DALLAS POLICE: A COMPLETE FAILURE TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE PROBLEM

Background:

Snipers, one of whom sounds like a mentally ill veteran, shot and killed 5 policeman in Dallas at the end of a protest conducted on behalf of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both of whom were murdered by police in the states of Louisiana and Minnesota on back to back days.

Dallas Police Chief Brown's Response: 

"We try our best to be transparent — and I can tell you that not all cops like it," Brown wrote in The Dallas Morning News at the time. "It does open us up to criticism, threats and exposure of every mistake we make. But it's the right thing to do."


That partly explains why Brown expressed such shock on Friday that a sniper who "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers" over violence against black citizens targeted his department, killing five officers and wounding seven others. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Brown revamped the department to encourage more community policing and minimize violent encounters between officers and citizens.



"This police department trained in de-escalation far before cities across America did it," Rawlings said during a press conference Friday. "We are one of the premier community policing cities in the country. We are working hard to improve, and there's always room for improvement. But we are best in class we feel..."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/08/dallas-police-department-shootings/86848986/

Clearly, the people that shot the police officers were mentally ill (cough-cough).  So none of this really matters. But I'd like to speak to the claims that the Dallas Police represent the "best in class."

I'm glad the Dallas Police is making a sincere effort, but this police brutality / state sanctioned police murders thing is a nationwide problem

I'm glad the Dallas Police are making a sincere effort, but what does that mean when your police department is located in Texas, a state identified as the most racist state in the nation -- on more than one list. More important than any list is the map by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is showing that the U.S. has 842 hate groups about now. Texas has nearly 10% all by itself. 

I'm glad the Dallas Police are making a sincere effort, but what does it mean when the police officers that "are the best in class" can accuse a black person or make "a person of interest"  based on nothing but his black skin? Or did he forget, in less than 24 hours, that MARK HUGHES is receiving death threats because this Dallas Police tweet.

The Dallas Police accused Mark Hughes, made him a person of interest, when Hughes appears to have been on the ground the entire time while the gun shots were coming from well above street level. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/08/during-deadly-dallas-shooting-confusion-swirled-around-armed-man-carrying-a-rifle/

So as things stand now, the Dallas Police made a mistake.

But please do note
that the Dallas Police made
"best in class" 

made the same preliminary "mistake" 

as the officers 

who ALSO
made the final "mistake" 

of murdering

Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. 

That is, didn't the Dallas Police assume a black person to be dangerous without any evidence at all,
just like the murderers we've saw earlier this week on video?

Isn't that usually the first "mistake" when an unarmed black person is killed? Isn't that usually the first "mistake" when a black person is killed when he has a gun but is no where near his hands?


Wasn't it black skin that made Mark Hughes a person of interest? It couldn't have been he was a person of interest because of some logical probably cause. He was carrying a weapon in an open carry state. Texans are proud of being an open carry state. So wasn't if it stereotyping, assumptions, and bad police work that has put Mark Hughes' black life in danger, then what was it?

Mark Hughes is brother to Corey Hughes, one of the Black Lives Matter organizers.  And maybe the Dallas Police didn't know that when they sent out the tweet. I'm having a hard time making myself believe this, but it is possible. 

However, I'd like to know who else the Dallas Police picked up because they were legally walking around with weapon?

In Texas, surely there was somebody else walking around with a legal gun. And if there was a Black Lives Matter protest going on in Texas, you can bet some of the those somebodies were Trump supporters with guns. 

So who else did they pick up before they had any REAL suspects at all. Did they consider, even for a moment before they had a REAL suspect, that maybe a white anti-protester wanted to start a nationwide race riot ala this other tweet that went out last night -- from a former congressman.

So, who else did the Dallas Police label as "a person of interest" by "mistake."

The thing that worries me most is that I believe the police chief.   I believe Brown when he says that The Dallas Police are the best. When I am feeling optimistic I believe that the best police departments in this country are about 50% of what they should be, just like Dallas, and that the worst, Cleveland and Chicago are 10% of what they should be. 

If the best police departments
cannot solve the first problem
of stopping its officers
from accusing people
without any evidence of guilt
other than black or brown skin,from accusing people
without any evidence of guilt
other than black or brown skin, then the second problem,
killing people without any evidence of guilt
other than black or brown skin,
is not going to go away either. 

We are ALL bombarded by whiteness as good and right while black and brown is erased (OscarsSoWhite I and II) or black and brown is labeled as bad (false accusations in police tweets, newspapers, stereotypes in television, movies, and books). This is bombardment of pro-whiteness and anti-blackness is so prevalent that the officer doing the killing doesn't even have to be white; He or she just has to live within the predominantly white media's anti-blackness bombardment zone called "The United States."

So we're going to have to address the first problem first: patriarchal white supremacy. 

So, I'm glad Dallas Police is doing better than it was doing, especially located in hate-central Texas. But the Dallas Police Department just proved their improvements may be more luck than skill.