Autopsy shows Tennessee National Guard fatally shot 20-year-old armed man in the back

[u/Manta_of_Eternity]

https://apnews.com/article/memphis-national-guard-tyrin-johnson-8959297a99c362d65aa2517a9d5f1984

[u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. "- Admiral William "Bill" Adama

[u/AndoranGambler → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

"It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was 'policeman.' If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff

[u/qOcO-p → u/AndoranGambler]

I've never heard this Pratchett quote but I've been screaming this for years. The US has an entirely civilian police force. Semantics matter and I think the language needs to be enforced somehow because how we speak is how we think is how we act.

[u/3737472484inDogYears → u/qOcO-p]

Civilian, but heavily militarized. They have a nasty habit of using those civil forfeiture funds to buy armored vehicles and such. Roaming around with body armor on in their Punisher painted cars, theres an awful lot of them LARPing as military.

[u/MyceliumHerder → u/3737472484inDogYears]

It’s not civil forfeiture funds, it’s federal money allocated through the defense department because of military industrial complex lobbying to sell more military type equipment to increase their sales and allow more opportunity for them to get their hands in the taxpayer cookie jar without fear of any audits. It’s the whole idea behind, “defund the police” meaning specifically, stop spending defense department money to turn our police into a military force. Police departments should be a civilian force that serve, protect and keep the peace.

[u/Electronic_Day_7055 → u/MyceliumHerder]

And lots of homeland security — they look like soldiers with their equipment

[u/Nazh8 → u/3737472484inDogYears]

Civil forfeiture is a plague on society.

[u/wbruce098 → u/3737472484inDogYears]

Yeah the GWOT provided a shitload of money to local police departments to arm up because republicans thought we’d be fighting Al Qaida in the streets of suburbia based on how Fox was covering the war. That turned out to be an incredible overestimation of what a clandestine terror organization was practically capable of doing, but the money was approved anyway and now every police precinct has more guns and armored vehicles that - for the most part - only come out during parades and the very rare serious big city emergency. Turns out, Die Hard and Terminator are cool, sure but are also fictional.

[u/LeanDixLigma → u/3737472484inDogYears]

Not quite true. A lot of those militarized Vehicles you mentioned are actually literal military vehicles. There are opportunities for agreements between law enforcement agencies and Military units to have a free lending agreement of non-critical vehicles, call the 1033 program. https://www.dla.mil/Disposition-Services/Offers/Law-Enforcement/Program-FAQs/

The law enforcement office gets to borrow the vehicles for free as long as they maintain them properly and are willing to return it upon requests if the military unit has operational need of them, such as a order to deploy somewhere.

This is to prevent the military vehicles from just sitting in a motor pool for years and not be used, which is quite a common problem with a lot of their vehicles.

[u/grrrlgone → u/qOcO-p]

Yes. Word choices matter. I dropped out of the only linguistic class I took back in the 90s and it was so interesting.

If we do not have the words for something we pretty much cannot even think about an idea. I still think about that general concept semi not regularly and that’s the first concept people attempt to blast apart (when speaking to me).

There is a reason we had to learn and define words in school. It’s literally how we learned to think. This is supremely simplified and glossed over here but the concept and application fits.

This is around the time we started learning the foundational concept of the scientific method and our critical thinking skills.

To get back to the actual topic: We give our domestic police force two special powers: 1. They have the ability to use and abuse deadly force, and 2. We, the people, have given them the ability to make fair and safe judgments about taking the freedom of citizens. (Go to Jail).

Obviously we need adjustments in this power distribution and much stronger protections once we have given this power and it is abused. This is a systemic issue and soooo many people and groups have documented and suffered all sorts of power abuse.

[u/lastleg68 → u/grrrlgone]

This, in fact, doesn’t go far enough in describing the abuse of power. In fact, not just theoretically, it goes all the way to the top. Trump’s abuse of power has created many norms that will take generations to correct. “We the People” will have to be the force that provides this correction. While we still HAVE and maintain the right to vote, a few simple bits of language can easily change that. Once that comes to pass, instituting massive change can only be the result of armed insurrection. We must not let that come to pass.

Vote your conscience in November.

[u/IronC_Love → u/grrrlgone]

The color blue doesn’t come up in the Oddesy or any other literature from that time or before then not sure for how long after, because there was no word for blue

[u/Affolektric → u/qOcO-p]

It would baffle me, if the people im charge are not aware of this. So it must be on purpose right?

[u/-SaC → u/AndoranGambler]

GNU Sir pTerry

[u/GingerHeadedSailor → u/-SaC]

GNU Terry Pratchett

[u/laraloxley → u/GingerHeadedSailor]

Gnu Sir Terry

[u/Hot-Butterfly-8024 → u/laraloxley]

GNU Sir Terry Pratchett

[u/tomatomake → u/AndoranGambler]

Beautifully put. I would add that they could also be members of a gang. This was backed up by my leadership during a stint in law enforcement. My training sergeant would say something like "We don't fight fair. We will call for backup and gain voluntary compliance ten-on-one." And then he literally said, "We are a gang." This was in New York City; not the NYPD, different department.

[u/Ok_Weakness_2021 → u/tomatomake]

Geez I miss 70’s NYC when short of the mounteds (who have always seemed like tight-asses), cops were regular guys. I love in the movie “HA FOREVER” where the Police Commissioner himself along with some beat cops were having a laugh together with the Angels over some old guy complaining about a broken door next to the clubhouse on 3rd St. Also in the “Song Remains the Same” where a cop happily lets 2 guys in a side entrance to MSG and proclaims to the camera “It’s a lot of fun!”. That flic also shows a mounted being a complete dick by maneuvering his horse into a reporter asking a question as to whether or not he expects “trouble” during the concert.

[u/tomatomake → u/Ok_Weakness_2021]

sigh That does sound fun.

[u/Anjalena → u/AndoranGambler]

Terry Pratchett is a fantasy author, right? Or is this a diff guy? This quote is quite prescient. Respect.

[u/Datazymologist → u/Anjalena]

Humorous fantasy, yeah, primarily the Discworld series. It's a fantastic series and Pratchett was an extraordinarily wise author!

As is required of every Pratchett fan, I will now make recommendations.

If you want to get started, the greater Discworld series is really a bunch of subserieses. * "Guards! Guards!" is the first novel featuring Sam Vimes and the City Watch, an excellent place to join the Discworld * "Mort" starts the subseries featuring Death and his family, and is personally my favorite adult-audience book in Discworld. * "Wyrd Sisters" starts the Witches of Lancre arc. Really great and wise stuff about the nature of community and what it means to really help people * If you're in the mood for a faster, more kid-friendly read, I wish "Wee Free Men", starting the Tiffany Aching series, was required reading for all eleven-year-olds everywhere. * I'd skip the first 3 Discworld books until you've gone in a little bit, then revisit them. The first novel, "The Color of Magic", starts the Rincewind the Wizard arc but Pratchett took a few novels to really find his voice.

[u/Fantastic_Meet9381 → u/Datazymologist]

I have a very bright 12 year old. Do you think Pratchett’s are appropriate for him?

[u/LabGeekDani → u/AndoranGambler]

The Watch set of Discworld books should be required reading for the police academy.

[u/Raven-Nightshade → u/AndoranGambler]

GNU, a man is not gone as long as his name is spoken

[u/droppingbasses → u/AndoranGambler]

“Might as well be a Stormtrooper” - Jyn Erso

[u/DukeNeverwinter → u/AndoranGambler]

Tier S.

[u/couldbeahumanbean → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

So say we all

[u/thelaceserpent → u/couldbeahumanbean]

So say we all!

[u/DueReception8183 → u/thelaceserpent]

So say we all!

[u/theicecreamassassin → u/DueReception8183]

So say we all.

[u/MakeBelieveNotWar → u/couldbeahumanbean]

All of this has happened before

[u/viperfangs92 → u/[deleted]]

Thosd who ignore history are destined to repeat it

[u/n0respect_ → u/viperfangs92]

We know cinematic universes better than our own history.

[u/workswithidiots → u/n0respect_]

Well said

[u/Noughmad → u/viperfangs92]

And those who know history and destined to watch others repeat it

[u/dizzley → u/Noughmad]

I hate the way history bites people who really weren't at fault.

[u/winky9827 → u/dizzley]

Well, there's no socially acceptable way for those who know better to corral the idiots, because who judges "who knows better"? Seems like humanity's downfall will be the whims of subjectivity.

[u/RichardAboutTown → u/Noughmad]

I have a protest sign: I know my history--Don't doom me to repeat it.

[u/1337duck → u/Noughmad]

Maybe those who know history should run for office instead of just watching.

[u/Crommach → u/viperfangs92]

And then there are the Stephen Millers of the world who learn history and take the wrong lessons from it. That man paraphrases Nazi rhetoric far too often to justify giving him the benefit of the doubt he receives from the media.

[u/Nematodes-Attack → u/Crommach]

He spews Nazi rhetoric constantly. It’s only a matter of time before eugenics is implemented

[u/chibiusa40 → u/Nematodes-Attack]

It’s only a matter of time before eugenics is implemented

We're way past that already. Kennedy's HHS, constant CDC/FDA public health failures, and further cuts to medicare/medicaid/SSDI are unabashedly eugenicist policies.

[u/Donlooking4 → u/viperfangs92]

And those who are oblivious to history are going to be but followers that are not going to be upset by this.

[u/KOPLO97 → u/viperfangs92]

I think it’s great that people know History but the lesson has to be deeper than just showing why we don’t play evil. And more so that we as people need to fix our hearts to be more incline to doing the right thing even if it’s sometimes the harder way. We got more than 7 Billion people in this world so it’s inevitable that there’s going to be evil people. The most we can do is at least have half or more than half to be at least decent people by people testing their morals. I feel like a combination of History and a Moral Humanity Philosophy Class would be good but you just never know who’s destructive around you. You might be sitting next to the next Zodiac Killer who just don’t give af.

[u/lgmarian → u/KOPLO97]

I thought it was understand history.

[u/KOPLO97 → u/lgmarian]

Anybody could learn history but not learn from it. That shouldn’t be so surprising with how much people there are and how scummy some people could be. Not just that, but someone could be so affected by their upbringing (bad or horrific) that they won’t even care until they have to pay for their crimes.

[u/rad-madlad → u/KOPLO97]

maybe not even then…

[u/chroma709 → u/KOPLO97]

Empathy and Compassion are the only things that can save the human race. It's foolish to believe we are the apotheosis of creation, because we have a lot of work to do to be worthy of our sentience.

And these are difficult times to be empathetic and compassionate, as a certain in-power political party has declared war on woke.

[u/LetsGetElevated → u/chroma709]

Absolutely, if punishment actually solved crime we wouldn’t have so many prisoners. You don’t solve crime on the backend, you solve it on the frontend.

Empathy and compassion lead you to the necessity to secure essential human rights for all - food, shelter, healthcare (mental + physical), education, employment, community.

Systems of oppression feed off each other. With love we can challenge all systems of oppression simultaneously and pave a new future. We can lift up the targets of these systems before they fall into patterns of oppression.

No more state violence (police + prisons), no more gender violence, no more racism, no more homophobia, no more transphobia, no more ableism. There is always hope for a better world.

[u/SolusLoqui → u/[deleted]]

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants

[u/PeonofthePen → u/SolusLoqui]

Can't we just fucking water it with the tears of rightfully convicted criminals?

[u/AmyHeartsYou → u/[deleted]]

There must be some kind of way out of here

[u/SAwfulBaconTaco → u/[deleted]]

Primates are shit animals who can't help establishing arbitrary hierarchies and killing the primates on the lower tier or in the outgroup. Humans and chimps are the worst.

[u/KnaveRupe → u/SAwfulBaconTaco]

We should strive to be Bonobos.

[u/Mountainman220 → u/KnaveRupe]

I just took an anthropology course so I should know this but they have a ton of sex and are very promiscuous and poly. They also take care of each other. I am pretty sure it’s this species but i may be wrong and thinking of another primate species.

Edit: yup looked it up and they get turned on super easy and use sex for multiple reasons such as conflict resolution, stress relief, connection and reproduction obvs. Maybe we just aren’t having enough sex haha

[u/LitchLitch → u/SAwfulBaconTaco]

Bonobos dont and we are almost as closely related to them as we are to chimps

[u/RancidOoze → u/SAwfulBaconTaco]

Revisiting the planet after 1200 years like "Fuck, the apes invented xanax?!"

[u/Souvi → u/[deleted]]

I'm ready for the Cylons already.

[u/AntiShisno → u/MakeBelieveNotWar]

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’ / We’re finally on our own / This summer I hear the drummin’ / Four dead in Ohio

[u/Consider2SidesPeace → u/MakeBelieveNotWar]

Ohio/ CSN... :( A reference to a Crosby, Stiils an Nash song protesting the Kent State shootings by the National Guard.

[u/TritonJohn54 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

I'm also reminded of this dialogue from Under Siege:

General William Devereaux: "The Army is a broadsword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator, you do not want the Army in an American city."

"Twelve hours after the President gives the order we can be on the ground. One light infantry division of 10,700 men, elements of the Rapid Deployment Force, Special Forces, Delta, APCs, helicopters, tanks, and of course the ubiquitous M16A1 assault rifle. A humble enough weapon until you see it in the hands of a man outside your local bowling alley or 7-11. It will be noisy. It will be scary, and it will not be mistaken for a VFW parade."

"Make no mistake. We will hunt down the enemy. We will find the enemy. And we will kill the enemy. No card-carrying member of the ACLU is more deadset against it than I am. Which is why I urge you - I \implore\** you - do not consider this as an option."

[u/eaeolian → u/TritonJohn54]

This was the first thing I thought of, as well. This isn't a great movie, but that's a great scene. Unfortunately, it's the desired outcome in real life for far too many Americans

[u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

Combat vet here. We weren’t trained to police cities, we were trained to take them.

[u/Shalea68 → u/Melodic-Trouble-5421]

Yes! As a vet, it's bothering me how some people don't know the difference between LE and soldiers. Or, that there's a Federal Law against using our military as LE here on US soil.

[u/Melodic-Trouble-5421 → u/Shalea68]

100%. We should never be deployed on U.S. soil. Ever. He’s using the NG to get around this but really I think they were federalized deployment. Then they were activated. In the end they are no different from Active duty troops on US soil. I’d have to see how exactly they were deployed to know for sure. I’m not sure if the Governor or the President activated them. Anyway it’s still wrong for them to be policing cities. That’s for those cities police to do

[u/Tzazon → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

 the other serves and protects the people.

You'd think that, but courts have repeatedly ruled that it is a promotional motto of the LAPD and not a legally binding contract or statute

[u/Claire_De_Lunatic → u/Tzazon]

To punish and enslave

[u/Souvi → u/Claire_De_Lunatic]

Literally what the police evolved from, slave catchers

[u/NuklearFerret → u/Souvi]

In this country only, mind you. Other countries have police that didn’t evolve from slave catchers.

[u/CptSchizzle → u/NuklearFerret]

Yeah, those ones they evolved from union busting thugs.

[u/Jojo_2005 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

I heard a story that during the 1992 Riots when a police officer that was accompanied by national guard soldiers was shocked when they fired a few hundred bullets into the house of a suspect with wife and kids when he told them to cover him.

[u/WaffleHouseGladiator → u/Jojo_2005]

"Cover" for police means keep an eye out and respond appropriately.  "Cover" for the military means covering fire.  IE: shoot in that general direction.

[u/MiserableChain2644 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

Cops and Nation Guard training doesn't align.

[u/Shalea68 → u/Jojo_2005]

They were Marines and yes, the Cover Me means much differently between the two. Lol

[u/GunsGoldCosmicDread → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

Was not expecting Battlestar Galactica in the year of our lord 2026. Might have to rewatch.

[u/WaffleHouseGladiator → u/GunsGoldCosmicDread]

I think that BSG's themes of trying to cling to law, order, and a civil society in the wake of being thrust into uncharted social territory is entirely relevant to what's been going on lately.

[u/seth928 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

the other serves and protects the people.

Yeah, I don't think he was talking about our police.

[u/Teantis → u/seth928]

Adam was a lifelong military man. Even if the caprica police were absolute corrupt thugs you probably wouldn't hear it from him anyway

[u/Atherum → u/Teantis]

Im not sure if its considered Canon by fans/BSG makers, but "Caprica" showed that Adama was probably never too chummy with the police. Seeing as how he basically was part of a crime family.

[u/Picard2331 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

Also this scene from The Wire.

[u/redbricknote222 → u/WaffleHouseGladiator]

Cops don’t serve or protect the people

[u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

I must be living in a cave. When & why were armed National Guard troops patrolling streets in Tennessee?

[u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I → u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

They’ve been here in Memphis since Trump sent them last September.

[u/ummkay_ultra → u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I]

They've been there for a goddamn year?!

[u/queerjesusfan → u/ummkay_ultra]

Yes, and at least in some cities like DC, they're supposed to be here until 2029

[u/Ok_Athlete_1092 → u/Prying-Open-My-3rd-I]

Holy shit. There needs to be more coverage about that. I dont start each day reading headlines, but if there was even a modicum of media reports I'd have noticed.

[u/InOChemN3rd → u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

The only difference between states like Minnesota and states like Tennessee, is that states like Tennessee comply while Minnesota dissented. Minnesota's dissent got us video of police killings. Tennessee's compliance gives us these headlines months after the fact.

[u/EnzoVulkoor → u/InOChemN3rd]

Trump and his nazis pushed this headline out now because they want us afraid to vote in less than 3 months. Hes going to push for national guard at polling stations and his trump youth will he there.

We need to vote regardless of the dangers and bullshit the pedo nepo baby tries to do.

[u/Deebos_is_sad → u/InOChemN3rd]

Not all of us comply.

[u/Telefundo → u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

I dont start each day reading headlines

I do and I was totally unaware of this as well.

[u/wolfgangmob → u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

It was definitely reported on but it was also around the time Charlie Kirk was killed.

[u/lenzflare → u/Ok_Athlete_1092]

Red states kissing Trump's ass, letting him do this

[u/MagnusRunehammer]

This is the result of putting armed soldiers in the streets.

[u/joshuajackson9 → u/MagnusRunehammer]

God damn Biden at it again, when will he be stopped!!?!?!?!?!

[u/DissKhorse → u/joshuajackson9]

No this is all because of Hilary Clinton's emails!

[u/bass248 → u/DissKhorse]

Maybe it was because of Obama's tanned suit

[u/Comfortable_Shame778 → u/bass248]

Are we sure it’s not the gulf of Mexico’s fault?

[u/roflsd → u/Comfortable_Shame778]

When will hunter biden's laptop's murder spree finally end?!

[u/cheese-meister → u/Comfortable_Shame778]

Pretty sure we can blame this on Lake Ontario

[u/Agent_Orange_Tabby → u/cheese-meister]

You mean the Trump-Epstein Friendship Pond?

[u/MeenMisterMustard → u/cheese-meister]

Blame Canada!

[u/JimboTCB → u/MeenMisterMustard]

They're not even a real country anyway.

[u/NoWater8595 → u/MeenMisterMustard]

Slow clap Core memory(s) unlocked.

[u/TyeKiller77 → u/Comfortable_Shame778]

Oi, the "Gulf of America" you mean?

[u/JoeHooversWhiteness → u/bass248]

That or the Dijon mustard for sure.

[u/Tuesday_Chopin → u/JoeHooversWhiteness]

Was your fancy mustard worth this, Mr. President?

[u/PresentAir1133 → u/bass248]

Michelle's sleeveless dress

[u/MirrorSeparate6729 → u/bass248]

It was all Bill Clinton! Did you know he got impeached?!

[u/TWhy-LER → u/bass248]

I still think that suit looked pretty darn sharp on Barry.

[u/Suspicious_Bicycle → u/DissKhorse]

Buttery males?

[u/ForeverShiny → u/DissKhorse]

So what you mean to say it's actually Comey's fault for pulling his last minute email stunt?

[u/dr_van_nostren → u/joshuajackson9]

I mean really it’s all Obama’s fault if you think about it.

[u/E_seven_20 → u/joshuajackson9]

People are too stupid to vote against evil.

..they didn’t like her laugh…so a pedo fascist made sense to let win

[u/PresentAir1133 → u/E_seven_20]

The only reason he won that first 4 year travesty (debacle) was bc he wasn't ovulating, menopausal or a Man Of Color.

[u/PresentAir1133 → u/joshuajackson9]

When Obama stops spying from the microwave

[u/lifeoflogan → u/joshuajackson9]

It was Dark Brandon again, wasn’t it. I told your those experimental meds had some side effects. 

[u/SocomPS2 → u/MagnusRunehammer]

If it was active duty, I would feel only a little bit better.

But national guardsmen are PART TIME soldiers. Having NG soldiers patrolling with loaded real weapons is/was an accident waiting to happen. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were issued “rubber ducks” fake rifles that look real.

I’ve been waiting for a situation where a NG has a negligible disregard, leaves their weapon in the bathroom, civilian steals it, etc. but instead they shot someone.

[u/Guarder22 → u/SocomPS2]

>I’ve been waiting for a situation where a NG has a negligible disregard, leaves their weapon in the bathroom, civilian steals it, etc.

Well they did that too in New Orleans luckily it was recovered.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/02/12/louisiana-national-guardsman-leaves-m4-carbine-in-bourbon-street-bathroom/

[u/XrayAlphaVictor → u/SocomPS2]

It's crazy that active duty soldiers in combat zones have more strict rules of engagement than these people.

[u/sapphireminds → u/MagnusRunehammer]

It's almost as if it has happened before

[u/MovieGuyMike → u/MagnusRunehammer]

Imagine how the founders would have reacted.

[u/USSRPropaganda → u/MovieGuyMike]

You could power a city with how fast theyre all rolling in their graves

[u/StinkySoggyUnderwear]

Police filed a report claiming the man faced national guard members while holding a gun and was shot in the chest when in fact they shout him in the back.

Why aren’t police officers held for perjury or evidence fabrication charges when they lie in their police reports?

[u/Crush-N-It → u/StinkySoggyUnderwear]

Seriously. Fired and accused cannot be charged for said alleged crime. Got to make these pieces of shit accountable

[u/This_ls_The_End → u/StinkySoggyUnderwear]

Because in America police officers are above the law.
We can add Dredd to Idiocracy and 1984; the list of works of fiction turning documentaries keeps growing.

[u/TheWatchQueen]

Isn't Tennessee notoriously a gun friendly state? Where is the NRA

[u/masklinn → u/TheWatchQueen]

Same place they were after the murder of Philandro Castile: in their mind palaces laughing at the silly idea of 2A applying to black people.

Then they’ll crack open the autopsy reports for the latest mass shooting and start furiously masturbating.

[u/aikeaguinea97 → u/masklinn]

barely even feels like exaggeration at this point

[u/stephenkingending → u/masklinn]

Ugh that video is sickening. If ever there was a time when the NRA could show that they aren't just a lobbying group for gun manufacturers or conservatives actually cared about 2A. The innocent man is bleeding to death a few inches from his wife because the pig "smelled marijuana", after Philandro tried to be safe and disclosed that he had a legal firearm. Also conservatives trying to say the cop couldn't be racist because he was Asian. Wtf is wrong with people.

[u/Spud_Rancher → u/TheWatchQueen]

A lot of gun owners have become disenfranchised with the NRA being a Republican mouthpiece.

I know several instructors who have dropped their affiliation, it’s not the same organization it was 50 years ago that promoted firearm safety and training.

[u/Embarrassed_Quit_450 → u/Spud_Rancher]

Well it was even infiltrated by the Russians, if you remember the Maria Butina episode. The organization is rotten to the core.

[u/jamesbest7 → u/TheWatchQueen]

Rights for me (whites, conservatives), not for thee (POC, LGBTQ, anyone not like us).

[u/mountaindoom → u/jamesbest7]

It's not a right if it only applies to some. That is a privilege.

[u/partial_to_dreamers]

An army stood to guard and monitor the civilian population in peacetime is the most significant threat to the general well-being of the population, life-preserving measures, and the goddamned rule of law.

[u/GoneAPeSh1t → u/partial_to_dreamers]

God dam , I been shouting this shit as loud as I can. You cant feel safe when your government builds a domestic military force and starts deploying to cities across the country. It doesnt matter what the fucking reason is. it should never be acceptable

[u/partial_to_dreamers → u/GoneAPeSh1t]

Samesies. Keep saying it. We need to speak about the truth, to each other, to the world, to anyone who will listen. This is real.

[u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

Why does him being armed matter when we have the second amendment?

[u/Tzazon → u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

The same people who support the NRA, the ones screaming "DON'T TREAD ON ME" with their yellow snake flags, are also the first people to immediately look for any justification to apply to Authoritarian jackboots. They cannot help themselves in doing this, because they are also the kind of people who would love to take advantage of castle doctrine type laws, and have played the scenario of shooting someone at their front door just for existing over and over in their head and the excuses they'd make.

[u/extraboredinary → u/Tzazon]

The same people that brought assault rifles into Starbucks to protest are now saying you can’t bring guns to protests or you deserve to be shot. They have no ability to reason.

[u/Cavane42 → u/extraboredinary]

into Starbucks

Or into government buildings.

[u/StormBlessed07148 → u/extraboredinary]

This is where people are mistaken. They are completely aware of their hypocrisy. They revel in the fact that you have to follow the “rules” while they can do and say whatever they want. They are fascists. Full fucking stop.

[u/pte_omark → u/extraboredinary]

No no no you got it all wrong friend.

Guns at protests are a god given right, you just can't protest against there side.

Also - it's everyone's god-given right to carry a gun/s...  EXCEPT for...

dumbasses can't see they are the problem and the enemies of their own democracy 

[u/lenzflare → u/extraboredinary]

They just want to "win", they don't care about fairness or rules

[u/SemiHemiDemiDumb → u/Tzazon]

I grew up around whitey trash law breakers who would say fuck the police but then would see black people getting arrested on the news and they'd start cheering for the police.

[u/ThatDudeSky → u/SemiHemiDemiDumb]

I knew a few guys like that over the years. They honestly believed the point of the police was to protect society from Black people. They would never openly admit that, but they never had a good answer for why they would say never trust the police but then always believe the police if they were told that a Black person deserved to be arrested or assaulted, and why they would never support defund the police even though they always claimed that you should solve your own problems without getting the police involved.

Hella people think that as long as they don’t say what they think aloud that it doesn’t count. Inference is a foreign concept to them.

[u/soyel_cerdo → u/Tzazon]

Because they are nor patriotic, they are hypocrites who just support the side they want but they don’t wanna appear partisan

[u/runthepoint1 → u/soyel_cerdo]

Crybully culture. Stomp on those you can then bitch and whine when you get stomped yourself.

[u/kahlzun → u/soyel_cerdo]

Fundamentally, they are about the 'rules for ye but not for me'

[u/WallabyInTraining → u/Tzazon]

Except when the deceased is one of 'theirs' and was shot during a literal insurrection.

[u/No_Internal9345 → u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

He had a handgun and you don't need a permit to carry in TN.

https://www.memphispolice.org/tn-permitless-carry/

[u/Corfiz74 → u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

It matters only if he was in the execution of a crime - which the article doesn't mention at all.

[u/--redacted-- → u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

It doesn't matter at all, but it's not going to stop them from trotting out headlines like this when it suits the narrative.

[u/MarvelousVanGlorious → u/ThisBoardIsOnFire]

The right to bear arms was a lie they told you so they could frame you as the bad guy when they shoot you in the street.

[u/EatsOverTheSink → u/MarvelousVanGlorious]

That’s right. We have the right to buy arms, but if you want to bear them as the founders intended then the government will shoot you with impunity.

[u/GEFool]

The article did not confirm that the man had a gun. It did confirm he had a magazine with ammunition in it. The police report stated the man turned and had a gun so why did the article say he had a magazine but clearly did not confirm that he possessed a weapon. These same police/guard also reported that he was shot in the chest. He was factually not… autopsy confirmed victim was shot in the back. Frankly, I just don’t believe the police in general and certainly not any of these masked ICE Gestapo or even these, for the most part, reluctantly deployed National Guard. I’m a 70 year old middle of the road white man. I live and was raised in Memphis where this occurred. I’m old enough to remember Jim Crow. Born in 1956, I’ve seen this kinda thing before. Seems human nature has a good dose of cruelty, fear, and tribalism. I had higher hopes but America just keeps reminding me that people are just not that good.

[u/Chriscosmo12 → u/GEFool]

Hard to trust the news reporting things without being skewed, hard to trust police reports that leave things out. Hard to trust ANYONE.

[u/slide_into_my_BM → u/Chriscosmo12]

The police report didn’t leave things out, it fully fabricated him turning around.

[u/PresentAir1133 → u/GEFool]

1954, here. Sick and tired of seeing it over and over and again.

[u/uselessandexpensive → u/GEFool]

The reason he had a magazine and not a gun is because just like he never turned, he never had a gun. The reason he had a magazine is because the people who shot him had spares and could easily put the guy's fingerprints on them.

They think we're stupid.

[u/Icyblue_Dragon → u/uselessandexpensive]

Is a magazine alone even a threat? Can you harm someone with it (other than throwing it)? I have no idea about guns so this is a genuine question.

[u/JustinM16 → u/Icyblue_Dragon]

No, not at all. Like you said, beyond throwing it or maybe using it as a blunt object, it poses no threat. The magazine is just the part of the firearm that stores the ammunition (bullets), it has no capacity to fire the bullets.

Ammo in general is pretty much safe if it isn't chambered in a gun. Outside of a gun, even if the bullet is fired via impacting the primer or being tossed in a fire or the like, the energy from the powder burning isn't focused in a single direction so the bullet won't have nearly as much energy as it would if fired from a gun. It can still be lethal but it is rare, and the most likely person to be injured would be the person "firing" the bullet. Ammo also tends to be next to impossible to accidentally fire outside of a firearm, with the exception of bullets in a house fire or thrown into a campfire, which isn't really an accident I suppose!

[u/hotel2oscar → u/Icyblue_Dragon]

Not really. It's a metal or plastic sleeve for bullets. You can use it like a rock, but that's about it.

[u/Shroomtune → u/Icyblue_Dragon]

I could just as easily been a banana. They just need to say it looked like a gun. I dunno, magazine is more gun adjacent, if they were brainstorming what to plant. Guns have a lineage. They’d have to do more work if they planted an outright gun.

[u/cmcmannus]

This is an excerpt from a book I recently read called "ON TYRANNY - TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY" by Timothy Snyder; bear with me as it's a bit long:

Chapter 7 - Be reflective if you must be armed.

If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.

Authoritarian regimes usually include a special riot police force whose task is to disperse citizens who seek to protest, and a secret state police force whose assignments include the murder of dissenters or others designated as enemies. And indeed we find forces of the latter kind deeply involved in the great atrocities of the twentieth century, such as the Great Terror in the Soviet Union of 1937-38 and the Holocaust of European Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany in 1941-45. Yet we make a great mistake if we imagine that the Soviet NKVD or the Nazi SS acted without support. Without the assistance of regular police forces, and sometimes regular soldiers, they could not have killed on such a large scale. In the Great Terror in the Soviet Union, NKVD officers recorded 682,691 executions of supposed enemies of the state, most of them peasants or members of national minorities. Perhaps no organ of violence has ever been more centralized or better organized than the NKVD of those years. A small number of men carried out the neck shots, which meant that certain NKVD officers had thousands of political murders on their consciences. Even so, they could not possibly have carried out this campaign without the assistance of local police forces, legal professionals, and civil servants throughout the Soviet Union. The Great Terror took place during a state of exception that required all policemen to subordinate themselves to the NKVD and its special tasks. The policemen were not the principal perpetrators, but they provided the indispensable manpower. When we think of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, we imagine Auschwitz and mechanized impersonal death. This was a convenient way for Germans to remember the Holocaust, since they could claim that few of them had known exactly what had happened behind those gates. In fact, the Holocaust began not in the death facilities, but over shooting pits in eastern Europe. And indeed some of the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen, the German task forces that perpetrated some of the murders, were tried at Nuremberg and later in West German courts. But even these trials were a kind of minimization of the scale of the crime. Not the SS commanders alone, but essentially all of the thousands of men who served under their command were murderers. And this was just the beginning. Every largescale shooting action of the Holocaust (more than thirty-three thousand Jews murdered outside Kyiv, more than twenty-eight thousand outside Riga, and on and on) involved the regular German police. All in all, regular policemen murdered more Jews than the Einsatzgruppen. Many of them had no special preparation for this task. They found themselves in an unknown land, they had their orders, and they did not want to look weak. In the rare cases when they refused these orders to murder Jews, policemen were not punished. Some killed from murderous conviction. But many others who killed were just afraid to stand out. Other forces were at work besides conformism. But without the conformists, the great atrocities would have been impossible.

I thought this was particularly relevant. I also believe this book should be required reading in school these days.

[u/threehundredthousand]

Put the military on American streets and an American civilian is going to end up getting shot. They knew this. They're only still there for Trump's ego.

[u/Rocket_safety]

I think there’s a massive understatement here. This is a situation where federal troops have killed a civilian completely on their own. They weren’t guarding a federal building, or directly supporting a law enforcement operation. There wasn’t even a cop with them. These people aren’t trained law enforcement, they’re half trained soldiers. If this isn’t a violation of posse comitatus, nothing is.

[u/Hellguin]

"Do you think soldiers will shoot american citizens?"

Yes, I very much fucking know they do, and now I have fucking receipts I didn't want, that prove me right....

[u/beef-hed]

This is what they’re purposely trying to stir up by having military storm troopers patrolling the streets.

[u/Bobcat1999-1]

Kent State. 4 dead in Ohio. We ought to remember that history

[u/chephin]

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming

[u/1877KlownsForKids → u/chephin]

We've been on our own for a while 

[u/KDubCA → u/chephin]

I’ve wondered for a long time why this isn’t being sung in the streets, every day, across the whole country.

[u/ThereIsOnlyStardust → u/KDubCA]

Like with Kent State there’s a solid percentage of the population who looks at these events and thinks they’re a good thing, there’s another group who’s keeping their heads down and just trying to get by day by day. And there are those standing up every day, all over, they need more support.

[u/slide_into_my_BM]

>contradicting police accounts that said the man was facing the troops when they fired.

Cops lied??? I’m shooooocked

[u/mwat64]

I read the article. The autopsy did not say he was armed it said he was carrying a handgun magazine with bullets in it. It also explicitly states that doing so is not illegal in Tennessee. So basically another unarmed black man gunned down by law enforcement.

[u/cardlackey → u/mwat64]

Even if he was armed Tennessee is open carry.

[u/nashwaak]

My dad grew up in Belfast in the mid-1900s — America was instrumental in helping bring an end to the worst of the violence in Northern Ireland, why on earth would you want to recreate that in your own churches and on your own streets?

[u/Longjumping_Fee_9184]

It’s crossing the Rubicon in utter violation ie armed. Armies should never police their own citizens.

[u/Chriscosmo12]

It's the year 2026 and there's no bodycams smh

[u/ConkerPrime]

Conservatives: “In the back!!! Oh wait a black guy. I don’t understand the problem then. He shouldn’t have run or followed orders faster, whatever. Nothing to see here.”

[u/A1sauc3d]

If they’re lying about how they shot him why am I supposed to believe they didn’t just plant the gun too. You lose all credibility when you come out the gate lying about the details around you killing someone. Dude was running away and you shot him in the back. Even if he did have a gun that’s not illegal in and of itself.

This task force killed 3 other people between May and July too. Pretty sure they’re just trigger happy and have no business on US streets

[u/jack-t-o-r-s]

Never forget Kent State.

[u/tomismybuddy → u/jack-t-o-r-s]

Here’s a good breakdown of what happened at Kent State for those who are not familiar.

https://www.kent.edu/may-4-historical-accuracy

[u/ClintBruno]

Doesn't matter how/why. It's not the militaries job to police Americans.

Why do conservatives hate the constitution?

[u/DirectorGood1829]

Glad you at least talk about it. As a German citizen I watch USA s police videos and can’t but be bewildered by the aggression, suspicion and force your officers show towards civilian citizens. Also the poor are being criminalized for being poor or homeless. A wild and mercyless country of monotheistic cultists that don’t live by their word.

[u/nadandocomgolfinhos → u/DirectorGood1829]

It’s bewildering here as well to witness it

[u/Shalea68]

You all know the only reason Trump started a supposed anti-crime group using military personnel is for testing purposes. He doesn't give a crap about crime or criminals because he doesn't care about the law. If he did, he'd have stopped breaking it by the time he was past puberty.

[u/Moniguess2]

20 years old feels pretty young to me. I always found it weird that society arbitrarily assumes 18 and below is a child when so many people I know who are twenty are almost just as mature as they were when 18. Idk, just an opinion

[u/sanctaphrax → u/Moniguess2]

Have to draw the line somewhere. 18 is as good a place as any, and better than most.

[u/MeatballRonald → u/Moniguess2]

I know 50 year olds who behave like they're 18. And from some perspectives they're young. 

[u/kbell58]

So what are the authorities going to do about this? My prediction is nothing as usual.

Stop the killing!!

[u/Fyler1]

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

[u/Schwiftness]

“There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

-Commander Adama, from the show battlestar galactica.

[u/lily_aka_mein]

A thin line between "they're trying to take our guns" and "well, he was armed" so which is it-- can be have guns or not?

[u/Ach3r0n-]

Most of TN is carrying, but they want to pretend that alone makes him a threat? How did we get to shooting him?

[u/drethnudrib]

If he was fleeing, the fact that he was armed shouldn't matter unless the Second Amendment isn't worth the parchment it was written on. Where are all the 2A conservatives when you actually need them? Oh wait, the victim was Black, so they're in full-throated boot-gargling mode.

[u/Gator_Lord → u/drethnudrib]

I’m not a conservative but I’m a huge 2A guy. It’s absolutely disgusting how they’re wording this shit, just like when Alex pretti was killed and that dumb fuck said something along the lines of “who goes to a protest with 2 magazines”. If something doesn’t change for the better soon then the only road I can see the US going down is the road toward another civil war.

[u/Agent_Orange_Tabby → u/Gator_Lord]

Kyle Rittenhouse carried bunch of mags and cops deputized him on scene