Tag Archives: Dallas shooting

Cleveland police keeping low profile for Republican convention

An anti-Trump protester holds his protest sign in front of mounted police outside a rally for Republican U.S. presidential candidate

By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – As dozens of Black Lives Matter protesters chanted: “No justice, no peace!” in central Cleveland on Monday, they faced down a wall of police – on bicycles, dressed in polo shirts and shorts.

It was the kind of police presence the organizers of next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland have long had in mind – respectful of free speech, and orderly. No arrests were made.

Elsewhere in the United States, tensions are high since last week’s deadly attack on police in Dallas, creating scenes like the one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where police in riot gear confronted a woman standing calmly in a flowing dress, an image captured in a photograph that has attracted worldwide attention.

But in Cleveland, where the four-day Republican convention begins on Monday, police are committed to a low profile, avoiding the militarized presence that has become common in recent years since police across the country received free war surplus equipment from the Pentagon.

The Ohio city is sticking with its plan even after the events in Dallas, where a black U.S. veteran of the Afghan war, who had said he wanted to “kill white people,” fatally shot five police officers on Thursday.

The attack came during an otherwise peaceful protest to denounce last week’s police killings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Protests have continued in those states, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Cleveland police have said they will increase intelligence and surveillance as a result of the Dallas attacks.

“(Dallas) affects our planning, but we have planned, we have what-iffed and we have table-topped this for a long time,” the police chief, Calvin Williams, told a news conference on Tuesday. “We don’t want anybody to trample on anybody else’s rights.”

Steve Loomis, the head of the Cleveland police officers’ union, said Cleveland may be too lightly equipped. He also complained about a 28-page General Police Order sent to officers a month before the convention, with instructions on de-escalating conflicts and preserving protesters’ rights, calling it condescending and designed to make officers look weak.

“We have no shields because they think it is too offensive,” Loomis said. “But a brick to the head is offensive to me.”

TRUMP FACTOR

Political conventions are a magnet for protests even under normal circumstances, and Cleveland will have the Trump factor.

Donald Trump, the New York businessman set to receive the Republican presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has stirred passions among supporters and opponents during the campaign with his comments on illegal immigrants and Muslims, and the two sides have clashed at several of his campaign events.

Cleveland’s gun laws will allow people to carry guns openly within the so-called event zone where demonstrations will take place. The New Black Panther Party, a “black power” movement, will carry firearms for self-defense during demonstrations in Cleveland, the group’s chairman said.

The city comes into the convention with less hardware than other places. Cleveland never received any war surplus but has bought one armored vehicle and personal protective equipment for officers, a police spokeswoman said. Otherwise, Cleveland has avoided “controlled equipment” such as bayonets and grenade launchers, which the Defense Department has since recalled from many police departments.

But the city is also keeping secret millions of dollars worth of police purchases until after the convention, citing security concerns.

‘DE-ESCALATION’

Among the publicly disclosed purchases for the convention to date have been 2,000 new sets of personal protection equipment, colloquially known as riot gear.

The U.S. Secret Service and FBI will run security inside the convention hall, while Cleveland police will handle crowd control outside, aided by 3,000 reinforcements, mostly from elsewhere in Ohio.

Jacqueline Greene, co-coordinator for the National Lawyers Guild, a human rights organization, expressed concern the visiting officers may not share Cleveland’s priorities on protecting free speech.

Cleveland and visiting police will be bound by the General Police Order on managing crowds while protecting free speech and assembly rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

The order directs police to “rely on de-escalation and voluntary compliance, and without using force, as the primary means of maintaining order.”

Only the police chief or one of his designated subordinates may approve mass arrests.

“One order is to create space,” Loomis said. “That is retreating. When they (protesters) see we are on our heels, it is a victory for them.”

(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Dallas Protesters embrace the force that took bullets for them

A Dallas police officer wears a custom mourning band and a flower at a makeshift memorial at police headquarters following the multiple police shootings in Dallas, Texas, U.S

By Ernest Scheyder and Brian Thevenot

DALLAS (Reuters) – Dallas police detective Frederick Frazier strained to lift the dead weight of a fallen fellow officer from a hospital gurney and put him into a body bag. He pulled the zipper closed.

Frazier stared down, thinking – this man does exactly what I do; has a family just like mine. He’s not going home.

Frederick was among about 100 officers who had seen all five fatally shot Dallas policemen arrive at the emergency room of Parkland Memorial Hospital near the Oak Lawn section of the city early on Friday morning.

Seven others, and two civilians, were wounded. They had all been shot on Thursday night by one brutally proficient shooter who police and protesters initially believed was a small army carrying out a choreographed assault. The shooter, in later conversations with police during a standoff, suggested he was avenging a spate of police shootings of black men.

In the city’s struggle to cope with the aftershocks of the deadliest day for law enforcement in America since the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks, a Blue Lives Matter movement has emerged here. It has been embraced by protesters who witnessed the slaughter of officers who had walked with them, taken selfies with them as they protested shootings by police nationwide.

The attack on police complicates the already angst-ridden debate over officer-involved shootings. But many citizens, officers and officials of all political stripes here have so far responded by embracing one another, raising hopes for a softening of hardened positions and often vicious rhetoric.

“We are a polarized people,” said the Rev. Dr. Michael W. Waters from the pulpit on Sunday at Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. Church in Cedar Crest neighborhood, south of downtown Dallas. “Individuals believe that, if you are one thing, you can’t be another thing … but standing for justice does not mean standing against all police officers.”

Dallas now finds itself at the center of a tense national debate about whether police are the problem or solution, victimizers or victims. The city would seem to be an unlikely target for retaliation against police shootings, given that its officers have not shot a single suspect – of any race – so far this year, compared with 23 such incidents in the whole of 2012.

The decrease follows an intensive effort to train officers in the appropriate use of force.

Violent crime in Dallas has been slashed by nearly half between 2003 and last year, when there were 9,038 violent crime incidents, according to Dallas Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation records.

Still, the department – along with the city of Dallas and much of Texas – struggles to overcome a history of racial strife.

WATCHING THE WOUNDED ARRIVE

In the Parkland Memorial E.R., the wounded officers arrived, one by one. Frazier watched, trying to assess each one’s chances. Two seemed lifeless. They weren’t going to make it. Another, Mike Smith, 55, came in talking.

Frazier was almost sure he would live.

Then, soon after, the surgeon delivered the news: Smith had died in surgery, Frazier said.

Nurses wept, he said. Doctors were devastated.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown was among those at Parkland Memorial, consoling officers and their families, starting at about 2 a.m., Frazier said. Nearly an hour later, Brown walked into a room in the E.R. with more news.

“They just got him,” Frazier recalled the chief saying.

Minutes before, in a parking garage at El Centro Community College, the Dallas SWAT team had ended the standoff with Johnson by sending in a robot and detonating a pound of C4 explosives. The gunman – later identified as Army Reserve combat veteran Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas – told police he had come to kill white police officers.

He killed four of them – Lorne Ahrens, 48; Michael Krol, 40; Brent Thomson, 43; and Smith. He also gunned down Hispanic officer Patrick Zamarripa, 32, a Navy reservist and a U.S. Marine veteran.

The chief, it seemed, had hoped the news would lift the somber mood in the room, Frazier said.

Spokespeople for the Dallas Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for official department comment on this story.

‘MASS OF HUMANITY’

Minutes before the shootings, Waters, the pastor, had addressed the crowds of protesters downtown. Then he saw what he later called “a mass of humanity” stampeding toward him as he ducked behind a pillar.

Among those in the crowd was Marcus McNeil, 19, a sophomore offensive lineman on the Southern Methodist University football team. As the shooting started, McNeil saw the fear in the faces of the police officers around him.

“Active shooter! Active shooter!”

The message spread from officers through the crowd as the wave of panic rose with the flurry of rifle shots.

McNeil fled with his best friend, Tessa Johnson, 19, a fellow SMU student. He watched as officers first tried to hurry protesters out of harm’s way, then rushed toward the gunfire with guns drawn.

Minutes before, during the protest, McNeil could not have felt safer, surrounded by officers who seemed determined to protect the crowd’s right to publicly air their grievances with law enforcement, and to engage with them warmly.

“They were absolutely amazing. They actually led, and blocked off the streets as we went,” McNeil recalled. “There was a loving spirit; no negativity among anyone; just kindness.”

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

Two days later, that spirit returned to Joy Tabernacle A.M.E. Church, where a predominantly black crowd of about 50 congregants made the joyful noise of a thousand. Waters founded the church seven years ago and remains senior pastor.

Sharmeene Hayes, 45, opened the Sunday service with a prayer.

“Send a peace across the city of Dallas that surpasses all understanding,” she implored. “We thank you, Lord, for our police officers. Post your guardian angels over them.”

Off to the right, Dallas police officer Margarita Argumedo, wearing her uniform, swayed gently to the boisterous gospel music filling the small room. She leaned on the chair in front of her, her eyes closed, for minutes at a time, praying and resting. She had not slept much since Thursday.

Neither had fellow police officer Chelsea Whitaker, who sat two rows ahead.

Both women, who had been invited to the service, were celebrated and given the opportunity to speak. Whitaker offered a gripping portrait of everyday threats officers face.

“Part of my job is serving warrants for the U.S. Marshal’s Service,” she said. “If somebody killed somebody, I’m coming through the door. If somebody raped somebody, I’m coming through the door. If somebody robbed somebody … Violent crime is what me and my team do.”

Argumedo asked for prayers, and for rest.

“You can’t sleep,” she said. “When you lay down, you start thinking about those that didn’t come back.”

Waters referenced the teachings of Jesus in the biblical book of Matthew. He at first spoke softly, then in a rising, rhythmic style that is the hallmark of many African-American preachers.

By the time he hammered home the essential challenge of the sermon – and the past week’s bloodshed – his baritone voice shook the room.

“Do you truly think that all lives matter?” he roared. “If you want to be a peacemaker – if you want to be like Jesus – we have to love our enemies and pray for those who despise us.

“If you think that black lives matter, then you know that all lives matter – and that blue lives matter. Can you honor and celebrate those officers who protect us every day? … If you stand with those who are criticized, you will get closer to God.”

(Reporting by Brian Thevenot and Ernest Scheyder, additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin and Marice Richter in Dallas; editing by Ross Colvin)

After Dallas shooting, U.S. Police forces rethinking tactics

Law officers march down a street during protests in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

By Nick Carey

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Police departments across the United States are searching for new tactics for a more difficult era of racial tension, increasingly lethal mass shootings and global terrorism.

After last week’s killing of five officers in Dallas, the deadliest assault on U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, nearly half of America’s 30 biggest cities have issued directives to pair up police officers on calls to boost safety, according to a Reuters survey of police departments.

And one, Indianapolis, said it would consider the use of robots to deliberately deliver lethal force, an unprecedented tactic until Thursday when the Dallas police department used a military-grade robot to deliver and detonate explosives where the shooter was holed up.

While a wave of anti-police protests since the 2014 killing of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, has revived memories of 1960s protests over civil rights and the Vietnam War, Thursday’s shooting marked something different: a willingness to take up arms against police.

Ambushes against police on Thursday and Friday in Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri added to a sense of being under siege and vulnerable at a time when many departments already were grappling with heightened community suspicion over the use of deadly force.

Responding to the Dallas shooting, Denver’s police union wants officers to wear riot gear for local protests and to be armed with AR-15 assault rifles while patrolling Denver International Airport, the union said in a letter to the mayor published in The Denver Post.

The most immediate change is the pairing up of officers. Thirteen of the country’s 30 biggest city police department said they are pairing up officers – a change that could strain already thinly staffed police ranks in some regions.

(The 13 are New York City, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Seattle, Memphis, Boston and Portland.)

In Albuquerque, New Mexico — one of several cities dealing with an officer shortage — pairing officers could mean “possibly longer response times for lower priority calls,” said its police spokesman, Simon Drobik. And for cities with tight municipal budgets, some question whether this expensive strategy can last beyond the short term.

Doubling up officers “is a resource-intense approach and it will be a significant challenge for some police departments to sustain that strategy for very long,” said Thomas Manger, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), which represents police chiefs from the country’s largest cities.

He predicted over the longer term that police will increase surveillance and expand their security presence at major events across the country. “This will cause complaints about violating people’s constitutional rights to free assembly, but it is the only way to guarantee safety,” he said.

‘TARGETS ON THEIR BACK’

The attack in Dallas came during a demonstration Thursday over the shooting by police of two black men. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot by police in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and Philando Castile, 32, was killed on Wednesday night in a St. Paul, Minnesota suburb.

The Dallas shooting also left seven officers injured.

“We need to figure out a way to ensure that police officers don’t get targeted, because right now they do have targets on their backs,” said Andrea Edmiston, director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents about 241,000 U.S. police officers.

Few of the police forces approached by Reuters said they could discuss specific changes in tactics beyond pairing officers on the beat. Los Angeles and Denver, for instance, declined for safety reasons to discuss tactics.

Indianapolis police spokesman Kendale Adams said his department would consider using a robot to deliver a bomb. “Our team will consider all options in (a) deadly force encounter,” he said in an e-mail.

If every police department had New York City’s resources, the challenges would be much less.

New York police spokesman Stephen Davis said some 1,500 of the city’s 36,000 police officers have received coordinated heavy weapons training.

Davis said there are officers around the clock who can respond to an active shooter situation in an estimated three to five minutes.

“As most active shooter situations last under 10 minutes, that speed is crucial,” he said. “But we are well aware of the luxury that we have with so many resources available to us.”

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group, said that as 90 percent of America’s 18,000 police forces have under 50 officers, many simply cannot afford the kind of staff needed to respond as quickly as needed to mass shootings.

Wexler said the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 had been a milestone for police in realizing that major public events could become targets.

“Police departments will have to deploy additional forces to what have traditionally been low-risk events,” he said, “because those events now have the potential for some extremist or madman to commit violent acts.”

But he said that the best way to reduce deaths from attacks with semi-automatic weapons is to gain the trust of local communities so people will come forward and help prevent attacks. Once an attack starts, there is only so much the police can do.

The MCCA’s Manger said that beyond police strategy and tactics, what America needs is a change of mindset.

“Everyone on both sides needs to take a step back.”

(Additional reporting by Julia Harte in Washington; Editing by Jason Szep and Mary Milliken)

Dallas Mother thanks police for shielding her and her son

A makeshift memorial at Dallas Police Headquarters one day after a lone gunman ambushed and killed five police officers at a protest decrying police shootings

DALLAS (Reuters) – When the bullet struck her leg during the protest in downtown Dallas, Shetamia Taylor’s first thoughts were for her four sons.

Taylor tackled the nearest boy to the ground then looked up to see a police officer racing to shield them from the gunfire.

“That officer jumped on top of me and covered me and my son and there was another one at our feet, and there was another one over our head,” Taylor told reporters on Sunday.

“I’m thankful for all of them, because they had no regard for their own life.”

Pushed into the news conference at Baylor University Medical Center in a wheelchair and hospital gown, Taylor wept as she recounted seeing two officers shot in front of her.

One was a tall, white, bald policeman. “As he was going down, he said, ‘He has a gun. Run,'” she recalled.

Police said a military veteran killed five officers on Thursday in a rampage that was the most deadly day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Taylor, 37, said when she first heard the gunfire, she thought it might be fireworks left over from Fourth of July celebrations. She said the attack left her hurt and angry.

“Why would he do that?” she asked of the gunman, identified by authorities as Micah X. Johnson, 25.

Johnson launched his ambush during a protest against the killing by police of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana, one of a string of demonstrations nationwide.

Taylor had attended with her four sons, aged 12 to 17.

“I was scared, I really didn’t know what was going to happen,” Jamar Taylor, 12, told reporters, breaking into sobs as he described becoming separated from his mother.

Taylor said, in her opinion, the police were not all “out to get us” and that people should reserve judgment.

“Please, just stop and think,” she said. “I tell my kids all the time, you know, ‘Closed mouth, open mind will get you a long way in life.’ Sometimes, just be quiet and think first.”

Another of her sons, Wavion Washington, hailed the officer who shielded them as they escaped.

“He was really selfless and he put himself in harm’s way … to protect us.” Washington told the news conference. “So, we understand that there are a few bad apples out there, but they don’t spoil the whole bunch.”

(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Gregorio)

What led to the Deadliest Attack on police officers since 9/11?

Dallas Police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas

By Kami Klein

What led to the ambush of Police officers and the death of five police officers who were standing guard during a peaceful protest in Dallas? What caused this tragedy? What will be the answer to these kinds of violent attacks? The factors are numerous and create a storm of emotion from all sides.  

Many woke this morning with news of another shooting, another ambush, more lives lost.  In the previous days we have read about and watched on video, Facebook and television the ugly pictures of police confrontations that have led to the shootings of black men by white officers.  Black Lives Matter protests were planned in cities all over the United States because of the deaths of Philando Castile from St. Paul, Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.  But while all other protests were violence free, a deadly plot went into effect to cause the demise of white police officers.

This ambush of police officers ended with the shooting of 12 people, 5 police officers dead and 7 wounded.  In the words of Chief of Police, David Brown, from today’s press conference in Dallas,

“All I know is that this must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”   

Chief Brown’s words  were not directed at white or black.  He happens to be a black police officer who began his statement speaking for law enforcement of every color and race. “We are hurting, our profession is hurting, Dallas officers are hurting.  We are heartbroken.”  

At approximately 9 p.m. Thursday night shots rang into the night, picking off police officers who were standing guard at a Black Lives Matter protest. The protesters had gathered after a Minnesota officer on Wednesday fatally shot Philando Castile, 32, at a traffic stop outside St. Paul. His girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter were in the car with him. Reynolds live streamed the aftermath on Facebook.

A day earlier, Alton Sterling was shot in Louisiana after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers. That, too, was captured on a cellphone video.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said he and others in the police department participated in the planning of the rally and many protesters talked about how peaceful it was with police officers posing for and taking pictures with many of the protesters.  

According to Fox news, approximately 60 rounds were fired that led to chaos in the streets as citizens and officers alike frantically looked for cover.

CNN issued a report from an eyewitness, Ismael Dejesus, who was in his downtown Dallas hotel room when he heard “popping sounds.” He went to the balcony to see what was going on.

At first he thought he was hearing fireworks but then he saw someone kill a police officer.  

Dejesus, who filmed parts of the chilling exchange, told CNN that he saw the suspect get out of a Chevy Tahoe SUV wearing tactical clothing.  He had a rifle, AR-15 with a large magazine, He went over to a pillar put a magazine in and started firing.  Dejesus said that the attack looks planned, prepared and that he knew just where to stand, with ammo ready.  

The shooter was seen standing by a white pillar spraying bullets to the left and right, which Dejesus believes was to bring the police closer to him.

‘”He was trying to get a commotion going, trying to get cops’ attention.”

When one officer attempted to engage the shooter one-on-one, he was killed by multiple shots fired at point blank range.

“It looked like an execution honestly. He stood over (the officer) after he was already down and shot him maybe three to four times in the back. It was very disturbing to watch.

“He shot without any fear. He didn’t care.”

The gunfire was followed by a standoff that lasted for hours in a parking garage of a local college, with a suspect who the Dallas police chief   said had told authorities “he was upset about the recent police shootings” and “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” He was killed when police detonated a bomb robot.

The Associated Press identified the gunman as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25.

Reuters reported that Johnson was a member of the group “Black Panther Party Mississippi” on Facebook, which has over 200 members. Earlier this month he shared a video showing what he described as white people killing what looked like dolphins or whales.

The U.S. Army said Johnson had served as a private first class in the Army Reserve, made up of part-time soldiers, and was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014. It said Johnson served from March 2009 to April 2015 and was a carpentry and masonry specialist with the 420th Engineering Brigade based in Texas.

The investigation will continue in Dallas on the shooting while the traditional debate on gun control begins.  Many sources report that after these kinds of mass shootings, gun sales surge and more Americans are buying fire arms than ever before.   

The Crime Prevention Research Center (CDRC)  an independent research and education organization has created studies over several years in which research backs a massive increase in background checks (one of the only ways to track the majority of new gun owners)  and applications for conceal and carry on firearms with all mass shootings. From these numbers, it seems that most American’s prefer to be armed and are finding the environment in the United States one in which they feel more secure in owning a gun.  

With racism still a factor in America,and the shortage of well qualified police officers whose numbers continue to dwindle, the political factions cannot seem to come together  on a plan of action.  Americans across the country are feeling a sense of helplessness,uncertainty and fear.

The understanding and answers will only come when we realize that it is not a question of whether you are black or white, a police officer or not, democrat, republican or independent;  ALL lives matter! 

As Chief Brown closed today’s press conference asking the world for prayer and consideration.

“Please join me in applauding these brave men and women who do this job under great scrutiny, under great vulnerability. Who literally risk their lives to protect our democracy. We don’t feel much support most days, let’s not make today most days. Please, we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these who carried out this tragic, tragic event. Pray for these families”