FILE – In this April 15, 2017 file photo, young protesters take part in a Black Lives Matter march in Seattle. The awarding of the Sydney Peace Prize to Black Lives Matter for its work on American race issues is being hailed by local activists as a progressive step, but is also highlighting Australia’s own struggles with race relations. The Sydney Peace Foundation will award its prize to Black Lives Matter for inspiring a “bold movement for change at a time when peace is threatened by growing inequality and injustice.” Australian activists say such issues need to be addressed at home as well. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
A famed activist says LA’s Black Lives Matter leader’s gotta go.
On March 2nd, I covered the stunning story of David Lacey’s exchange with BLM protestors.
David happens to be married to LA’s first black female District Attorney (and DA for 11 years now), Jackie.
Purportedly, Jackie had expressed willingness to meet with people from the community.
Therefore, more than 30 protestors showed up at her home uninvited — in order to have a sit-down.
At 5:40am.
Husband David didn’t appreciate the pre-dawn call, so he answered the door with a gun:
I’m front of DA Jackie Lacey’s house for that community meeting she promised with the @BLMLA crew. Rang her bell to invite her.
Her husband pulled a gun, cocked it, pointed it at my chest and said “I’ll shoot you. I don’t care who you are.” @WP4BL @RealJusticePAC @shaunking pic.twitter.com/WtazUWSJIC
— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) March 2, 2020
Online reaction — which you can see here — varied..
Jackie later apologized for the armed reaction, but now there’s fierce criticism being heaped onto the other side: Najee Ali — long an opponent of BLM — explained in a press conference Friday that the drum-banging front-porch antics of BLM-LA co-founder (and CSU Pan-African Studies Professor) Melina Abdulla and crew have put Jackie at risk.
Najee is demanding that Melina step down.
This is how he put it to The Daily Wire:
“They either need to disband altogether, or reorganize and place those in decision-making positions who actually know how to organize effective protest campaigns.”
And how’d they endanger Mrs. Lacey? Here’s Najee, as relayed by NBC:
“Every murderer, rapist, and violent criminal Lacey has put in jail now has her home address thanks to Abdullah, who engaged in one of the dumbest protests in the history of Los Angeles activism.”
Yeah — that sounds dangerous.
Beware of those who claim to speak for the Black community, but have no organizational membership, show up only for cameras, but not for the work, assault women, serve as police “consultants,” and echo arguments of White supremacists about Black folks needing to be civil.@kcrw
— #BlackLivesMatter-LA (@BLMLA) March 6, 2020
To be clear, Najee’s no fan of Jackie’s; but he thinks the porch stunt actually helped her in last Tuesday’s election (the results of which haven’t fully been determined).
From his LA Wave column on March 5th:
“As much as I detest Lacey’s policies with her support of the death penalty and failure to prosecute law enforcement officers for shooting unarmed African-American young men, I certainly don’t support anyone coming onto someone’s private property and harassing them. … It gave Lacey valuable free airtime on all the news channels who covered her press conference live the day before the election and without question Lacey got the sympathy votes and anyone who was still undecided.”
As described by TDW, BLM’s been known to engage in aggression:
Ali is part of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Crisis Response Team, a group that responds to traumatic incidents at the request of police and firefighters, acting as liaisons between the victim and emergency personnel. In a recent column published by the Los Angeles Wave, Ali pointed out BLM-LA’s history of disconcerting approaches, which include storming a church during a town hall meeting that featured Mayor Garcetti. Afterward, the pastor said BLM activists had “cussed” at him in the sanctuary and accused them of “disrespect” and “verbal violence.”
Your eyebrows may raise at this, too:
[In 2017], a court granted a restraining order against BLM-LA member Trevor Ferguson (also known as Trevor Gerard), who made uninvited visits to a police commissioner’s home and office. After hearing the testimony, a judge concluded Ferguson intended to “incite fear.”
Abdullah once told another LAPD commissioner, “We know where your ass lives too, and we’ve got cars.”
In Najee’s opinion, BLM is not peaceful:
“As much as I hate to admit it, I do understand Lacey’s husband’s perspective. Black Lives Matter wants to portray its members as peaceful, but the facts are Abdullah and other Black Lives Matter members and supporters have engaged in several public acts of intimidation of city and religious leaders in recent years.”
So he’s ready for the organization to change things up.
Community activist Najee Ali today called for the resignation of Black Lives Matter leader Melina Abdullah. https://t.co/89JNgiT8xu
— KCET-TV SoCal (@KCET) March 7, 2020
If she were to abdicate the position, who’d take it? And would they be more appropriate in Najee’s view?
It seems to me that the core issue here is civility. And that’s in the hands, not of one leader, but any group as a whole.
What’s a given organization’s corporate culture?
And what’s the culture of LA?
Whatever should occur, I hope to see the city experience peace — on street corners and on front porches all over.
-ALEX
Relevant RedState links in this article: here.
See 3 more pieces from me:
Sound the Alarms! House Democrats Pass a ‘Racist’ Tobacco Bill, and the ACLU Isn’t Happy
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