Tag: protests

Speaker Threatened Retribution at Weekend Rally in Kenosha

For an event described by the New York Times as a “peaceful protest,” the words are jarring: “[I]f you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours,” a speaker thundered toward the end of last weekend’s Justice for Jacob rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Several apparently incurious news reports referred to the speaker as an unidentified man who “took the microphone” toward the end of the program. However, through a Facebook post, The Dispatch identified the scheduled speaker as Maruwa Ferrell, president of one of the host organizations of the rally listed on a Facebook page announcing the event: the UNIA-ACL Sir Isaiah Morter Division 401 Chicago, a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

On August 29, Jacob Blake’s family and supporters held the “Justice for Jacob” event in Kenosha, the town where Blake was shot seven times in the back by police during his arrest in mid-August. The Kenosha News reported that most “speakers were more focused on social justice and not physical revenge,” but the newspaper initially headlined its story on the rally with Ferrell’s inflammatory words. Despite the sensational nature of the threatening words, the story did not get much attention until Daniel Thompson, an editor at the newspaper (and according to Thompson, the only black full-time staff member) resigned when the paper refused to change the headline. Thompson asserted that the headline distorted the overall peaceful tone of the rally. (The paper subsequently changed the headline after Thompson’s resignation.)

Maruwa Ferrell was enthusiastically introduced at the rally by Jacob Blake’s uncle Justin Blake (who acted as emcee for the event) only as “my president,” an apparent reference to Ferrell’s position with the Chicago UNIA. Ferrell warned his listeners that his words would not be welcomed by all, and he did not disappoint. Ferrell’s “it’s time for us to kill one of yours” threat was met with a muted reaction by the crowd, but he was permitted to finish his remarks.

Farrell’s group, the UNIA-ACL Sir Isaiah Morter Division 401 Chicago, describes itself as “committed to the economic, political and social liberation of African people.” The organization emphasizes self-sufficiency for people of African descent. The group’s Facebook page posts various memes such as “None of my ancestors died for me so I can vote for the white people that killed them!” and “Them: Black Lives Matter. Me: Race First / Black Power. It’s a Difference!” Other Facebook posts boost black-owned businesses and the UNIA’s charitable endeavors.

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These People Want To Convince Everyone That Looting Is A-Okay

Looting is okay because it’s “reparations”

First, there was the woman who spoke after the Magnificent Mile in Chicago was looted so ferociously that Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulled the drawbridge open to keep people out of the downtown area. I recently wrote:

According to a Black Lives Matter activist and organizer, Ariel Atkins, it was just “reparations.” Atkins believes that anything the looters wish to damage or steal is owed to them. She made the radical statement at a solidarity rally in front of a Chicago police station, where people were gathered to support those who had been arrested.

“I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci’s or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes,” Ariel Atkins said at a rally outside the South Loop police station Monday, local outlets reported.

“That’s a reparation,” Atkins said. “Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.” (source)

At a time when more people than ever in the United States were willing to get on board and protest police brutality and racial violence, entitled statements like the one made by Atkins have served to return us to a place of absolute division. (source)

Atkin’s statement was made at a solidarity rally in front of a Chicago police station where people were gathered to support those who had been arrested for pillaging the Windy City.

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NPR promotes insane book celebrating looting and riots

Vicky Osterweil’s new book, In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action, is a social justice justification for property damage and theft. This book promoting riots is a number one new release on Amazon, a mega-corporation that benefits every time a local shop gets torched.

Osterweil’s book is a celebration of looting in the name of anti-racist action directed at dismantling whiteness and property ownership.

Speaking to NPR’s Natalie Escobar, Osterweil made the point that looting during the course of riots is a redistribution of wealth, not theft, and that property damage, too, is simply a way to reapportion assets which she deems necessary in an unequal society.

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‘I don’t think we’d have survived’: Rand Paul says police saved him and wife from ‘mob’ of DC protesters

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul feared that he and his wife would have been “pummeled” by protesters if police had not intervened as they left the White House and walked to a hotel following President Trump’s acceptance speech to end the Republican National Convention.

He told Fox and Friends on Friday morning that the city is no longer safe for Republicans like himself to be out walking.

“I regret that I made this decision, but I said we’ll walk the two blocks. We walked one block, but as we walked one block, we could see some police in the distance, but we also saw a mob of about 30 people marching and yelling. They all of a sudden saw me — right as we got to the police, fortunately, or I don’t think we would have survived,” Paul said.

The senator said the crowd swelled to more than 100 protesters, some of whom shouted profanities and threats at the couple. At least one officer used his bike to push back the mob.

“They were shouting threats, you know, to us, to kill us, to hurt us, but they’re also saying, shouting, ‘Say her name, Breonna Taylor.’ And it’s like, you couldn’t reason with this mob. But I’m actually the author of the Breonna Taylor law to end no-knock raids, so the irony is lost on these idiots that they’re trying to kill the person who’s actually trying to get rid of no-knock raids. […] You’ve seen the pictures of what they do to you,” Paul said.

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‘Mostly Peaceful’ Rioting And Looting Is Helping Trump’s Campaign

‘Mostly peaceful protests’ are like the ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria – propaganda constructs that do not exist in the real world. The people who owned the burning cars and who’s businesses were destroyed will not be relieved by such phrasing.

Joe Biden’s attempt to swing Republican voters to his side has failed. At the same time he has rejected many of the issues progressives favored. This will hurt the election turn out the Democrats will need. Add to that the unrest which plays into Trump’s hands. The Democrats who fear that are right:

“There’s no doubt it’s playing into Trump’s hands,” said Paul Soglin, who served as mayor of Madison, on and off, for more than two decades. “There’s a significant number of undecided voters who are not ideological, and they can move very easily from Republican to the Democratic column and back again. They are, in effect, the people who decide elections. And they are very distraught about both the horrendous carnage created by police officers in murdering African Americans, and … for the safety of their communities.”

Trump, of course, is positioning himself as the antidote to urban unrest. “So let me be clear: The violence must stop, whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha,” Vice President Mike Pence declared in his Republican convention speech Wednesday night, with Trump looking on. “We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color.”

Republicans had chided Joe Biden and other Democrats for not calling out the violence in the aftermath of the Blake shooting. Biden immediately addressed the shooting, but didn’t condemn the ensuing violence until Wednesday in a video posted on social media.

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CNN’s Cuomo: Being Allowed to Protest and Being Allowed to Go to Church Have ‘Nothing to Do with the Other’

During CNN’s coverage of the 2020 Republican National Convention on Monday, CNN host Chris Cuomo stated that protesting and church attendance have “nothing to do” with each other and protests are “people who are responding in this country to outrageous acts of social injustice. To say, well, it’s the same as going to church, no, it isn’t.” And that “you would have chaos” if you told people you couldn’t protest.

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Black Lives Matter Supporters Run Over and Brutally Beat Raccoon to Death, Claim Only White People Worry About Animals

Black Lives Matter supporters ran over a raccoon twice before beating it to death with a baseball bat and posting it online in a horrific act of animal cruelty.

The incident took place in New York City, as onlookers watched and cheered.

The alleged niece of one of the monsters who did it wrote that “only white peoples worry about this.”

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With Chicago police already stretched thin, Mayor Lightfoot stations over 100 cops outside home, bans protests on her block to protect herself

The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that the city has effectively banned all protests on Lightfoot’s street, including peaceful ones, even as elsewhere in the city protests have been allowed to continue and openly supported by the mayor.

According to an email sent by the district’s commander at the time, officers assigned to enforce the directive were instructed to tell protesters “that it is against the city code and state law to protest” and that they must “leave immediately.”

After the warning is given, the street “should be locked down,” the instructions added.

In order to carry out the orders, a large contingent of officers have been routinely stationed outside the home. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told the Chicago Sun-Times that as many as 140 officers have been assigned to the home at certain times.

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