This story is so, so cool. Wow.

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I was out of the town for Toronto’s big Pride parade, but I heard all about it.  The local Black Lives Matter folks decided to blockade the parade, stopping it for half an hour, and then issued a ransom note to the Pride organizers.

Wow, I thought, observing the drama play out on Twitter.  One group of victims victimizes another group of victims, and justifies it by claiming a higher victim status.  Ironies abound.

Anyway, that melodrama went on – and on and on – in the pages of the Toronto Star for days. The rest of us moved on.

Then, all of a sudden, Louisiana/Minnesota/Dallas hit.  They happened almost as a triptych.  At the start of last week, the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter seemed almost understated, and police were on the defensive everywhere.  Then, Dallas exploded, and roles were vividly reversed: Black Lives Matter were being called a terrorist group by people who know better, and fresh-faced schoolchildren were delivering handmade cards to weeping police officers.

And so, by this morning, as someone observed on Twitter, black people continued to be preoccupied by the disproportionate number of blacks dying for no reason at the hands of police.  White people, meanwhile, were preoccupied by Pokemon.

Anyway. I thought this bit from a front page New York Times story captured it well:

…a Queens detective quietly seethed.

“This is insanity,” said the detective, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to do so publicly. “It’s just freaking horrendous.”

Reactions to Thursday’s deadly ambush in Dallas swept through roll-call rooms and squad cars in police departments across the country. Contempt for the shooter was universal. But behind it followed other, varying observations about what it means to be a police officer in 2016, with the attending fears and frustrations, and amid a seemingly growing gulf between the police and the policed.

“We have broken into tribes,” Charlie Beck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, told a class of cadets who graduated on Friday. “All of a sudden it becomes more important who your parents are, what the color of your skin is, than whether you are American.”

“This is not about black lives, or brown lives or blue lives,” he added. “This is about America.”

It’s not just about “tribes.” And it’s not just about America, actually.  This is a problem everywhere, for everyone.

The way events play out these days – super-caffeinated by social media and 24/7 news channels – the victim can quickly become the victimizer.  The hunter can become the hunted, as they say.

There’s no moral on offer here, either.  My only point is this: you could always go from hero to zero, in the bad/good old days.  Nowadays, however, that transformation happens in the blink of an eye, whipsawing back and forth again and again.  Rinse and repeat.  Your transformation from victim to villain is instantaneous, now.

Politicians, corporate and union leaders, movie starlets and media mavens always tend to forget this, however.  They always seem to think the adoration lasts forever.

It doesn’t.  Today’s selfie is tomorrow’s mug shot: victims everywhere, take note.

 

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…after reading this.

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The #NRA wants armed-to-the-teeth citizens who are hostile towards government. Which, this week, resulted in #Dallas.

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) July 9, 2016

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My family has lived in both Dallas and Calgary. Whenever people would ask me what the difference was between the two places, I’d usually say: “Dallas is Calgary with lots of guns.”

Thus the photo of the guy above, walking near last night’s Dallas protest. He was initially “a person of interest.” But let me stress that what he’s doing – walking around with an assault weapon – is totally legal down there. 

Every decent person deplores the terrible losses of life in Louisiana, Minnesota and now Texas. Everyone wants to stop this madness. 

But one thing should be very clear: guns are too readily available in the United States. And not every American understands that. 

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[The scene: corner of Woodbine and Danforth. After a movie. Red light. It’s hot. Two young girls cross the road. Guy in trucker’s cap pulls up and starts hollering something at the girls. Before I know what’s happening:]

My wife, rolling down window and yelling loudly at the guy: THEY’RE SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTERS, YOU SEXIST PRICK!

[Long pause. We drive South.]

Me: You are so totally awesome. 

THE END.

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Here:

And a new video of the murder of Alton Sterling has come out, this one shot by the convenience store owner in Baton Rouge. The store owner called the shooting of Sterling – who had both arms pinned when police claimed he was reaching for a gun – a “murder,” quote unquote. Because it is.

Why is all this happening? Two more murders of black men by non-black cops in 48 hours in the U.S.: why?

Simple:

1. Most non-black cops in the U.S. believe most young black men are gang members.  Period.
2. There are too many guns in the U.S. Period.

There will be plenty of protests, sure.  But nothing is going to change.  It’s just another day in the United States.

They can’t help themselves.

 

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