In the wake of the five Dallas police officers shot dead (and eleven more injured) by Micah Johnson, news is emerging of three more officers being shot and killed with three more have been injured in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling lost his life at the hands of the police ten days ago. Early reports state that one suspect is dead and two others may still be at large. In response Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards said: “This is an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us at a time when we need unity and healing. Rest assured, every resource available to the state of Louisiana will be used to ensure the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice.” (1)
In the immediate aftermath of the Dallas incident governor Edwards’ sentiments about “…all of us…” appeared to have a ring of validity. With the passing of time some less universalist perspectives are emerging. In Dallas a handful of protesters organised a “Whites Lives Matter” demonstration. (2) In contrast, Dr. Randy Short, Washington, D.C. Chairman of Brothers In Support has departed from the we are all grieving narrative:
“Contrary to those who dislike this truth, Micah Johnson is a hero to grieving Black mothers, families and friends who had children slain by racist killer cops. Anyone, including myself, who has been humiliated and unfairly treated by a racist Black or White policeman feels that some of these bullies and killer cops warrant a comeuppance. As for the reactionary Greek chorus that sheds one-sided tears for police but scorns their victims, they are a lost cause.” (3)
A similar view was shared in a tearful online video by Miami-based TV host Kalyn Chapman James who referred to Johnson as a “martyr.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfODkPmD23o) The posting got James suspended from her job and she later stated that she regretted using the term “martyr.” However there has been a groundswell of support for the former Miss Alabama from a number of organizations that have been calling for her reinstatement. One of these is Frank Matthews, president of the Outcast Voters League who said he “condoned” the statements James had made in her video and that many are keeping their feelings to themselves to be politically correct. (4)
The legacy of the civil rights movement in the USA and the establishment version of Dr Martin Luther King Jr is one of unrelenting non-violence in response to unspeakable atrocities. Yet this narrative of the civil rights movement and of Dr King is replete with misrepresentations and omissions. Sanitized history tends not to mention former local NAACP leader Robert Williams who founded the Black Guard an armed self-defence cadre that came to the aid of the Freedom Riders in 1961 against Ku Klux Klan attacks. Assessing the need for armed self-defence, Williams opined in 1959:
“That there is no law here, there is no need to take the white attackers to the courts because they will go free and that the federal government is not coming to the aid of people who are oppressed, and it is time for Negro men to stand up and be men and if it is necessary for us to die we must be willing to die. If it is necessary for us to kill we must be willing to kill.” (5)
Another group to note is the Deacons for Defense and Justice (DDJ) founded by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick November 1964. DDJ provided armed self-defence for a number of civil rights groups in the USA’s deep south including SNCC and CORE. Historian Lance Hill evaluates their impact thusly:
“The hard truth is that these organizations produced few victories in their local projects in the Deep South—if success is measured by the ability to force changes in local government policy and create self-governing and sustainable local organizations that could survive when the national organizations departed…. The Deacons’ campaigns frequently resulted in substantial and unprecedented victories at the local level, producing real power and self-sustaining organizations.” (6)
The DDJ were essentially superseded by groups that emerged out of the Black Power era such as the Black Panther Party for Self Defence and Us.
Aside from organisations there are individuals that history has a tendency to overlook such as Robert Charles who killed four police officers, seven civilians, and had wounded more than twenty (all white) in New Orleans in July 1900. In the same city seventy years later Mark Essex left the Navy adamant that he “didn’t want to see kids grow up to be oppressed by the white man…he wanted to change (society) himself…not wait another 500 years.” He proceeded to target local whites claiming the lives of 9 (including three police officers) and injured thirteen before being taken out in a hail of over 200 bullets. (7) Mark Essex’s story is recounted in Gil Scott-Heron’s cover version of Marvin Gaye’s Makes Me Wanna Holler on his 1981 Reflections album.
There is also Colin Ferguson whose “Black Rage” was attributed to him killing six and injuring nineteen on the Long Island Rail Road in December 1993, while the manifesto attributed to ex-Los Angeles police officer Chris Dormer declared war of LAPD racism and corruption lead to kill four and injure three.
So contrary to what is generally reported there is a well-established history of armed self-defence to oppression in the USA, although some sources allege that some of these may be ‘false flag’ incidents. (8)
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement do not appear to be advocates of armed self-defence, there are groups such as the New Black Panther Party and the Huey P Newton Gun Club taking up this mantle. (9) In fact, BLM “call for an end to violence” (10) but this hasn’t stopped European media (so-called mainstream and extremist) linking them to the police shootings characterising them as terrorists. (11) Yet the USA example indicates that armed self-defence does contribute to change.
Nothing like the Black Guard or DDJ exist in the UK where the convention of non-violent protests and campaigns against state violence self-defence are largely the order of the day. So it is interesting to note, like the USA example, change in the UK comes on the back of self-defence/resistance – manifested through uprisings (“riots”), as Paul Gilroy, Professor of American and English Literature at King’s College London, noted.:
“The aftermath of the riots created important anti-racist initiatives at the local government level. It opened the padlocked door of national politics…” (12)
On the other hand, while it is the case that for many decades the protest/campaign strategy has yielded few results, this changed in recent years with judicial inroads made in the cases of Azelle Rodney and the ongoing case of Kingsley Burrell and especially that of Sean Rigg, whose campaign is led by his sister Marcia Rigg. And now 18 year-old Mzee Mohammed, who died in police custody on 13/07/2016 in Liverpool must be added to the list.
(1) (17/07/2016) Police officers shot dead in Baton Rouge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-36820869.(2) (17/07/2016) White Lives Matter Protest Held Near Where Dallas Officers Killed.https://uk.news.yahoo.com/white-lives-matter-protest-held-202739131.html.(3) Short, Dr. Randy (12/07/2016) Micah Xavier Johnson: Made in America, a Failed Human Rights State. http://www.blackagendareport.com/us_failed_human_rights_state(4) Faulk, Kent (12/07/2016) Former Miss Alabama who called Dallas cop-killer a martyr suspended by Miami TV station. http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/07/miami_public_tv_station_suspen.html(5) (2015) Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power’. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/negroeswithguns/rob.html(6) Hill, Lance E. (2004). The Deacons for Defense: armed resistance and the civil rights movement.University of North Carolina Press. p 264-5(7) Barthe, Darryl (05/12/2014) Consumed in Flames: A Genealogy of African-American Avengers.http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/genealogy-black-avengers.html#.V4vwBbgrLcs(8) (08/07/2016) Proof that the Dallas Shooting Is a False Flag Event.http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2016/07/proof-that-the-dallas-shooting-is-a-false-flag-event-2476180.html(9) Subramanian, Courtney (17/07/2016) Are US black separatist groups on the rise? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36766437(10) (2016) The Black Lives Matter Network advocates for dignity, justice, and respecthttp://blacklivesmatter.com/the-black-lives-matter-network-advocates-for-dignity-justice-and-respect/(11) Constantine, Tim (02/09/2015) Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/2/tim-constantine-black-lives-matter-terrorist-group/(12) Gilroy, Paul (2007) ‘Black Britain: A Photographic History. SAQI. p. 270.
So tonight we ask the question:
Is violence ever a justifiable response to police brutality?
1. Are the shootings of the police “an unjustified attack on all of us”?
2. Can Micah Johnson really be described as a “hero” or “martyr”?
3. Why is armed self-defence so de-emphasized is history accounts?
4. Is Black Lives Matter in any way to blame for the police shootings?
5. Do the likes of the Sean Rigg case mean that justice can now feasibly be sought through established structures?
6. What is iNAPP’s position on self-defence?
Our very special guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.
Bro. Paul Ifayomi Grant: in addition to operating his own consultancy firm Paul Grant & Associates Ltd, Bro. Ifayomi is the author of a number of exciting and dynamic books ‘Niggers, Negroes, Black People and Afrikans’ and ‘Blue Skies for Afrikans’, ‘Saving Our Sons’, ‘Sankofa the Wise Man and His Amazing Friends’, ‘Why Willie Lynch Must Die’ and ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’. He is an active member of the Afrikan community and is involved in a number of community groups some of which he founded or co-founded:Nubian Link www.nubianlink.org.uk a community education group, ABDF Ltd (www.abdf.co.uk), a community economic development company, Nottingham Black Families in Education Parent Support Group and Brother II Brother an Afrikan men’s group. He is an executive member of the Foundation for the Sustainable Development of Africa (FOSDAF) www.fosdaf.org an international group promoting grassroots Afrikan economic empowerment. In addition to hiswww.houseofknowledge.orkuk that houses writings, information and resources, Bro. Ifayomi has recently launched a new website: www.blackfinancialfitness.com as a learning platform to facilitate economic empowerment.
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