There was a shooting in Waco, Texas yesterday. When the smoke cleared, nine people were dead, another 18 or so injured, 100 weapons recovered, and many arrests were made.
Calling it a shooting is far too mild. It was a shootout, with no regard for the safety of innocent bystanders.
The brawl began at a restaurant in a mall in Waco, a place where people go with their families on Sundays. It escalated from chains and knives to guns. I can't even believe I typed that, because I've never had to type any such thing about Ferguson or Baltimore. Only Waco.
In Baltimore or Ferguson, police would have been dressed in riot gear with billy clubs after an event such as that. A curfew would have been imposed. The media would have been all over it. Fox News would trot out every conservative commentator they could to point fingers at those "thugs" who start senseless violence. We would hear about how the parents raised said thugs, and how they fritter away their welfare check on implements of thuggery.
It would go on for a minimum of a week, with Senators and Representatives rushing to the floor of their respective legislative body to decry the terrible thuggery going on in cities.
Police would tangle with said "thugs" while media stands by, aghast at the mayhem.
But this is Waco, and the so-called "biker gangs" are a bunch of white dudes on Harleys, so the media is treating them with the kid gloves they do not deserve.
Behold the true thugs:
Check out the cell phones and smokes while they wait for the cops to process them. No rides in the paddy wagon for them. Just sit on the curb and wait until nice Mr. Policeman has a moment to process you.
It is Texas, after all. Home of proud open carry and "more guns means less death." Yeah, tell me more. I wonder how anyone was able to tell which rival "biker gang" represented the so-called good guys with the guns. Or were those the guys with the chains?
Excuse me while I try to shed the snark for a minute and get serious. What happened Sunday in Waco was preventable. Police knew in advance that there was going to be a "recruiting event" at that location, and had been tipped to the fact that trouble was brewing. SWAT Teams and police were in place and watched until the guns came out, evidently.
Yet they stood there and let them shoot each other up. Damn the spectators, let's just open fire and see who's left standing. No riot gear, no curfew, no shaming.
Let's call this what it was. It was a thug gathering with guns. Because liberty. It wasn't a "biker gang." These were roving gangs of lawless and ruthless thugs. It wasn't scary black and brown people, so our national media will ignore it entirely and go about business as usual while police daintily don their kid gloves and handle them all with care.
That's the difference between a white dude with a gun and a black dude with a gun. But just to highlight it further, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKGZnB41_e4&feature=youtu.be
