MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-06-26 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Atlanta and Mad Max.
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https://theintercept.com/2020/06/24/rayshard-brooks-armed-atlanta-protesters/
theintercept.com
Black Vigilance Becomes Armed Vigilantism in Atlanta’s Streets
George ChidiGeorge ChidiJune 24 2020, 1:58 p.m.
9-12 minutes
On Saturday night, barricades blocked the street on one side of the
charred ruins of the Wendy’s drive-thru where an Atlanta police officer
killed Rayshard Brooks a week ago, on June 12. Cars cordoned off the
other side. There, a Black man with an AR-15 was standing guard,
stopping white people from entering the site.
What began last week as a vigil for Brooks had transformed into
something more militant. Amid the selfie-taking teenagers and people
hawking Black Lives Matter T-shirts at the crowded convenience store
nearby, a band of armed young Black men milled about. They bore pistols
and long guns, with gaudy accessories redolent of modern militia
equipage: an extended pistol magazine here, a cheap scope there.
Police slowly rolled by the corner of Pryor Street and University Drive
every five or 10 minutes, warily observing. The cops, many of whom have
been calling in sick, are effectively on strike.
“We are being killed, and nothing is being done about it. When a person
is shooting at you, that’s a declaration of war,” the man with the rifle
said. “We shouldn’t have to do this.” He would not give his name.
People are shooting at them — likely white counterprotesters, shooting
from their cars. And they’re shooting back. If activists allow such
militance to continue, it will likely drive the broader public into a
call for police intervention and discredit the movement toward systemic
reform.
The previous afternoon, protesters in tech-heavy midtown Atlanta had
shut down a traffic intersection when a white guy with a “Back the Blue”
license plate took issue. After retrieving an AR-15 from his trunk,
Alexander Fawaz barreled through a protester blocking his way. A video
shows demonstrators drawing their guns and shooting at him as he drives
away. Police said that Fawaz told them he feared for his life. Police
did not even cite the driver. One protester was arrested and charged
with disorderly conduct.
Later that day, a 24-year-old woman was shot in the leg on the street
outside the crowded vigil. She appears to have been caught in crossfire.
No suspect was identified. People aren’t talking to the police.
Then, earlier Saturday night a second person got shot in a drive-by
there. The 35-year-old male victim was also shot in the leg.
The man with the rifle guarding the barricade said he had seen that
latest shooting, just hours before. He’s a network engineer who claimed
no law enforcement or military experience. The victim had been a regular
at the protest, and the shooter was a white man driving a silver Dodge
SRT Challenger, he said.
“The police were here when the guy got shot,” he told me. “They saw the
guy get shot. They saw the car that was shooting at us, and they didn’t
pursue him. … This is in the midst of a felony. Someone got shot, you
know what I’m saying, and they come and say ‘Is everybody OK?’ and no,
motherfucker, that guy shot at us. So, I went home and got my rifle.”
On June 12, Atlanta Police Officer Garrett Rolfe shot Brooks three times
in the back as Brooks ran away. Brooks was carrying Rolfe’s Taser after
a scuffle and appears in video to be pointing it at the two pursuing
cops when he was shot.
Five days later, the Fulton County district attorney, Paul Howard Jr.,
charged Rolfe with murder. That evening police began refusing to answer
calls. Starting around 7 p.m., police radio went stretches of half an
hour at a time without an officer responding. Dispatchers pleaded for
help. Police have been calling in sick with “blue flu” ever since.
The cops have a point: Either a Taser is a lethal weapon, or it’s not.
You can’t have it both ways.
If a Taser is a lethal weapon, then the previous charges against six
officers of using lethal force against two college students driving past
curfew three weeks ago are legitimate. It also means police officers
should not be discharging Tasers at people who present a nonlethal
threat. And it means that Rolfe was justified in shooting Brooks.
As it stands, officers widely believe that Howard is making decisions
about charges based on whatever will result in the most punishment for
police using force, and that he is doing so because it’s the only path
he has to reelection given allegations of his own misconduct. Howard
came in second in the June primary to his former deputy district
attorney, Fani Willis; the runoff is scheduled for August 11.
On June 17, a memo from Major Kelley Collier circulated, telling
officers to refrain from “proactive” policing. “I thought this message
was already pushed out to everyone,” it reads. “If not, effective
immediately, we will operate as police officers and will respond when
violence occurs in an officer’s presence and will respond to victims of
violence. We will not be overly proactive in any shape, form or fashion.
We are concerned about keeping our officers safe and healthy. We are a
great department and will get through this. I appreciate all of your
leadership during these trying times.”
Proactive policing, as in pursuing the perpetrator of a drive-by shooting.
The site of the Brooks shooting is in Peoplestown, a relatively poor
part of Atlanta with some very long-term residents. Community leaders
have met with armed people standing watch, and don’t know any of them.
“I didn’t see anybody that I know,” said Columbus Ward, the chair of
Atlanta’s neighborhood planning unit for the area. Ward is in his
mid-60s; though Ward has a long and storied history of personal protest
in Atlanta, the pandemic makes it dangerous for him to expose himself to
a crowded protest area. “Eight of us decided to go down there and talk
to them. … They said they live somewhere else.”
The neighborhood group presented a list of community demands to the city
two weeks ago, among them a call for community policing and limitations
on the use of force. Ward carefully distanced himself from acts of
violence in protest. He also said that the people at the vigil were not
acting on behalf of the community. “This is bigger than us,” he said.
A distinction should be drawn between the daylight protests, which are
largely peaceful, and what I saw on Saturday, which I can only describe
as chaotic and disorganized.
I did not know before I arrived that earlier that day people had smashed
a car window and punched a white guy who had been driving through the
area. I also didn’t know that they had been harassing and assaulting
livestreamers.
At around 10 p.m., someone started shooting. I don’t know what they were
shooting at. When someone then started to return fire, people took cover
as best they could and others went into defensive firing positions. No
one imposed command and control. There was no after-action review.
The crowd of 500 dwindled to a crowd of about 50. I walked up to a group
of young men with guns that was gingerly disarming someone they didn’t
know. A woman in the group angrily accused me of being with the
mysterious armed man. I had introduced myself to her as a journalist
earlier that evening.
She and three men confronted me when they saw a cellphone in my hand,
concerned that I had taken their pictures. I had not. They demanded my
phone. I wouldn’t hand over my phone to a police officer, and I wasn’t
going to give it to them. When I refused, one armed man said he would
kill me.
He started counting down from 10 with his hand on his pistol. At five, I
said I was leaving and walked away. I was punched about a half a dozen
times by at least three different people before I managed to escape. I
was unarmed. I did not fight back. And I did not run. In retrospect, I’m
not sure why I didn’t.
I started my career in journalism as a soldier — a combat correspondent
in the U.S. Army 25 years ago — and have written about crime and
policing for many years. I am not unfamiliar with violence, and it’s not
the first time I’ve been punched by someone angry I was asking questions.
But this was traumatic. I haven’t had to fight off multiple attackers
before, and certainly not while surrounded by armed men calling for my
murder. Had I fought back, I can only assume I would have been shot.
It also illustrates the potential dangers faced by Black Lives Matter
activists seeking reform, as our norms shift in light of public
revulsion at how police use force. We must demand people with guns who
are exercising authority to hold themselves to high standards; this is
as true of street vigilantes as it is of police. We must expect them to
be accountable. We expect them to adhere to the Constitution.
On the one hand, this is a group of people in a community that is
experiencing extreme violence. I should be unsurprised that they are a
little touchy right now. I really believed I had done enough legwork
earlier in the week to be recognized, and assumed a quick look at
anything I had written would demonstrate that I intended to be fair. A
mistake, plainly. On the other hand, in my experience, people doing the
right thing want witnesses. Attacking the press — as in three guys
taking turns swinging at a reporter, without intervention — is usually a
sign that they’re not on the side of the angels.
The protesters had been cordial to community members, Ward said. But
when I asked him of his view of the people at the vigil, after
describing this assault, he responded, “Well, what did the police say?”
(I have not consulted the police, and if they are aware of the incident,
they have said nothing of it.) “They shouldn’t be jumping on nobody down
there. … The protesters should be your allies.”
Street justice administered by people who don’t want anyone to know who
they are is not a substitute for policing. The solution we find has to
uphold our shared values, like those of a free press and freedom of
speech. It has to be accountable. What I saw, and experienced, is not
the answer to questions raised in protest today. If all Black lives
matter, that has to include Black journalists.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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