When Capt Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol took over the situation in Ferguson, I was truly impressed. He displayed an attitude of respect for the grief and anger while maintaining a firm control of the situation. Taking down the "armed police presence" a few notches was a good thing.
But now I'm starting to get a gut feeling about the Capt. It all started when he had the officers stand down during the massive looting and destruction of property on Friday night. When he praised the New Black Panthers and stood with Malik Zulu Shabazz, my "something's not quite right" meter pegged the red line.
I came across many interesting tidbits regarding the New Black Panther Party and its members while researching info for my books. It's not the kind of organization that is known for "tamping down the fires" in a situation like Ferguson. The same goes for Malik Zulu Shabazz.
Here's a bit of information on Malik Zulu Shabazz from the Southern Poverty Law Center - not exactly a bastion of right wing nuttery...
Although he's sometimes identified in the mainstream media as a mere "legal adviser" or "community organizer," Malik Shabazz is a racist black nationalist with a long, well-documented history of violently anti-Semitic remarks and accusations about the inherent evil of white people. He is also particularly skilled at orchestrating provocative protests. Ousted from the Nation of Islam after he became an embarrassment even to that hard-line group, Shabazz went on to take up the leadership of the New Black Panther Party.
"Kill every goddamn Zionist in Israel! Goddamn little babies, goddamn old ladies! Blow up Zionist supermarkets!"
— Speech during protest of B'nai B'rith International, Washington, D.C., 2002
In October 2007, about 100 NBPP members from across the country gathered in Atlanta for the national Black Power Summit, co-billed as The Attack on Black America. “Our rise is co-dependent on the white man’s demise,” Shabazz said in a scalding keynote address. “What do I mean when I say, ‘the white man’?” he asked. “Well, I mean the goddamn white man.” Arguing that overt signs of white racism like the Jena 6 case in Louisiana are just cause for black Americans to become militant, Shabazz discouraged the idea of “waiting” for racial tensions to ease, saying “that sounds like faggot talk, and I hate faggot talk.”
Since 2007, Shabazz has increasingly identified himself as the head of the Black Lawyers for Justice, instead of the NBPP that he still leads. Nevertheless, during a march in West Virginia related to the Williams case, Shabazz publicly reaffirmed his commitment to the NBPP. "I will always be a part of the New Black Panther Party," he said. "I am not going to deny my family for anybody."
Here's a piece from an interview Malik Zulu Shabazz gave to Final Call in March 2005 - a publication of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam...
AM: What would the perfect world of the New Black Panther Party look like?
MS: The perfect world for us would be the vision of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the vision of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and even according to the 10-point program of the Panthers from the ’60s. Our perfect world, of course, is a nation of our own. We want our own land, factories and farms. We are tired of demonstrating against police brutality year after year, month after month, “Please treat us right. Stop discriminating against us.” It seems almost impossible to achieve real justice within the confines of White racist America. So, the perfect world, of course, is a Black nation. The perfect world for us would be the Honorable Louis Farrakhan as our president and a Congress with our best politicians, scholars, researchers, thinkers and activists working under a divine chain of command.
And who could forget the New Black Panther Party offering up a bounty for George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford FL? Here's a snip from Malik Zulu Shabazz while he was discussing the NBPP's plans for Sanford in April 2012...
You touch us with what we are building for black people and you got a hell of a price to pay. You don’t build a movement – if you don’t develop a movement and defend what you develop with a movement then you gonna be out of luck. So we gotta do both my sista. We got to fight on all fronts. We got to build and in self-defense we got to kill.
So I'm wondering why would Capt. Johnson stand shoulder to shoulder with the New Black Panther Party and Malik Zulu Shabazz. If they are there to keep the peace and assist the community in a positive way without agitating an extremely tense situation - Great! But based on their histories, that's not what they do. Mix in a little bit of Al Sharpton and you've got a lot of pot-stirrers in Ferguson.
Case in point - last evening Gateway Pundit posted a video on his blog of the NBPP leading the protestors in a chant before their protest march. Here's the chant...
What do we want?
Darren Wilson
How do we want him?
Dead
I don't know about you but that just doesn't seem like the best way to keep the peace and send a positive message to the protestors...
It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. I pray that I am wrong about Malik Zulu Shabazz and the NBPP. Unfortunately the combined history of those involved doesn't leave me feeling very optimistic.
As for Capt Ron Johnson, I'll sit back and see what happens. He's starting to come across as though he likes the attention the media is giving him. I wonder if he is already thinking about running for office as so many pundits have suggested?
And about those looters - nothing says "Justice" like making off with a crapload of hair extensions...
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