The Price of Protest: the high (but inevitable) cost
My past (unhappy) volunteer experiences with a church bereavement group, a national women’s health initiative, a state-wide HIV-prevention planning committee, and a community-based leadership committee, eventually led to my decision to forego joining any organization or group.
Despite the lofty intentions of their founders or organizers, I frequently watched the membership devolve into cliques, which resulted in infighting, bad feelings, and competition for power or control. Not my cup of tea.
On a larger scale, some organizations morph into entrenched institutions that exist primarily to perpetuate their own existence.
The most destructive opposition an organization or a group can face, however, stems from government entities, politicians, or adversaries who seek to subvert, defame, or discredit its mission.
As nationwide protests, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, have gained national and international support, attacks on anti-police violence protesters, black activists, and black organizations have increased.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a case in point.
Created in 2013, BLM has become the target of detractors, including alt-right leaders, other black activists, and politicians who question its authenticity and purpose.
Earlier this month, USA Today reported“…Trump has been accused of inciting violence against Latino and Black Americans, warning about "tough hombre" criminals, calling the phrase Black Lives Matter "a symbol of hate" and promising to send "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers" to quell protests.”
An unrelenting critic of BLM, 29-year old Darren “King D” Seals, was a well-known and outspoken community activist in Ferguson, MO, who had organized against police and gun violence before the protests that arose after Officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year old Mike Brown. Thus, he considered BLM leaders “outsiders” who had coopted the Ferguson uprising in the media.
Seals, founder of Hands Up United and part of a Hip-Hop group, Bottom Boys Movement, frequently tweeted his opposition to BLM:
“#BlackLivesMatter is a gay/feminist movement not a black movement they are not ‘leaders’ they’re thieves who exploited the work of black ppl.”
On September 6, 2016, Seals was found shot multiple times inside of a torched car. His homicide remains unsolved.
Some on social media speculate that BLM killed him.
Other attacks against BLM include,
Accusations that it promotes a campaign to “Kill All Whites;”
Fake news reports, BLM money scams, scripted bot accounts, and false Facebook and Instagram accounts; and
Allegations by Ron Martinelli, a former San Jose detective and expert on police procedure (stated on New Hampshire Public Radio’s “All Things Considered”) that BLM is a “black nationalist revolutionary Marxist movement” that seeks “to disenfranchise law enforcement from the community….defund law enforcement, diminish their involvement in the community….and dissolve law enforcement.”
Most of what I know about BLM is derived from the news media; consequently, I cannot attest to the validity of accusations made against its leadership. Nonetheless, it is now exposed to the harsh scrutiny and backlash that black activists have suffered under for generations.
Targeting Black Activists Ain’t New
In the 1919, J. Edgar Hoover spearheaded the “anti-radical division” of the General Intelligence Bureau “to silence black radical publications, neutralize black Socialists and Communists, and cripple the one truly mass-based black movement, the nationalistic UNIA (Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association).”
From 1965 to 1971, the FBI conducted its Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to infiltrate organizations considered a threat to national security. For example, the FBI “specifically targeted the Black Panther Party with the intention of destroying it. They infiltrated the Party with informants and subjected members to repeated interviews. Agents sent anonymous letters encouraging violence between street gangs and the Panthers in various cities, which resulted in “the killings of four BPP members and numerous beatings and shootings,” as well as letters sowing internal dissension in the Panther Party.
“The agency also worked with police departments to harass local branches of the Party through raids and vehicle stops.
In its current iteration, targeting and vilifying black protest takes the form of federal agents grabbing activists off the streets, shoving them into unmarked vans, and taking them to unknown locations.
These tactics foster the image of black activists/protestors as violent and out of control in the minds of an uninformed public.
Indeed, last week, Just Security, an online publication reported that “President Trump…has…used federal forces to undermine local sovereignty and the rights of protesters (editor’s emphasis). This practice must be stopped, lest he use these same tactics to undermine our democracy come November
Protest consequences
Trump campaign ads include inflammatory rhetoric that equates “Defund the Police” efforts with increased crime and violence.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that activist DeRay McKesson (who has been linked to BLM) is liable for a police officer’s injuries sustained during a protest outside a police station in Baton Rouge, LA, in2016. He wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case.
Since the 2014, six men (including Darren Seals) connected to the Ferguson protests have died under tragic (or what some deem questionable) circumstances.
In November 2014, Deandre Joshua, 20, was found inside a burned car shot once in the head (Ferguson, MO).
Three other activists’ deaths were ruled suicides--MarShawn McCarrel, 23, (November 2016, self-inflicted gunshot, Columbus, OH); Edward Crawford, Jr., 27 (May 2017, self-inflicted gunshot, St. Louis, MO); and Danye Jones, 24 (October 2018, hanging, St. Louis, MO). In February 2019, Palestinian-American Bassem Masri, 31, (St. Louis, MO) who had live streamed the Ferguson protests, was found dead on a city bus. The medical examiner listed heart attack as cause of death.
A dangerous business
Civil disobedience, peaceful protest, and vocal opposition to government historically have been dangerous undertakings. Fighting for racial, social, economic, or environmental justice carries a heavy price. Present-day activism is no exception.
Those protestors on the news are not just facing off against armed police or military but an entire economic and political structure that cares little about their lives or deaths.
They know the price of protest and are willing to pay it.
© 2020 wistajohnson.com (Reprint by permission only.)