Those of us living here in the State of Mississippi are mourning the deaths of two of our Finest.
The New York Times reports that
Law enforcement officials in Mississippi said Sunday that they had arrested four people after the fatal shooting of two police officers in Hattiesburg, and that two of the suspects had been charged with capital murder.
The officers were shot about 8 p.m. Saturday during a traffic stop, the police said. They were taken to Forrest General Hospital, where they died shortly after their arrival.
The Forrest County coroner, Butch Benedict, identified the officers as Benjamin Deen, 34, a K-9 officer, and Liquori Tate, 25, a 2014 graduate of the police academy. One of their police cars was stolen after the shooting and was found abandoned a few blocks away, investigators said.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety announced on Sunday that Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, had each been charged with two counts of capital murder, and that Mr. Banks’s brother, Curtis Banks, 26, had been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder. At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, the mayor of Hattiesburg, Johnny L. DuPree, said a fourth suspect had been arrested. He was identified as Cornelius Clark, 28. Officials said Mr. Clark, who was charged with obstruction of justice, had been a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the shooting.
“We were able to catch these individuals and keep our promise to the officers’ families with the public’s help,” Mr. DuPree said at the news conference. “No parent wants to bury their child before them,” the mayor added. “And here we are on Mother’s Day. It’s a tragedy for all America. It’s a tragedy for our community.”
A spokesman for the Hattiesburg Police Department, Lt. Jon Traxler, said that both brothers are residents of Hattiesburg, and that each had been convicted of felony drug and weapons charges.
The shooting was still being investigated Sunday, and the authorities could provide only limited details. The fatal encounter began in an industrial area when Officer Deen pulled over a motorist for speeding, officials said. Ms. Calloway was in the driver’s seat and that Marvin Banks was a passenger, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
Officer Tate arrived after Officer Deen radioed for backup, and they put a call out for more help just before shots were fired from the stopped vehicle, Mr. DuPree said.
The suspects fled after the shooting, Mr. Strain said — Ms. Calloway in the vehicle that was stopped and Mr. Banks in one of the police cruisers.
In addition to the capital murder charges, Marvin Banks was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and with grand theft.
The New York Post reports that
A suspected Subway sandwich store employee has sparked outrage with tasteless social media posts celebrating Saturday’s killing of two Mississippi cops.
“2 police officers was shot in hattiesburg tonight.!” cheered Sierra “C-Babi” Mccurdy, in a message posted overnight.
“We can turn this bxtch into Baltimore real quick,” she posted on Facebook. “Police take away innocent people lives everyday now & get away w/ it, fxck them…[no mercy].”
Twitter users expressed outrage at her remarks — and that the sandwich giant would have a person like that working for them.
“Wow. This piece of trash was celebrating the death of two policeman in Hattiesburg. Your [employee], @Subway,” one person tweeted.
Hattiesburg police officers Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25, were gunned down in the line of duty during a routine traffic stop Saturday night.
The Washington Post published the following paragraphs in an article posted on August 29, 2014.
An average person cannot comprehend the risks and has no true understanding of a cop’s job. Hollywood and television stereotypes of the police are cartoons in which fearless super cops singlehandedly defeat dozens of thugs, shooting guns out of their hands. Real life is different. An average cop is always concerned with his or her safety and tries to control every encounter. That is how we are trained. While most citizens are courteous and law abiding, the subset of people we generally interact with everyday are not the genteel types. You don’t know what is in my mind when I stop you. Did I just get a radio call of a shooting moments ago? Am I looking for a murderer or an armed fugitive? For you, this might be a “simple” traffic stop, for me each traffic stop is a potentially dangerous encounter. Show some empathy for an officer’s safety concerns. Don’t make our job more difficult than it already is.
Community members deserve courtesy, respect and professionalism from their officers. Every person stopped by a cop should feel safe instead of feeling that their wellbeing is in jeopardy. Shouldn’t the community members extend the same courtesy to their officers and project that the officer’s safety is not threatened by their actions? – Sunil Dutta, Ph.D., is a 17-year-veteran police officer in Los Angeles. His book, “Blood Lines: the Imperial Roots of Terrorism in South Asia,” was released in February, 2015.
Somehow, America’s Professional Race-Baiters, from the Community Organizer-in-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, on down, have twisted the the facts and jumped to conclusions, refusing America’s Law Enforcement Officers’ their Due Process and, instead, immediately assuming that it was their fault that three thugs got themselves killed in altercations with police officers.
And, now. at least one person with no hope training is actually cheering the fact to two innocent Police Officers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, were gunned down in cold blood.
What ever happened to personal responsibility?
President Ronald Reagan once said,
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
Compare it to these words:
It’s not to make excuses for that fact — although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. They understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. – President Barack Hussein Obama, 7/19/2014
President Obama, for his own political reasons, reinforces, at every opportunity, the self-fulfilling prophecy that the Black Community is still shackled and limited in their freedom.
Which is an ironic statement, considering, as a Black man, that he presently holds the position of President of the most powerful country on the face of the Earth.
On November 25th,2014, The Daily Caller reported that
Retired neurosurgeon and potential GOP 2016 candidate Ben Carson believes race relations in America, as a whole, have “gotten worse” under President Barack Obama’s leadership, saying he should take a ”balanced, objective look at things” instead of invoking the race card.
Carson made the comments to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday night.
“I actually believe that things were better before this president was elected,” Carson told Hewitt, “and I think that things have gotten worse because of his unusual emphasis on race.”
“Can you explain more? What do you mean by that?” asked Hewitt. “How did they get worse, and how did he contribute to it?”
“Well, for instance, in the incident with Henry Louis Gates, Skip Gates and him calling out the police, and you know, how they always do this kind of thing, and the Trayvon Martin case, you know, if I had a son, this is what he would look like, rather than trying to take the balanced, objective look at things, and then, you know, what’s happened here,” responded Carson.
“And then the way, which really irritates me to some degree, the way he and a bunch of progressives manipulate, particularly minority communities, to make them feel that they are victims. And of course if you think you’re a victim, you are a victim,” Carson continued.
Back in High School, during the 1974-1975 school year, I was a Sophomore Commissioner on the Student Council with a fellow named James. James was one of those students who were bused to our school. He went on to play football and run track. More importantly, James went on to have a 4.5 GPA, make a 32 on his ACT, and receive a full scholarship to Harvard, and later, went on to Johns Hopkins Medical School. James worked hard and he achieved.
Millions of other Black Americans have, as well.
The current race-baiting and racially-based pandering by the President, his Administration, and all those who profit from it, locally and nationally, dishonors those who have achieved and has constrained those who might otherwise achieve.
The ignorant young Subway Worker in Mississippi, who, by the way, was fired for her stupidity, is just one example.
It needs to stop. Now.
Until He Comes,
KJ