The series of events that launched Gaines's final downward spiral have all the markings of someone not fully in control. In March, after she claimed her license plates were stolen, she made up cardboard plates, one of which read, "Any Government official who compromises this pursuit to happiness and right to travel, will be criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom."
She filmed herself during part of the traffic stop for not having proper license plates, advising her young son, "You see what they do to us, right? You fight them. They are not for us. They want to kill us, and you never, ever back down from them."
A Baltimore County officer decided to impound her car, and Gaines refused to get out. The police said this led to a fight to get her and her children out of the car, leading to a resisting arrest charge in addition to the improper registration citation.
This also is obviously racist, since if Ms. Gaines had been a middle-aged white banker driving around with a cardboard sign instead of a license plate, and who then refused to get out when the car was going to get towed, the cops would have handed out a box of candy instead of undertaking an arrest.
Right.
But the true indicator of Gaines's uneven behavior is her 17-minute video shot in April, after she's been released from custody on the resisting arrest charge. She asks officers at the district station for her missing court paperwork, and no one can find it. The officers are polite but don't immediately have what she needs. Gaines gets increasingly angrier, and grandiose, as she talks about how she could be meeting with her lawyer right now to discuss the case. The officers are trying to help, but she keeps demanding a supervisor and getting no satisfaction. That video was posted by Heavy.com.
In other words, it had nothing to do with how the cops were behaving. It had everything to do with pre-formed belligerence and -- dare I say it? -- racial antagonism on Ms. Gaines' part, an antagonism she made a point of posting on social media.
All that set the stage for Monday, when Baltimore County police doing routine warrant service probably figured they could nab two defendants at once: Gaines's boyfriend for assault and Gaines for her misdemeanors. Gaines's boyfriend soon came out, but Gaines reportedly picked up her shotgun and aimed it at the police. The officers withdrew, SWAT officers took their place, and negotiators tried to talk Gaines out until 3 p.m.
The thing to do when the cops come to your door to bring in the guy who's been beating on you, and serve you with your own misdemeanor warrant from a traffic case, is pick up a shotgun and aim it at them. (Remember this the next time you read that the cops don't act aggressively enough in domestic violence cases).
Police say she told the SWAT officers, "If you don't leave, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you." And then the shooting started. Her son, Kodi, was wounded but will survive, though who can imagine the psychological trauma he will endure.
Was it the cops' decision or Ms. Gaines' to keep the five year-old nearby when she picked up the shotgun?
In reality, though, Ms. Gaines' story began before March. It began when she became a partisan of the grievance-and-resentment attitude in which BLM specializes. Thus, as Post the story tells up farther up the page, she viewed herself in the BLM mold -- not as her own person who could make different choices and have a better life, as millions of African Americans have done and continue to do, but as the Passive Victim of Very Bad White People, especially the police. Thus, she thought she had
...reasons to be angry, as a poor black woman in 21st-century America. Her Instagram and Facebook pages reflect a widely felt outrage in the black community that African Americans are disproportionately killed, by police and criminals. As activists and politicians such as the white governor of Minnesota have noted, armed black people seem at higher risk of being killed in encounters with police than armed white people.
In this, she was not merely indulged but egged on by the people around her (emphasis added):
Gaines was considered a strong role model for her family and her friends, her social media posts show. She followed the rapper David Banner, who released a video called "Black Fist" in which a police officer is tied up, beaten bloody and stabbed.
Was this the fantasy she had running through her head when the police, wanting to serve a routine (but surely unwelcome) warrant came to her door? Who was the person looking for a fight?
Gaines posted a video of herself loading her new pistol-grip shotgun. She posted a photo of a table full of guns, knives and ammunition with the headline, "Take a good look cause this is where you're money should go this day forward! Get Ready Now!!" She posted in one discussion, "they train us to be submissive children nd adults so when the time came many of us won't even have the desire to self defend."
In another Instagram post: "They can try to come get it they gon leave with more Lead than they poisoned me wit." She even posted two videos while she was in her showdown with the Baltimore County police, which the police say was conducted with Gaines holding the pistol-grip shotgun in one hand and her 5-year-old son in the other, or nearby.
The MSM story will be of a young black mother gunned down by bloodthirsty, racist cops. When oh when will black lives matter? You can almost script Obama's press conference right now. But when you look at the actual facts, as Post reporter Jackman did, a very different story emerges. It's the story of a young black mother brimming with race-fanned hatred. That, more than anything else, is why she's dead today.
Obviously, Ms. Gaines was responsible for her own actions and her own attitudes. But her story should give responsible people some pause. Barack Obama has given legitimacy to the BLM movement with the requisite amount of fig-leaf (but half-hearted) denunciations when the rhetoric goes too far. The legitimacy he gives this nonsense should appall any fair-minded person. Of course, in a nation of 320-odd million people, there are going to be less than tolerable incidents. But that doesn't justify the casual smearing of thousands upon thousands of dedicated LEOs. And that's what Obama does, and it is sickening.
A lot of people give Obama the benefit of the doubt--saying that he means well, but he is a man of good faith. No. He is rotten to the core. Having been marinaded in leftist ideology, he has become a detestable human being who delights in sticking it to symbols of the Amerikan power structure. It's disgusting to behold. His "just us" system quip at a 'rat debate at Howard could be dismissed as cutie pie leftist rhetoric--but giving wink wink backing of the intolerable smears of Darren Wilson isn't cute--it's evil. Wilson was a victim of circumstance--and Obama's rhetoric gave heft to his victimization.
On top of all that, Obama has the nerve to say that he's got cops' back. Outrageous. Simply outrageous. And the eunuch press corps simply takes dictation and dutifully report the Word from on high. The spectacle is repulsive.