Their calls are being echoed by prominent liberal politicians, many of whom are now piously saying we should all “come together” to combat violence.
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A protest against two recent police shootings of African-American men in the USA states of Louisiana and Minnesota was wrapping up on Thursday evening when suddenly shots rang out. Video footage of their final moments went viral online.
We’ll never get the chance to interrogate the suspected gunman, named by U.S. media as Micah Johnson, 25, about the extent of his actual links to the Black Lives Matter movement – he was killed at the scene.
“It’s on all of us to stand up, to speak out about disparities in our criminal justice system – just as it’s on all of us to stand up for the police who protect us in our communities every day”, he said. One video showed a gunfight with a suspect shooting an officer at point-blank range as he lay on the ground.
Police officers, deputies and state troopers who serve and protect in West Virginia and Virginia paused to remember officers who were killed or wounded in Dallas, Texas after a sniper opened fire at a protest march.
Micah Xavier Johnson, who fatally shot five officers and wounded seven more before police killed him with a remote-controlled bomb on Friday, lived with family members in the blue-collar suburb of Mesquite, where he played basketball for hours at a time.
According to his Facebook profile, Johnson identified as a black nationalist. He presided over the funeral of another black man who was shot by a white officer earlier this year, and was part of a dialogue with police that followed and brought him a sense of healing.
“Black Lives Matter doesn’t condone shooting law enforcement”, said actor and model Sir Maejor, an organizer with the movement in Atlanta.
Friday’s anti-police brutality demonstrations were held in several cities including Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Nashville, Phoenix, San Francisco and NY. To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is unsafe and irresponsible.
“These are just regular people, living their regular lives, doing regular things, and they’re being attacked by doing so”.
In Phoenix, confrontations broke out between protesters and police. “And race is complicated”.
“There are some who would use these events to stifle a movement for change and quicken the demise of a vibrant discourse on the human rights of Black Americans”.
The president commented on the attacks from Warsaw, where he was attending a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit.
President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked for the public’s prayers.
Downtown Dallas was empty and quiet, on this day after.
The Dallas shootings sparked chaos as people scrambled for safety during a march by several hundred demonstrators in the city of 1.2 million. In Misouri and Georgia, the attacks were described as “ambushes”.
Shortly after he earned the rank of chief, Brown lost his own son in a police-related shooting – after his son shot and killed an officer.
Micah Johnson, who donned a protective vest and used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, was killed by a robot-delivered bomb after the Thursday evening shootings, authorities said.
“This was a well-planned, well-thought out, evil strategy”, said Brown of the gunman.
In his six years as police chief, David Brown has endured profound tragedy – in many different ways.
Two reporters working to cover the protest and arrests were briefly detained by police, Ciminelli said. “The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers”.
Three suspects were said to be in custody. That now appears to be because Johnson was employing a tactic of “shoot and scoot”.
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The gunman told police he was not affiliated with any organized groups.
