#BlackLivesMatter protest at Stone Mountain Park, a popular KKK gathering site, in Georgia. An estimated 400 – 1000 armed black panthers marching. (??@naomiruta) pic.twitter.com/qLIgVt8waf
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) July 4, 2020
A group of peaceful protestors in Stone Mountain, home of a racist confederate memorial, employing their rights on 7/4/2020. That story generates no national news coverage because there was no violence to sensationalize like this tweet. #ftfy https://t.co/NctzrS0PW1
— Bryan Kaetz (@bryankaetz) July 5, 2020
Will admit I’m curious as to how this is covered, once the Media Village Idiots trickle back from their vacations in the Hamptons or Montana. Per Newsweek, “Armed Black Militia Challenges White Nationalists at Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park”:
About 1,000 heavily armed militia, all of whom were Black, marched through Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park on Saturday, challenging white nationalist groups in the area to either come out and fight or join them in demonstrating against the government.
Stone Mountain State Park officials said the Black militia group was peaceful, orderly and escorted by police as they called for the removal of the country’s largest Confederate monument near Atlanta.
Videos posted to social media show the group, the “Not F**king Around Coalition” (NFAC), meeting at the massive nine-story quartz sculpting that depicts former Confederate president Jefferson Davis and Southern generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
NFAC Founder Grand Master Jay told Newsweek via phone Sunday that the militia members at Stone Mountain on Saturday were “100 percent Black” and they are not affiliated with Black Lives Matter. “We are a Black militia. We aren’t protesters, we aren’t demonstrators. We don’t come to sing, we don’t come to chant. That’s not what we do,” he said.
The NFAC head explained why several videos show the militia members alongside demonstrators earlier in the day before heading to Stone Mountain. Grand Master Jay told Newsweek the sister of Rayshard Brooks, who was killed outside an Atlanta Wendy’s by police last month, requested the NFAC militia provide her with a security escort to a downtown rally that began at the site of her brother’s death.
“Our initial goal was to have a formation of our militia in Stone Mountain to send a message that as long as you’re abolishing all these statues across the country, what about this one?” Grand Master Jay said, referencing the massive Confederate carving.
He added that he must commend Stone Mountain police for offering the all-Black militia support as they exercised their constitutional rights on July 4th…
John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, said the protests were orderly and acknowledged the Confederate monument is frequently used as a meeting place for far right-wing militia.
“It’s a public park, a state park. We have these protests on both sides of the issue from time to time. We respect people’s First Amendment right,” Bankhead told WXIA-TV. “We understand the sensitivities of the issue here at the park … so we respect that and allow them to come in as long as it’s peaceful, which it has been.”…
NRA social media team utterly relieved that it's a holiday weekend https://t.co/Dhncjm5YPO
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) July 5, 2020
for context: they were there because a few klan members told protestors not to come to stone mountain. it's also important to note that there was no issue during their protest for all the people who think black people just want to kill them.
— WhoSaidThat (@WhoSaidThat20) July 5, 2020
Gotta admit, these guys are hella more organized than the usual straggly mob of Threepers, ‘free speech libertarians’, Boogaloo Bois, and ammosexuals the media obediently documents threatening female governors and random public-health officials for the cameras. And to me, that makes them less frightening, because the NFAC members don’t seem as likely to shoot up the neighborhood ‘accidentally’ because they’re handling guns like they were playtoys…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well.. that’s an interesting development
NotMax
I absolutely applaud and support their sentiments yet am repelled by any type of armed self-styled militia.
cain
“NFAC Founder Grand Master Jay ” – [raises eyebrow] – some mocking of the KKK?
Mary G
That’s what I said. They carry rifles like soldiers and are all in shape. Plus masks. I want a mashup of them side by side.
Doug R
Finally a “well-regulated militia”.
eclare
@cain: Also could be a nod to the hip hop artist.
Mai naem mobile
These guys need to show up in heavily white areas on election day at polling stations to protect the right to vote for white people. It’s a pandemic and, well, you know thugs will show up to rob these defenseless white people so they absolutely need the security of black armed militias. The regular cops are going to he busy protecting Confederate monuments .
rikyrah
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Kinda this. I feel the same way
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Does anybody have any opinions regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center?
Mary G
First really hot weather and several fires have broken out here in SoCal. This doesn’t seem fun:
The only thing worse than having to sleep on a cot in a high school gym is having to sit in your car in hot weather instead.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Opinions? All positive. With a cookie on top.
Kropacetic
They seem to be a pretty well-respected and influential organization pushing for social justice. Just my impression as a lay consumer of news.
Kropacetic
Same as it ever was….
joel hanes
Garryowen was George Armstrong Custer’s battle theme song.
https://twitter.com/D_historyMan/status/1279939327963906049
Mike in NC
Whenever we go to shop in South Carolina, I always try to wear my William T. Sherman t-shirt.
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
SPLC are the best, the real deal, and have been for a very long time.
Kropacetic
Then let this be Trump’s last stand.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
Someone ought to come up with a Mr. Peabody and Sherman shirt featuring the general.
:)
Geoduck
@cain: I have read second-hand reports that the leader of NFAC is indeed something of a flake. At least he’s stable enough to organize an effective protest.
Sebastian
@Mary G:
That’s because they are. The white militias are wannabes, many who have never served, for whom showing up armed is a joke and an expression of their privilege and an expression of their knowledge of that privilege.
This on the other hand is dead serious. You can bet your last dollar that they have NCOs in their ranks and that they drill and practice.
I applaud this. You think the cops in Ferguson, MI would have behaved as they have if they knew a 1,000 men trained militia might be provoked to get involved?
Racists are bullies. Cowards. That’s why they kick down. The moment they face real resistance they run.
Jinchi
I understand their motivation, but I’m not thrilled that the solution to right wing gun nuts is more people strolling down the street with guns.
sgrAstar
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I admire them and have supported them for years. They are serious and effective.
?
Steve in NC
Born and raised in Montgomery, AL so I know all about the SPLC. Morris Dees was brilliant at direct mail fundraising and built up about $650 million for the center. They could probably solve Southern Poverty if they would spend any of the money. They have done many good things but you should read the Montgomery Advertiser articles about them, the old ones about their funding and especially the more recent ones about Dees and Richard Cohen’s ousters. Oh, and don’t give them any money, They have plenty.
scav
Have to admit, anything that brings disquiet to Ronnie’s eternal slumber does rather please me. I should in theory probably aspire to be a better person.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
@Kropacetic:
@joel hanes:
I suppose the reason I ask is because I came across this blog, Watching the Watchdogs
Basically, this guy claims that there’s a “Hate Industry” that the SPLC belongs to, and that it and other groups like it manipulate statistics to prey on “well-meaning progressives” to milk them of money
Jinchi
@joel hanes: @Kropacetic: Generals have theme songs?
Kropacetic
Well, they have that right and at least seem to respect it more than some of the more typical open-carry advocates. And, unfortunate though it may be, this is just the sort of thing that may get a certain group of people to reconsider what our gun policies should be, hence the OP title.
I dunno. I was just riffing on the other person’s post*.
But if Generals do have theme songs, I wholeheartedly approve of this practice.
*Ah, I see your edit now acknowledges this. Well played…
Jinchi
Yeah, maybe. I’m just worried that result of two militia groups wandering the streets with strongly opposite views of how the world works will end up like it normally does.
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The right hates the SPLC and has been trying to discredit them for years. It’s the “liberal FTFNYT” all over again.
pablo
I was curious how it was covered after seeing it on Twitter 2 days ago, so I went to the Atl Journal Const. and………crickets ………….until this AM. 2 days.
Kropacetic
Well, at least one such group seems to be professional and respects the destructive force they’re wielding.
As for the opposing group, let’s hope people are right about their abject cowardice because I don’t trust their judgment.
Morzer
I’ve thought for a long time that if you want to get anywhere on gun control, your best bet is a “Million Man Minority Militia” marching through “white” areas with impeccable discipline and a very evident determination not to just fade away.
NotMax
@Jinchi
Well, if Caesar had a salad….
:)
More seriously, the tune adopted to be the anthem/marching music of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry.
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Full disclosure: I’ve donated a decent chunk of change them more than once. That said, I’ve read a number of times that there have been (ahem) issues there. It’s been a while, but the founder (?) Morris Dees left under questionable circumstances. And there were reports of gender and racial issues internally. I haven’t looked recently, maybe they’ve cleaned them up.
They did quite good work, that’s for sure. Quite good work.
James E Powell
@NotMax:
Same here. Large groups of armed people who don’t like each other. What could go wrong?
Shalimar
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Southern Poverty Law Center are well respected and do great work. There were a couple cavaets to that in the 1990s.
First, they were a nearly all-white civil rights organization, which was mostly due to the founder and his recruiting contacts with Alabama law schools (I knew Morris Dees at the time and don’t know anyone who thinks this was intentional on his part). I assume this hasn’t been true in a long time, as they made a concerted effort to be more diverse a few decades ago.
The other is that they received far more donations every year than they spent, which left them with a massive endowment compared to other civil rights organizations. Not sure if that is still true or not, but at the time the ACLU or NAACP were more effective places to donate.
Mary G
I really went back and forth with myself over this militia yesterday when I saw them on Twitter. I think I said here that I approve as long as there’s no shooting.
But after thinking it over a while, I think they are a genuine good. They’re sending the message that if these white loser cosplayers and the cops that love them start shit, there will be pushback. The people who make up, in AL’s brilliant phrase “the usual straggly mob of Threepers, ‘free speech libertarians’, Boogaloo Bois, and ammosexuals” are keyboard warriors who if they have even a few working brain cells recognize that the NFAC are pros who could eat their lunch and will be deterred. Adam’s been talking about it for a long time.
I hope it’s enough to prevent violence. I hate the thought of Americans shooting each other in the streets of our country. But I hate the idea that black people have got to keep turning the other cheek forever, and it’s past time they are allowed to use the same tools the other side has. I just hope the NFAC has body cameras on every single member, plus GoPros and regular cameras. Video, especially of George Floyd’s vicious killer slowly strangling him in a crowd in broad daylight, has shocked a lot of clueless white people into finally caring. I am really sick to death of the “Scary Black Panthers” meme ruling.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
I’m sure they do, but that doesn’t refute the arguments at my link. I guess I was hoping for somebody to discredit the arguments at my link
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Did you see a couple of eyes roll this way?
They want a horse race? Ok! Let them run away from a stampede.
joel hanes
@Jinchi:
IIRC, Custer’s cavalry took a brass band, I think including bagpipers, with them on campaigns, and played Garryowen when commencing battle.
War was different before machine guns and bombs.
mrmoshpotato
@Jinchi: Who’s to say whether or not Generals can have theme songs – or chicken?
Shalimar
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): “Hate industry” and actually preying on anyone sounds like rightwing bullshit. SPLC made their reputation suing Klan groups into bankruptcy, so white supremacists despise them.
That said, SPLC is well funded and well known for their fundraising prowess. Unless something dramatic has changed, they don’t need your donation.
joel hanes
@Morzer:
I’ve thought for a long time that if you want to get anywhere on gun control, your best bet is a “Million Man Minority Militia” marching through “white” areas with impeccable discipline and a very evident determination not to just fade away.
This is pretty much the way that California got its strict gun-control laws. The cops wouldn’t patrol black neighborhoods, so the Black Panthers armed up and created uniforms and did patrols. Gov. Reagan and the right wing freaked right the fuck out, and gun control followed ASAP.
Can’t be having scary armed black men.
Brachiator
Where is Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and the Orange Dope Himself to slobber all over the Second Amendment?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@joel hanes:
Napoleonic war tactics were the standard for pretty much the entire 19th century, right up until the First World War
Your mention of Custer reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode, “The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms” where 3 national guardsmen from 1964 go back to 1876 and decide to join up with Custer. They die of course. Their commanding officer remarks how it was too bad they couldn’t have brought the tank with them.
Years later as an adult, I can’t help but wonder what the fuck the writers were thinking. Oh yes, it would’ve been absolutely wonderful for the tank to have been used to crush the Native Americans to death with /s
I mean, I get that people were hella racist back then, but Jesus Christ.
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
this blog, Watching the Watchdogs
OK, I read a dozen pages of their stuff.
The blog doth protest too much, methinks. Many of their criticisms seem pretty trivial, or grasping at straws, or definitional, and I wonder why only the SPLC, of all charities, draws their voluble ire.
Yes, the SPLC has had issues.
They also have a proud history. Read the wiki page, if you haven’t. IIRC, David Niewert has used their information in his work, and he has spent decades out in front of the hate group thing. Nearly prescient.
I think the blog you cited is a well-researched and plausible right-wing hatchet job, and I advise you not to waste another minute reading it.
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Life is too short. None of wants to read your link. Read SPLC’s website, and use your excellent brain to decide for yourself
ETA: sorry, I was wrong, @joel hanes: did the work and came to the same conclusion I did without reading it.
mrmoshpotato
Posting this again.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@joel hanes:
I appreciate that. I guess sometimes when I come across crap like that that seems legitimate and I’m unfamiliar with the subject, I can’t help but feel confused.
The “Hate Industry” struck me as right wing bullshit
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
I apologize
NotMax
@Mary G
And don’t take as gospel, Goku, anything read on a single blog. Including this one.
;)
Mary G
American racists are so lazy they import Russians to harass black people for them.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Skepticism is health food for the intellect.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Good advice. I try to read different sources for news, but this blog (along with a few others) is honestly a good source of info nonetheless
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
@NotMax:
No need to apologize, and NotMax is right. I remember the Obama vs Hillary wars, the Glenn Greenwald wars, and the Ed Snowden wars here. I’ve been wrong many times myself.
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I can’t help but wonder what the fuck the writers were thinking
Different times.
You’re young, so you don’t remember a time before Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, but for the entire decade of the 1950s and into the 1960s, American TV was dominated by westerns in which native Americans, “Injuns”, were depicted mostly as howling nearly-naked savages on horseback, valiantly shot by the brave settlers sheltering in the ring of wagons. Boys were given toy six-shooters and cowboy hats, and toy rifles that made simulated ricochet sounds, and “Fort Apache” playsets. We played “cowboys and Indians”, and argued over who got to be the cowboys, the good guys, and who would have to pretend to be the attacking Indians, the bad guys, who would have to pretend to die when inevitably shot. Histrionically.
This radio play is an antidote to all that.
And if you haven’t read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, you should do so.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: “The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming…”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Read history, understand the context for things.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Have brought it up previously; remains a useful resource.
The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking
Even comes with its own caveat:
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, I read that Custer was regarded as a hero for years in American culture, largely because the efforts of his widow, and the US Army covering up his mistakes to stop Congress from cutting the Army’s budget
@joel hanes:
Absolutely. Bonanza stood out from the rest of those westerns at the time for it’s nuanced and somewhat progressive (though ultimately paternalistic) portrayals of Native Americans
I’ll have to check out that book
oatler.
@joel hanes:
I remember hearing that song quite a lot in “Little Big Man”.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Did someone say Bonanza?
:)
mrmoshpotato
Cole has declared everything is fine.
Time to dance with jellyfish and piranha!
Sab
@Doug R: Yes. Note the social distancing as they march.
opiejeanne
@joel hanes: Oh, fuck me, they didn’t!
I wonder which asshole thought up playing Garryowen and then sat there snickering with his buddies about how clever they were.
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I read that Custer was regarded as a hero
When I was a sprout, I was given a copy of The Seventh’s Staghound, a boy’s adventure book, that portrayed GAC as a brilliant, romantic hero who fell to a tragic doom.
So yes.
opiejeanne
@joel hanes: We were an odd family when it came to worshipping American heroes, or not worshipping them. We didn’t view either Custer or Daniel Boone as heroes, but Mom’s grudge against Boone was personal: some of her family died because of his recklessness. Yes, that is a long time to carry a grudge.
Uncle Cosmo
@NotMax: Sherman, set the WayBack Machine to the year 1864, said Mr Peabody, with a lit fireplace match in his paw…
mrmoshpotato
@Uncle Cosmo: …and put on your marching boots.
Why, Mr. Peabody?
Oh, you’ll see.
mrmoshpotato
RIP Maestro ?
oatler.
@mrmoshpotato:
Danger Diabolik
brantl
@Jinchi: Custer was one of the most egotistical, narcissistic and cowardly assholes to ever draw breath. The native americans of his time called him “squaw killer”.
brantl
@joel hanes: I bet the band really enjoyed the party at Little Big Horn…..
p.a.
Wow! Armed Black Militia! 2nd Amendment repeal in 3… 2…
(See: Governor Reagan gun control)
snoey
@brantl: The band was left behind, which ultimately lead to the Patriots drafting a kicker from South Dakota with an Italian name.
low-tech cyclist
The reason the Black militia is carrying properly is simple: unlike those white privilege militia idiots who can generally count on police giving them the benefit of the doubt, they know that if there’s the least hint of anything like brandishing, or carelessly pointing their guns in the vague direction of other people, or any other remotely irresponsible gun handling, the law will come down on them like a ton of bricks.
They don’t have the luxury of just fucking around with guns in public.
Re the SPLC, I second @Steve in NC: they’ve done a great deal of good work, but don’t send them a cent – they’ve got enough money to keep on doing what they’re doing until most of us are dead. I used to support their work, but now that I know they don’t need my help, I’ve redirected it to orgs that actually need my contributions.
@joel hanes: Before I clicked on your link, I thought, “I sure hope that’s “Temporarily Humboldt County.” You didn’t disappoint. Civilization ho-oh!
brad
I am disappointed to have to bring this up, I want this to be fun too, but the head of the NFAC is… not actually a good person. https://twitter.com/TheOfficialGra3/status/1276982105726160897
Richard Keefe
@joel hanes: “…and I wonder why only the SPLC, of all charities, draws their voluble ire.”
Hi. I can answer that. As an undergraduate I majored in communication studies and I was particularly interested in the science (and art) of Persuasion, as in advertising, public relations and propaganda. My graduate studies focused on technical communication, as in how technology, like social media, is used to practice persuasion.
The SPLC gets the most attention because they are by far the most successful (largest, richest, most influential) and because they engage in all of the fields of persuasion I listed above. I don’t have any particular dislike for them in general, any more than geneticists hate fruit flies. I do cover other Industry players, if you dig a little deeper, but the SPLC are simply the easiest to study.
It’s worth noting that I’ve been writing about the company since 2009 and I have been in direct contact with them on many occasions. They know who I am and how to reach me. The SPLC has over 400 employees these days, including many lawyers, and over half a billion dollars in unrestricted cash reserves. If they felt my research was libeling them or seriously threatening their highly lucrative brand name they have the wherewithal to shut me down. Hope this helps. Richard