A Louisiana deputy sheriff, permanently disabled when he was shot three times by an angry, deranged former U.S. Marines sergeant during a Baton Rouge protest-turned-riot, has sued Black Lives Matter and five of its leaders. The lawsuit claims they “caused or contributed to” the violence and encouraged the “militant anti-police national organization.” The rising number of civilians being needlessly killed by law enforcement personnel must be brought under control immediately, but encouraging “disdain, hatred, and violence against police” and violent rioting and shooting is certainly not the right way to address this urgent problem.
On July 17 of last year, Gavin Long, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who was sympathetic towards the Black Lives Matter movement, ambushed police officers in Baton Rouge, La., killing three officers and injuring three more. Long was eventually shot 45 times by officers in the shootout, and died at the scene.
In a suicide note, Long lamented that he would be “vilified by the media and police” for his actions.
“Unfortunately,” Long wrote, “I see my actions as a necessary evil that I do not wish to partake in, nor do I enjoy partaking in. But must partake in, in order to create substantial change within America’s police force and judicial system.” He also noted that he must “bring destruction” upon “bad cops as well as good cops in hopes that the good cops (which are the majority) will be able to stand together to enact justice and punishment against bad cops.”
The horrific ambush came less than two weeks after a Baton Rouge police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man whose death sparked outrage in the black community. Sterling was killed outside a local convenience store after he physically struggled with officers and refused to obey their commands. Philando Castile, yet another black man, was shot and killed by a police officer in a suburb of Minneapolis a day later.
