Baton Rouge Police Shooting: More Death, More Tension

Three members of the Baton Rouge law enforcement community were shot dead and at least one suspect involved in the shooting has been shot dead. The motive behind the shooting remains unclear. In the context of recent events, though, the shootings have made a sad and disturbing event all the more unnerving.

The shooting comes in the wake of several high-profile incidents across the country that have highlighted the tensions between some law enforcement agencies and their communities.

Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black male, was shot dead by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5. The shooting was recorded online and widely circulated over the internet, leading to a large amount of backlash and calls for an investigation into the fatal shooting. Police only said Sterling was killed in an “altercation” after officers responded "to a disturbance call from a complainant who stated that a black male who was selling music cd’s and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun." One of the videos of the shooting showed there was no gun or weapon in Sterling’s hands. Family members described him as a “gentle giant” who would never fight police. The owner of the convenience store where the shooting occurred described the police officers as “really aggressive.”

Philando Castile

The very next day, the country watched a second video that showed the aftermath of the killing of a black man at the hands of police in St. Paul, Minnesota. The girlfriend of 32-year-old Philando Castile streamed the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook, showing him bloody and slumped over in the car. Castile had been stopped for a broken taillight and was reaching for his license and had mentioned to the officer that he had a permit for a concealed weapon when the officer opened fire, according to his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. The officer Jeronimo Yanez and Joseph Kauser, another officer at the traffic stop, were placed on paid administrative leave.

The two shootings saw a large revival of the Black Lives Matter movement, with activists taking to the streets across the country, including in major cities like Chicago, New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. Activists clashed with police in the days of protests that followed, with numerous arrests reported at each of the protest sites. Just last weekend, close to 200 protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge.

Sniper Attack in Dallas

In Dallas, just a day after the country watched the aftermath of Castile’s shooting, a large but peaceful protest was tainted with violence when a 25-year-old gunman opened fire on law enforcement, killing five officers. The gunman, identified as Micah Johnson, was later killed by a bomb robot in a standoff with police. Authorities revealed that a search of the gunman’s home turned up bomb-making materials that could have potentially had far larger devastating affects in Dallas and the North Texas area. Authorities said Johnson mocked police officers during negotiations, asking how many officers he had killed.

The shooting in Baton Rouge comes just 10 days after the ambush in Dallas.

Image Credit: Will Bornhoft, Patch.com, Activists in St. Paul demand justice for the killing of Philando Castile