Straight Talk on “Violent Extremists” in Ferguson
Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, Responds to Accusations from the St. Louis Police Chief
November 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On November 14, St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson said on a radio program, “The Revolutionary Communist Party, I don’t know what their interest is in the shooting of Michael Brown.” On November 17, Dotson named the RCP on The O'Reilly Factor, suggesting that the RCP was intent on “criminal acts.” This takes place as the FBI warns that “violent extremists” may try to take advantage of the situation in Ferguson. This takes place as Missouri Governor Nixon has declared a totally illegitimate “state of emergency” and called out the National Guard in preparation for the grand jury decision over whether to indict the pig who killed Michael Brown.
Four things must be said about this:
1. Chief Dotson, the FBI, and the National Guard are the real “violent extremists.” The police terrorize, brutalize, kill, and ship off to prison millions of Blacks, Latinos, and others. In St. Louis alone, the police department that Dotson presides over has killed Kajieme Powell and Vonderrit Myers just in the 107 days since Michael Brown's murder. The FBI has a gruesome track record of “extreme violence” and “criminal acts” against the people, especially those rising up against oppression (see “Important Lesson on Political Piggery: How FBI COINTELPRO Targeted Radical Groups”). And the National Guard unleashed tanks, tear gas, rubber bullets, mass arrests, and vindictive brutality against peaceful protesters in Ferguson. These people have no right to talk about “violent extremists,” and no one should take one word of what they say seriously.
2. As for the RCP's interests in the Mike Brown case: everyone with an ounce of justice in their hearts needs to be part of bringing America to a HALT if the cop who murdered Mike Brown is not indicted for murder. Refusing to indict this murdering pig would mean a green light for all who want to murder, terrorize, kill, and destroy our youth.
3. On another level, the RCP's interest in this case lies in the fact that racist violence has been woven into the fabric of the U.S. beginning in hundreds of years of slavery, then Jim Crow, and now through the New Jim Crow of mass incarceration and police murder. It will take millions rising up and sweeping this system off the face of the earth through revolution to put a stop to this horror and we are working every day to bring closer the time when that kind of struggle can be won and a new day for humanity can be brought into being. Many more need to join with this Party in preparing for, and hastening, this revolution.
4. These accusations turn reality upside down. They take the focus off the police murder of Michael Brown. They aim to break up the unity of the people rising up. And they aim to set up the RCP for illegitimate repression. People of conscience must oppose this. The media must stop airing these accusations and must allow myself and the RCP the chance to respond.
Carl Dix is a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party. He co-founded with Dr. Cornel West the Stop Mass Incarceration Network as well as the October Month of Resistance to Stop Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation that included protests in over 70 cities in the U.S. and several in other countries on October 22. Dix was arrested three times in NYC protesting stop-and-frisk and twice in Ferguson standing with the youth and others demanding justice for Michael Brown.
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