The management team of Face Activities extends our sincerest and deepest condolences to the families of the civilians and police officers killed and wounded in Dallas, Texas, yesterday, at the hands of a crazed killer. No ideology, movement, social goal, or political strategy is worth such pain and loss of life. We commend peaceful protesters who seek to reach their goals through non violent means.
Tragedy has struck in Dallas, and throughout the country, following a of week tragic events and escalating tensions. Yesterday 14 people were shot, including 12 police offers (5 officers died from their wounds) in Dallas, Texas, during a Black Lives Matter protest. In addition, several smaller-scale shootings of police officers throughout the country have also occurred over the last 24 hours.
Hundreds of citizens had gathered in Dallas to peacefully protest the deaths of two African American men, Alton Sterling, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the hands of police. Suddenly shots rang out. Micah Xavier Johnson, a lone gunman with military training from former service in the U.S. army, and an alleged history of sexual assault, had opened fire on the police, kicking off a protracted fire-fight, lasting hours.
At first police suspected that there was more than one gunman, having mistaken several protesters dressed in camouflaged clothing as suspects. Eventually the gunman was cornered, and after extensive negotiations failed, he was killed via a bomb delivered by a remote-controlled robot (a first in law-enforcement history.)
By all accounts, the police behaved honorably and bravely, shielding the crowd of civilian protesters, who had gathered to lawfully exercise their First Amendment Rights, and leading them to safety, while locating and ultimately neutralizing the assailant. Their actions brought home to many the notion that the vast majority of cops are decent, heroic people, tasked with a difficult and often dangerous job, in order to protect and serve their communities. Nonetheless, sadly, some social media users rejoiced in the deaths of these unfortunate law-enforcement officers, though they were often met with push-back and harsh criticism.
Many members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and other civil rights activists throughout the country, maintain that there’s absolutely no contradiction between protesting police over reach and supporting law-enforcement. They see the ultimate goal of the movement as better policing that saves lives, and that’s viewed as a win-win scenario that will ultimately benefit communities, and the law enforcement organizations charged with protecting them.
Photo: Dickelbers, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (image was resized)
