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10/24 News Roundup
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Shaun King: Black Lives Matter is Not a Carbon Copy of Black Panther Party, Our Time is Different
AMY GOODMAN: It is the 50th anniversary of the Black Panthers. This week, the British website Spiked published an article in which Elaine Brown, former chair of the Black Panther Party, said, quote, “Black Lives Matter has a plantation mentality.” She added, quote, “The next wave of young people running out here, who are complaining and protesting about the murders of young black men and women by the police all over the country, they will protest but they will not rise up in an organized fashion, with an agenda, to create revolutionary change. … We advocated community self-defense organizations to be formed, so that we would not be assaulted by the police, so that we would bear arms and assume our human rights.” Your response to Elaine Brown’s critique, and then the trajectory from Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter?
SHAUN KING: Well, you know, I love the Black Panther Party. I spent some time over the past few weeks with Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party. And he loves the Black Lives Matter movement and has been immensely supportive, encouraging, not only to me but to many activists. So I was disappointed in what—in what Elaine said. And I know Elaine. I’ve talked with her many times.
When Elaine got involved in the Black Panther Party, it was about two years old. And that’s where we are in the Black Lives Matter movement, as well. And so, I think some of what she did was she evaluated the totality of the Black Panther Party and all that it accomplished in 10 years, and compared it to where we are right now in year two. And so, it’s an unfair comparison to say where we are in year two compared to where the Black Panther Party was in year two. Two years in, it literally only had 4,000 or 5,000 people, the Black Panther Party, that were committed to it, to its practices. And it was still trying to determine where it went and what it would do. And so, I think if you look at where we are now versus where the Black Panther Party was at this same time, I think we’re doing well.
I understand her criticism saying, you know, what are they doing compared to what they accomplished. But even some of us look at the dangers of what happened to Black Panther leaders, from targeted assassinations to COINTELPRO, and some of the lessons that we learned from them has caused us to change our methods. And so, the Black Lives Matter movement is not a carbon copy of what the Black Panther Party did. How we do what we do will be uniquely different. Our time is different. So, I respect her, revere her and admire her, but I was disappointed to read some of what she said.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And more importantly, the Black Panther Party was an organization, Black Lives Matter is a movement, which has come up, really, in a spontaneous fashion from all around the country, whereas the Panthers started in one place as a disciplined organization. It’s a very different form of attempting to achieve social change.
SHAUN KING: Sure. And what I found is, not just with Elaine, but with many of our elders, is that they are unaware that the Black Lives Matter movement does have a comprehensive platform, that there are hundreds of organizations that see themselves as a part of this movement in all 50 states all across the country, and they have the own policy platforms. And it’s difficult for one person, her or anybody else, to wrap their mind around the specific fights and battles that we are fighting. So a lot of people just aren’t informed to how organized this movement really is.
AMY GOODMAN: Shaun King, before we wrap, injustice boycott initiative, explain what it is in this last minute.
SHAUN KING: Yeah, on December the 5th, hundreds of thousands of us are coming together to boycott injustice in this country. And what we mean by that is, we believe there are not only cities and states which continue to underwrite the cost of injustice, that continue to back it and support it, be it police brutality or racial violence, but also corporations that are behind it and either say nothing or do nothing or, even worse than that, are specifically backing the police departments which continue to be brutal all over this country. So we’re launching a targeted boycott on December the 5th, not for a day or two days, but our model really is the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days until they saw change. So—
AMY GOODMAN: Do you have corporations targeted?
SHAUN KING: We do, and we’ll be announcing those on December the 5th. And we’re holding our cards close to our chest until then, but we do have corporations we’ll be targeting, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Shaun King, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Black Lives Matter activist, senior justice writer for the New York Daily News. And we will link to your columns at democracynow.org.
SHAUN KING: Thank you.
Matt Taibbi on Libor, Cartel-Style Finance & How Failure to Fix Wall St. Has Propelled Trump’s Rise
Ohio is an Open-Carry State Except If You’re an African-American Male
The Republican National Convention is underway just a few miles from the park where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by police in November of 2014 while he was playing with a toy pellet gun. We speak with Rev. Dr. Jawanza Karriem Colvin, the pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, which is one of the largest African-American congregations in Cleveland, about how city officials and activists responded to the killing. He was recently profiled in a Politico report titled “The Preacher Who Took on the Police.”
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Nina Turner, from Family of Police Officers, Responds to Baton Rouge Attack
From DemocracyNow! Following Sunday’s killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday, after a week of protests sparked by the fatal shooting by police of resident Alton Sterling, we speak with former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, who is in Cleveland, where Democracy Now! is covering the Republican National Convention. Her son is a police officer, and her husband is a retired police officer. “Good police officers prop up bad police officers, and they won’t tell, they won’t talk about what is wrong within this system,” Turner says. “We have to have good police officers call out their … Continue reading →
Puerto Rico’s Payday Loans: The Shocking Story Behind Wall Street’s Role in Debt Crisis
http://democracynow.org – On June 30, President Obama signed into law the PROMESA bill, which will establish a federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico’s economy. While the legislation’s supporters say the bill will help the island cope with its debt crisis by allowing an orderly restructuring of its $72 billion in bond debt, critics say it is a reversion to old-style colonialism that removes democratic control from the people of Puerto Rico. But does Puerto Rico really owe $72 billion in bond debt—and to whom? A stunning new report by ReFund America Project reveals nearly half the debt owed by Puerto Rico is not actually money that the island borrowed, but instead interest owed to investors on bonds underwritten by Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. While the Puerto Rican people are facing massive austerity cuts, bondholders are set to make mind-boggling profits in what has been compared to a payday lending scheme. For more, we speak in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Carlos Gallisá, an attorney, politician and independence movement leader. And in New York, we speak with Saqib Bhatti, director of the ReFund America Project and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He is co-author of the new report, “Puerto Rico’s Payday Loans.”
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: http://democracynow.org
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: http://democracynow.org/donate
Rep. Keith Ellison: Arrest the Officer Who Killed Philando Castile, He Has to Be Held Accountable
More than 300 people were arrested over the weekend as protests against police brutality erupted in more than a dozen U.S. cities over the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Philando Castile’s death comes on the heels of massive protests over another fatal police shooting in Minnesota last year: the police killing of Jamar Clark. Authorities say Clark was shot in the head after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. But multiple witnesses say Clark was shot while handcuffed. For more we speak with Minnesota Democratic Representative Keith Ellison. He is also one of the five people picked by Bernie Sanders to serve on the Democratic National Committee platform drafting committee.
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: http://democracynow.org
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: http://democracynow.org/donate