“We are up against a force that doesn’t play by the rules”.
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In Sunday’s Baton Rouge shooting, Gavin Long, 29, a former Marine from Missouri dressed in black and carrying extra ammunition, opened fire on officers about 8:45 a.m., police said.
“We were able to keep a lid on it until those images went out”, Chambers said.
The protests have ceased for now, but Dunn expects them to resume after the funerals for the slain officers.
The group condemned recent violence but also called for more community policing tactics. “That’s why we ended up where we are”. Millville, N.J., Police Chaplain Bob Ossler prays and weeps with a local resident as she places flowers on a memorial at the B-Quik gas station on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Baton Rouge, La.
“I witnessed firsthand as peaceful protesters were violently attacked and arrested, assault weapons pointed at them with fingers on the triggers, some dragged across the cement, their clothes ripped off of them”, said Alison Renee McCrary, president of the Louisiana chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “What I saw happening was an immediate threat to life”.
“We still want to move forward with our demands for justice and protest, but let’s stand down a minute and pay respects to these officers and their families so the message isn’t taken out of context”, he said. That night, officers showed restraint in the face of aggressive taunts by about 150 protesters, backing down when a confrontation appeared imminent.
After he was killed, investigators found a card on Long’s body suggesting he was a member of the Washitaw Nation, according to two law enforcement officials.
The next weekend, police in riot gear arrested almost 200 protesters.
Since then, however, the temperature on the streets seemed to be cooling down.
Police said they believed that Long, armed with two rifles and a pistol, had meant to make his way to the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department a short distance away to take more lives.
Together Baton Rouge is a faith-based community organization that has been active locally for seven years. The tensions between police and African-Americans are real and can’t be understated.
Thousands of people turned out at several locations around Baton Rouge for protests in the aftermath of Sterling’s July 5 death. “We will do it with the goodwill of activists like those I have sat with in recent days, who have pledged to work together to reduce violence even as they voice their disappointments and fears”. Genuine discussions about police can not be comprised exclusively of accusations against officers who are sworn to protect all citizens, not just a particular race or class of people.
One law enforcement officer remains hospitalized Monday after being wounded during an ambush attack, officials say.
“The police are making progress”. Authorities said Long ambushed law enfor. “We’ve been pushed to the brink, but I think Baton Rouge is poised to serve as a model down the road”.
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Police in too many cities come to work each day fearing that any citizen they encounter might be armed and unsafe, regardless of the color of their skin.For now, the healthy national debate over the factors that have created those realities – and what can be done about them – is being drowned out by the sound of gunshots and the tears of peace-loving, law-abiding Americans who simply want the shooting to stop. “But. persistence – and I would say stubbornness – in bringing change is essential”. “But I really sense something happening here. If we want things to change we have to do things differently”. They may not agree on much, but they’re talking. He says he wanted people to know that his actions were his alone.
