Assata Shakur a Domestic Terrorist? What in Fresh Hell is This!

By definition, Domestic Terrorism is violence committed to cause chaos and death inside your own country against your own people.

It is directed haphazardly against anonymous targets for the sole purpose of causing mayhem, primarily so the perpetrators can demonstrate their displeasure with the ruling parties in control of the government, (google-Boston Marathon, Oklahoma City Bombing, 1996 Olympic bombings, '93 World Trade Center bombings, 9/11 attacks, attack on the USS Cole).

Prior to Oklahoma City in 1995, the term Domestic Terrorism didn't really exist, because it was assumed by the powers that be, that first, no one inside America was mad enough to attack America, so all terrorism came from outside the country, and secondly, the white men who were killing randomly, acting terroristically, as members of white supremacists/anti abortion groups, were not considered terrorists. Even the Weather Underground and the SDS were not labeled terrorists (google-rich white kids who blew up stuff and robbed banks in the 1960's and '70's). Not until the white guys from the Caucasus blew up the Boston Marathon, did anyone in power begrudgingly admit that white people did terrorism against the US. Until three weeks ago terrorists were brown... Muslims, primarily, or Cubans (five imprisoned now), or Puerto Ricans (Americans but brown and spanish speaking- google FALN).

So now, since everybody, including white people, has to be considered a potential terrorist, the government apparently decided to make the rewritten definition retroactive, thereby changing the label on the historical civil rights protests, and effectively calling Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist.

If Assata Shakur is a domestic terrorist, then so am I and so is every other Black person who ever marched for civil rights in America. Today's placement on the most wanted list and bounty has indicted all of us in one fell swoop, and places us in jeopardy for speaking out against our government in protest.

Assata Shakur, for all of you historically challenged, was a member of the Black Panther Party and a member of the Black Liberation Army, back in the day when the government waged war on Black people for demanding equality.

Shakur, the Panthers the BLA and every other group that fought for civil rights was targeted by a covert government agency called COINTELPRO, which infiltrated, spied on, arrested, convicted and imprisoned Blacks who disagreed with the government, it's Jim Crow policies and institutionalized racism that continues to exist today. When they couldn't take Blacks down quietly, they executed us summarily (google- Fred Hampton).

Shakur, who is the aunt of the late Tupac, was caught up in a bunch of crimes and situations that ended violently. If you believe the police, she was responsible for nearly every bank robbery and cop killing on the east coast from 1971-1973-4.

New Jersey Police official Fuentes lied through his teeth today during the news conference stating the Shakur killed a cop by shooting him twice in the head as he lay on the ground. This was proven to be a lie during her trial, yet it continues to be told by government officials and the Feds. What...don't they have the court transcripts to refer back to?

She was tried several times, and finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She escaped from maximum security, finally making it to Cuba in 1984 where she was granted political asylum. She remains there to this day, quietly living, writing and speaking out. The feds have always known where she was.

Yet today, they decide to name her a domestic terrorist. She's not attacking people or building bombs to cause mass destruction. Are they afraid that Black people are going to suddenly become radicalized again in the same way that some Muslims are made radical by the Osamas of the world?

Why? It's not like America has an extradition treaty with Cuba? It's not like we're on good terms with Raul Castro or his brother Fidel, now retired. It's not like Assata is going to give herself up and yearns to come home to the US.

Maybe the feds are trying to work a trade...give us Assata and we will free the Cuban five, currently doing life sentences in an American jail.

Only time will tell..

to be continued..

Occupy Wall Street

I have to be honest here, I just don't get Occupy Wall Street. When it started up, I was geeked.  I was ready to join up and finally get something done about the dysfunction in DC. Occupy Wall Street seemed like the perfect laxative to end the constipation that is American government.

An alternative to the Democratic Party....dare I dream?

I jumped downtown on public transportation and into Piatt Park...and … it didn't feel like a protest....felt like a bunch of kids who got together and were now sitting around asking each other...”well...what do you want to do?....I don't know...What do you want to do?”

I went home.....They mean well...but they don't know what to do. A few weeks in...Jessie came to town and did the “I am somebody shuffle” for them. Made em happy...many more Black people showed up....but left when Jessie did......OWS still on their butts, camped out in Piatt Park.

Several weeks into these so called protests, I'm sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting....and watching and waiting...and watching and waiting..

What am I waiting for....well, I guess I'm waiting for something to happen...like...protest maybe...like civil disobedience maybe....like mass arrests for, well protesting instead of sitting on your ass in a public park, playing drums.

Protesting to me is not pitching a tent in a public park and waiting for someone in power to take notice.

This time around... I don't have the luxury of youth on my side....If I take to the streets now and risk getting smacked upside the head or jailed...It's going to have to be worth it....real change....for everybody.....I don't see that with OWS...not yet...

Protesting for change, to me is pitching your tent on someone's desk...in someone's hallway.... or on someone's front steps...demanding they talk to you...or...call the cops to arrest your ass for interrupting their day.

You post bail...you go to the hospital and get your wounds treated...and you come back..You don't take time off to celebrate holidays with your parents in the burbs.

Sitting in a public park under a tent, under the watchful eyes of cops....seems more like a temper tantrum...something to do...until your parents give into your demands.

You need to earn your tear gas and pepper spray...sitting there reacting to over reacting pigs is not protest...ghandi-esque....picturesque...useless..

It's safe....it's “look at me, world...I'm taking a stand to change the world...sorta”

Safe....but not effective.

OWS is on the tongues of nearly everyone nationwide. It has seized the opportunity...but it doesn't know how to harness the power....and it is not reaching out to those who do know how to make it work..

Like I said, Jessie showed up in Cincinnati. Angela Davis made an appearance in Oakland.

MlK's peaceful protestors needed the counterpoint of the Black Panther Party, the SDS (students for a democratic society), CORE and SNCC to make it's point.

OWS just has OWS...no leaders...no one apparently willing to take the heat and lead..OWS is not reaching out to form coalitions....

It is complaining because Congress won't do the bipartisan thing...well....OWS is not being very bipartisan either...instead of waiting for the church to come to you...why not go to the church?

Folks are watchin...but OWS...just sits there and drums..

Un American? You Betcha!

Just a couple of days before the 15^th anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing that killed 168 people, comes word that frustrated Oklahoma Tea Baggers are going to form their own militia to protect themselves against what they say are federal infringements upon states rights.

You can check out the story here.

Can't you just feel their frustration. I mean, how long has the Tea Party movement been around-a whole five or six months? They got active with TARP and health care reform? They don't even date back as a party to when Obama was sworn in....Didn't exist in January 2009.

Yet, they're frustrated.

Frustrated enough to want to form their own personal army to do what? Take back their country? I'm just reading their signs from their rallies. That's what a lot of the signs say...at least the ones in between calling Obama dirty names and demanding he move to Africa..he's from Hawaii, by the way..

What I want to know is, why aren't the feds taking these threats more seriously? It's not like they haven't had practice dealing with so called un American or seditious behavior.

To this day, wearing red, black and green, or sporting the symbols of the Nation of Islam, or just saying you're a member of the Black Panther Party, will have the feds setting up camp in your dining room.

You will be watched, followed, profiled, strip searched, if you don't answer them properly before they tase your ass. And god knows you better not have a gun or anything that looks like a gun within 20 feet of your person. COINTELPRO was and remains real.

Those seeking social justice and change in the federal government were told to “love America, or leave it,” back in the day, by these same frustrated super patriots.

Go back to Africa...we've been hearing that a lot lately..well since Obama made it to the White House, anyway.

But they're frustrated...frustrated enough to carry guns in public...frustrated enough to spit on congressmen....frustrated enough to secede from the union....frustrated enough to want to form their own army and take...back...their....country....

The crackdown on Black America for even thinking about this type of stuff , let alone attempting to carry it out, was swift and brutal. And there weren't any lawmakers dreaming up laws or ways to circumvent the Constitution in our favor.

Where is the federal retaliation for these overt tea bagger actions against the government...vocally and visibly against the government...actively against the government?

Why is it that Black people get dead for doing this stuff and white people get written up in the media and egged on by congressmen?

Who decides which activity is un American for some, but not un American for others? What is the difference between Black nationalism and white nationalism, because that's what this is...

Why is actively praying for Obama's death okay? Is it because the pray-ers claim to be Christian?

And if that is the case, then what is the difference between these so called Christians and the Taliban or any other extremist terrorist group, for that matter?

Why are these white militants being treated with kid gloves when they are actively seeking the overthrow of America?

Can't sugar coat this crap...these people are trying to form their own army.

That's not subterfuge..nor covert....that's rebellion, pure and simple.