Tag: Ku Klux Klan

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News News Blog

Black Lives Matter To Protest Civil Rights Museum Exhibit

CREDIT: James Pate

James Pate

One of the works from James Pate’s ‘Kin Killin’ Kin’ exhibit

From now until April 29th, the National Civil Rights Museum will be showing works by artist James Pate that compare black-on-black violence to the violent acts of the Ku Klux Klan. But the local chapter of Black Lives Matter has called the exhibit “morally and intellectually dishonest.”

Black Lives Matter will hold a protest outside the Civil Rights Museum on Thursday at 6 p.m., the same time artist Pate will be doing a meet-and-greet with those viewing the exhibit inside the museum.

Pate’s charcoal drawings portray young black men donning KKK hoods or committing acts of gun violence. Cincinnati native Pate, who is black, has said that his work was inspired by conversations he’d had in his own community, in which people had pointed out similarities between gang violence and the KKK’s racist brand of violence.

But a press release issued by the Memphis chapter of Black Lives Matter disagrees with that comparison.

“Comparing ‘black on black’ crime to the KKK, a domestic terrorist organization, is morally and intellectually dishonest and has nothing to do with the history of the Black freedom struggle that is showcased in the National Civil Rights Museum. To equate the KKK to a group of people who have been enslaved, segregated, and degraded into second-class citizenship is callous and outright offensive. Moreover, this exhibit fails to address the root causes of crimes in predominately Black neighborhoods, which is that crime is a reaction to a lack of resources,” read the press release.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Where Nobody Knows Your Name

The hacktivist group Anonymous announced last week that they would be outing hundreds of Americans who were involved with the Ku Klux Klan. The group claimed that they’d hacked KKK servers and obtained emails and documents that would reveal that many prominent American politicians were associated with the white supremacist group.

Then, on Monday, three days earlier than the group had announced it would release the names, someone claiming to represent Anonymous tweeted dozens of names of people they claimed were KKK sympathizers. Those who were outed included several Southern politicians.

Within minutes, the information was retweeted by hundreds of people. Several online articles were quickly written, then reposted on hundreds of Facebook pages. Oh, the outrage! Look at these racist Southerners!

Then the story began to crumble. Listed among those with KKK connections were Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, a Hispanic who’s been active in minority issues for decades and whose family is multiracial. Also “outed” was Lexington, Kentucky, Mayor Jim Gray, who is openly gay and decidedly progressive in outlook. Both vehemently and credibly denied any association with the KKK.

What the heck was going on? The website TechCrunch.com got an email interview with the person claiming responsibility for the Anonymous leaks, someone posting under the nom de web of “Amped Attacks.”

“I worked for nine days to gather and verify all the information that was gathered before its release,” Amped Attacks told TechCrunch. “I got the information from several KKK websites when I [hacked] them and was able to dump their database. I went through many emails that was [sic] signed up with these sites and a few of the emails that sparked my interest was [sic] the ones of the politicians in question there would be no reason for them to be signed up on any KKK website unless they supported it or was involved in it.”

Right. Using this logic, I could be “outed” as a supporter of Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn, both of whom email me daily with details of their glorious actions in service to the American Way. Somewhere in their servers, no doubt, I’m on a media list.

The official Anonymous Twitter account quickly distanced itself from the fake Anonymous Twitter account, claiming that their own outing of KKK members hadn’t happened yet and would be much more reliable.

So, let’s recap, shall we? The group Anonymous announced it was going reveal the names of members of another anonymous group but was trumped by the actions of yet another anonymous person pretending to be the official Anonymous.

If there’s a more perfect example of how far we’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of instant “news” and instant reaction, I’ve not seen it. How many times a day do you see someone reposting some Internet meme on social media that reinforces their political view but has no grounding in fact? How many times does that lie get reposted to politically sympathetic friends, and reposted again, until it becomes “fact”?

We live in a world where everyone controls their own media sources, and the great majority of us gravitate toward sources that reinforce our own values and beliefs. Then we’re astounded at how “misinformed” those are who disagree with us. It’s because we’re too often taking in points of view about the news, rather than the news itself.

Halloween is over. We need to remember that people wearing masks have at least one thing in common with people wearing hoods: You don’t know who they are.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Prosecution Rests

Like many Americans, I watched St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch make his announcement on television Monday night regarding the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case. And like many Americans, I wasn’t surprised that the grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, nor was I surprised at the unrest that followed.

The signs had been clear. For days in advance of the announcement, we’d heard and read stories about an increased police and National Guard presence in St. Louis. The Ku Klux Klan had announced they’d be there to help stir the pot. Protestors had been organizing for weeks. The kettle was simmering, just waiting for the heat to be kicked up a notch. McCulloch’s announcement was all that was needed.

As any lawyer will tell you, prosecutors use grand juries to build a case for indictment, which sends the case to trial. They are not obligated to present both sides of the story, and they seldom do. And it is a rare grand jury that does not indict when presented with prosecutorial evidence. For example, prosecutors at the federal level pursued more than 160,000 cases in 2009-2010 (the most recent available data), and grand juries voted not to return an indictment in 11 cases. If a prosecutor wants a grand jury to indict, they will, literally 99.9 percent of the time.

It was quite apparent, given his long recitation of evidence supporting Wilson’s story, that McCulloch did not want to prosecute. And it’s true, police have the right under law to shoot to kill if they feel their safety or the safety of others is threatened. That’s pretty much a “get-out-of-prosecution-free” card, unless there’s strong evidence to the contrary, especially given the symbiotic relationship between prosecutors and police.

There’s a reason those photo-ops for drug busts and gang arrests always feature the district attorney and the police chief standing side by side. Cops need the district attorney to validate their arrests by prosecuting the offenders, and district attorneys need cops to testify in their prosecutions.

So why go through the charade? Why not just say there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute? And why, for heaven’s sake, would you make the announcement at 8:30 p.m., when crowds are most likely to be able to gather and when darkness provides cover for looters, making the situation more dangerous for the police, businesses, legitimate protestors, and citizens just wanting to stay safe in their homes? Wouldn’t common sense suggest a better time might be, say, 8:30 a.m.?

There are many questions lingering around this story, and many witnesses and much evidence that will never see a courtroom, and that’s where the frustration comes from. It’s possible that Wilson’s story would have held up in court, and it’s also possible that a forthright prosecutor could have torn holes in his story. Now we’ll never know. The truth is lost in the fire and tear gas and darkness of night.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Snapshots from the KKK’s Day in Memphis:

[Slideshow-1]

They came, they saw (each other), and they sure as hell didn’t conquer. Flaunting both hoods and swastikas, the Klan members who paid a visit to Memphis on a cold, rainy Saturday ended up being as unintelligible (literally) as they were philosophically.

With no crowd to work on (they were pretty effectively cordoned off from a group of protesters two blocks away by police, Sheriff’s deputies, and barricades), they came with a defective P.A. system, squawking ineffectually on a bullhorn and periodically shouting “White Power!” — a slogan accompanied by Nazi-style left-arm salutes.

As for the rest of what they said, very little of it could be distinguished by the press pack huddled across the street from the Courthouse lawn, where the Klan group was gathered behind a temporary Cyclone fence. (See also “Kl Klux Klan Rally is a Non-event in Memphis” by my colleague John Branston.)

A few of the phrases that could be discerned: “…corrupt mayor….” “…corrupt City Council….”…not gonna take it anymore….” “…last man standing….” And one serio-comic dire warning (not making this up): “Once you go black, you never go back.”

One news crew from Brooklyn was interviewing other reporters on the theme of whether the effectively cloistered Klan group really had a chance to exercise their First Amendment rights. The root fact is that, except for the aforesaid media and protesters downtown, nobody seemed much interested in what these interlopers had to say. And maybe that’s the real message of the day.

You had to wonder what kind of jobs these people had, what kind of society they fit into. They sure didn’t measure up as specimens of humanity to the community-minded folks who gathered miles away at Tiger Lane to make various kinds of positive statements (see Chris Shaw’s photo-essay, “Scenes from the Anti-KKK Rallies”).

Anyhow, they’re gone, and it’ll be hard to find anybody around here who regrets that fact.

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Opinion

Ku Klux Klan Rally Is a Non-event in Memphis

A cold rain, massive law enforcement presence, and a malfunctioning bullhorn put a damper on a Ku Klux Klan rally of about 75 people protesting the renaming of Civil War parks including the one named for Nathan Bedford Forrest Saturday.

The group arrived in two city buses and gathered in front of the Shelby County Courthouse. They were enclosed by a chain-link fence and a line of uniformed police officers and sheriff’s deputies. There was no room to march, and members were not allowed to stand on the upper steps of the courthouse, so they crowded together on the sidewalk and lower steps.

Nearby streets were blocked off as they are during a presidential visit. Members of the media were corralled behind yellow tape across the street, and a group of protesters were similarly separated at the other end of the street, out of earshot of the Klan group. There was no interaction, and other than periodic shouts of “white power” it was nearly impossible to tell what the Klan speakers were saying. One sheriff’s assistant chief said the group did not have batteries for their bullhorn.

The law enforcement response was overwhelming, starting hours before the rally, which began about 2:30 p.m. There were hundreds of officers in riot gear, scores of vehicles, canine units, horse-mounted units, TACT units, armored vehicles, motorcycles, fire trucks, mobile command posts, and enough firepower to repel, or at least mount a fair challenge, to General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Virginia.

The purpose of the rally, such as it was, was hard to discern. A single sympathizer, a woman, carried a sign that said “Save Our Parks.” There were about a dozen Klansmen in robes and hoods — a wise fashion choice in light of the rain — but no masks were allowed. Some of the men wore dark glasses or camouflage hats. About a dozen of them carried flags of the USA, the Klan, and a neo-Nazi group. The speeches began about an hour after the scheduled 1:30 start time. Speakers took turns, but other than the white power chant and some vague denunciations of the “corrupt mayor and city council” it was hard for the assembled media to hear what anyone said.

After the first few speakers finished, several members of the group were smiling and taking photographs of one another, as were the assembled cops. The Klansmen and their friends shut down after less than two hours and boarded the two buses that took them back to the parking lot of The Pyramid.

What a way to spend a Saturday.

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News News Blog

City Of Memphis Issues Demonstration Permit to KKK

Photo from a KKK rally last year in Charlotte, North Carolina

  • Photo from a KKK rally last year in Charlotte, North Carolina

The city of Memphis has officially approved a demonstration by the Loyal White Knights, better known as the Ku Klux Klan, to be held on March 30th.

City officials and police director Toney Armstrong have been discussing the issue for days, and the permit was finally approved after Armstrong gave the okay to proceed.

“Based on director Armstrong’s decision, the permits office took appropriate steps earlier today to issue the permit and contact the applicant,” said city attorney Herman Morris. “We have known from the beginning that denying this application would result in a legal fight on constitutionality that would be long, divisive, expensive, and that would unnecessarily prolong the decision. We have all, however, been very attune to director Armstrong’s review given the critical role the Memphis Police Department will play in a proposed demonstration.”

The KKK submitted their application to demonstrate following the Memphis City Council’s decision to change the name of Forrest Park and other city parks named with Confederate themes.

“My primary focus is the safety of the public and all involved,” Armstrong said. “It will be in all of our best interest to have a demonstration where we are able to work with this group in setting the do’s and don’ts. Right now, my team has a strategy that will ensure everyone’s safety. What we absolutely do not want is some unplanned, spontaneous demonstration where my team has not been involved in planning and set-up.”