He was not black, white, young, old, etc. He was a mentally ill man who used the Internet to air his crazy rantings, killed his girlfriend, killed two other innocent police officers, and killed himself. When I heard about the details of the shootings, my first thought was that this was more like the mass shootings done by white, young males than by someone who was driven primarily by racial hatred. Instead of his mother or children or Sikhs, he decided to kill his girlfriend and two police officers. Of course, when young, white males shoot rooms full of people, the first questions are always, "Was he mentally ill? Were there signs? Why didn't anybody get help for him?" There is an assumption that mental illness preceded/led to the decision to shoot and kill innocent people. No such assumptions are being made here.
Yes, it is extremely tragic that these two officers the woman were killed. My sympathies go out to their families; I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through. I have an equal amount of sympathy for any family that loses a loved one to senseless gun violence in this country.
I am appalled, but sadly not shocked, by conservatives who are blaming the President, the Mayor, the protesters and Democrats for this tragedy. Oh, and they don't even mention that he also killed a woman, his girlfriend. And himself. As 8ackgr0und N015e pointed out, when other shootings occur, this same crowd doesn't blame the people who are encouraging "real Americans" to arm themselves to the teeth to fight the government or protect themselves from that black president who wants to take away their guns.
Only one man - one man who was probably mentally disturbed - shot and killed that woman and those two officers. Given his history and the circumstances, he could have just as easily blamed someone else, hated someone else, killed someone else. Yes, he said he did it because of police violence against blacks. Yes, he had a criminal record. But this man seems to have been a ticking time bomb with a gun, like so many ticking time bombs with guns in this country.
So where are the calls to improve mental health care in our communities, including the black community? This was the rallying cry of the NRA and their supporters after other senseless shootings. No, they said, these shootings weren't the consequence of too many guns in this country. No, they said, these shootings weren't the consequence of lax background checks. They were the result of mentally ill people not getting help. But this shooting, according to them, is President Obama's fault?
I say to them, no, these shootings weren't the consequence of the Ferguson or Eric Garner protests. No, these shootings weren't the consequence of our leaders and others condemning senseless acts of police violence. These shootings were the result of a mentally ill man with a chip on his shoulder - and a gun - going off the deep end. Unfortunately, it is one of many senseless incidents in this country in which innocent victims are killed by someone who is obsessed with hatred and violence and has access to guns.
Is this country so blinded by race that we can't see beyond it? Why are white mass shooters "mentally ill," but black mass shooters are racists who are thinking sanely and reasonably about their actions? Guns are color blind. Mental illness is color blind. Period. The fact that Brinsley being black is the main reason being cited by conservatives for his actions is like saying Adam Lanza killed all of those children because he was white. Healthy people don't commit mass murder because they are black or white or any other color. It is not that simple.
As I do after every mass shooting in this country, I wonder why we tolerate living in a country that allows so many angry, unstable people to have such easy access to so many guns. I wonder why we tolerate living in a country that makes it so difficult to identify and get help for the people who are the ticking time bombs, waiting to go off. Sadly, I'm not surprised that it happened again. We thought everything would change after Sandy Hook. It was so awful that surely this country would take actions to decrease the likelihood that it would happen again. But nothing really changed, and here we are again. It won't be the last time. The killer happened to be black this time. The next time, he probably won't be black. Will we notice?