© Andrew Kelly / ReutersPeople hold up a banner during a Black Lives Matter protest outside City Hall in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016
Police in Pennsylvania were responding to gunshots Friday morning when their vehicle came under fire by two teenagers. The teens were arrested on Tuesday. The mother of one holds Black Lives Matter at least partially responsible.
"They are in jail for doing what Black Lives Matter wanted them to do: shoot at cops," Luz Rentas said in a statement to several media outlets, Associated Press reported. "The truth is that these are two punk kids following the orders of an irresponsible organization and now they're gonna pay for it."
Comment: Ms. Rentas isn't thinking clearly. BLM as a movement does not give orders to kill cops.
Marquell Rentas, 17, and Trenton Nace, 18, are cousins facing serious charges, including attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer. They were arrested after officers received a report of a shooting at a cemetery in Columbia, just before 3:30 am on Friday, according to the AP.
The 17-year-old Rentas reportedly told officers, "I was shooting at you," when he was arrested.
District Attorney Craig Stedman seemed to agree with the mother, saying, "There's a lot of rhetoric demonizing police. It creates greater a chance to have individuals emboldened to take violent actions out on police."
Comment: That is not the same as "giving orders" to shoot to kill. The fact of the matter is that the police have seemingly been given orders to shoot to kill. It is not the "demonizing" of police that leads to a greater chance of violence against police; it is the fact that police violence against citizens has reached unacceptable levels, and the people have had enough of it.
The local Black Lives Matter chapter rejects Luz Rentas' accusations, saying the group does not endorse violence as means to accomplish their goal of ending police brutality.
Kevin Ressler, pastor and co-organizer of Lancaster's Black Lives Matter chapter, said Rentas reached out to him on Monday night via Facebook and had a lengthy conversation. He hopes to meet with her and the teens to discuss how to better serve young African-American men.
"Hopefully we can take this near-tragic circumstance and try to figure out what positive can come from it," he said, AP reported.
Reader Comments
I got a kick out of the district attorney saying, "There's a lot of rhetoric demonizing police..."
Fighting back against one-sided power and injustice is not rhetoric, especially when that power refuses to acknowledge it is at fault.
The rhetoric comes from police associations that defend their own from murder convictions and then step up their enforcement (abuse) because they say that 'there is a war on cops'. I get the feeling that if the current internet and cell phone technology existed forty years ago we would be in the same place we are now because police abuse of minorities and those who live 'outside' of society has always existed. In light of that, I would say the cops have every right to be concerned but rather than recognizing their game is up and trying to help society, they invite blow-back from the public by stepping up their assaults on the innocent.
Don't get mad at BLM, get mad at the government(s) that create the injustices which give rise to BLM.
BLM is showing its true colors more and more. Of course, their official policy is not to support or condone violence, but unofficially many members applaud violence against cops, whites, and especially white cops.
BLM should stick to proven injustices like disparate sentencing. Their "disproporionate numbers of blacks are killed by police narrative" has no basis in fact when you consider other factors, like violent crime rate among races. It's a purposeful distortion created by MSM.
BLM is a racist organization. Check their recent demands. In their reparations section, one of them calls for a minimum livable wage -- for blacks only.
If any white person asked for that for whites only they would be deemed racist, fired, ostracized, and rightly so, but "we" encourage such ideas when it comes to blacks because there are different rules for different races. Racism does not "fix" racism, it does just the opposite.
Black Lives Matter is a dismal name. It's hopeless. It raises too many awkward, confusing questions both outside and inside the group, of the "do blue people matter?" kind. Black Lives Matter are doomed to disintegrate chiefly because of their awful self-corriding name.
Ms. Rentas isn't thinking clearly. BLM as a movement does not give orders to kill cops.
Thanks to SOTT I have researched Malcolm Gladwell and his book Blink, I haven't read the book but have ordered a copy from the Public library. In the video I will post below:
[Link]
He describes a police confrontation with a man named Amadou Diallo. It is described in his book but he gives a narrative of the event in this video. It describes a police confrontation resulting in loss of life. The events that lead up to the confrontation, the events and the conclusion of the event, which involved loss of life and multiple gun shots to the victim by all officers involved. This occurred in 1999 Now let's fast forward to a recent event.
Some of you may remember the incident of the shooting of Alton Sterling. He was shot dead reaching for his wallet. If you watch the video posted by his girlfriend, concentrate on the officer, his reaction to the event, he is also distressed.
Make no mistake, I am not excusing the behavior of the police, I am using this as an example
In the video linked above Malcolm makes the comment that all the cops were rookies. The interpretation of the events were flawed 1) He was Black the location of the incident and 3) The possible bias of the officers involved.
And to me highlights the shoot first and ask questions later, not of the victim (of course it's too late, he's already dead) but how to cover up the crime.
If lessons were taken from these incidents then there should have been mass education of the police, how to approach a suspect. how to deescalate a conflict situation and of course police department debriefing and input from all police officers in the departments involved. And a major aspect psychological testing of anyone who applies to the police force to ensure that they are fit for the position. Those are my few suggestions.
But of course that is not the reality, those measures would be part of a serve and protection of community.
But let's look at today, the police not just in the US but worldwide, have trained the police to think of the public as the enemy. Why else would they have military type vehicles, military type uniforms, military grade weapons use military strategies (kettling comes to mind during public demonstrations) which were only a decade or so ago used in military combat.
The police state as an institution for the most part is a corrupt institution and only serves those corrupt institutions that we have in power do a 360 look around what do you see.
as BLM. It's a meme, an abstract rallying point around which people are expressing outrage at the authorities' outrageousness.
Yes there is. Here's their website...[Link]
It's taken them about a year to get it going, but they now have masses of people (who would otherwise be sympathetic) associating the *idea* that black people don't deserve to be summarily executed with 'threat'.
It's not just about black lives matter, it's about the whole of collective humanity regardless of race color and creed, religious background, ethnic origins, It's about humanity!
Now if we accept what the definition of being human is from the Oxford definition of being human, we have this
[Link]
A man, woman, or child of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from other animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance.
I would say we have a whole lot of "stuff' lost in translation.
Either way, whoever becomes president (and the Trump/Clinton thing is definitely stirred into the pot). The USA's militarised police on steroids state isn't going away in a hurry
"BLM as a movement does not give orders to kill cops"
bull fucking shit....."what do we want? dead cops, when do we want them? now!!!"
that was the chat, the SOTT guys are Turing into something not to bright......
"how to better serve young African-American men"
stay in school and study
don't hang out with the wrong crowd
DON'T SHOOT AT COPS!!!
pretty fucking simple if you ask me.
Due to the centuries of institutionalized poverty within most inner city black communities it comes as no surprise when the youngsters look up to the gangsters and drug dealers driving their fancy cars around. And where did they get those drugs? Well the CIA of course.
So when these kids get busted early on in their lives and do a bit of time, who will hire them after a criminal record? Are you gonna do it? And so the cycle continues and their kids grow up in fatherless families with no financial security.
You need to understand the factors involved with the issues of racial discrimination before you spout a bunch of angry simple minded proclamations.
and yet these same kids have a cell phone with free internet access......education starts at the home AND at the personal level....no school required.
i know that because they post 1000's of videos on worldstar hip hop. Also, look up "kid beat up for being on the honor roll"
i'm sick of the excuses and the BLM terrorists group is full of them.