Black Lives Matter and the real terrorists

My dictionary’s definition of terrorism is “the use of terror and violence to intimidate, subjugate, etc., especially as a political weapon.”

If there is any group of people in American history who have been terrorized, it is African slaves and their descendants.  When they were theoretically emancipated, a terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan, arose to intimidate and subjugate them through the use of terror and violence.  The Klan was a predecessor and role model for Nazism and fascism in 20th century Europe.

I can remember when white people could kill black people with impunity in certain parts of the country. Patrisse Cullors, pointed out in her book, When They Call You a Terrorist, written with Asha Bandele., that white people are still killing unarmed black people out of fear, and often getting off with no punishment or token punishment.

Yet when she joined with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi to form Black Lives Matter, they themselves were accused of terrorism, even though Black Lives Matter neither practices nor advocates violence.

The FBI has added “black identity terrorism” to its categories of terrorism.   There could be such a thing, I suppose, but most domestic terrorists, including those who attack police, are white racist terrorists.

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I anticipate that some white people who read this post will say that Black Lives Matter’s priorities are misplaced.  Statistically a black person’s risk of being killed by a police officer is less than the odds of being killed by another black person, so the argument is that should be what they concentrate on.

If you reason like that, why all the fuss about terrorism?  The odds that any individual American will be killed by a terrorist is next to nothing.

I think that if a loved one of mine were unjustifiably killed by a police officer, I would be much more outraged than at a killing by a street criminal because the police officer would be betraying his mission, which is to protect and serve.

LINKS

Why police so rarely get charged for the killing of unarmed black men by Erwin Cherminsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, for the Sacramento Bee..

Police killings of black men in the U.S., and what happened to the officers by Josh Hafner for USA Today.

Unarmed Black Women Who Were Killed by the Police by Essence magazine.

Police kill unarmed blacks more often, especially when they are women by Gerry Everding for Washington University in St. Louis’ The Source.

Tracking the cases of police brutality at Walmart by Shaun King for Daily Kos.

Police shot and killed an unarmed black man on in his own back yard by P.R. Lockhart for Vox news

‘Black woman unarmed’: How Tanisha Anderson’s last days turned into her last by Michelle Dean for the Guardian.

Cleveland police officer gets 10-day suspension in Tanisha Anderson’s death by Adam Ferrisse for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Sun News.

What Killed Seven-Year-Old Aiyana Stanley Jones? by Charlie LeDuff for Mother Jones.

Wikipedia articles on the killings of Clifford Glover, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Kathryn Johnston, Oscar Grant, Ramarley Graham, Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Miriam Carey, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray.

Who are the real terrorists?

Far-right extremists kill more police officers than black extremists do by Kate Irby for McClatchy newspapers.

White Supremacist Murders More Than Doubled in 2017 by the Anti-Defamation League.

White Lives Matter, Blue Lives Don’t: Right-Wingers Kill More Cops Than Any Other Group by Roger Sollenberger for Paste magazine.

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‘It’s definitely intimidation’: police accused over raids on activist’s family by Jamiles Lartey for The Guardian.  [Added 8/16/2018]

Tags: Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors, Police Killings, White Extremists, White Supremacy