Today April 4th 2013 marks the 45th anniversary that Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated.. I want folks reading this to be crystal clear about a couple of things.. First, do not mention King’s death and reduce it to the work of a deranged man name James Earl Ray..If the local or national corporate backed media talks about Dr King’s death in those terms, then they are negligent. In fact its safe to say they are complicit in helping cover up what should disturbing to all of us.. Dr Martin Luther King was killed by the FBI.. he was killed by our US government.. He was one of many victims to the FBI’s Counter Intelligence program best known as Cointel-Pro..
Repeat after me… COINTEL PRO.. This was the program used by former FBI head J Edgar Hoover to go after the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the American Indian Movement, The Student Anti-War Movement and the Chicano Movement. The FBI saved its most vicious and invasive tactics for the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.. Malcolm X and Dr King were key targets, primarily because they had linked the domestic struggles for ‘Civil Rights’ and Black American self determination to the larger struggles taking place internationally.. That was dangerous to the FBI and our government and led to Hoover seeing King as public enemy number one along with the Black Panthers and other groups that had shifted into the same direction of internationalizing Black struggles.
So again do not say Dr King was killed 45 years ago today without mentioning Cointelpro.. In another note we should not lose sight of the fact that earlier this year we saw a lot of fan fare around Dr King statue on the national mall and President Barack Obama get sworn in using Dr King’s bible..In fact his inauguration was on the same day as the King Holiday.. many thought this was anice and potent gesture.. I say it was a distraction.. If President Obama can get sworn in using King’s Bible, how about using those Presidential powers to completely unearth the role the US government played in Dr King’s killing? How about using those Presidential powers to to bring about justice and punsish all those still alive who were a part of Dr King being killed..
I found this latest ad from the NRA (National Rifle Association) featuring a Black man named Colion Noir stating that African-Americans needs guns to protect themselves to be intriguing on a number of levels. He talks about how the government which has a history of racism will not be there for us, hence protecting one’s family is on us..
A couple of things to think about..In the ad Colion mentions the racist government but then tells us how the proverbial hood thugs ‘Ray Ray‘ and ‘Pookie‘ got guns and that President Obama and the govt wont be there to protect us hence.. He says its best we get our guns..
To a degree some of that may be true, but lets look at the sleight of hand Noir and the NRA pulls..While many African-Americans need protection from inner city crime, they also need protection from the government that also terrorizes Black folks..
Colion Noir
In the ad Noir omits and redirects an important part of history, by inferring that the racist US government allowed white supremacist groups like the KKK to come after us.. Let’s keep it real many of those folks in wearing those hoods were police and government officials. In their height during the 1920s when Black folks were being lynched left and right, the Klan was a major force in politics..
Black folks if they were to use guns to defend themselves as suggested in the ad, would have to do so against the police and many within local and national government.. That would include mayors and governors who referred to us as ‘niggers‘ while standing before us with state troopers preventing us from attending segregated schools or voting.
When civil rights advocates like Fannie Lou Hammer spoke about being dragged off buses and beaten for trying to register folks to vote in Mississippi, it wasn’t hooded KKK members doing the beatings.. It was the state troopers.. If guns were needed for protection it was against those troopers.. What was the NRA’s take on incidents like that in the 1960s?
What was the NRA really saying with this Noir ad and how does it stack up with their historic actions in the past when gun laws were passed by the government to disarm militant Black groups like the Black Panthers Party for Self Defense? In 1967 after the Black Panthers following the letter of the law, armed themselves and began patrolling their neighborhoods to make sure the police would cease brutalizing law-abiding citizens, the Mulford Act of 1967 was passed in California to disarm them..
The person who pushed for that law the hardest was lifetime NRA member then Governor Ronald Reagan who is quoted as saying “We will never disarm any American who seeks to protect his or her family from fear and harm.” ..Well a big middle finger to Reagan and the NRA who stood silent when the disarming of Panthers, SNCC and other groups happened. Having a slick ad with an African-American talking about Black history and racism while neglecting the racism of the NRA and its most visible members when it was needed most is the height of disingenuousness..
Over the past 40+ years since the Mulford Act was passed where we’ve seen a sordid legacy of police in Cali shooting, killing and brutalizing, African-Americans, the NRA has been nowhere around to offer comfort, resources or solutions.. Where was this nice NRA ad with Colion Noir when unarmed Oscar Grant was shot point blank in the back by an out of control BART cop? Where was the NRA when the infamous Riders scandal and the Rampart scandal were jumping off in Oakland and LA? How was the NRA helping citizens who needed to protect themselves from a tyrannical government represented by the police?
Where was the NRA when John Burge was torturing Black folks as a Chicago Police commander?
In Chicago, a city with one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, where was the NRA during the reign of terror of Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge? Between the years 1972 and 1991 over 130 African-Americans some as young as 13 were tortured.. (note not beaten.. tortured) by this Burge and his men.. You can read about that HERE ..The 135 cases is what’s been documented, many believe its was hundreds more.. When Chicagoans made their plight known, where was the NRA? Where was ads like the one with Noir? Nowhere to be seen..
We can go on and on citing police brutality incidents on unarmed citizens and the NRA being ghost.. So why are they visible now? Did they have a change of heart or are they walking a razor thin line in terms of how they describe the enemies African-Americans neeed to protect themselves against? Yes many folks in the community have to deal with crime.. Pookie and Ray Ray do cause problems.. I’m not sure if shooting them is the answer, but if it is as the NRA suggests, then we have some other enemies to get at as well.. Will the NRA be standing with us the next time an unarmed Black youth is shot and killed by police? Will they have an ad advocating we protect ourselves or will they remain silent like they did in the past?
Over the past week, Southern Cali police had more than 1000 officers combing mountains, stopping traffic on major freeways where cars were held up for hours, they offered a million dollars making it the highest reward ever offered for a wanted person in state history and that’s just for starters…
During the past week, LAPD shot 3 innocent people without identifying themselves as police officers.. They set up 50 separate security details to protect the families of cops who were ‘threatened’ in the manifesto said to be written by former LA cop Christopher Dorner..
During yesterday’s shoot out in the San Bernardino mountains’ near Big Bear they allowed a cabin where Dorner was said to be held up to burn completely to the ground.LAPD spokesman Andy Smith was livid when it was suggested that police had identified the remains that are supposedly in the burnt down cabin.. He said that the building was too hot to enter and that it would take some time to ID the body.. Police as of this morning 2-13-13 are still on tactical alert ‘looking’ for Dorner…
I want folks to look at some of what I mentioned and really think about this..I know many who dislike the police would like to believe that one man had one of the most militarized and largest police forces in the world, was spooked over threats and subsequent actions from one man..Some have gone so far as to call Dorner a modern-day Django. Others have noted that Dorner with his military training gave him a tactical edge and made him the most dangerous suspect ever faced by LAPD…
Daryl Gates hired lots of military men to work for LAPD
While its true Dorner is a military guy, he’s not the only military guy. LA under past chiefs like Daryl Gates, and William H Parker before him, made it a point to hire military men to be on the force. Again LA is one of the most militarized police forces in the country..LAPD has long prided itself on having the latest tools and weaponry at its disposal. Many of the police practices we see around the country come from LA including SWAT Teams which originated in LA.. There are lots of former Navy Seals, Green Berets, Marines, Special forces guys etc..all up in the ranks of LAPD and So-Cal police forces in general. So yes, Dorner was a trained cat not to be messed with, but he was not the only one at the party who could get down. There are just too many cats with similar and superior skills on that force that would not be spooked by one cat..
Again let’s think about this..On the criminal tip, Southern Cali is home to some of the most ruthless, well armed and vicious organized gangs.. The Mexican mafia, Armenian mob, Aryan Brother Hood, Skin heads, Biker gangs like the Mongols & Hells Angels Russian mob, drug cartels of every stripe, Crips, Bloods etc.. This is gang land for real..and many of those gangs are openly hostile to LAPD, yet we have never seen the resources and all stops pulled up to confront them, the way they did Dorner…We never saw this much power even after some of those gangs were deemed domestic terrorists..and even after we’ve seen some of these outfits do everything from murk entire families to terrorize entire families or ethnic groups..
There have been several rebellions in LA over the years, the most glaring the 92 Rodney King Rebellion.. After the acquittal of the 4 officers accused of beating Rodney King, LA erupted as members of some of LA’s largest gangs that had recently formed a truce, sat on national TV and pretty much promised to go after LAPD.. We saw the Parker Center police headquarters destroyed by angry mobs.. We saw armed groups, many of them gang members take to the streets..
During that rebellion we didn’t see LAPD spooked. Families weren’t protected.. a thousand cops were not on the streets ‘looking for any one man or even a bunch of men.. We didn’t see officers including Daryl Gates have 50 protection squad units.. At the end of the day LAPD wound up shooting and killing more than 20 people during the rebellion..During the height of hostilities we didn’t see LAPD spooked.
During the hey days of the Black Panthers, US and other Black and Brown militant groups that routinely mashed with LAPD and had shootouts we did not see the type of resources to track down and confront any of these groups, the way we saw with Dorner..and we know LAPD went pretty deep with those groups..as explained by former Panther Erika Huggins
Some suggested LAPD went all out because Dorner was deemed a serial killer Cali has had more than its share of serial killers and we never ever saw massive manhunts like this. Not here, not anywhere.. Freeways weren’t shut down for hours, safe houses and protections squads weren’t assigned to everyone in danger.. I recall back in 200-2001 when the niece of former LA Police Chief Bernard Parks was killed by gang members we didn’t see this type of all out manhunt or even all out efforts to completely eradicate the gang. Nothing like what we saw with the quest for Dorner..So why now? Was it because he was a rogue cop?
For those unfamiliar with Southern Cali, there’s a few other things folks should know about how the police get down.. There have always been rogue cops.. For example, for a long time, LAPD and LA sheriffs had beef with each other and it was not unusual for squads to actually square up and go at each other like a gang..
David Mack LAPD was a rogue cop reported to be a member of the Bloods
We also know that long before the Jump Out Boys, a rogue gang of cops recently exposed for shooting Black and Latinos leading to seven members fired the same day Dorner posted his manifesto, that Southern Cali police departments within their ranks had long had social clubs/ gangs many of them white supremacist.. But as we saw leading up to the Rampart Scandal and the saga behind Death Row records and the death of death of Notorious BIG, there were Peace officers of color who were associated with street gangs including the Bloods. The point I’m making there have long been rogue officers, some friendly, some not so friendly to the force, but still never this much manpower to quell…
Say what you want, but this situation with Dorner has the looks of police not scared of one man, because he made threats or had weapons. This had the look of someone trying to find something.. What that something is, one can only guess, but as I said last night when they let that cabin burn and then announced they couldn’t tell if the man reported inside was Dorner.. ‘something don’t smell right in the city of Angels ‘
What did that man know and was all this man power simply to stop him or retrieve something he had? Was the mission to make sure he went to his grave with sordid secrets? We may not get immediate answers to any of these questions, but we best keep asking.. LAPD no matter what they say was not spooked or felt they was in some sort of imminent danger as they would like us to believe..not with all those resources, man power and history.. Nn the words of Public Enemy Can’t Truss It..
I found this latest ad from the NRA (National Rifle Association) featuring a Black man named Colion Noir stating that African-Americans needs guns to protect themselves to be intriguing on a number of levels. He talks about how the government which has a history of racism will not be there for us, hence protecting one’s family is on us..
Over the past week, Southern Cali police had more than 1000 officers combing mountains, stopping traffic on major freeways where cars were held up for hours, they offered a million dollars making it the highest reward ever offered for a wanted person in state history and that’s just for starters…
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