Texan gun owner Joe Coker said Dallas police have not received enough credit for how well they handled the crisis Thursday: not getting trigger-happy as a man with an AR-15 assault rifle opened fire and others with those same weapons were running through the streets seeking cover.
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“He said he was upset about the recent police shootings”.
That information might not have mattered during their confrontations with police, Smith said. We came out here because we are exhausted of people being hurt.
But Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings insisted that however well police managed the crisis, the open carry law makes their job harder.
“It was very important that we realized that he may not be bluffing”, he said. We get it. We really do. Brown initially said police believed at least two snipers had shot at police, ambush-style, from high vantage points.
The protesters were singing We Shall Overcome. Obviously they had to find Hughes and question him; a man with a rifle at the site of an attack involving a rifle is the dictionary definition of a person of interest.
“We were assisting the police”, added his brother. DontComply.com and Come and Take It Texas have reached out to Huey P. Newton but have been rebuffed, they claim, which contributed to the decision by the groups to skip Thursday’s rally. Only three states completely prohibit the open carry of firearms. But when they told me that I was a suspect, it was mind-blowing.
BLOW: And if I may say, open carry just started in January in Texas so this is a new phenomenon for all of the citizens there. Like Short, he partly blames the rhetoric of those that are a part of and aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement for police distrust of black open carriers. “Whenever you are a voice speaking truth to power, people despise that and they’d rather take you out than see you be an agent of change”. “The Huey P. Newton gun club does it in such an intimidating fashion”.
Why do you bring a rifle to a peaceful protest?
Lakeith Howard demonstrates outside the Triple S Food Mart where Alton Sterling was shot dead by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Dallas Police Department did not immediately respond to Complex’s request for comment.
Huey P. Newton gun club co-founder Babu Omawale told the Texas Tribune Saturday that attitudes like Grisham’s are pervasive among law enforcement. The footage shows tension rising in the room as there is difficulty in arranging for the gun to be given back, even though officers did not press any charges. “I think it’s understandable that right now he feels a little slighted”. There’s probably no way to minimize cases of mistaken identity in a situation like this, but Hughes will now spend the indefinite future looking over his shoulder for would-be vigilantes who have seen his “suspect” photo but didn’t see the part about him being cleared.
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“We are not a threat”, Grisham said. Activists say black gun owners are often treated differently than white gun owners to a sometimes fatal degree. “The good guys are going to obey commands, the bad guys are not”.
