By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--May 14, 2015
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By October, the protest community became both highly organized, as actual organizations began to form and solidify, and more thoughtful and conscious about the symbolism and intent of protest actions. Whether invoking Assata Shakur’s, “We have nothing to lose but our chains,” or Dr. King’s, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” the protest community actively began to shift to speak to larger narratives of social justice, while situating Ferguson as the site of resistance.
In a telling April 28 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Mckesson glibly dismissed the widespread looting and destruction of private businesses that authorities allowed to happen in Baltimore as trifling. Mckesson, who was identified on-screen as a “community organizer,” was active in protests last year in Ferguson, Mo. after black teenager Michael Brown was killed as he attacked a white police officer. Blitzer repeatedly tried to get Mckesson to condemn mob violence and Mckesson pointedly refused to do so. Asked what his plans in Charm City were, Mckesson said:
There’s been a lot of positive demonstrations over the past couple months here in Baltimore and across the country because the police have continued to kill people. Tonight will be another night where people come out in the streets to confront a system that is corrupt.Blitzer replied, “But you want peaceful protests, right?” Mckesson said:
Yes, for sure. And remember the people that have been violent since August has been the police. We think about the 300 people that have been killed alone, that is violence. Property damage here that’s been really unfortunate over the past couple, for a day or so here. There have been many days of peaceful protests in Baltimore City and places all around the country.Blitzer said, “But at least 15 police officers have been hurt, 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires, these are statistics, local police have put out 15 structure fires. There is no excuse for that kind of violence, right?” Mckesson was nonresponsive. He replied, “Again, there’s no excuse for the seven people that the Baltimore Police Department has killed in the past year either, right?” Blitzer insisted, “We’re not making comparisons, obviously,” adding, “We don’t want anybody hurt.” The anchor continued, “I just want to hear you say there should be peaceful protests — not violent protests — in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King.” “There should be peaceful protests,” Mckesson said, paying lip service to nonviolence. He continued:
I don’t have to condone it to understand it, right, that the pain that people feel is real and you are making a comparison. You are suggesting this idea that broken windows are worse than broken spines, right? And what we know to be true is that the police are killing people everywhere, killing people here, six police officers were involved in the killing of Freddie Gray and we’re looking for justice there. And that’s real, right. Like the violence that the police have been inflicting on communities of color has been sustained and deep.Blitzer then said, “But you agree, I assume, with President Obama, who said a few moments ago, there is no excuse for the violence that erupted yesterday, no excuse for the stealing, for the arson. You agree with the president?” Mckesson then engaged in an elaborate circumlocution, saying on the one hand that he personally would advocate peaceful protest, and on the other that mob violence was acceptable.
What I agree with is that I advocate people to peacefully protest and know that pain manifests in different ways and I don’t have to condone it to understand it. People are grieving and people are mourning. And I would advocate personally for people to do it in ways that you are calling ‘peacefully.’ I know that Freddie Gray will never be back and those windows will be.Blitzer pointed out that President Obama said the violence “distracted from the peaceful protests and distracted from the mourning that the family of Freddie Gray was seeking yesterday.” Mckesson responded with word games.
Distracted from progress is when city officials get on TV and call black people in pain “thugs,” right? That’s a distraction. I think that the unrest, the uprising, whatever you call it, is again a cry for justice here and a cry for justice across the country because police continue to terrorize people. The terrorizing is actually deadly. Broken windows are not broken spines. People are in pain. So I think that the president, I hope that he understands the conditions that created the unrest and continue the unrest not only here in Baltimore but across the country. Freddie Gray will never see another day and neither will Tamir [Rice, who was shot to death by Cleveland Police,] or Mike Brown.In a triple-bylined oped in the Nov. 19, 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Elzie and Mckesson paid lip service to peaceful political expression just as Rules for Radicals author Saul Alinsky would do.
We are peaceful. We discipline ourselves and remain resolutely confident in the righteousness of our cause, even in the face of weapons of war. We ensure that actions remain peaceful, purposeful, and focused on our message, not on chaos. That we must continually remind and convince the public of our peaceful stance is disheartening. We are so often irresponsibly labeled as thugs by those who would – consciously or not – use our peaceful protests to revive the myth of the violent black savage.In other words, criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement is racist. Regular Americans not obsessed with race, class, and gender, are likely to disagree.
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
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