By Patrick
This is a post about current events which are happening right now. Right at this moment, there is a stand-off in Dallas between at least one attacker, identified as James Boulware, and police, and lots of shots with assault rifles have been fired, pipe bombs already exploded, and the situation is volatile. Fortunately, no police officers have been injured yet, which is almost a miracle.
But could this have been prevented? A simple search on Google reveals shocking details about James Boulware, and the obvious questions have to be asked: Why is this man not in jail, why has he still access to guns, and other explosives, as well as an armored car, as reported? Why the heck is it so easy for known lunatics like him to go on a shooting spree?
Report from May 2013:
Quote:
PARIS, TX -- A Paris man was arrested after family members reported to authorities that they were concerned he could go on a shooting spree.
Officers say they did find several guns in his house, but none in his car. On Tuesday, officers throughout North Texas were told to be on the lookout after the man allegedly threatened his family members and mentioned he might hurt others.
Officers confiscated several guns from a Paris home, after arresting the owner. "There are four or five long guns and three or four pistols, tubs full of ammunition, and the body armor," says Paris Police Chief Bob Hundley.
James Boulware, 33, allegedly grabbed and choked his mother in Dallas on Tuesday morning, and he has made other threats, police and family members said.
"That he was going to just kill all the adult members of the family and then that's when he made the comment he may shoot up some churches and schools," says Hundley.
"He had been talking about the schools and churches being soft targets, being easy targets because no one in them was armed," a man who identified himself as Boulware's brother "Andrew" said.
"Andrew" said Boulware showed up at his Red River County property on Tuesday, looking for some guns "Andrew" took from Boulware's house. "I was able to figure out his one combination, I didn't realize that his gun safe had two combinations on it," says "Andrew."
"He used to be a mechanic and then he got a mobile van and was running around trying to get business doing that," says neighbor Andra Hogue.
After issuing an alert to be on the lookout for Boulware, around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a deputy caught sight of Boulware's car at his house.
"Just happened to catch him at this location, he left this location, and then we were immediately right there on him," says Sheriff Scott Cass.
"They got him out, got him on the ground that's it and I just saw them escort him over to the Tahoe and carried him off and a wrecker came and picked up his car," says witness Jimmy Phan.
After arresting the man near a pizza shop in the 1900 block of Lamar, officers say they collected several guns from a moving truck parked in the yard in the 1300 block of Fairfax. Police say anytime they get a threat like this they need to take it seriously.
"The main thing that concerned everybody on this one was that there was no doubt he was armed and he was armed heavily," says Hundley.
"That's pretty scary you know with guns being around here knowing I have a baby around here," says neighbor Patricia Bills.
Paris ISD officials said schools were on a "soft lockdown" on Tuesday morning after being alerted by the police department. Boulware currently faces two charges of assault family violence from Dallas, and possession of marijuana. He was taken to the Lamar County Jail while awaiting trial.
Already in 2013, James Boulware had amassed weapons and body armour - photo from the above article:
Also, one other rather obvious question has to be asked: Would the situation really be the same if James Boulware was black?
In any case, this is a total mess. This is what happens if just anyone can buy heavy weapons without any background checks, as it happens for example at the rather notorious gun shows.
Videos from the ongoing standoff - it is apparent that the attackers (apparently more than one person, according to reports), are extremely aggressive:
This is a useful twitter account for these sad ongoing events:
Here is a news report, published about 40 minutes ago - apparently the car of the attacker is disabled, and it is currently unclear whether his is still alive:
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Earlier tweets from the Dallas Police Department:
In this dramatic clip from the shooting, a bullet flies past a bystander who decided to film the action, instead of going to look for cover immediately - he probably learned something today:
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Believe it or not, but in the USA, you can buy an armored van on Ebay (h/t alwaysthink) - this looks pretty identical to what the Dallas shooter James Boulware used:
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Here is another clip from a citizen who filmed a part of the shooting - this woman swears a lot, but she is clearly in shock. Heck, I would probably swear a lot as well if I witnessed such an incident:
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UPDATE:
From USA Today:
Authorities cautioned that they have not confirmed the man is who he says he is. But in 2013, police in Paris, Texas, said they arrested James Lance Boulware after he obtained firearms, ammunition and body armor before threatening to attack his family, churches and schools. Police said then that he was taken into custody on two felony warrants from Dallas County.
However, it appears the case against him was dismissed last year after he fulfilled requirements imposed on him by a court.
Police also said a man named James Boulware has had previous interactions with the police involving family violence. Investigators are following up on those leads.
The case was "dismissed" after he "fulfilled requirements"...???
Sorry, guys, but a black guy would have gone to prison for 20-30 years...!
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UPDATE 2:
Our reader drpatois posted a very interesting article in the comments, which is very revealing:
Mass Shooters Have A Gender and a Race+++
A Closer Look at White Male Privilege
Although White individuals made up 69.2% of arrests for crimes in 2011, Black men still account for the majority of the prison population, more than six times as likely to be incarcerated than White men. Black men are also subjected, according to Lawrence Grossman, former President of CBS News and PBS, to media stereotyping where TV newscasts “disproportionately show African Americans under arrest, living in slums, on welfare, and in need of help from the community.” However, men of color do not represent the majority of school shooters or mass murderers.
Recent studies reveal that most school shooters are White males, with 97 percent being male and 79 percent White. Over the last three decades, 90 percent of high school or elementary school shootings were the result of White, often upper-middle class, perpetrators. These shootings are a direct reflection of White male privilege and the consequences that occur when groups like the NRA control influential conservative leaders.
Before his May 23rd premeditated killing spree, Elliot Rodger2 posted a YouTube video saying his intention was to “slaughter every single spoiled stuck up blonde slut I see” inside a sorority house, because they “all would have rejected [him] and looked down upon [him] as an inferior man if [he] ever made a sexual advance towards them.” These chilling comments cannot be simply regarded as nonsense from a “madman,” because they actually represent the deeply entrenched manifestation of our misogynistic society. Furthermore, the case of Elliot Rodger exposes the prevailing intersection between gender and race of gun violence.
There is a pattern in these school shootings that has been coined as “suicide-by-mass-murder,” and seems to be an almost-exclusively young-White-male phenomenon. Michael Kimmel, a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University and founder of the academic journal Men and Masculinity, has been conducting research on the intersection between race and gender of American school shooters, and observed that “victims of [young men of color] are usually those whom the shooter believes have wronged him. And it rarely ends with his suicide. .. White men, on the other hand, have a somewhat more grandiose purpose…’If I’m going to die, then so is everybody else,’ they seem to say. Yes, of course, this is mental illness speaking: but it is mental illness speaking with a voice that has a race and a gender.”
UPDATE 3:
It has been confirmed that James Boulware bought the armored van on Ebay.
It appears that there are no restrictions regarding the sale of armored cars in the USA. I could not find any information about restrictions, and there appear to be lots of sellers.
This is the original Ebay-listing of the car (click on pictures to enlarge):
The car conveniently has little protected "holes" for shooting to the outside:
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UPDATE 4:
The disqus account of James Boulware has been found, and it exposes him as a typical right-wing anti-Government conspiracy fanatic:
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