Extremists Targeting Police Is A Terrible, But Longstanding Scourge

The horrendous revenge murder of five Dallas police officers by a deranged anti-white, anti- police militant armed with an SKS rifle, at an otherwise peaceful protest, yesterday is the latest, in a long line of police deaths at the hands of extremists.
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Police officer in bulletproof vest outdoors, back view
Police officer in bulletproof vest outdoors, back view

The horrendous revenge murder of five Dallas police officers by a deranged anti-white, anti- police militant armed with an SKS rifle, at an otherwise peaceful protest, yesterday is the latest, in a long line of police deaths at the hands of extremists.

The lone killer, Micah Johnson, liked various militant groups including the New Black Panther Party, a black separatist organization on Facebook. Dallas Police Chief David Brown stated, "The suspect said he was upset at white people [and] stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers." The Dallas attack comes during a week of outrage across the nation following the release on social media of highly disturbing video showing the killings of two African-American men after being stopped by police in Minnesota and Louisiana.

For well over a century, one half of police officers have been in the crosshairs not only of criminals, but of extremists across the ideological spectrum as well. The Dallas attack is the single worst loss of life for American law enforcement since 9/11. Other officers have also been targeted for attacks since the Dallas massacre in Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri.

Over the last decade, officers have been killed or injured in traffic stops and enforcement activities involving anti-government or white supremacist extremists. In the 1960s through the 1980s left-wing, Black liberation and Puerto Rican independence extremists among others injured or killed law enforcement.

Let's hope that all Americans will embrace the exhortation of Dr. King during this painful time for both our African-American friends and those in law enforcement as well.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that

Representative Sampling of Mass Violence Directed At Police By Extremists Over The Last 150 Years

  • 9/11/2001 72 NY Law enforcement officers were killed responding to al Qaeda 9/11 terror attacks, with more succumbing to illnesses from working at the attack scene.

  • 11/24/1917 11 police officers killed after bomb left at church by suspected anarchists explodes at Milwaukee Central Police Station
  • 4/19/1995 8 Federal agents are among the 168 killed during the bombing of Oklahoma City 's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh.
  • 5/4/1886 8 Officers killed at Haymarket Square labor rally bombing and gunfight along with at least 4 civilians
  • 10/30/1950 8 Puerto Rico police officers are murdered in coordinated attacks by the independence oriented Nationalist Party
  • 7/7/2016 5 Dallas Police officers (including a transit officer) are murdered by a deranged anti-white extremist
  • 12/31/1972-1/7/1973 A Black Panther Sniper kills 5 New Orleans area police officers.
  • 4/4/2009 White supremacist Richard Poplawski kills 3 Pitsburgh police officers and wounds another who were responding to a domestic dispute.
  • Sources: Officer Down Memorial Page; Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism

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