As John discusses below, three to six police officers [update: eleven officers, five of whom were killed] are reported to have been shot in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter protest, or a protest along similar lines. At least some of the officers are said to be gravely wounded. (As always in these situations, such reports should not be taken as definitive.)
Reportedly, at least two shooters were involved and they were armed with heavy duty rifles and equipped with bullet proof vests. In effect, they were snipers. Fox News’ Dallas affiliate says that one has been “neutralized” [update: this report was erroneous] and that police are “negotiating” with the second [update: now the word is that he is “cornered”].
If the reports are true, we can infer that this assault on the police was planned and that those involved are terrorists and/or revolutionaries. Presumably, the snipers knew there would be a protest, knew that the police would be present in large numbers, and seized upon an opportunity to shoot at officers like ducks on a pond.
“Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon,” as “peaceful” Black Lives Matter protesters like to say.
I agree with John that public officials like Barack Obama and Mark Dayton have plenty to answer for when it comes to growing anti-police sentiment. Dayton’s unsupported assertion that the victim of the recent shooting by a police officer in Minnesota wouldn’t have been shot had he been white is reprehensible.
If my (tentative) understanding of what happened in Dallas is accurate, however, it’s questionable whether we can place blame for this episode on Obama, Dayton, or other similar leftist critics of the police. The shooters appear to be terrorists and/or revolutionaries. They may be taking their cues from someone, but they probably aren’t taking them from morons like Mark Dayton or standard-issue liberal race mongers like Barack Obama.
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