Gunman who shot and killed three police officers was a black separatist.

Baton Rouge police officers respond to the scene. Advocate.

The gunman who shot and killed three police officers and wounded three more in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been identified as 29 year old Gavin Long. Los Angeles Times. Long is being described as a "black separatist". No additional suspects are expected to be found but two more were held as persons of interest. All three officers that were killed had wives and children. One of the wounded officers is still in critical condition. The officers responded to a call that man wearing dark clothing and armed with a rifle. When they arrived on the scene the suspect opened fire on the officers. The attack occurs after high tensions in Baton Rouge after the death of Alton Sterling. Black Lives Matter and other protest groups have been very active and four young people were just arrested in a plot that involved stealing weapons from a gun shop to us to attack officers. 

The Daily Caller has more information about Gavin Long after they found his youtube channel. 

My Comment:

Yet another senseless attack motivated by hate. Whatever your thoughts on Alton Sterling, nothing justifies this attack on police officers. This is terrorism, plain and simple. And the stupidest thing is that it is still possible that the officers involved with the Alton Sterling shooting could be arrested. Murder investigations take time and it is possible that the officers will be arrested. I am not saying they should be but this attack means that people are even willing to let the system work. And none of the officers involved, one of whom is black himself, had anything to do with the Sterling shooting. 

Of course, I personally don't think that Alton Sterling deserves any sympathy at all. It was clear to me from the video I saw that the officers were acting in self defense. He was a career criminal with a massive rap sheet who was armed with a gun. Officers reacted to a report saying that he was pointing a gun, at another black man no less, and he was reaching for a gun when he was shot. You can see it on the video showing his death, his right arm was moving as he was fighting with the cops. Though more evidence could come out that calls the officers actions into questions, right now everything I have seen shows that the shooting was a good one. 

But I doubt that the shooting had all that much to do with the death of Sterling. Long may have been angry about his death but what seems to have motivated him was his black separatist beliefs. He was a former Nation of Islam member and seemed to believe that blacks should be separate from the other races. He also said racist things about whites and other non-black people. In short I think he hated white people and cops and would have probably killed someone even if the Alton Sterling shooting hadn't happened. 

He may have been mentally ill in some way as well. On his Youtube channel he posted a video about "gang stalking" a conspiracy mentally ill people often ascribe to. People who ascribe to the theory claim that they are being attacked and stalked by the government. Though often based in delusion, I wonder if Long really was being tracked by the government. I kind of hope that he was considering what he did. If anyone really does need to be tracked by the government it is black nationalists. 

I think it is time to denounce these kinds of black nationalist groups and the ideology behind them. We do the same thing with white nationalist groups such as the KKK. The ideology is basically the same between the groups only with the races changed. They believe that their race is the best one and that all the others are holding them down from reaching their potential. And they also believe that separating the races is the best thing that could happen.  

Unfortunately, this kind of racism coming from black people isn't denounced anywhere near the way the KKK is. Though both ideological groups are two sides of the same coin, only one regularly gets denounced by the media. People are far too afraid to call black people racist under any circumstance even when they are arguing that black people should have their own country. Some even argue that it is impossible for black people to be racist. 

This attack is going to hurt Black Lives Matter. The group was very unpopular to begin with due to their protest tactics and the fact that they were instrumental for the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. But now they are going to be associated with horrible violence, much worse then the riots. After Dallas and now Baton Rouge, people are going to think of these kinds of attacks on police when they hear Black Lives Matter.

Is that fair? In some ways no. Though both of the men responsible for the attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge had roughly the same beliefs as Black Lives Matter, they weren't directed to do what they did by the group. On the other hand, they had essentially the same beliefs as Black Lives Matter. They  did buy into the false narrative about police violence pushed by Black Lives Matter after all.

I personally am disgusted by Black Lives Matter and am very worried that this isn't the end of the violence. Other attacks could occur, either at Baton Rouge or any other city where a black man is shot by the police. The GOP convention starts this week and I am worried there could be violence there as well. 

I am also worried about my friends that are police officers. My degree is in criminal justice so I went to school with many future police officers. I also know other cops from my old job. I don't want anything to happen to them. 

I also worry about things happening to me as well. I'm a white guy who wears a uniform. And though that uniform is that of a security guard and not a police officer, I am worried that there are people out there that don't care about the difference. Nobody should mistake me for a cop but people are so irrational and stupid right now, it might not matter.