Jim Crow / Black Lives Matter

The ACLU is demanding that the Kenosha police chief and county sheriff resign. 

Following the lead of organizers on the ground, today the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and National ACLU called for the immediate resignation of Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth. The ACLU’s demand follows the shooting of Jacob Blake and the murder of two protestors, who were shot by a 17-year-17-year-old participating in a counter-protest.

Sheriff David Beth's deputies not only fraternized with white supremacist counter-protesters on Tuesday, but allowed the shooter to leave as people yelled that he was the shooter. The sheriff excused this by saying his deputies may not have paid attention to the gunman because there were many distractions, including “screaming” and “hollering,” people running, police vehicles idling, “nonstop radio traffic,” and that “in situations that are high stress, you have such an incredible tunnel vision.” Sheriff Beth was also criticized last year after calling for five people of color who had been arrested for shoplifting to be put into warehouses “where we put these people who have been deemed to be no longer an asset.” 

During the Kenosha Police Department’s first press conference in response to the Blake shooting and subsequent murders committed at protests, Police Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed the unidentified victims in Tuesday night’s shooting for their own deaths, saying the violence was the result of the “persons” involved violating curfew. 

“The ACLU strongly condemns Sheriff Beth and Police Chief Miskinis’ response to both the attempted murder of Jacob Blake and the protests demanding justice for him. Their actions uphold and defend white supremacy, while demonizing people who were murdered for exercising their First Amendment rights and speaking out against police violence,” said Chris Ott, Executive Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “The only way to rectify these actions is for both Sheriff Beth and Police Chief Daniel Miskinis to immediately tender their resignations.” 

If Sheriff Beth and Police Chief Miskinis refuse to immediately tender their resignation, the ACLU is calling for Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian to demand the police chief’s removal by the Kenosha Police and Fire Commission, and the sheriff’s removal by Gov. Tony Evers.

https://www.aclu-wi.org/en/news/aclu-calls-immediate-resignation-kenosha...

The Mets and Marlins took the field, had a 42-second moment of silence, and then walked off.

The only thing left on the field: a Black Lives Matter shirt.

video

WATCH: "Russiagate disinformation isn't just paranoid and deranged, it's racist. Here Dana Bash, CNN asks Adam Schiff whether 'Russia is trying to fuel' BLM protests. Schiff responds that Russia 'exploited' BLM in 2016 and may now be 'aggravating these tensions in our cities."

https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1300156357652475912

Ajamu Baraka: Will This Be the Radicalization of Black Lives Matter?

https://www.blackagendareport.com/will-be-radicalization-black-lives-matter

"On Monday a group of local Black Lives Matter chapters issued a statement to the public calling for more transparency and accountability from the Black Lives Matter Global Network, (BLMGN), the umbrella structure of the Black lives matter structures...

The lack of accountability and questions regarding the use of funds were almost inevitable because it was designed that way. Counterinsurgency efforts in the US and elsewhere discovered that those methods are effective and adopted them as part of the playbook for corrupting and redirecting potential oppositional groups...

Most of the activists who hit the streets just wanted to do the work and didn't know that questions about whether this movement was more valuable as an instrument of the ideological re-legitimization of the system than it was as an instrument for advancing the oppositional, anti-capitalist radical Black movement, especially as it seemed to align itself with right-wing neoliberal Democrats from Obama, Clinton, Warren and now to Biden.

So, with the field being flooded with cash from the enemy to keep the focus on easily incorporated themes of 'racial justice' and 'criminal justice reform', issues of both financial and political accountability were always beneath the surface. Now those issues have found the light of day and accountability is being called for...It is clear to me that the chapters raising questions about issues from the frontlines are doing so not out of a desire to destroy but to strengthen the movement by generating this discussion.

Will it be  a tough conversation? Yes. Because partially obscured by the liberal appropriation of intersectionality is the issue of class that the largely petit-bourgeois class-based leadership of the movement will not even acknowledge, let alone struggle with. But that may soon change.