Militarized Police Respond to Mall Shooting

Will incident be used to savage second amendment in aftermath of Bob Costas controversy?

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
December 12, 2012

A photo shows armed, militarized police responding to a shooting at a mall in Portland, Oregon last night during which three people were killed, including the gunman.

Photo: Police patrol the parking lot at the Clackamas Town Center after #clackamasshooting. @oregonianphoto twitter.com/RandyRas01/sta…

— Randy Rasmussen (@RandyRas01) December 12, 2012

The photo (click here for enlargement) was tweeted by Randy Rasmussen, a photojournalist with the Oregonian and also emailed to us by a reader who stated;

This picture was retweeted by the Oregonian this evening. They say it is a picture of “police patrolling the parking lot” so the picture looked weird to me. I zoomed in and as far as I can tell those are soldiers. They have the digital ACU pattern, helmets, rifles, and some even look to be wearing body armor. I was in the Oregon national guard and did a tour in Iraq so I’m pretty familiar with the get up. The only thing different is the helmets. No digital ACU covering. I also could not tell of any of them had unit patches on their left shoulders. My resolution is not good enough.

I really just want this to get out. I’ve listened to you for years and have never seen this in real life. This is further strong evidence that the military and the police are merging In this country in a way that is not healthy for our liberties or what’s left of our republic.

Whether the men in the photo are police or National Guard, the image again illustrates how the militarization of America is becoming normalized off the back of shooting incidents like the one last night which occurred at the Clackamas Town Center mall, one of Portland’s busiest shopping centers with 185 stores and 20 cinema screens.

According to witnesses, the gunman wore camouflage fatigues, a bullet proof vest and a white hockey mask. He began firing rounds from a military-style rifle near the shopping mall’s food court. The shooter killed two people and badly injured another before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

Police almost immediately confirmed that there was only one shooter and were able to escort shoppers outside.

This tragic incident will undoubtedly be hijacked once again by gun control advocates and used to attack second amendment rights. The shooting occurred just a week after gun control became part of the national debate after NBC Sports announcer Bob Costas’ controversial comments when he called for more draconian gun control measures after the murder/suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins.

Gun sales recently hit record all time highs, primarily driven by fears that President Barack Obama will use his lame duck term to follow through on a promise he made to work “under the radar” on new gun control policy. Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson also recently announced a 48% surge in firearms sales and a quarterly profit of $21.2 million dollars.

Other readers emailed us to express concerns that shootings such as this and July’s ‘Batman massacre’ are greasing the skids for airport-style security and TSA agents conducting pat downs at large malls.

“All these watch towers may soon employ the shopping mall TSA into watching parking lots with guns and main door check points,” wrote one.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

This article was posted: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 6:08 am

Tags: domestic news, gun rights

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