See black guy with gun; he needs to be apprehended !
How many people of any race were seen carrying a long gun in the area where nearly a dozen innocent persons get shot by someone using a long gun?
Hmm. A black man carrying a long gun at a Black Lives Matter protest where white cops are shot by someone using a rifle?
Tell me there were a couple of white guys carrying rifles who were ignored while the police focused on this black man and I'll consider racism. Until then, I suspect "long gun" had a lot more to do with the man being considered a suspect than his race. Although let's be honest. If a similar thing had happened at KKK or skin head rally and the police had identified the one white guy in the area carrying a slung rifle as a possible suspect, would anyone be crying "racism"?
This looks to me like a classic case of profiling....and not in the entirely negative, politically correct way that word is used.
What is most ironic about the chosen target, is that according to a couple of different articles, including one on
NPR and one at
the Independent in the UK the Dallas PD is a "model of transparency and engagement" and "the police are a part of the community." "Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters that he and his colleagues had taken part in organising the peaceful rally against police brutality that was in progress before the bloodshed began. His officers even posed for pictures with protesters, contrary to the division and confrontation that has characterised similar demonstrations in other cities."
What some seem to be suggesting is that police should completely ignore identifying features like race or sex, even when they might well be relevant.
And as a middle aged white guy, I recognize that if I want park my car to take a phone call or eat a sandwich, a grammar or middle school parking lot is not nearly as good a choice for me than it might be for my wife. I recognize that I'm going to be scrutinized differently than will my wife if I approach a child who appears to be lost or otherwise in some need. And I was a lot more selective about who I'd let my son babysit for than I was my daughter.
It is not unusual for cops to get a name a wrong suspect. There are good reasons constitutional protections for the accused exist: it is entirely possible to get the wrong guy. Richard Jewell was not only very white, but a cop to boot. Richard Ricci, who was wrongly accused of, arrested for and died while in custody for, abducting Elizabeth Smart was also very white, though he had a parole violation and the prior conviction as marks against him. Nobody screamed racial profiling in these cases.
Falsely crying wolf is generally not good for anyone.
Charles
