From The Final Call Newspaper

An ‘uncivil war,’and America’s march toward anarchy

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- January 26, 2021

RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT SPELLING TO LIBERTY BOIS - Armed protesters, who identified themselves as Liberty Bois, pose for fellow demonstrators' pictures outside the Oregon State Capitol on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Salem, Ore. The group said they want reduced government and do not support President Donald Trump or President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)


Bobby Henry watched President Joe Biden’s inauguration in an outdoor, drive-in movie setting. A big screen was set up, and cars were parked with people watching from their vehicles. The entire atmosphere was filled with hope, he reflected.

But Inauguration Day occurred two weeks after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building in an insurrection. On the day before inauguration, media headlines blared, “Trump leaves America at its most divided since the Civil War,” and “We definitely do look like we’re at war.”

“Trumpism has split America in two in a way that hasn’t been imaginable since the Civil War. The president and the Senate are likely to be in gridlock, the judicial system a partisan affair of the first order, the national security state a money-gobbling shadow empire, the citizenry armed to the teeth, racism rising, and life everywhere in an increasing state of chaos,” a writer for The Nation previously observed. “Welcome to the (Dis)United States.”

A group of protesters shield themselves from chemical irritants as they demonstrate Wednesday evening, Jan. 20, 2021, outside the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Portland, Ore. (Assfault Pirates via AP)

“It was only a matter of time,” said Mr. Henry, the publisher of Westside Gazette in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection. “As that gentleman who just left the White House, as he continued to stoke the fire of racism, I felt that it would only be a matter of time. I’m just glad that it didn’t boil all the way over and we found ourselves in the middle of a civil war.”

Advertisement


During his inauguration speech, President Biden himself referenced an “uncivil war” taking place in the country.

“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” he said.

“I thought his call to end the uncivil war is necessary, because so much of the challenge in the U.S. right now is the challenge that confronts White America’s reckoning. It’s White America that’s rebelling, primarily, as a rebellion against democracy and against so many of our principles, because they don’t want to power share and they don’t want to lose White advantage and White domination,” said Barbara Arnwine, a lawyer and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition based in Washington D.C.

The inauguration of Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris has been called a “peaceful transfer of power” by program speakers and by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, all of whom attended the inauguration. Yet writers, scholars and activists question the term.

“It might be time to retire the phrase ‘peaceful transfer of power’ considering, well, you know, there wasn’t a peaceful transfer of power,” political analyst Jared Yates Sexton tweeted.

RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT SPELLING TO LIBERTY BOIS – Armed protesters, who identified themselves as Liberty Bois, pose for fellow demonstrators’ pictures outside the Oregon State Capitol on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, in Salem, Ore. The group said they want reduced government and do not support President Donald Trump or President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Activist Bree Newsome responded to the tweet, saying, “Exactly, and the narrative that we’ve had an uninterrupted peaceful transfer of power until now is also debatable in terms of what that means. Lincoln’s election led to a civil war & then he was assassinated, for instance.”

Jelani Cobb, a writer, author and educator, tweeted, “Not at all surprising to hear two references to the Civil War — the construction of the Capitol Dome and Arlington cemetery but still a reminder of how fraught this particular moment is.”

As analysts and commentators refer back to the Civil War, those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection compared themselves to American patriots who lived in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. According to an NPR analysis, nearly 1 in 5 people charged for allegedly participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol either has served or are currently serving in the U.S. military. Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force veteran involved in the insurrection, made several Facebook posts leading up to Jan. 6 and several during and afterwards, according to federal court documents.

On Dec. 31, he posted, “We are now under occupation by a hostile governing force,” and he alluded to a “Second Civil War.” On the day before the insurrection, he posted, “I truly believe that if we let them complete the steal we will never have a free election again.” On the day of, he posted, “Patriots on the Capitol,” “Patriots storming” and “Men with guns need to shoot (their) way in.” The day after, he posted, “The charade of an election is over. Our vote was stolen. Time to secede.”

Earl Lewis, manager of Black Lives Matter 757, stands in front of Capitol Square with members of the New Black Panther Party, The Fred Hampton Gun Club, and The Original Black Panthers of Virginia during Lobby Day in Richmond, Va. Monday Jan. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)

Twelve National Guard members were removed from Jan. 20 inauguration duty as part of the FBI’s vetting process. Two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that all 12 were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online.

“The insurrection will continue, because the insurrection began when White people came to this continent, to this hemisphere. And after the United States was founded, was created as a country, it has been on the verge of tearing itself apart several times, and each of those times was fueled by White nationalism. And so those insurrections will continue,” said Dr. Greg Carr, a professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Howard University. “The difference between now and the 1960s, between now and the 1860s, the difference between now and race insurrections like the one in Wilmington in (1898) or Tulsa in 1921, the difference between now and then is that demographically, this country is on the verge of becoming majority non-White.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam has talked in depth about the White birth decline. In Part 39 of his 2013 lecture series “The Time and What Must Be Done,” he said birth decline is one of two factors causing White people to be more antagonistic. “2.1 live births down to 1.8 live births means that in 25 years there will be a cultural change—but will you, as a White person, be able to survive? But once your birth rate goes to ‘1.6 and under,’ it is ‘impossible to reverse,’ ” the Minister said.

A National Guard stands on patrol outside the Capitol as security is heightened ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Last year a report by The Brookings Institution found, through analyzing census data, that between 2016 and 2019, the White population in America declined by over half a million people.

“As the United States begins to look more and more like the rest of the world, Whiteness knows that it is on its deathbed, and so it’s going to fight even harder,” Dr. Carr said.

Upon his last days in office, Mr. Trump and his administration released the “1776 Report,” which many have called a revision of history. The report, released on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, has been called a whitewashing of slavery. It was meant to be used in schools across the country, but on his first day in office, President Biden disbanded the 1776 commission and withdrew the report.

“Nobody, not even the media, has been talking about, how do you do a d*** 1776 commission on Monday when on January 6, the insurrectionists were yelling 1776? How do you do that, other than pandering to White supremacists? Normally people would say that was a patriotic move, but not in light of what had just happened, where that was used as an insurrectionist mantra,” Ms. Arnwine said.

President Biden’s inauguration speech centered around unity, but on his third day in office, #impeachbidennow trended on Twitter. Ms. Arnwine said unity requires a deep, societal commitment.

“You can’t just ‘have unity,’ ” she said. “You have to really be committed to demanding that people live up to certain ethics and the ethic of human dignity, the ethic of racial equality is one that you gotta demand.”

“When we hear him on inauguration day talking about unity and unity and unity and yes he did say White supremacy must be defeated and all these things. He said all of the right things,” Dr. Carr said.

“But then he kept talking about unity. That was the theme of his speech. Of course, many of us, myself included, just said okay, we can dismiss this. Let’s just go on in here now, because some of us may be his opponent, meaning in trying to reach out to these people who will never vote for him, is he going to sacrifice some of our interests?” he questioned.

The biggest challenge of the Biden administration will be to have the courage and the fortitude to use the momentum of the push against White supremacy and engage in systemic overhaul and structural change, said Dr. Carr.

“I can’t honestly look at today through the lens of fantasy. The reality is I look at today not just as the 20th of January 2021. I’m looking at it in the light of October 2016. The only thing that changed between the week before Donald Trump was elected and now is that the Republican Party got four years to fortify their racist agenda,” the professor said. “They lucked out. I mean Trump was elected basically as a response to Obama. In many ways, Biden was elected as a response to Trump. But Trump is a symptom of the larger White nationalist American project.

“And so what they got was four years to stack the federal courts, four years to try to put as many racist policies in place, four years to try to steal as many resources and give it to the rich as they could,” he continued. “And now, where are we now? ‘Look, it’s a new day.’ Yeah, we just went back to where we were in October 2016, except they got four years to shore up their defenses.”

Mr. Trump appointed 234 new judges during his four years in office. Dr. Carr predicted that when President Biden attempts to sign his executive orders, White nationalists will go to court.

“That’s why while he’s talking about unity, I’m looking at Mitch McConnell, that devil, and I’m saying he’s sitting back there smiling because he knows the real game he won by appointing all those judges. They’re on there for life,” the professor said.

In an article previously published in The Final Call, Minister Farrakhan talked about America’s civil unrest.

“Civil unrest in the future will not be able to be handled by the police. The police will be supported by the National Guard and the National Guard will be supported by federal troops. When this day arrives, and it will, the breakdown of law and order will be so great in America that it will be as the prophets foretold, ‘a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation even to that same time,’ ” he said. “Blood, as John the Revelator saw, ‘will be running in the streets even up to the horse’s bridle.’ This is a terrible prophecy, and it does not appear that it will be avoided or averted.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

Division, disorder, danger Outrage explodes inside United States loaded with arms, abundant anger

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- January 19, 2021

Members of the National Guard walk past the Dome of the Capitol Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)


Armed National Guard troops patrolled U.S. Capitol grounds and camped out in congressional buildings as America prepared to go to war with herself.

At least 20,000 troops were deployed for the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States but even practices for his swearing-in were postponed because of threats at one point. Troops unloaded boxes of food, gas masks and other supplies as security fencing with razor wire attached at the top was installed near the White House and in downtown Washington, D.C.

Law enforcement in nearby jurisdictions and different agencies inside the nation’s capital were on high alert as were police and other agencies across the country as domestic tension and insecurity were also on the rise.

The fear, angst and anger followed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and an attempt to nullify the 2020 presidential election. And, many acknowledged, the battle wasn’t over.

Advertisement

“The fact that President Trump and his followers didn’t succeed doesn’t change the core fact: Members of Congress who wanted to set aside the Electoral College slate and agitators who stormed the Capitol were both involved in a failed coup attempt,” said ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero.

“We shudder to think how police departments would have responded had Black and Brown individuals stormed a government building to protest police brutality. These are not protests—we know protests. These violent acts are meant to overthrow the legitimate outcome of a democratic election.”

Dr. Tyrone Powers, a former special agent with the FBI on counterterrorism and counterintelligence, said America has been fractured for a long time and White supremacy and militia groups are now taking advantage.

“I think what happened is that they’ve been emboldened to come out,” Dr. Powers said. “I don’t want to call it growth, because there’s two things you can do. You can grow, which is positive, or you can swell, which is an infection. This is infection, this swelling of people willing to take it to the next level.”

Prosecutions must be vigorous and the Capitol security breach has to be more than a superficial investigation, he added.

“In other words, we really have to have hearings after the new administration and asking the FBI how this happened, asking the ATF, asking the other federal agencies why were they not communicating?” Dr. Powers added. “After the 9/11 attack, the 9/11 Commission said the reason that that attack was successful was because of a lack of communication and a lack of imagination. So they can write the exact same thing about what happened on Jan. 6, the same kind of questions, the same kind of people brought forward. And then some prosecutions of those people who incited this, who participated in this or who had a fiduciary responsibility to stop this and didn’t do it.”

There have been reports that FBI workers captured info about the insurgent plans, shared it with higher ups and nothing happened.

In a sign of how divided the U.S. is, many saw those who raided and ransacked government buildings as fed up Americans, not terrorists.

Tension was thick in D.C. as officials also spoke of moving forward without agreement on what moving forward meant.

Some House Democrats accused members of the GOP of leading insurrectionists through the Capitol on a tour just a day before the Capitol invasion. They want an FBI investigation.

Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., told one reporter that the FBI is already “looking at who inside was helping.”

On his Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Tucker Carlson said while the acts were wrong, it was not an “insurrection.”

“It was not an act of racism. It was not an insurrection. It wasn’t an armed invasion by a brigade of White supremacists. It wasn’t. Those are lies,” he said.

He simply called it a mob whose emotions boiled over, as mobs tend to do.

On his program the day after the insurrection, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh compared the event to colonists Sam Adams, Thomas Paine and others who played roles in the American Revolution.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Illinois, who was in D.C. at the time of the insurrection, told The Final Call he was bewildered and angry but not surprised. President Trump has been appealing to elements in society that think like he does, said the Black congressman from Chicago.

“And that’s most unfortunate, because over the period of time from 1776, we’ve made a lot of progress in this country. But the president and his supporters, many of them have been trying to take the country backwards,” said the Chicago Democrat.

“Back to the era of Jim Crow, back to slavery, back to a period reminiscent of what was going on during, before and after slavery, until there was sort of a culmination of individuals who think that way, coming to Washington and attacking the government,” he continued. “Hard to believe, but it’s true. It’s real. It reinforces the idea and the concept that you have to fight for freedom and protect it as long as you live, because there are those who would attempt to take it away and deny it.”

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on Jan. 13, charging him with “incitement of insurrection.” This was Rep. Davis’ third time voting to impeach him. The first time was in 2017 with Rep. Al Green’s resolution, which failed. The second time was in 2019 when President Trump was impeached for the first time. Impeach simply means the House of Representatives charged the president with a crime. A trial for the alleged crime would have to take place in the Senate.

“After impeaching the president, I mean that’s just one part of it. We have to keep reinforcing the notion that freedom is not free. We have to continue the struggle for equal rights, equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, equal treatment by law enforcement,” Rep. Davis said.

Though he said it would be a political miracle for the Senate to convict President Trump, he explained the reason for a second impeachment.

“We can prevent him from being able to run for national office again. And if we can do that, then that would be a big tribute to the American people, because that would exercise the will of the people who don’t want to be saddled with Donald Trump on television every day for the next four years or listening to his rhetoric or being disturbed by his antics,” he said.

Ten House Republicans split from their party and voted to impeach President Trump.

Threats to national security

In an internal report issued a day before the insurrection, the FBI was warned that “extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and war.” Dr. Powers said there was no way the FBI did not know what would happen. There were numerous threats made via social media and other platforms in the weeks leading up to the insurrection, he noted.

He also explained that the FBI has a legal and ethical responsibility as the lead agent on domestic terrorism.

“They have a responsibility to know about this. This was a national security threat, and the FBI, in one of their reports, they indicated that they reached out to the Capitol Police and the Capitol Police said they didn’t need any assistance,” Dr. Powers said. “But that doesn’t make any sense because the FBI would never back down or back away because the Capitol Police told them they didn’t need any assistance, especially as it was a national security threat and a national security event.”

The former head of the Capitol Police said he reached out to numerous federal sources for help in advance of the Capitol invasion and no help was given.

Dr. Powers said other agencies who were at fault were the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“You have people in these agencies, whether they be police officers or others, who are friendly towards the Trump administration. So when you look and see, on occasion the barriers were moved back from where they had been during the Black Lives Matter movement event. When you see that there was not the same kind of deterrence or presence with National Guard or police officers in uniform on the steps of the Capitol, when you see all of that, that’s not only incompetence. Someone made a conscious decision to stand down and to stand back and to allow that group, whoever they may be, to have that kind of access to the Capitol building,” Dr. Powers said.

“It may not have been the officers at the lowest level who were out there trying to do the best they could under the circumstances. Some of them were. Others were obviously taking selfies and all, but someone at the top of that agency should have drawn a bright yellow line. The FBI should have had a bright yellow line. The ATF, the other agencies, when people were talking about bringing weapons and arms to Washington, D.C., that’s an alcohol, tobacco and firearms issue, that’s an FBI issue, that’s a military intelligence issue. All of them should have done more,” he continued.

Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, who resigned from his post in the days following the insurrection, said in a statement that he instructed the U.S. Secret Service to begin security planning for the Inauguration in advance, on Jan. 13 instead of Jan. 19.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, questioned the timing of Mr. Wolf’s resignation.

“For months we have known Chad Wolf has been serving illegally in his position, so the timing of his resignation from the Department today is questionable,” he said to the Associated Press. “He has chosen to resign during a time of national crisis and when domestic terrorists may be planning additional attacks on our government.”

Meanwhile major monuments in Washington, D.C., were closed and the mayor of D.C. asked people to stay home and obey an evening curfew.

Five people, including two U.S. Capitol police officers, were reported dead after the Capitol invasion. More were arrested and charged as federal law enforcement sought out the American insurgents, who were among 8,000 people who descended on the U.S. Capitol urged on by Mr. Trump and his minions. Some carried weapons and zip ties, broke into the U.S. Capitol and momentarily halted official recognition of 2020 presidential election results and Mr. Biden’s victory.

Street violence, weapons and Molotov cocktails found, battles with police, disrespect of authority and plans to capture and kill lawmakers, according to media outlets and federal officials, showed a deep and dangerous divide.

Congressional Black Caucus chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) condemned “the riotous breach of the Capitol incited by Donald Trump.”

The failure of Capitol Police to stop the assault and their tenderhanded treatment of the invaders who wanted to stop Congress from ratifying the results of the presidential elections drew condemnation and firings.

The mob smashed windows, scaled walls, trashed offices, shut down congressional deliberations and even walked away with mail and other souvenirs between fights with police that left one woman described as an ardent Trump supporter dead from a gunshot allegedly from a federal officer. Three others died after “medical emergencies” related to the Capitol Hill assault. One Capitol Hill officer died as a result of invasion injuries. Another committed suicide.

St. Louis NAACP Chapter President Adolphus M. Pruitt said, “The most troubling aspects of the events that occurred at our nation’s capital center is the fact that in spite of all the chatter from groups that our intelligence operations have labeled as extremist and terrorist, law enforcement handled them with kid gloves. And even more frightening, what would the response be if these so-called patriots turned their anger and violence towards the Black community? As a race of people, we need to keep our eyes and ears open.”

“We are facing a foe far bigger than this moment. This assault was not an isolated incident but rather an insurrection centuries in the making. From the forcible removal of Native Americans from their own land to the enslavement and torture of Black bodies, America has sanctioned White supremacy since its inception,” said K. Sabeel Rahman of the Demos Foundation in D.C.

Joe Biden and the first Black and woman to be elected as vice president Kamala Harris were in the wings as America and the world witnessed an open display of the country’s racial divide and toxic politics.

The FBI and other agencies added insurrectionists to no fly lists. Airbnb reviewed reservations and banned guests associated with a hate group.

Before Inauguration Day, the FBI stated that armed protests were being planned at all 50 state capitols and in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 17 to at least Jan. 20.

“The FBI received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January,” the bulletin read. “They have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur.”

One man, Lonnie Coffman, who was arrested and indicted in federal court, allegedly had a truck full of explosives and firearms along with a note categorizing members of Congress as either “good” or bad.” Rep. André Carson, a Black man and a Muslim, was on the list.

“It is extremely disturbing to learn from press reports that I was one of several individuals identified in a list of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ targeted for attacks,” Rep. Carson, an Indiana Democrat, said in a statement released Jan. 12. “The indicted terrorist had the means and opportunity to carry out his plans to violently attack, injure and destroy government officials and related offices in our Nation’s Capitol. These were not idle threats. These were planned and organized measures to take my life, my colleagues’ lives and try to destroy our government.”

These threats are not new. In May 2020, a Detroit man was charged for threatening to kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Dr. Tyrone Powers, said during the Million Man March in 1995, led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, snipers were on top of buildings, and the military was on high alert.

“During the Million Man March there was no threat of violence. With a group threatening violence, this was allowed to happen. Those police officers, firefighters and other people who came from around the country, they need to be severely punished because even in the midst of this event, not only should they not have been participating in charging the Capitol building, they failed their responsibility. They should have been helping to de-escalate or put down the insurrection,” he said.

“Even if they went there, they can say, to exercise their first amendment right as police officers, as firefighters, as other public officials, legislators, at that point when this thing became violent, where they were rushing the Capitol building, where they were threatening to drag out the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House and other politicians, they should have changed roles, at that point, and being the ones by fiduciary responsibility trying to de-escalate the situation,” he explained.

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)

From The Final Call Newspaper

America’s law enforcement double standards, hypocrisy on full display

By The Final Call
- January 12, 2021





Less than a week into 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, leaving five people dead, over 50 police officers injured and over 90 people arrested. As the country and world watched the mayhem taking place, many took to social media to question the way White insurrectionists were treated by law enforcement versus how Black protesters are usually handled. It was hypocrisy on full display, observers argued.

“It’s plain for everyone to see that there is a stark contrast, a double standard. There are two Americas. There are two responses by the same police and military forces of this country, law enforcement personnel in this country, when it comes to Black folks who are resisting and protesting the violence against our bodies and our communities by the state government,” Michael McBride, co-founder of the Black Church PAC and national director of the Live Free campaign, told The Final Call.

“When we protest, we are met with terror. But when White folks terrorize us, they are met with accommodations and cooperation.”

What was witnessed Jan. 6 when the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was overrun, was a blatant racial double standard, argued critics.

Advertisement


In a Dec. 30 statement, Black Lives Matter D.C. demanded the city government and business leaders stop the Jan. 6 protest that was planned. “Tell the racists that they’re not welcome in our city,” said Née Née Taylor, a core organizer with Black Lives Matter DC (BLM-DC).

In this combination of photos, on June 3, 2020, demonstrators, left, protest the death of George Floyd at the U.S. Capitol in Washington and Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier Jan. 6, 2021, at the same location. (AP Photos)

In a follow-up statement released Jan. 6, BLM-DC wrote, “We tried to warn you.”

“We tried to warn the mayor and other elected officials, hotels and other businesses and we demanded that our city and sacred Black spaces be protected. Though we remain unsurprised, it should have never gotten to this point,” the statement says. “Instead of brutalizing Black Lives Matter activists, D.C. officials should have intervened months ago. White supremacists were emboldened and made to feel comfortable, confident and secure to come to our city and reign terror.”

This past summer, Black Lives Matter activists in D.C. who were protesting police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others saw a different reality than those who stormed the Capitol a few days ago. On June 1, Black Lives Matter demonstrators clashed with thousands of law enforcement personnel. Meanwhile, White rioters faced very little resistance as they stormed the Capitol. The Associated Press reported that according to senior defense officials and two people familiar with the matter, three days before rioters descended on the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower, and on the day of, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned both down.

Supporters of President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

“I would’ve just definitely had it set up pretty much like I did with Black Lives Matter. They had the military, Park Police, everybody was involved. They had helicopters. There just wasn’t enough preparation for this, and that fell on somebody’s shoulders,” said a retired U.S. Capitol Police officer who asked The Final Call to withhold his name. “I don’t know if it was deliberate that they just did a soft-hand approach or if it was something that just happened, but it never should’ve happened, because when you start dealing with a crowd this agitated for a situation so delicate as what was going on, in my opinion, you should have handled it like it was a powder keg.”

Jan. 6 insurrectionists were tended to by police and video footage showed in some instances, rioters calmly walked down the Capitol’s steps by law enforcement. While George Floyd protesters were violently taken into custody, Capitol rioters posed for selfies near police in riot gear. One cop was seen running from the crowd, and video footage showed police opening the gates to the compound.

Family and friends of Miriam Carey, who was killed last year by Capitol Police, protest her death on the West Front of the Capitol, October 3, 2014. Carey was shot and killed by Capitol Police on October 3, 2013.

Corey Pegues, a retired executive from the New York City Police Department and an expert on police-related topics, told The Final Call that what happened indicates two things: one, White people get a pass and two, the police were not prepared in numbers.

“They did not prepare properly. But I think it’s more the (former), that they give White people a pass other than they weren’t prepared,” he said. “I think it’s more of them saying ‘hey, it’s just a bunch of White people coming here. They’re just gonna come and say no justice no peace and they’re gonna go home.’ Well, golly, they were surprised, because a bunch of rowdy White people came and overtook our most sacred ground of law, the Capitol.”

Mr. Pegues said, the upper echelon of Capitol Police should be relieved of duty for the lack of preparation. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund is resigning effective Jan. 16 amid the tremendous criticism.

When the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam organized the Million Man March on October 16, 1995, police forces were fully prepared. The retired U.S. Capitol Police officer said they closed everything down. “All the buildings were closed down, and they had everybody. Everybody was on hand to work,” he said. That day was a peaceful gathering of nearly two million Black men under the theme of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility. No crime was reported in D.C. that day and the Capitol grounds were left clean after the massive gathering.

Eunique Jones Gibson, a cultural architect and social activist, tweeted that her father, Butch T. Jones, who served as a Capitol Hill Police officer for 37 years, told her that there was a time when Minister Farrakhan was on the Hill with four people and the SWAT Team was waiting in the garage.

“He just told me about a time when Farrakhan was on the Hill with 4 men. Not 40. Not 14. FOUR. They had the SWAT Team in the garage and held the entire department until Farrakhan left. He said if you even mention his name, all days off were canceled due to prep,” she continued.

Political and social justice activist Linda Sarsour shared via Instagram that she co-organized a women-led civil disobedience gathering in June 2018, where Capitol Police arrested over 600 women. In October 2013, Miriam Carey, a Black woman, was shot and killed by Capitol Police after she hit a security barrier one block away from the White House. Officers engaged her in a car chase and shot 26 times while her 13-month-old baby was in the car.

The day after the White riot, President-elect Joe Biden acknowledged the double standard. “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol,” he said.

Police hold off Trump supporters who tried to break through a police barrier, Jan. 6, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. As Congress prepared to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, thousands of people gathered to show their support for President Donald Trump and his claims of election fraud. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

Mr. McBride said part of the reason for the differences in treatment is because Blackness is criminalized in the mainstream consciousness of the country. He also explained how White law enforcement officials have family members in White supremacist extremist groups and therefore have empathy and compassion for them. One Metro D.C. police officer said in a Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards.

“There’s no way in the world that a group of Black people could announce for weeks that they’re going to have thousands of people come to Washington, D.C. and do a protest and they do not activate thousands and thousands of cops,” Mr. Pegues said. “So you gotta understand one thing. I’ve been in policing 21 years. White people are not afraid of the police because the police are hands off on White people, so that’s why it’s so easy for them. Black people wouldn’t even attempt to break a window in the Capitol, because you know you’re going to get shot down.”

He said he thinks the country is in a good space, now, because everything is out in front.

Dr. Greg Carr is a professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Howard University. He told The Final Call he was encouraged by the White riot.

“I tip my cap to those people on Wednesday, because you have removed any Joe Biden foolishness talk, talking about I want to reach across the aisle. Ain’t no aisle to reach across. They tore it up on Wednesday,” Dr. Carr said.

Dr. Carr added, that, with the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, now is the time to break up the Republican filibuster, put more money into people’s pockets, pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

He also said what took place is the possibility of the next major turning point in the fall of America, referencing words from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the patriarch of the Nation of Islam.

“These White people see something that is very real. The country they were promised, the country they were deluded into believing exists, their country is slipping away. It’s all slipping away,” he said. “So if that America falls, this is their death cry. They don’t have a choice but to go in there and try to save it.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

After terrifying police raid, Black women, men stand with Anjanette Young

By The Final Call
- January 5, 2021





By LaRisa Lynch and J.S. Adams

CHICAGO—Anjanette Young recently got her heart-to-heart talk with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, according to the mayor’s press office. Details of the meeting, which took place Dec. 31, were not disclosed, but a joint press statement released by the mayor’s office called the meeting “very candid and productive.”

“We both acknowledge that today’s conversation, was but a step towards Ms. Young’s healing,” the statement read. “Today’s conversation was not a resolution to the problematic issues that both parties acknowledge exist— which led to the events of February 21, 2019 at Ms. Young’s home. However, there could be no resolution without first engaging in a substantive conversation.”

The statement went on to say: “We are both committed to continuing to identify areas of common ground relating to these issues and to working towards necessary policy changes together.”
Advertisement


Ms. Young is the 50-year-old Black social worker who was handcuffed naked by Chicago police in a wrong raid on her near West Side apartment in February 2019. The incident was caught on police bodycam video, which showed Ms. Young standing handcuffed naked and terrified as police rummaged through her apartment. In the footage, Ms. Young is heard telling police 43 times that they have the wrong house and was not allowed to dress. It took police nearly 40 minutes to finally cover the Black woman with a blanket and then eventually to get dressed.

An earlier meeting between the two was called off when Mayor Lightfoot balked at the meeting’s terms. Ms. Young requested the meeting be held at her church, Progressive Baptist Church, followed by a townhall meeting with the mayor, city aldermen and Police Superintendent David Brown.

Anjanette Young

But the Dec. 31 meeting capped off a contentious week as fallout from the wrong raid continued. Several aldermen from the city’s Progressive Caucus questioned Mayor Lightfoot’s commitment to transparency when the first meeting fell through. And newly released emails reveal the mayor was told of the wrong raid on Ms. Young’s home earlier then she claimed, according to local media reports.

Mayor Lightfoot initially claimed she learned of the raid in December as part of WBBM-TV News’ ongoing investigation of wrong raids by police. A top mayoral aide sent an email about the raid characterizing it as “pretty bad” nine months after it occurred in 2019. Mayor Lightfoot later recalled learning of the raid in November 2019. And under mounting community pressure, the police department released additional videos and body-worn camera footage of the raid on Ms. Young’s apartment.
Black women and community close ranks in support

The developments in Ms. Young’s case come on the heels of a protest rally and march called by Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Women’s Auxiliary. Nearly 100 Black women and a few men marched outside the Chicago Police Department’s Bronzeville headquarters Dec. 27. This comes on the heels of another protest led by Black women activists earlier in the month.

Rev Jesse Jackson take part in rally calling for protection of Black women

The intergenerational group of women wore pink armbands in solidarity with Ms. Young and chanted “Say her name. Anjanette Young” and “Black women matter.” Others held signs embossed with “I am a woman,” “I am Anjanette Young,” and “You got the wrong house”— the phrase Ms. Young repeated 43 times as police searched her apartment.

The women, part of a coalition of 50 local and national women-led organizations, braved a cold Sunday afternoon to denounce Ms. Young’s treatment by the all-White male officers. But they also came with a list of demands including firing of the officers involved in the raid, immediate reparation for Ms. Young and greater police reforms at both state and local levels. They want the city to fully implement the federal consent decree and to pass the Civilian Police Accountability Council or CPAC, which will give community control over the police. The bill has been stuck in the public safety committee in Chicago City Council since 2019.

More specifically supporters want the city to stop shielding errant police actions. They want a repeal of the state’s law enforcement bill of rights. Illinois is one of the few states that have such a statute, which makes it more difficult to discipline or fire police officers.


“That is part of the systemic oppression,” said Westside Justice Center’s Tanya D. Woods, Esq., of the state’s peace officers’ disciplinary act. “If you have to go through this lengthy process [including] a jury of their own peers, we will never see justice done. Anywhere there are rules, procedures and laws that are disparately enforced, we see disparate outcomes when it comes to race, and at the bottom of that barrel is often Black women.”

Rev. Janette Wilson, of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition called for transparency and accountability, which were hallmarks of Mayor Lightfoot’s 2019 mayoral run, but were absent in the handling of Young’s case. Rev. Wilson wants the names of the police officers who she said “thought so little of the dignity and humanity of this woman (Young)” revealed. She also wants the name of the judge who signed off on the search warrant.

Black women demand respect at Dec 15 protest in Chicago

“We want to know the record of that judge so that we can take him out in the next election,” said Rev. Wilson, noting that Ms. Young represents many who’ve been violated by this criminal injustice system. “It is not enough to say good words. We want policies and legislations in [the state’s] veto sessions when you come back in January. We want criminal justice to be on the agenda,” she said.

Illinois’ first Black female Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton lauded Ms. Young’s bravery in the midst of the degradation and humiliation she endured by Chicago police.

“Just as Anjanette Young had the courage to speak out, we too must have the courage to speak out,” she told the crowd. “We … cannot move forward as a society if we do not firmly commit to protecting Black women and girls.”

That protection, Lt. Gov. Stratton said, must extend to pay equity in jobs, fear from physical, sexual and emotional violence in one’s homes and one’s communities. That protection, she added, must be created “through policies and practices” that affirm Black women and girls be treated “as we deserve and in a way that honors our humanity,” said Lt. Gov. Stratton, the mother of four daughters.

“Protect Black women. Believe Black women. I am Anjanette Young,” she said leading the crowd in a chant.

Attending the rally was personal for Nicole Johnson, founder of the NIA Collective, a newly formed Black women’s group advancing racial and economic justice in Chicago. Johnson attends the same church as Young.

“So, it really could have been me,” she said, noting that the video of the raid reminded her of Black women on a slave auction block having their value speculated over by White men. “But she (Young) was not valued at all.”

Ms. Johnson, who also spoke at the rally, sees similarities in Ms. Young’s wrong raid and that of Breonna Taylor’s, who was killed by Louisville police in her own home. “If this video had not been blocked earlier last year, this could have prevented Breonna Taylor’s botched home raid as well. We need to speak out and protect our Black women.”

And part of protecting Black women is not using the police bodycam footage from Young’s apartment as a training video, something Lightfoot suggested, she noted.


“We don’t need it to be a training video because that could further condition people to respond in a violent way to Black women,” Ms. Johnson said. “You should not use someone’s trauma to train others. There are other ways of doing that.”

What happened to Ms. Young occurs repeatedly in Helen Tuyner’s Englewood community on Chicago’s South Side. That is why Tuyner’s organization Black Community Collaborative is hosting an upcoming Black women’s march. The 1KBlack Women’s March on City Hall takes place at 1 p.m. on January 11. The event kicks off at downtown’s Daley Plaza.

“It is important for me to stand with Anjanette Young because the community I live in, in Englewood, I know a lot of Anjanette Youngs,” Ms. Tuyner said. Though those raids are not televised, she said, it happens to a lot of young parents where police “ran into their homes, searched their homes without a warrant and traumatized them. It is systemic.”

But she hopes these marches, including hers, bring Black women together. “It is not so much as women empowerment, but it is women realizing the power that we have when we are rolling together. We are powerful, but imagine how powerful we are when we are rolling together,” Ms. Tuyner said.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Congressmen Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill) and Danny K. Davis (D-Ill) also attended the rally. Rev. Jackson, head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, blasted the police department, which he said has a system that protects police. Black people, he said, continue to be shot down by police nationwide with almost impunity. Two fatal police shootings in Ohio occurred when a Black man was shot while entering his home and another shot while holding a cellphone. But Rev. Jackson noted that if 11 Black cops wrongly entered a White woman’s house and handcuffed her naked, the scene in Chicago would be quite different.

“We cannot adjust to being violated in this way. We must end the carnage and genocide of Black people,” Rev. Jackson said. He urged law officials from the U.S. attorney general to local state’s attorney to do their jobs and “stop the carnage and violation of Black people.”

“People must protect and serve and not kill and go to desk duty. If you shoot somebody in the back, that’s murder and you should be charged with murder quickly,” he said.

Jojackson Igietseme was among the handful of men attending the event. He said he was not surprised by the few men in attendance. Many actions against social and racial injustice are led by Black women even though men are often the victim of these injustices, he said.

“I think it is very important that as Black men we show up for Black women,” said Mr. Igietseme, who’s visiting from Nashville, Tenn., for the holidays to see his girlfriend. Both attended the Dec. 27 rally. “There has been a lot of murders at the hands of police of Black men and Black women are always at the forefront of those movements.”

Showing up for Black women is the least men can do and it shouldn’t have to take proximity to a Black woman to support their cause, he added.

“It shouldn’t have to happen to your mother or your friend, or your sister or your aunt for you to step up,” Mr. Igietseme said. “There is more work to be done in terms of educating other Black men about how to show up for Black women in a number of different ways. It is not just a hashtag on Twitter that you throw up pictures. It’s actually doing the work and being there.”
A disturbing pattern of abuse, but not surprising

When he first heard about what happened to Ms. Young, Houston community organizer Kaleb Taylor said he was in disbelief. But after hearing the specifics of the case, he was not surprised.

“It just is a reincarnation of the situation that got Breonna Taylor killed and we’ve seen this occur in city [after] city and police department [after] police department of reckless behavior,” he said.

For Mr. Taylor, this also hits closer to home. He says one of his coworkers dealt with police bursting into her home, which was the wrong location, under a no-knock warrant.

“Had it been a situation like Breonna Taylor’s where someone in the home was rightfully armed and seeking to defend themselves against what could’ve been a home invader or what have you, it could’ve ended with the loss of this woman’s life,” he said. Because of these experiences, Mr. Taylor believes these kinds of situations happen more often than the public may be aware of.

“With any case of police misconduct, the cases that make it to the media like this one are far and few in between. These are just flashpoints of what’s happening on a daily basis,” he said.

Ruben Roberts, former president of the Miami-Dade County chapter of the NAACP in Miami, Fla., says one of the most disturbing parts of this case was the lack of respect for Ms. Young.

“Here it is, they come into a person’s house. Clearly, they were in the wrong home. No-knock warrant and the lady is naked. They don’t even have the decency to put something on top of her,” Mr. Roberts said. “I felt that it was a total disregard for a person’s privacy, respect.” He described the move as a power play.

“One of them at least should’ve said listen, let’s put something on top of her. I just felt that they were totally disrespectful and it’s a trend when it comes down to African Americans,” he said.

Danielle Nolen, a young activist in Chicago, said she was devastated while watching the video.

“I had so many different thoughts going on in my mind because there’s so many instances where Black women are killed at the hands of police officers,” she said. “That’s why it was so hard for me to watch because I didn’t know what was going to happen in that video. It’s a really unfortunate situation for all Black women in America.”

As a young Black woman Ms. Nolen said hearing about cases like these is scary.

“I know people say this all the time, but the police are supposed to protect and serve but they don’t do that, especially with the Black community,” she said. “We don’t trust the police at all and it’s because of years and a history of abuse by them.”

As she watched the video, Ms. Nolen says it reminded her of instances where Black women aren’t listened to.

“[Ms. Young] said so many times, you got the wrong person and they just really didn’t listen to her,” Ms. Nolen said. “It makes me think about the medical field and when Black women call the police and they just don’t show up. It just really puts us in more danger.”

Ms. Nolen says she was disappointed at how Ms. Lightfoot handled the situation.

“As a Black woman, I felt like it was her job to really protect us, especially Black women in Chicago,” Ms. Nolen said. “It really hurt to see that she knew about that video and she just didn’t say anything to us about it or just didn’t bring it up at all.”

Mr. Taylor said Ms. Lightfoot’s response made the case more frustrating for him. “We have a Black mayor in Chicago and although there has been conflicting statements about when she knew about it, the fact is she knew about it in 2019 and there still hasn’t been, in my opinion, enough of a concerted effort to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said. “And the fact that this administration fought to keep this video from becoming public, it just shows that having Black faces in institutions that are still rooted in systemic racism does not mean liberation for Black people.”

Mr. Roberts says the disregard for Black life is present, regardless of who’s in leadership.

“Whether it’s a Black chief or a White chief or whatever, they have a disregard for African Americans in this country when it comes down to policing,” he said. “They are not protecting and serving people in the Black community; they’re policing people in the Black community and I have a serious problem with that.”

Barbara Arnwine, a lawyer and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based organization Transformative Justice Coalition, says there’s no excuse for what happened to Ms. Young.

“This happens too often to Black women and it’s a pattern and practice of police departments and is absolutely inexcusable,” she said.

Ms. Arnwine says she also went through a wrongful police raid about a decade ago. She says the experience was traumatic for her family, including for her 80-year-old mother at the time, who was not fully covered.

“One of the complaints in [Ms. Young’s] case is that there weren’t women,” Ms. Arnwine said. “When they raided my home, knowing there were women in the house, they brought no women officers. Not one to be on the scene.”

Ms. Arnwine says according to reports, officers know a high percentage of people will be naked during raids, largely because they are typically conducted in the very early hours of the morning.

“It is, as [Ms. Young] said, sexual assault,” Ms. Arnwine said. “I agree with her. And it’s purposeful, deliberate, planned sexual assault, because they know of the condition of what Black women or the other women will be in that household.”

The fact that the city of Chicago sat on the situation for months disturbed Ms. Arnwine.

“It just shows that even with a Black woman mayor that you could have this kind of abuse, because police are not subjected to just the leadership of the city,” she said. “They don’t take on that characteristic. They continue to be imbued with their origins, of seeing themselves as being there for racial control.”

With cases such as Ms. Young’s coming to light in the wake of the death of Breonna Taylor, Ms. Arnwine said this sends a message to the world that Black women are vulnerable targets.

“But the good news is that Black women, we have a whole different reality about who we are,” she said. “That regardless of this mistreatment, we’re gonna speak out like Ms. Young is doing. She’s not just speaking out for herself; she’s speaking out for every Black woman in the United States.”

“Often Black bodies and Black women aren’t seen as representative of all women,” she said. “We’re seen as some kind of unique category of women that doesn’t apply to White women, Latino women, other women. But the fact that all women of all races took to the streets is a powerful reminder that we’re beginning to penetrate the consciousness of some women, that we all are capable of being assaulted by police in a brutal and evil, sexist way.”