If
it were a script, you still wouldn’t believe it. Another mass
shooting and the media does not mention the instrumental role of guns
in the shootings. Yet again, the culprit is a white male with no
mention of the many such occurrences of the recent past - the
many that have ruined so many lives. But, what amazed me was the news
report that the shooter was taken “without incident.”
I
can’t begin to list the names of Black men shot and killed by
police - unarmed or otherwise - where they could’ve
been apprehended “without incident.” I imagine there
have been many, but there have also been many others who were plainly
killed.
This
45-year old Jason Dalton went on a shooting spree and killed six
people in “Gunville, USA,” or Michigan - Kalamazoo,
to be precise. The man was taxing people around between his urges to
randomly shoot and kill people. No, this is not a Hollywood movie.
This guy was unbelievably cogent and had no criminal record. I’ve
said for some years now, that white males are the single greatest
threat to peace and civility, worldwide. Of course not all white
males are dangerous, but those white males who protect myths of white
superiority, white male dominance, paternalism and American
exceptionalism are the threat to us all - Black and white.
Another
white male, 57-year old Robert Lewis Dear, stepped out of his car and
shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. It’s been
credibly reported that the suspect while executing this shooting
spree made remarks about "baby parts" to investigators
after his surrender, indicating that he subscribed to Right Wing
ideology. More relevant to my point, he was taken into
custody - without incident.
Without
incident is nothing new…Do you recall 2011 Aurora,
Colorado Theater shooter James Holmes? Holmes, dressed in tactical
clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with
multiple firearms. He killed 12 people and wounded 70 others. His
killing spree resulted in the largest number of casualties in a
shooting in the United States. Holmes was arrested in his car parked
outside the cinema minutes later - without incident.
My
point here is that white males shouldn’t be able to voluntarily
surrender when they’ve finished their mass shooting rampages.
Black mass shooters surely don’t. Look, I know this isn’t
a typical point for arguing for racial equality in America, but the
reality is racial disparity in America knows no boundaries.
Omar
Thornton ended his mass shooting with a bullet to his own head. In
2010 Thornton had been called in by his employer, Hartford
Distributors in Connecticut, to be disciplined for stealing
inventory. After signing a resignation agreement, Thornton opened
fire, killing eight people.
Shortly
after being released from prison, Maurice Clemmons shot and killed
four police officers in Parkland, Washington. Clemmons managed to
evade police for two days before being shot and killed by officers in
Seattle. Over nine days in February 2013,
Christopher
Dorner killed four people, including three police officers, and left
three injured. In his manifesto, posted online before the shootings,
Dorner recounted the racism he encountered while working as a Los
Angeles Police Department officer and the firing that he deemed
unfair. Dorner died of a self-inflicted gunshot during a standoff
with police. Not one of these captures was without incident.
Although
I’ve been emphasizing the gun element for some years now, we
know the National Rifle Association (NRA) will highlight mental
health or criminals with guns as the cause of America’s cancer
of gun violence. Whether that’s accurate or not, white males
are the driver of the epidemic US society refers to as mass shooting.
It is unfortunate and criminal that mainstream media allows white
male, gun supporters to force-feed us the myth of Black men as the
most dangerous threat to The American Way.
According
to data compiled by Mother Jones magazine, which looked at mass
shootings in the United States since 1982, white people - nearly
exclusively white men - committed some 64% of the shootings,
while Black accounted for 16%. Asians logged in at 9% of the mass
shooting in this country, and Hispanics rounded out the percentage of
gun-related domestic terrorist acts.
As
always, in the analysis of a mass shooting, I want five key questions
answered:
- Are not guns the problem here?
- How do white mass shooters get to live, and Black ones don’t?
- In the aftermath of a shooting, why does mental health
get to become an issue, when anyone who wants to kill another human
being, is insane?
- Why are Americans even the least bit hesitant to call the attack what it is: terrorism?
- Why isn’t the press questioning the police on their disparate conduct in cases such as these?
I’ve
written far too many commentaries on this issue of gun violence and
mass shootings. No matter who gets elected as legislators or chief
executives, they fail, year after year, to solve two high profile
problems that keep this country sick: racism and the proliferation of
guns. We all see the problem, but will continue to live a life of
false security - with false equivalencies - when it comes to
gun violence. This turning a blinds-eye to the obvious makes it
extremely hard to trust elected leaders, politicians or white
Americans as a whole.
I
said it in my December 10, 2015 commentary, The White Bullet Difference,
identifying the problem is simple. When human beings are shot and
killed, guns are
the problem. Guns create that lopsided balance of power that
terrorizes unsuspecting people. Terrorists know this. That's
why the gun is their preferred weapon of choice. Those that use
those guns (or supply mass shooters with those guns) are no less than
terrorists.
Also
in that commentary, I said, there are different rules for different
folks. White people get to break laws, get breaks when they do, and
walk away with their lives still salvageable. James Holmes, the 2011
Colorado theater shooter who killed 12 people and injured dozens
more, booby-trapped his home with explosives and was holding a gun
when the police showed up. How and why did he get to live?
Michael Brown was shot dead in a Ferguson, Missouri street. Tamir
Rice was shot and killed on Cleveland playground. Eric Garner was
killed - literally at the hands of the police. Neither he nor the
police even used a gun. But it’s obvious: Unlike with white
people, with Blacks, there’s always an incident.
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