Yep, I've heard of Duncan Lamp. The details of the case are pretty murky. Lemp's girlfriend claims he was in bed, the police claim he was shot after refusing to comply with orders to get on the ground and trying to get to his gun. Sadly, no video evidence of who is telling the truth, but it's a pretty long way from Breonna Taylor's case.
Yep, I've heard of Duncan Lamp. The details of the case are pretty murky. Lemp's girlfriend claims he was in bed, the police claim he was shot after refusing to comply with orders to get on the ground and trying to get to his gun. Sadly, no video evidence of who is telling the truth, but it's a pretty long way from Breonna Taylor's case.
The police were at the right house, they'd received an accurate tip off that Lamp had illegal firearms, and, if the police testimony is true, fired only when the Lamp refused to follow orders. None of this is true in Breonna's case.
I have to say, I'm not convinced BLM ever had a sympathetic ear on the right. And the idea that the police decided to target this random guy out of the millions of people with horrible politics like his is ridiculous. But there's no doubt the story would have been handled very differently if Lemp were black.
Dear Steve: thank you for your thoughtful reply, which illustrates where I wasn't clear earlier. Of course I didn't mean to suggest that the Taylor and Lemp cases were exactly the same, but they were both no-knock raids where the police made claims that were soundly refuted by the other folks in the residence. In Lemp's case, the police had bodycams but there is no footage of the raid itself. Did they turn the bodycams off? Or destroy the evidence later?
I'm not arguing that Lemp was a saint, and I'm not a right-winger who believes he's a Boogaloo martyr. I'm saying that even in the bluest of blue America, police go guns blazing into residences where there are other people than the suspect, without even trying other means first. I'm trying- perhaps unsuccessfully- to back up your point that that police brutality is a problem that transcends race. I also believe, and I think the Lemp case illustrates this, that with a different framing, common cause around police militarism could bring some right and some left groups together on this particular issue.
Re: BLM and the right, I didn't use the best language. I should have said that at different points, prominent Republicans have expressed some interest and sympathy in police shootings of unarmed civilians. For example, MItt Romney marched in a post-George Floyd vigil. Tim Scott gave speeches on the Senate floor back in 2016 about being stopped around DC as a black man and several of his GOP colleagues were supportive of police reform bills that Scott was sponsoring. Again, it's a very narrow point I'm making, which is there is a constituency on both left and right for police reform, if that issue can be separated from other culture war battle cries.
Thank you for your continued exploration of sensitive topics.
A man was killed by the police in a raid pertaining to illegal firearms, a victimless crime. America has the world's largest prison population. What would it be if crimes had to have a victim? Would there be any story at all here?
Eric Garner was choked to death in a confrontation with the police about illegally selling cigarettes. It is probably safe to assume that the cigarettes had been taxed. Who was a victim in this crime? Why is it a crime? A man died.
We could reduce police interactions with the public that have a possibility of turning deadly by having fewer crimes that shouldn't be a crime. Something that gets little to no discussion.
Yep, I've heard of Duncan Lamp. The details of the case are pretty murky. Lemp's girlfriend claims he was in bed, the police claim he was shot after refusing to comply with orders to get on the ground and trying to get to his gun. Sadly, no video evidence of who is telling the truth, but it's a pretty long way from Breonna Taylor's case.
The police were at the right house, they'd received an accurate tip off that Lamp had illegal firearms, and, if the police testimony is true, fired only when the Lamp refused to follow orders. None of this is true in Breonna's case.
I have to say, I'm not convinced BLM ever had a sympathetic ear on the right. And the idea that the police decided to target this random guy out of the millions of people with horrible politics like his is ridiculous. But there's no doubt the story would have been handled very differently if Lemp were black.
Dear Steve: thank you for your thoughtful reply, which illustrates where I wasn't clear earlier. Of course I didn't mean to suggest that the Taylor and Lemp cases were exactly the same, but they were both no-knock raids where the police made claims that were soundly refuted by the other folks in the residence. In Lemp's case, the police had bodycams but there is no footage of the raid itself. Did they turn the bodycams off? Or destroy the evidence later?
I'm not arguing that Lemp was a saint, and I'm not a right-winger who believes he's a Boogaloo martyr. I'm saying that even in the bluest of blue America, police go guns blazing into residences where there are other people than the suspect, without even trying other means first. I'm trying- perhaps unsuccessfully- to back up your point that that police brutality is a problem that transcends race. I also believe, and I think the Lemp case illustrates this, that with a different framing, common cause around police militarism could bring some right and some left groups together on this particular issue.
Re: BLM and the right, I didn't use the best language. I should have said that at different points, prominent Republicans have expressed some interest and sympathy in police shootings of unarmed civilians. For example, MItt Romney marched in a post-George Floyd vigil. Tim Scott gave speeches on the Senate floor back in 2016 about being stopped around DC as a black man and several of his GOP colleagues were supportive of police reform bills that Scott was sponsoring. Again, it's a very narrow point I'm making, which is there is a constituency on both left and right for police reform, if that issue can be separated from other culture war battle cries.
Thank you for your continued exploration of sensitive topics.
A man was killed by the police in a raid pertaining to illegal firearms, a victimless crime. America has the world's largest prison population. What would it be if crimes had to have a victim? Would there be any story at all here?
Eric Garner was choked to death in a confrontation with the police about illegally selling cigarettes. It is probably safe to assume that the cigarettes had been taxed. Who was a victim in this crime? Why is it a crime? A man died.
We could reduce police interactions with the public that have a possibility of turning deadly by having fewer crimes that shouldn't be a crime. Something that gets little to no discussion.