Defenders of the Democrat-aligned activist movement Black Lives Matter claim that the community organizing group is merely taking a reasonable stand against police brutality.
However, a recent case involving a mob of 300 Black Lives Matter protestors intervening in legitimate, non-violent police work outside the group’s recent conference in Cleveland proves that the group not only has a radical anti-law enforcement philosophy but also that—confident that they will face no consequences from either the authorities or the news media— they are willing to turn their extremist views into street action at a moment’s notice.
Last’s week Movement for Black Lives National Convening was a sponsored, well-organized conference; an official part of Black Lives Matter movement with all three of the group’s founders in attendance. The event made it clear that the group has a radical policy agenda as nearly 2,000 attendees from across America were able to take a course on Saul Alinsky, listen to a group of Black Panthers speak, and take a class praising the views of convicted terrorist Assata Shakur.
As a glowing review of the event from the Communist newspaper Worker’s World Daily described the Movement for Black Lives National Convening event, it was a combination of cult rally and Marxist summer camp:
There were many highlights of this monumental event. Before a standing-room-only crowd, the conference opened with its first panel. Up on stage were family members of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and other African-American victims of police and vigilante violence. The audience leaped to their feet chanting, “Black Lives Matter!” for 15 minutes. “Black Trans Lives Matter!” was another strong chant as was “All Black Lives Matter!”
During much of the weekend, Henry participated in the Ella Baker Freedom School, a “liberated space” with revolutionary child care. The Cleveland Freedom School participated, too. They discussed the Civil Rights and Black Liberation movements. Recognizing that youth and children are part of today’s movement, they talked about their experiences and thoughts about police brutality and activism in Ferguson and other cities. Songs of freedom and struggle rang out.
This was where the thousands of Black Lives Matter activists learned the theory. When they hit the street after the conference, they put it into practice.
Black Lives Matter Interfere With Police: Their Side Of The Story.
As the attendees were leaving the Movement for Black Lives event, they came across a completely legitimate police encounter: a 14-year old black teenager who had passed on a Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) bus. Transit police had removed him from the bus and were waiting for a car to pick him up.
Here’s how Worker’s World described what happened:
… Participants rushed to defend a 14-year-old Black youth who had been stopped, frisked and arrested by Cleveland police at a bus stop near the venue. Activists surrounded the police car in which he was being held, locking arms in a direct action protest and chanting, “Let him go!” Police officers then responded by pepper-spraying everyone on the line.
Three corrections from that one paragraph: the police didn’t “stop and frisk” the 14 year old, nor was he arrested. He was passed out and drooling on the bus. Nor, as video below shows, did the police pepper-spray “everyone on the line.”
Here’s a cameraphone video of the pepper spray incident, which became the focus of international media attention.
A police report said RTA Sgt Robert Schwab told the mob to get back repeatedly, but they did not comply.
Worker’s World continues:
Then, 75 New York City activists took over a restaurant’s parking lot in solidarity. Some people rushed back from the airport to help.
Suddenly, medical and legal advisers appeared. The young man’s mother was contacted, and he was ultimately released. People’s power prevailed.
This short video shows the crowd of Black Lives Matter activists surrounding the police, after the pepper spray incident. The police are more or less helplessly standing by while the horde surrounds and taunts them. Clearly, not everyone was pepper sprayed.
The Worker’s World article and the YouTube description on that video give two examples of a common Black Lives Matter technique: blatant lying to make it appear that the police as harassing innocent black people.
The YouTube description says “Moments after Cleveland RTA pepper sprayed people trying to protect an 14 yr old teen who was being arrested for not having a bus ticket.” That claim is false: the 14 year was removed for being drunk and passed out on a bus.
This is a technique that Black Lives Matter uses over and over again, in cases from the Mike Brown incident in Ferguson to the Sandra Bland case: they create fables that make it appear as though the supposed “victims” of the police had done nothing wrong.
As despicable as the lies of Black Lives Matter are, what’s worse is how the sympathetic liberal media amplifies and repeats these lies, over and over. Thus, media reports about Mike Brown repeated the now disproven “hands up, don’t shoot!” lie endlessly and reports about Sandra Bland say she was stopped for failing to signal while never mentioning that she ran a stop sign, as Breitbart News reported.
The media malpractice continued in Cleveland, as the local TV news reported a completely false claim: that “the 14 year old was slammed to the ground.”
The reporter also tells his TV audience that the Movement for Black Lives conference was about how “everybody’s lives matter,” which is the polar opposite of what the Black Lives Matter movement believes. The group didn’t chant “All Lives Matter” but “All Black Lives Matter!” They are clear that their struggle is about black lives only, as made clear by their forcing Democrat presidential candidate Martin O’Malley to apologize for saying “all lives matter” at Netroots Nation.
It’s just another example of a pattern that the news media has repeated in regards to the police and black activists: not only do they promote the false narratives of Black Lives Matter, but their coverage also soft pedals the group’s actual message. No mainstream media coverage seems to ever mention the group’s Marxist beliefs or Black Panther connections.
What Actually Happened: Mob Stops The Cops, Media Covers For Them.
The reality of the mob’s actions towards police is very different from the story told by Black Lives Matter and the media news twisters.
A presentation by the presention by the RTA includes video that shows clearly that the 14-year-old was drunk on the bus and removed without an excessive force by the Cleveland RTA officers.
Of course, the Black Lives Matter mob didn’t see this video when they decised to take it upon themselves to stop the arrest, but that’s exactly the point: they had no idea what was actually going on but intervened anyway.
This time-lapse video shows how big the Black Lives Matters mob got as they stopped the police from the doing their job. You can see how quickly and aggressively social media allowed the horde to assemble.
As Breitbart News previously reported, the same Black Lives Matter mob later intimidated a white reporter by a racist request for him to leave the public area they were meeting in and then with explict threats.
Even with intimidation of a reporter, the cowed media took the side of Black Lives Matter, as they’ve done so often in the past.
Instead of focusing on the mob that cluelessly stopped legtimate police officers, the media attacked the police for the completely legitimate tactic of using pepper sprary to disperse a small part of the large, angry mob that had surrounded a polce car.
Here are a few headlines:
USA Today: Police pepper spray crowd after ‘Black Lives Matter’ conference
CBS Cleveland: VIRAL VIDEO: Cleveland Transit Officer Pepper-Sprays Protesters Outside ‘Black Lives Matter’ Conference
New York Daily News: Attendees of first Black Lives Matter conference in Cleveland hosed with pepper spray after protesting nearby arrest of 14-year-old
Black Lives Matter Wins. The Law & Truth Lose.
The intimidation by Black Lives Matter was a success. The mob won, the police lost, and the press went along for the ride–shaming the police and giving Black Lives Matter a pass.
There were no consquences for the lawless Black Lives Matter crowd: no arrests of anyone who interfered in police business or threatened reporters. The activists have learned what they can get away with.
The police were humiliated. The officer who pepper sprayed people blocking the police after repeatedly warnings was been placed on administrative duty.
Not once did anyone in the media ask the obvious question: what were the RTA officers supposed to do when they came across a passed out 14 year old on the bus? Were there expected to leave him there? Didn’t the safety of other passengers and the teen himself require action on their part?
It’s worth noting that two of three founders of Black Lives Matter are also directors of pro-illegal immigration groups that favor ending all deportations. There’s a policy connection: both the Black Lives movement and the pro-illegal movements want authorites to stop enforcing the law.
Black Lives Matter isn’t just against police brutality. They are against the police—full stop. They oppose law enforcement as a concept, making explicit policy calls to defund the police.
Cleveland will be hosting next year’s Republican National Convention. Black Lives Matter has already said they plan to “shut it down.” Currently, there’s no indication that anyone has the inclination to stop them.
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