Black Lives Matter | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 29
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Black Lives Matter Tag

This could go down as the most egregious example of an MSM "anchor" groveling at the feet of a liberal activist . . . During MSNBC's coverage of the opening night of the Republican convention, Tavis Smiley complained that, unlike cop killers, "killer cops" are not called "vicious and despicable and cowardly and reprehensible." Brian Williams immediately piped up: "Tavis, if I appointed you president and you still refused to run we would have to appoint you." I'm guessing Williams meant to say "if I nominated you for president you and you refused to run we would have to appoint you." But in his obsequious excitement, poor Brian stumbled on his words. But we get it, Williams: there's nobody you'd rather see as president, even if it means overturning democracy and appointing him, than someone willing to call cops "vicious, despicable, cowardly and reprehensible."

At group calling itself Atlanta is Ready (#ATLisREADY), aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement, recently issued a set of demands to the Mayor of Atlanta, including:
We demand a termination to APD’s involvement in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program, that trains our officers in Apartheid Israel
The Mayor rejected the demand, finding that counter-terrorism training benefits the Atlanta Police Department's ability to protect Americans:
You could chalk this incident up to just some isolated ploy by local activists, but that would be a mistake. Rather, there has been a multi-year effort by left-wing and Islamist anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and openly anti-Semitic activists to hijack racial tensions in the United States and redirect that anger towards Israel.

Instead of a protest, Black Lives Matter activists in Wichita, KS, joined their local police department for the First Steps Cookout to open dialogue and bring together the community. Both sides decided this was a better option, especially after police shootings in Dallas, TX, and Baton Rouge, LA. https://twitter.com/TrooperChadKHP/status/754832830287405056

I've been surprisingly encouraged post-Dallas shootings. Rather than surrender to the usual partisan bias, Americans from all walks of life are working together, praying together, and recognizing the country's dire need for change. Real change. This video captures once such instance. When protesters and counter-protesters crossed paths in the streets of Dallas, they didn't fuss or fight. They met on neutral turf and prayed together.

Facts don't matter in the Black Lives Matter movement. Trayvon Martin's shooting planted the seeds for the movement. Contrary to popular myth, Trayvon was not unlawfully shot and killed by George Zimmerman. The trial evidence was overwhelming that Trayvon attacked Zimmerman with a punch to the nose and when shot was on top of Zimmerman beating him Mixed Martial Arts style, having smashed his head into concrete. Moreover, the racial narrative was false, a perception caused by a deceptive NBC audio edit and false interpretation of audio in which Zimmerman supposedly uttered a racial slur, and amplified by activists and family lawyers. Michael Brown's death directly launched the movement and took it national. Brown, however, wasn't shot "hands up, don't shoot" but because he sucker punched a cop sitting in his vehicle and tried to steal the cop's gun. [Ferguson PO Darren Wilson injuries caused when Michael Brown sucker punched him while trying to grab gun] [Ferguson PO Darren Wilson injuries caused when Michael Brown sucker punched him while trying to grab gun] These seminal events of the Black Lives Matter narrative were lies.

In January 2016, I reported how an Ithaca (NY) Black Lives Matter rally over the death of Sandra Bland and others set up a procedure to segregate speakers by race, with "people of color" being given priority over whites, At anti-racism rally, Whites allowed to speak only after People of Color:
We ask that people of color who would like to bring written statements/speeches to address the ralley [sic] please let us know below so that we can add you to the list of schedueled speakers. There will be an open speak-out afterwards for those who just want to speak. Please be sure to bring warm clothing. Please also be sure to bring any signs or pictures of thoes affected by police brutality. We will meet at the center of the commons at 1pm. Disclaimer: If you are a reporter at this event we will not be answering any questions. Disclaimer: If you are a white person at this event note that the voices of people of color will take precedence in rally space.
Ithaca Protest Sandra Bland FB Page comment white people welcome

Officials have revealed that Micah Johnson, who shot five cops in Dallas, sexually harassed a female soldier in Afghanistan. Before dying, Johnson told the cops he wanted to kill white officers. Johnson served as a private first class in the Army Reserve for six years. But while serving in Afghanistan in 2014, a female soldier accused him of sexual harassment when he allegedly bought her items from Victoria's Secret. She asked her superiors for a restraining order:

In the wake of the horrifying and incomprehensible shootings in Dallas that left four police officers and one rapid transit officer dead and another seven people wounded, Heather MacDonald appeared on Rush's radio show. She shared statistics and asserted that the entire Black Lives Matter movement is "based on a lie." MacDonald, you may recall, made similar points on a radio podcast interview that we posted at Legal Insurrection about the Black Lives Matter movement and the threat they pose to our nation’s police officers. In that interview, MacDonald "spoke out against the crippling influence that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is having on the quality of life in the very neighborhoods where the protests are taking place":
I think this is an even more extreme example of the way this country deals with race and policing, which is to talk fanatically about police in order not to talk about the far more difficult problem of black crime.

The Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter was recently invited to participate in the city's gay pride parade. At one point, the Black Lives Matter members stopped and sat down on the street halting the entire procession. Then they started issuing demands. Global News reports:
Black Lives Matter gets police kicked out of future Pride parades say co-founders Sunday’s Pride parade was historic for the city in many ways. It was the first time a sitting Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, marched alongside thousands of members of the LGBTQ community and its allies. It was also the first time Black Lives Matter Toronto did the same, leading a passionate procession down Bloor and Yonge Streets.

The City of Baltimore has had a rough time over the last couple years. Riots and a high profile legal case, both of which were largely based on race, have dominated headlines. How is the city helped by hiring Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson for $165,000 to run human resources for Baltimore schools? Note how the Baltimore Sun has upgraded McKesson to "civil rights" activist:
Civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson to join new city schools cabinet Civil rights activist and former Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson will return to his old stamping grounds at city school headquarters to lead the district's office of human capital.

Last fall a large group of Dartmouth students who are also Black Lives Matter activists, marched into the school's Baker-Berry Library and caused a disruption. This was no small affair. Campus Reform reported that students in the library who were simply trying to study alleged physical and verbal assaults such as “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” An investigation was launched, and the Alumni Relations office has now concluded that no punishment is warranted.

The Black Lives Matter movement is angry with Hillary Clinton over Hillary's use of the term "Superpredators" in the 1990s to describe young black male criminals. That term was an integral part of selling the public on tougher criminal sentencing that BLM blames for the current high rates of incarceration for blacks. We covered the issue when a BLM protester confronted her at a fundraiser in late February, Hillary apologizes for stigmatizing generations of young black men as “superpredators”:
It was a chilling speech in 1996. Speaking in favor of a new crime bill, Hillary Clinton used the term “superpredator” to describe young, mostly black, men who were residual criminals. While the term was not literally limited to blacks, it came to signify and justify the mass incarceration of young black men under harsh sentencing laws:

A Toronto-based Black Lives Matter organizer, Yusra Khogali, tweeted about killing, "men and white folks," in February before deleting the tweet and locking her account. According to Newstalk 1010:
Many are now calling for a police investigation, calling the tweet 'hate speech'. There's been no comment from Ali yet, but NEWSTALK 1010 has contacted Black Lives Matter and we've yet to hear a response. Believe it or not, the tweet had five 'likes' before it was removed. Shortly after, Ali locked down her twitter account. But there was even one response that said "praying for ya... to destroy them."

Shutting down major highways as a protest tactic is extremely dangerous. Not only does it create the possibility of car accidents, it also traps motorists behind the road blockage, making it impossible for emergency vehicles or vehicles with people in distress to pass. This tactic was used by anti-Israel protesters who hijacked a Martin Luther King Day protest on the San Mateo Bridge and blocked the span at its highest point, trapping hundreds of motorists. [caption id="attachment_113857" align="alignnone" width="600"]https://twitter.com/farah_salazar/status/558214869648814080 (via Farah Salazar Twitter)[/caption] In that instance, there were in fact motor vehicle accidents and at least one report of a vehicle with a child in medical distress who could not pass.

Protesters have been interrupting quite a few Trump events of late, but none were as "successful" as the one in Chicago.  That multi-pronged, organized and coordinated protest, covered by Professor Jacobson, actually shut down the event.  The progressive left is hailing this as a victory, so we are sure to see more of the same at future Trump events, and because it's perceived as a "victory," at the events of other Republican candidates before too long.  Professor Jacobson also discusses this slippery slope in another post. One report from a Politico writer explains how the organizer and some of his classmates felt in the minutes before the event was cancelled and as the students prepared for their disruption. Politico reports:
Just 50 feet in front of the podium where Trump was scheduled to appear at any moment, Nathaniel Lewis, a 25-year-old African-American graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, had established a beachhead of sorts: a pocket of about three dozen college students and activists. They were ready, too. What Lewis and dozens of his UIC classmates had planned was perhaps bigger—and better organized—than any protest Trump had faced to date. It had been a week in the making, and now everyone was in place: with roughly 2,500 on the street outside and hundreds more inside, including dozens working directly with Lewis. As they waited, the crowd growing loud around them, a few were starting to feel doubts about what they were hoping to do.

It was a chilling speech in 1996. Speaking in favor of a new crime bill, Hillary Clinton used the term "superpredator" to describe young, mostly black, men who were residual criminals. While the term was not literally limited to blacks, it came to signify and justify the mass incarceration of young black men under harsh sentencing laws:
“They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘superpredators.’ No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

You remember Mizzou Prof. Melissa Click, don't you? She's the world's most famous red-headed social warrior professor who gained internet fame for seeking "some muscle" to keep a student journalist away from a Black Lives Matter protest. https://youtu.be/xRlRAyulN4o?t=6m19s Click claimed this was an aberration and that she's not really the wacko she appears to be on the video. The Columbian Missourian reports on the consequences, or lack thereof:
She acknowledged that ordering Schierbecker away from inside a human wall around the camp and calling for “some muscle” was poor judgment.
But Click, who also had joined student protesters during MU's Homecoming parade, didn't rule out protesting with them again; nor did she rule out filing a lawsuit against the UM System Board of Curators, MU or Schierbecker. She said she would not join students in protest if she felt it would endanger others or disrupt an event.

Oberlin College is an institution in turmoil over the past several years, and anti-Israel activism is part of the problem. Now, over 200 alumni are claiming the anti-Israel activism has created a hostile environment for Jews, and the alumni are demanding the college take action to address the problem. The issue of when anti-Israelism crosses into anti-Semitism is a hot topic on campuses recently because of the very aggressive tactics of anti-Israel campus groups, and the intense demonization of Israel. "Intersectionality" analysis is used by anti-Israel activists to try to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar movements:
Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel.
When City University of New York Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, tried to turn the Million Student March into an anti-Israel event and blamed high tuition on Zionists, the CUNY Vice Chancellor called it “thinly-veiled bigotry, prejudice, anti-Semitism.” At Vassar College, SJP circulated a Nazi cartoon after weeks of anti-Israel activism that included picketing a course which involved travel to Israel. Prof. Miriam Elman laid out the history and analysis in Fighting The Hate: When Does Anti-Israel Become Anti-Semitic? As described below, it appears Oberlin may need to go through a similar self-evaluation.