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Black Lives Matter Tag

The rioting in Charlotte turned even uglier overnight, after the apparently false claim that a black man was shot dead by police for pointing a book. All evidence so far shows that the "victim" was a career criminal who had a gun and turned towards police. This appears to be another false media narrative, just like "hands up, don't shoot" in the Michael Brown case, but it was enough to spark mobs of racist rioters and looters who attacked people and each other, including people trapped in cars. Anyone who was old enough to remember the 1992 Los Angeles riots after the police in the Rodney King case were found not guilty is old enough to remember Reginald Denny:

A Dallas police sergeant filed suit in federal court against Black Lives Matter leaders, among others, for inciting violence against police. The Dallas Morning News reported: Sgt. Demetrick Pennie, president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation and a 17-year law enforcement veteran, filed the amended complaint...

I certainly don't want anyone robbed at gunpoint. Not even to a local leader of the Black Lives Matters movement despite the Black Lives Matter movement having taken on an anti-police call to action. There is great irony, however, when such a leader then also calls for more police protection, as happened recently in Houston with Jerry Ford, Jr.:

I will straight-up admit I am no fan of sports. Therefore, I have been mostly oblivious to the latest social justice drama playing out across the country involving San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand during the national anthem. The kabuki theater of #BlackLivesMater America-hate is now spreading beyond the San Francisco team.
...Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters raised his fist, four Miami Dolphins players knelt, and players from several other teams interlocked arms or raised their fists as an apparent sign of unity with Kaepernick, who began his protest last month during the NFL's preseason over what he said was the oppression of "black people and people of color."

The leftist roots of the Black Lives Matter movement have been exposed many times. This Black Lives Matter rally in Ithaca was full-out anti-capitalist Marxist agitation (the speaker is a Cornell professor): Which explains why the movement is attacking charter schools that actually help black children. Lance Izumi writing in The Philadephia Inquirer has the story, Black Lives Matter vs. charter schools:

Rasmea Odeh is the Palestinian terrorist group member convicted of the 1969 supermarket bombing in Jerusalem that killed two Hebrew University students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. [caption id="attachment_130186" align="alignnone" width="600"][Graves of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, Jerusalem] [Graves of Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner Jerusalem][Photo by William Jacobson][/caption]Rasmea was released in a prisoner exchange in 1979 for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Rasmea eventually made her way to the U.S., where she lied on both her visa and naturalization applications, by falsely stating that she never was convicted of a crime or served time in prison. She told other lies as well, such as not disclosing the time she spent in Lebanon after release from Israeli prison, or that she was a military member of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Rasmea became a U.S. citizen in 2004 on the basis of those lies.

Legal Insurrection has chronicled the radical social upheaval pursued by Black Lives Matter, which seems to have enriched some of the participants more than accomplished anything worthwhile. However, the lack of BLM response to the Louisiana floods now have some black Americans questioning the movement's true motives. Jerry L. Washington, a former Baton Rouge resident who went to southern Louisiana to lend a hand after the disaster, is angry about failure to respond. He has a few choice words for Black Lives Matter:

The "Movement for Black Lives," a coalition of approximately 50 Black Lives Matter groups, recently issued a policy platform which raised issues such as mass incarceration, policing, and other issues of importance. Yet in that platform were included deranged libelous accusations against one and only one foreign country - Israel. That section of the platform was not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to our coverage of how anti-Israel activists methodically and deliberately set out years ago to stoke racial tension against Israel by falsely accusing Israel of being responsible for local police shootings of blacks in the U.S. That effort went into overdrive during the Ferguson riots after the Michael Brown shooting in the summer of 2014. Since then, redirecting the U.S. Black Lives Matters movement to turn it as a weapon against Israel has been a top priority for anti-Israel activists, including those working under the banner of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Bassem Masri Ferguson Resistance is in our blood The platform language against Israel was a milestone in that effort, putting the Black Lives Matter movement in the position of accusing Israel of the Crimes Against Humanity of Genocide and Apartheid. But in order to do that, those terms had to be redefined in ways that are applied to no one else.

Tell us, Carol: the leaders of which Black Lives Matter chant would you suggest Donald Trump "reach out" to: "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon," or "what do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!" On her CNN show this morning, Carol Costello suggested to Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes that Trump should be "reaching out" to Black Lives Matter. When Hughes replied that the Trump campaign has reached out to the black community, Costello interrupted incredulously "to Black Lives Matter?" Perhaps someone can do the research and find the last time Costello suggested to a Hillary supporter that Clinton should be "reaching out" to the KKK or Stormfront.

We have thoroughly documented how anti-Israel activists have been falsely blaming Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks in order to stoke and exploit racial tensions, Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks. That effort went into overdrive during the Ferguson riots over the shooting death of Michael Brown, Intifada Missouri – Anti-Israel activists may push Ferguson over the edge:
As much tension as there is, an underreported story is the active role of “pro-Palestinian” activists who have exploited the Ferguson riots and tension this summer and fall to push their anti-Israel agenda. That anti-Israeli agenda, which involves encouraging confrontation with police in solidarity with Palestinians, is helping provide the accelerant to an already volatile situation.
Ferguson Palestine contingent We were among the first to call attention to this development, which was largely ignored by the the Jewish and pro-Israel communities which support many of the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. Ferguson was a turning point, as leading anti-Israel U.S. professor Robin Kelley recently acknowledged:

Chaos, violence, and looting erupted in Milwaukee late Saturday night following the shooting of an armed suspect by police. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side. After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not for a time get close to the blaze because of gunshots. Later, fires were started at businesses — including a BMO Harris Bank branch, a beauty supply company and O'Reilly Auto Parts stores — near N. 35th and W. Burleigh streets.
Watch as the violence unfolds:

We wrote recently about the Black Lives matter platform statement (under the name MB4L: Movement for Black Lives) and, in particular the “Invest-Divest section,” which attacks Israel and accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ and being an ‘apartheid state’. As reported, the statement was condemned by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Boston, and the Anti-Defamation League. Subsequent condemnations were issued by the American Jewish Committee, the Union for Reform Judaism, as well as the more left-wing J-Street (the liberal “pro-Israel, pro-Peace” lobby group), and T’ruah: the rabbinic call for human rights.

If you think the Black Lives Matter movement is just or even primarily about "Black Lives," then you don't understand the movement. A new research report, based on detailed interviews with those active in the movement, demonstrates that the organized movement is a vehicle for a radical leftist anti-Capitalist agenda, using "Black Lives" as the hook. The research is by Anne Sorock of The Frontier Lab using a "deep values" methodology. Several years ago Anne was a regular contributor to Legal Insurrection, but that has fallen off as she devoted herself The Frontier Lab. Deep values research is something pioneered by Dr. Brian Wansink at the Food & Brand Lab at Cornell University. Anne received her MBA at Cornell and worked with that group. Deep values research seeks to understand not just what consumers like or want, but what deeply held values lead to such decisions. At The Frontier Lab, Anne applies those research methods to politics.

On August 9, 2014, Ferguson, MO, Police Officer Darren Wilson shot dead Michael Brown. Our first post about it was on August 11, 2014, as rioting broke out. We kept the coverage non-evaluative. We learned from prior cases, such as Trayvon Martin, not to accept at face value racial and other narratives being spun. We also learned from events such as the Boston Marathon and Newtown shootings that initial facts reported by the media often are wrong. We embedded this news reports of the looting: Within days, various supposed eyewitnesses would claim Brown was a passive victim -- an account we now know to be untrue -- as summarized in this MSNBC report we posted on August 13, 2014:

Hillary Clinton's relationship with law enforcement, like her involvement with any issue, has evolved over time. Sometimes over night. There are reports that Hillary, as First Lady, had little respect for—and was even verbally abusive toward—the Secret Service agents assigned to protect her . . . with their lives if necessary.  Apparently, she also gave these men the impression that her dislike extended beyond the Secret Service to "law enforcement and the military." After receiving harsh criticism from the left when she made the "mistake" of declaring that "all lives matter,"  Hillary started courting the Black Lives Matter movement, attempting to ingratiate herself and secure their support for her campaign. Against this backdrop and when faced with the decision of whether or not to seek the endorsement of the National Fraternal Order of Police, she declined to submit to the process.  A move seen as a snub by the police union.

For years we have been documenting the efforts by anti-Israel activists to stoke racial hatred of Israel through the concept of "intersectionality" - the notion that all revolutionary struggles, particularly against racism, are connected. The almost exclusive focus, however, is Israel.  Hence, Israel is falsely blamed for local police shootings of blacks in the U.S. based upon false and misleading claims I debunked in my post, Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks. The movement to connect Ferguson-to-Palestine launched after the Michael Brown shooting, and has been a singular focus of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists ever since. Ferguson Palestine contingent