Deadly Ice shooting comes as violence spikes amid Trump immigration crackdown

Experts, detailed studies and recent violent attacks on Democratic political figures suggest a more complicated picture of violent extremism from both ends of the spectrum…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/25/dallas-shooting-ice-facility

 

Dallas lives with JFK legacy – but hate that spawned assassination simmers

In Dallas, the buckle on the Bible belt, the hostility was a toxic mix of racism, anti-communism and religious bigotry aimed at America's first Catholic president – some feared that Kennedy was being controlled by the pope. Extremist groups such as the John Birch Society and the Minutemen were small but vociferous. 

Mike Rawlings, a Democrat who was mayor of Dallas from 2011 to 2019, said: "There was definitely a very conservative bent. The John Birchers were the worst of it but still there was a lot of folks that were that way. It was the Tea Party and Maga [Make America great again] before the Tea Party and Maga."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/18/jfk-assassination-dallas-legacy-political-conspiracy-extremism

“You’re Gonna Kill Me”: Bodycam Video Shows Dallas Officers Mocking Man ...

In August 2016, 32-year-old Tony Timpa called 911 to ask for help. Timpa had schizophrenia and depression, and was off his medication for schizophrenia. Timpa told the Dallas dispatcher that he was scared. The police responded, and within 20 minutes Timpa was dead. For the past three years, the city of Dallas has fought efforts to release police bodycam footage showing what happened, but the video was finally released this week after a prolonged legal battle. The shocking video contains disturbing footage, with officers arriving on the scene where Timpa was already handcuffed by a private security guard. In the video, Timpa repeatedly pleaded for his life. Police officers mocked Timpa as he died. We speak with Geoff Henley, an attorney representing the Timpa family. “They don’t tend to spend money on the front end to prevent tragedies such as this,” Henley said, referring to the Dallas Police Department. “You have to hit them in the pocketbook to make them change their conduct.”I
Interview:
https://youtu.be/21T4A6HuPY8

Friends swap sneakers to show how Dallas club uses 'Air Jordan ban' to exclude black people - Raw Story

A group of friends in the Dallas area switched sneakers to show that a popular club was selectively enforcing a ban on Air Jordans to turn away black club-goers. ....
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/friends-swap-sneakers-show-dallas-club-uses-air-jordan-ban-exclude-black-people/

Dallas school police tased a 7-year-old, and then body slammed a 12-year-old the next day

Dallas Independent School District is under fire after two separate violent incidents in the last week.

Yosio Lopez, a 7-year-old student with special needs, was reportedly handcuffed and tasered by police while at school last Tuesday. ...
https://thinkprogress.org/dallas-police-schools-violence-kids-fd6cd565a8c0

Another black child killed by police

Texas police shot and killed a black ninth grader over the weekend as he was leaving a house party. Initially, officers claimed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards was in a car driving aggressively towards them — but camera footage revealed the opposite....
https://thinkprogress.org/another-black-child-killed-by-police-7f3c0f5f5373

Police Account Changes in Killing of Texas 15-Year-Old

As family and friends mourned the death of a 15-year-old boy shot in the head by a police officer in a Dallas suburb over the weekend, the police chief said Monday that new evidence showed the killing did not unfold the way the authorities had originally claimed.

The Police Department in Balch Springs, Tex., said Sunday that the officer, whose name has not been released, fired on a car carrying the teenager, Jordan Edwards, a freshman at Mesquite High School in nearby Mesquite, Tex., because the car was reversing down a street toward the officer in an “aggressive manner.”...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/dallas-police-teen-shooting.html?_r=0

A Conservative Case for Black Lives Matter

Jonah Goldberg has some sensible things to say about both Black Lives Matter and the killing of five police officers in Dallas:...
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/07/conservative-case-black-lives-matter

Dallas Mayor Perfectly Explains What's Wrong With Texas Open Carry Laws

Mark Hughes was peacefully protesting the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling while openly carrying his AR-15 in Dallas Thursday night. It was his photo that police first posted claiming Hughes, and not Micah Xavier Johnson, was the shooter. Police corrected the error, but the mistake was a glaring example of the problems that can arise from Texas’ open-carry gun laws.

Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings joined John Dickerson on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” to explain the problems that surfaced Thursday night as police were attempting to subdue the shooter.

“You know, in dealing with the law of gun holding, you can carry a rifle legally, and when you have gunfire going on, you usually go with the person that’s got a gun,” Rawlings explained, explaining why many people were arrested that night. “And so our police grabbed some of those individuals, took them to police headquarters, and worked it out and figured out that they were not the shooters.” 

Therein lies the biggest problem with open-carry laws....
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/dallas-mayor-perfectly-explains-whats-wrong-texas-open-carry-laws

LISTEN: On Guns, Dallas Police Chief Tells Legislators: 'Do Your Job'

Dallas Police Chief David Brown held a wide-ranging press conference on Monday, where he touched on race, the investigation and the issue of guns.

In a dramatic moment, he urged legislators to do their jobs and propose new laws to combat gun violence.

"We're doing ours. We're putting our lives on the line," Brown said. "The other aspects of government need to step up and help us."

With that, here are five pieces of audio from that press conference you should listen to:....
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/11/485559307/listen-on-guns-dallas-police-chief-tells-legislators-do-your-job?ft=nprml&f=1001

Open Carry Failed in Dallas

The open-carry movement faced a very public test in Dallas last week. It failed.

While concealed carry can be championed ostensibly as a means of self-defense, open carry prioritizes performance over pragmatism. After all, openly carrying a firearm is an ideological statement more than a self-defense posture: It cedes the crucial element of surprise to an armed assailant. Open carry's true goal is to normalize extreme gun culture by making firearms familiar, visible and ubiquitous.

Last Thursday, more than a dozen participants in Dallas's Black Lives Matter protest came prominently armed. When shots from a sniper rang out, police officers had to discern instantly -- working in chaotic conditions, at night, under fire -- whether the armed protesters were murderous criminals or something else. Police stopped some of those carrying guns, and designated one a "person of interest." Trying to divine the intentions of the armed marchers diverted time and energy from the pursuit of the sniper.

This led Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to observe that, "in a shooting situation, open carry can be detrimental to the safety of individuals." That's true as far it goes, which is not nearly far enough: Open carry is detrimental to public safety, period....
http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-12/open-carry-failed-in-dallas

‘These Fatal Shootings Are Not Isolated Incidents’

President Obama still had more to say.

On Thursday afternoon, the president released his first public statement on the two police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota this week. But after arriving in Warsaw for the NATO Summit Thursday night, Obama gave extended remarks that fleshed out his concerns over the shootings and what they mean to minority communities in America.

“When incidents like these occur, there’s a big chunk of our fellow citizens that feels as if because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same—and that hurts,” Obama said, at roughly 12:30 a.m. local time. “And that should trouble all of us. This is not just a black issue. It’s not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/obama-shootings-minnesota-louisiana/490403/?utm_source=feed

A Black Police Chief on the Dallas Attacks

In the hours following the shooting death of five police officers in Dallas during an otherwise peaceful demonstration, opinions blared from social media, televisions, and newspaper front pages. In the din of it all, I reached out to the retired police chief Donald Grady II, who served as chief in Santa Fe, New Mexico, among other cities, and also trained police forces abroad in managing racial and ethnic strife among the ranks and with civilians. His 36 years on the force, as a black American, were marked by some familiar tensions and themes—racial targeting, police brutality, unwarranted hostility, lack of cooperation, and mutual paranoia. In a candid and expansive conversation, Grady unpacked for me some of the complexities of wearing a blue uniform while living in brown skin. An edited version of our conversation follows....
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/black-police-chief-on-the-dallas-attacks/490496/?utm_source=feed

4 Absurd Reactions to Dallas: The Right's Insane Blame Game

Blame abounds in the wake of the brutal slaying of five police officers in downtown Dallas. But while most people place the responsibility for this tragedy squarely in the hands of the man who shot the police officers (who were by all accounts monitoring and protecting protestors), some on the right believe other people are to blame.

Here's a roundup of some of those (besides the gunman himself) who are being blamed for the Dallas shooting....
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/4-absurd-reactions-dallas-rights-insane-blame-game

Pundits Didn't Waste Any Time Attacking Black Lives Matter As Dallas Tragedy Unfolded

On Thursday night, snipers gunned down 11 officers, killing five, while they were working a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. According to the Dallas police chief, one suspect told a hostile negotiator that he “wanted to kill white people” because he was angry about police shootings and the Black Lives Matter movement. The chief emphasized that the suspect acted alone and was not affiliated with any movement, including Black Lives Matter.

Even so, right-wing commentators and media organizations are seizing on the tragedy to revive a baseless narrative that the racial justice movement is promoting a “war on cops.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/08/3796587/dallas-shooting-sparks-war-on-cops-debate/

Former congressman promises ‘war,’ warns Obama to ‘watch out’ after Dallas shootings

Following the killing of at least five police officers in Dallas overnight, a former one-term congressman from Illinois ignited a firestorm with a now-deleted tweet threatening President Obama with “war” and warning Black Lives Matter demonstrators to “watch out.”...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/07/08/former-congressman-promises-war-warns-obama-to-watch-out-after-dallas-shootings/