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Showing Original Post only (View all)Were officials too quick to tie Texas deputy shooting to Black Lives Matter? [View all]
Were officials too quick to tie Texas deputy shooting to Black Lives Matter?
Law enforcement officials have arrested and charged a man in the shooting of a Houston deputy. The motive remains unclear.
Christian Science Monitor By Jessica Mendoza
21 hours ago
Law enforcement officials on Saturday arrested Shannon J. Miles, of Cypress, and charged him with capital murder in the fatal, execution-style shooting of Harris County deputy Darren H. Goforth, NBC News reports. Deputy Goforth was filling up his patrol car at a Houston Chevron gas station when the gunman approached from behind, opened fire, and fired again as Goforth lay on the ground, according to Reuters.
While the motive behind the shooting remains unclear, officials were quick to link the incident to Black Lives Matter, the series of demonstrations against police misconduct. Goforth was white, Mr. Miles is black.
"We've heard black lives matter; all lives matter. Well cops' lives matter too," County Sheriff Ron Hickman said at a news conference following the arrest. "At any point where the rhetoric ramps up to the point where calculated cold-blooded assassination of police officers happen[s], this rhetoric has gotten out of control.
Authorities took Miles in for questioning early Saturday, after deputies found the shooters suspected vehicle a red, extended-cab pickup truck parked in Miles driveway less than a mile away from the scene, The Houston Chronicle reports.
Miles, who has not identified any motive for the shooting, has previously been convicted of resisting arrest, trespassing, and disorderly conduct with a firearm, according to CNN.
Harris County district attorney Devon Anderson, who appeared with Sheriff Hickman, also pushed back against widespread criticism of police. There are a few bad apples in every profession, she said. That does not mean that there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement.
Despite ongoing efforts to improve relations between law enforcement and black communities across the nation, tensions remain high between police and the public. From Ferguson, Mo. to New York City, high-profile, violent confrontations between officers and unarmed black men and women continue to be the focus of calls for sweeping police reform.
In Texas, State Representative Garnet F. Coleman (D) of Houston criticized Hickmans remarks.
It strikes me as politicizing a death that, I dont know that anyone knows what was in the mind of the shooter, said Rep. Coleman, who is leading an inquiry into the death of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman found dead in a Waller County jail cell in July, according to the Times.
I think black lives matter, he continued. I think deputy sheriffs lives matter. But I think the statement shows a lack of understanding of what is occurring in this country when it comes to the singling out of African-Americans.
At least one of the movements leaders has also criticized Sheriff Hickmans comments as misguided.
It is sad that some have chosen to politicize this tragedy by falsely attributing the officer's death to a movement seeking to end violence, civil rights activist DeRay McKesson tweeted.
Still, the shooting which shocked the suspects neighbors as well as Harris County, the most populous in Texas could be an opportunity for the community to come together. On Saturday night, hundreds attended a vigil for Goforth, who leaves behind a wife and two children and whom colleagues described as a passionate officer and a family man.
"We need a lot of healing rather than anger," Houston police Lt. Roland De Los Santos, who met Goforth decades ago, told KPRC Houston. "We need for the community to understand that most of us are out here to help. We really are out here to do good."
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Were officials too quick to tie Texas deputy shooting to Black Lives Matter? [View all]
marble falls
Aug 2015
OP
In this summer of a Birther using hatred and violent rhetoric as his only weapon being feted by an
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#1
Thats why we don't let families prosecute, jury or execute. I understand their lack of balance....
marble falls
Aug 2015
#6
It made and makes perfect sense to me, and it's well within the context of your and marble's
BlueCaliDem
Aug 2015
#22
Are you advocating some sort of "Sharia" law????????? Due process is what I am interested in....
marble falls
Aug 2015
#27
First of all this hasn't been classified as anything but an open homicide. Its that due process/....
marble falls
Aug 2015
#29
You're the guy telling me to ask the slain deputy's two small children about what his death was....
marble falls
Aug 2015
#42
So now its personal. What an ungraceful way to concede you have no argument. Crude, but I accept it.
marble falls
Aug 2015
#47
+1, the same folk aren't going to attribute these actions to Bundy though even if they're from Bundy
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#61
Fuck th police is a verbal reaction to police brutality... are you saying this is in reaction to
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#30
So when a cop murders a 12 year Tamir was it "Fuck teenage black boys" by the police?! Wonder
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#38
You're jumping to the conclusion it had something to do with cops vs Dads or people who wear
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#54
It was question, I even put it in capital letters to outline it as a question. No need to burn out .
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#62
There's a history of blacks unloading 15 bullets into cops backs like there's a history of police
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#34
21 times more likely isn't a stereo type it is fact, and there's no "perceived" anything it's been..
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#51
Cops are NOT 21 times more likely to be shot by black men... no, the cop didn't have a point...
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#37
No, anything does NOT go including this poor equivocation of the cop... cops are NOT 21 more times
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#43
Did, nothing in the article says shoot cops in the back 15 times at close range or anything close
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#50
You're kidding right?! That's more to do with locking them up not murdering them !! come on people
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#56
I support them, I'm not defending them at all. I agree, lock dirty ass'd cops up! Why wouldn't
uponit7771
Aug 2015
#60
Thats why they are armoured and armed. Thankfully the vast majority of cops don't ever pull a piece
marble falls
Aug 2015
#45