Inciting Race Warfare in NYC

Last night, I stopped by the "50 Shots" protest on Centre Street in lower Manhattan.  The event was a response to the death of Sean Bell, who was shot and killed by undercover police outside a strip club in the early morning of November 25th.  The four police officers involved in the shooting (two of whom were Black) reportedly discharged 50 rounds in the confrontation, killing Bell and wounding two other men.

The protest was a racially charged, incendiary uproar, headlined by Councilman (and Black Panther) Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn), who quickly whipped the 500-strong crowd into frenzy of chants including "Black power - against the police!"

Based on the crowd's reaction, Barron's tirade appeared to be highly successful at widening the racial divide that's formed in New York in the wake of Bell's death.

Barron had taken some flak for previous comments that suggested to many that he was encouraging people to show their outrage through violence directing at the NYPD.  He did little to change that last night.  He sought to preemptively dodge any responsibility, saying we can't blame him, as a "social forecaster, for forecasting an explosion, just like you don't blame the weatherman for forecasting the storm."

His thinly veiled instructions to take up arms against the police continued, going so far as to identify the appropriate timing:

We need to let the system know that they need to fear us.  They have no fear for us.  And once you put the fear into some people’s hearts, whether it's politically, economically, or physically, they will leave you alone.
...
[I]f we don’t get justice in this case, don’t ask us to demonstrate again.  If we don’t get justice in this case, don’t tell us to be cool, to be calm.  We need to get hot!

After Barron finished laying out his marching orders, a CUNY professor took the stage.  Midway through her screeching diatribe (most of which I literally couldn't even decipher), she took notice of a certain photographer just in front of the stage, one among dozens of credentialed members of the press in the designated media area.  As far as I was able to tell, the only thing that set him apart from the vast majority of the crowd was his skin color.  As a white man, he was among a very small minority and something about him set the woman off.  She screamed that he was a "pig" and told him repeatedly that he wasn't supposed to be there, until some of the stagehands escorted him away from the stage and out of the mob.

Sean Bell's death was a tragedy.  And the police officers involved will be held to account however appropriate, according to the results of the pending investigation.  It's unfortunate, but probably inevitable, that the situation has triggered unrest throughout the city.

But the dangerous and deliberate exacerbation being perpetrated by Barron and his ilk is inexcusable.  If violence toward New York's Finest is the result, I for one will indeed place blame on these "social forecasters".

The video below has been edited for brevity and to strip out a lot of the less decipherable moments.  Because of the ambient noise, I've included a transcript of Barron's comments (as excerpted in the video) below the clip.

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NYC Councilmember Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn)

Brothers and sisters, Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.

What we need here is a regime change.  What we need here is a radical, up, down, turn upside down – this police department is out of control.

Any time, in any institution in America, racism permeates every institution in America.  And the police department is no exception.  And we don’t care whether the shooters were Black, Latino, because the Negroes who were in – the house Negroes during slave time, they were Black too.  But slavery is still racist.  So just because we got some house Negroes that will shoot us at the behest of their masters, once some of those police officers joined the police department, White, Latino or Black, they all turned blue.  And because the victims are Black, we are under a racist, out of control police department.

I don’t care what they say about me.  They say Charles, you’re a [undecipherable] radical.  Charles, if you call for an explosion, that I’m the one that’s calling for violence.  Let me tell you something.  We need to let the system know that they have to fear us.  They have no fear for us.  And once you put the fear into some people’s hearts, whether it’s politically, economically, or physically, they will leave you alone.

So brothers and sisters, I want to say to you today, just as we said over and over again, if we don’t get justice in this case, don’t ask us to demonstrate again.  If we don’t get justice in this case don’t tell us to be cool, to be calm.

Don’t blame me, as a social forecaster, for forecasting an explosion, just like you don’t blame the weatherman for forecasting the storm.

We’ll let everybody know that we’ve had enough.  Enough is enough is enough.  We’re fired up.  We won’t take no more.

And just because the shooter’s skin color is like yours, the racism is that the victim’s skin color is always ours.  If those were three white guys, they’d be alive today.  Enough is enough.

Brothers and sisters, forward ever, backward never, we’ve got to stick together.  Forward ever, backward never.  Thank you very much.

Elsewhere: Hot Air, Independent Conservative, Urban Elephants, Sister Toldjah, Alarming News

Previously: New Black Panthers Want to Kill Cops