http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/17/us/bat...-shooting/

 

I don't even know what to make of this. Is there an inordinate number of minorities who find themselves on the wrong end of the barrel in the United States? Yes. Is inviting Obama to declare martial law and an "emergency suspension" of Second Amendment rights going to solve it? No. I mean, not unless you're Obama or any of the Democratic lawmakers who want to see gun rights reserved for the elite to defend themselves against the common rabble.

 

What's really sad is seeing just how divided this country is over this. Murdering anyone, regardless of who's pulling the trigger and who's taking the bullet, should be universally condemned, but it's not. A quick glance at my Facebook feed shows people--people who had been reasonable about this whole thing--talking about how police deserve to be shot, or how BLM are a bunch of...yeah, not using that word...out to "ruin things for the rest of us". You can probably guess the skin color and economic status of the person who wrote that, and you're right.

 

This country is more divided than I've ever seen it. Granted, I wasn't around for the 1960's Civil Rights movement or the Red Scare, let alone Vietnam, but it's a pretty scary time all things considered. I'd bet that if you put a few BLM leaders and a few law enforcement officials in a room together for a few hours, they'd come out with some kind of understanding, but that's not going to happen. It's far too convenient for demagogues like Trump and Clinton to keep their core voters angry enough at someone, anyone, to ensure that they show up in November, and in the meantime, Obama's fishing for an excuse to carve himself a lasting legacy as the guy who killed the Second Amendment.

 

The images I keep seeing are peaceful protests--yes, peaceful--in Baton Rouge met with a phalanx of cops in riot gear who push into the crowd and effectively take away their right to peaceably assemble. With tensions there what they are, I suppose it's not wholly unexpected that someone would take to targeting cops, but that doesn't excuse it at all. Shooting each other won't solve this. It's just playing right into the hands of those who want to see the bloodshed continue, and it's polarizing, even radicalizing people that I'd previously thought were better than calling for more attacks on police or dropping n-bombs to generalize an entire group of people as murderers in training. They really do have us right where they want us, and some elements of society on both sides of the badge are only too happy to eat right out of their hands.

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