Balton Rouge shooting.

[Greyblades]

Baton Rouge: Three US police officers shot dead

Three police officers have been killed and three injured in a shooting in the southern US city of Baton Rouge.[...]

Mobile phone footage from Baton Rouge showed police cars arriving at a road intersection. Several shots were then heard.

Officers were responding to a report of a man carrying a rifle along a major motorway, Colonel Mike Edmonson told a news conference. He said the gunman was dressed all in black.

Witnesses reported a man firing indiscriminately.

"We believe that the person who shot and killed our officers, that he was the person that was shot and killed at the scene," Col Edmonson said.

US media outlets are naming the gunman as Gavin Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri. Two of the dead were Baton Rouge police officers and one was an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office deputy. All three were married and had family.

One of the injured was in a critical condition, while the other two were in a stable condition.

The local sheriff's department spokeswoman told WAFB TV the incident began shortly before 09:00 local time (14:00 GMT).

A witness interviewed by the station said the shooting appeared to have broken out before law enforcement officers arrived at the scene.

Witness Brady Vancel told WAFB he saw what may have been gang members shooting at each other before police arrived.

Another witness said she saw a gunman wearing a black mask and military-style clothing.

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden said he had spoken to White House officials who had offered assistance. He said it was "a defining moment" for community relations.

But he also told local media the "rhetoric from some people" after the death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge may be connected to the shootings, without elaborating who.

"Everything's been anti-police," he said.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole obsessing over the perp, but I found this on Gavin Long after 5 second on google:

Gavin Eugene Long: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

1. Long, Who Served in the Marines, Registered a Website Under the Name Cosmo Setepenra in April After 2 Years Living in Africa

2. He Went to Dallas After the Attack on Police There, He Says in a Video Posted to Youtube

3. He Dropped Out of College for a ‘Spiritual’ Trip to Africa, His ‘Ancestral Homeland’

4. Long, Wearing Black With His Face Covered, Began Shooting ‘Indiscriminately’ as Officers Responded to a Call for a Man With an ‘Assault Rifle’

5. The Shooting Comes After Several Days of Protests in Baton Rouge Over the Fatal Police Shooting of Alton Sterling

[Vuk]

You forgot that he is a member of the Nation of Islam

[Fragony]

You forgot that he is a member of the Nation of Islam

Basicly black-panters, this is getting rediculous. Police will only shoot faster, nice maelström. RIP officers.

[Husar]

You forgot that he is a member of the Nation of Islam

Was:





http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...tia_group.html

He was also associated with the Sovereign Citizens, who are known to kill policemen for "fun"...
"When you want peace, you gotta go to war..." Could be a conservative...
I'd go with disturbed individual, happens all the time, nothing we can do.

[Strike For The South]

American Policing is totally screwed up from top to bottom. Most departments in large cities are equipped like para military organizations. Part of that is due to federal initiatives like the war on drugs and part of it is due to the perception that American criminals are better armed. The second part is not unfounded, of course. Departments are equipped for war not outreach.

So who get to use all this fancy equipment? The physical requirements for my city are, bench press less than 200 pounds, and run 1.5 miles in 16 minutes. These cops start out of shape and no PD that I know of requires any sort of physical regimen beyond the baseline test to get in. The test on various legal statutes and police protocol is something you can pass with a couple hours of study time. The psyche eval for most departments is a rubber stamp.

They are totally unequipped to go out and police in any meaningful sense of the word. These guys are behind the 8 ball before their first shift even starts.

[Papewaio]

I assume the problem is that you aren't tipping your police enough in the USA.

Protect and Serve. As service providers like waitresses shouldn't the police get tipped too? If not why, not?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I assume the problem is that you aren't tipping your police enough in the USA.

Protect and Serve. As service providers like waitresses shouldn't the police get tipped too? If not why, not?

The localized graft of the 1920s beat-cop era is long gone. If you want to be bribed/paid off to do your job, you really have to go and get yourself elected.

[Papewaio]

It was tongue in cheek about the tipping after all it seems that is what is expected for good service.

The issue is, are police in the U.S. well paid, trained and respected? Or is the pay and respect so bad that the good ones have better options.

[Fragony]

It was tongue in cheek about the tipping after all it seems that is what is expected for good service.

The issue is, are police in the U.S. well paid, trained and respected? Or is the pay and respect so bad that the good ones have better options.

In the Netherlands all of that. Police isn't hated but not respected either, their work is pretty futile, if they catch someone for small crimes like burglary or robbery they have to let them go almost immediatly, some minor criminals they have caught over 50 times. A lot of cops are at home with a burnout

[Hooahguy]

This incident from yesterday isnt helping the rhetoric. A cop shot a black man who was lying on the ground with his hands up. When asked why he shot the man, the cop answered "I dont know." I think cops in the US need more training.

[Husar]

Well, I said so before:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7709638.html

“In the US, police training lasts on average 19 weeks,” she writes, while “in much of Europe that would be unthinkable. In Germany, for example, police train for at least 130 weeks.

You kind of get what you pay for. Yay for low taxes!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

It was tongue in cheek about the tipping after all it seems that is what is expected for good service.

The issue is, are police in the U.S. well paid, trained and respected? Or is the pay and respect so bad that the good ones have better options.

Good but not great pay; excellent pension percentages of that pay in retirement; early retirement (most after 20 years and after age 55); training varies, with the larger urban departments often well funded and trained. Police (when not working speeding traps) are generally respected by most working class and middle class Americans. Urban underclass does not respect them and our politician and professional class publicly proclaim respect for them, but consider the job a bit "declasse" and would not want their own children so employed.