Another White Male Shooter Taken Without Incident

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:

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.