Just happened. Next county. No details yet. A new looking small Caddy or Buick or the like stopped and surrounded by police. Police opened fire (whether the occupant(s) were armed hasn't been said. A pistol was flagged on the closed trunk. A bystander (probably in the living room across the street) filmed it from before the shooting started. A lot of shots were fired, including sustained automatic fire from one of the police. (The muzzle flashes were easy to see.) Most of the car's windows were shot out. I am just now finishing "The Enduring Legacy of Portland's Black Panthers". This feels like old news. The Portland and area police had a mission of ending the Black Panthers by any means necessary including arranging to have members killed or doing themselves. That was 50+ years ago and the assumptions are that things have changed. But this? So far not one word about the person or people in the car, what they did, how they are fairing. And media seems to be quite happy with the little they've been told. (That media was completely in tune with the police message back then.) Racism in Portland's police, politics and media is still here. They keep it at very low volume so you have to listen closely; something few here do. What I am seeing here now is completely in sync with the old patterns. I hope I am dead wrong, but please! police and others - don't make it look that way if it isn't. I'm way too afraid I am going to learn in a year or two what actually happened here and that the story won't be pretty. Just looked again. "Two employees at Paradox vape shop in the shopping center said they heard about a dozen consecutive gunshots and ducked for cover. Afterward, they checked surveillance-camera footage, which they provided to officers investigating the shooting. The vape-store employees said they were told by law enforcement that the two suspects were in a stolen car. The shop’s footage showed police chasing the sedan through the intersection at about 12:30 p.m. and ramming it from the front and back, the employees said. They said they didn’t hear any return fire but saw a man with what looked like a bullet wound to his neck and blood covering his face, and heard him “yelling in agony” and calling out for his mother." (OregonLive.com) So stolen car. But should stolen car = death by automatic rifle fire? This still feels like the same old same old. (And the police actively wrecking a stolen car, shooting it up an drenching it with blood to bring justice? If that were my car, I might feel just slightly wronged by those who did the trashing.) |