessary to fairly and resolutely solve the issues, up to and including the reduction of overburdensome taxes on the middle class and the return of much of the power that the Federal Government has usurped over the years from the several states and the individuals. Yeah, that was good for a laugh, no?
No, the State shall not be defied. It’s power and authority must not be allowed to be challenged without some sort of retribution meted out to put the fear of the State into the people’s hearts on some level. There will be a systematic ratcheting up of more civil liberties sacrificed on the altar of “Public Safety”. Kiss your 2nd Amendment Rights goodbye. Your First Amendment Rights will go shortly after and the tattered remnants of the other 8 will go too. This is a pivotal point in our history. I realistically doubt that the America we know now will exist in 10 years. When people are so frustrated that they are willing to ambush local law enforcement officers, that’s a sign that it’s getting bad. The Beltway Bunch will do what rulers always do and that is to ratchet up the authority and force against anyone that is pushing back…first on the physical level on the streets and then in word and if possible, even thought. I don’t want to sound like an alarmist or a cynic. Really, I’m not. I’m just a student of history and I’ve read about this kind of thing time and time again.
Human technology has vastly changed in the last 5,000 years. We, as a species…not so much. We think ourselves better…but the truth is that we still think in pretty much the same ways as our ancestors, we have their same weaknesses and we respond to the same kinds of political and social challenges in pretty much the same way. We are just better at maiming and killing than they were. Improvement? Yeah. Right.