Use of State-Backed Racist
Militias in the United States
Resistance Persists Against State-Organized Attempts to Undermine Movement for Change
Memorial and march in Rochester, New York,
September 3, 2020, for Daniel Prude who died in
police custody in March 2020.
In the United States, the ruling circles and
their elected representatives are going all out to
undermine the growing movement for change. They
are portraying those protesting for rights and
against police violence and impunity as the source
of conflict and violence which is, in fact, caused
by the state. They also claim the way forward is
by choosing sides in the November election or
other reliance on the state machinery.
The people across the country are persisting in
relying on their own initiatives and organizing to
defend rights, despite brutal police violence
against them. To divert and disrupt the movement
not only are elections presented as the solution
but now state-backed racist militias are being
deployed. This is not only used to incite violence
against peaceful protesters, but also to justify
using far greater state violence in the name of
controlling "extremists" of the "right" and
"left."
The unjustifiable racist police killings of
African Americans continue with the latest such
crimes in Rochester, New York and Los Angeles,
California. The Rochester case only came to light
because of efforts by the family demanding police
video. Local police knew it was a homicide in
March and New York's Attorney General has had the
case since April -- yet both kept the crime
hidden. This has further exposed efforts by the
states to quell resistance by claiming the
solution to police killings is an "independent"
investigation by the state attorney general.
Hundreds immediately came out in protest in both
Rochester and New York City and were met with a
massive police presence and repeatedly sprayed
with what police now call a "chemical irritant."
The level of brutality of the police forces
everywhere -- in Los Angeles again shooting an
unarmed African American man in the back as he ran
away and in Rochester suffocating another while he
was naked, handcuffed, and on the ground in cold
weather -- make clear that these racist
institutions are organized to impose submission to
a system that protects property interests and
generates fear, then presents such inhumanity as
democratic and acceptable. The fear of the rulers
that their "democracy" and "justice" are no longer
being accepted is palpable. Their violence will
not deter the resistance which is determined to
prevail.
Use of Armed Militia
Protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 29, 2020.
Protests have been ongoing since the police
shooting of Jacob Blake.
The use of armed militia with state backing and
protection has been especially evident in
Portland, Oregon and Kenosha, Wisconsin. In
Kenosha, police did not arrest or disarm a young
militia member from Illinois who shot and killed
two people. He was only arrested at his home the
following day. By comparison, organizers of the
demonstrations were snatched off the street by
local and federal forces in unmarked vans and held
for 24 hours, charged with violating curfew.
Portland is one of the cities where state-backed
efforts to discredit and criminalize protests,
often using state-backed militias, has long
occurred. The success of rights organizers there
in making their demands for equality and against
racist police violence and impunity heard and
reckoned with, including daily protests now for
nearly 100 days following the killing of George
Floyd, is supported by tens of millions across the
country. Demonstrators there have persisted
undaunted despite vicious violence by local and
state police as well as federal forces. Now,
militias like Patriot Prayer, based in Washington
State, and Proud Boys, also active in New York
City, are increasingly being used.
Both commonly organize actions together, such as
the recent August 29 "Trump Cruise" where dozens
of vehicles were permitted by police and federal
forces to caravan through downtown Portland,
assaulting demonstrators by firing paint balls and
pepper spray into the crowds. Police did not stop
them, did not declare it unlawful when they
diverted from their approved route, enabling them
to reach the demonstrators. Demonstrators, on the
other hand, in similar circumstances are routinely
barricaded, charged with bicycles or police lines
and tear gas.
In Portland, August 24, at a "No Marxism in
America" rally by "Proud Boys," notorious for
their violence and anti-people stands, an
individual member of Proud Boys, with an arrest
warrant out for previous assault on a
demonstrator, was not stopped or arrested. Police
knew of his presence, yet, as Police Chief Chuck
Lovell put it, "What is it going to take for us to
wade into a crowd of people to make an arrest on a
warrant?" He added, "It's probably not something
we'd look to do in that type of crowd control
situation." Yet people here and worldwide have
seen police and federal forces do exactly that
night after night after night against people
standing up for equality and an end to police
violence. Further, there were only about 30
officers present at the "Proud Boys" rally, as
compared to the hundreds of heavily armed officers
commonly at the protests defending rights.
The militias involved are known for their
violence against those standing up for rights and
their openly Hitlerite, anti-Muslim,
anti-immigrant actions. Both have been used to
violently target demonstrators in Portland for
more than two years. Their members are usually
clothed in military style uniforms and their
actions commonly guarded by Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) officials. Numerous videos show
them isolating and then beating protesters and
assaulting them with paint balls and pepper balls.
They are rarely arrested and police and federal
forces usually do not intervene in the beatings,
many severe enough to require hospitalization.
Instead, they commonly tear gas and arrest the
pro-people demonstrators.
In practice, these activities by police and
militias exacerbate the policing issues facing the
society. They are in part an effort to divert the
movement into making these militias their main
target, rather than the state that foments and
protects them, while also increasing tensions
among the people and justifying further
state-organized violence by police or the
military. Kenosha, for example, currently has more
than 1,000 National Guard present.
At the August 29 confrontation with demonstrators
in Portland by the armed militia forces, a member
of "Patriot Prayer" was shot and killed. Reports
indicate that Black Lives Matter protester Michael
Forest Reinoehl responded in self-defence. He was
from the Portland-area and a regular at the
demonstrations. Unlike Kyle Rittenhouse, who
killed two protesters in Kenosha and was only
arrested the next day in a "routine" manner,
Reinoehl was shot and killed in a hail of 30-40
bullets by U.S. Marshals.
Further rallies by these armed militia are being
promoted in Portland for September 7, 19 and 26.
Governor Kate Brown has called on "outside
agencies," like federal DHS and U.S. Marshals, to
assist. Oregon State Police will allow troopers
responding to protests to be deputized by the
Marshals so demonstrators can be charged with
federal crimes, which often carry harsher
sentences.
Los Angeles
 
Two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shot
and killed 29-year-old African-American Dijon
Kizzee on August 31. He was stopped while on his
bicycle for what the police department called
"bicycle code violations." He fled and was
pursued, and a physical confrontation reportedly
broke out. Police claim that Kizzee dropped some
clothes and a firearm at this point, although none
of the video of the incident can verify the
firearm. However, it is clear he posed no threat.
Police reports admit he was unarmed and fleeing.
Police fired 15 times, killing him with shots to
the back.
Attornies for Kizzee's family point out that
police often use bicycle code violations as an
excuse to justify a stop when a police shooting or
other use of force has occurred. "That could be
something as benign as riding his bicycle on the
sidewalk or against traffic," said attorney Carl
Douglas. "You never see anybody in Beverly Hills
or Santa Monica stopped for a code violation."
Attorney Dale Galipo said Kizzee was shot in the
back without any commands or verbal warning by
police. "Another reckless, unnecessary shooting of
a person of color," he said. "One has to wonder:
How long is this gonna go on? And why is it
continuing to go on, day after day, week after
week? How many families are watching right now
concerned that their children, their loved ones
are gonna be the next victims?"
Protest in Los Angeles, September 1, 2020,
following the killing of Dijon Kizzee.
Kenosha and Elections
Community gathering in Kenosha organized by the
Blake family, September 1, 2020.
Following the racist police shooting of Jacob
Blake on August 23 and the killing of two
protestors by an armed militia member on August
25, President Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin on
September 1. He did so despite a request from
Governor Tony Evers, who publicly said his
presence would "only hinder our healing" and
"delay our work to overcome division and move
forward together." Reports indicate that privately
he also asked Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe
Biden not to come, but he also visited Kenosha on
September 3.
Protests against Trump's visit took place from
the time he arrived in the early afternoon until
the 7:00 pm curfew. There have been marches in
Kenosha even before the police shooting of Jacob
Blake and daily ones since. There have also been
numerous community events, such as providing free
food and medical supplies to further strengthen
the unity and resistance.
To divert and dampen the ongoing actions in many
cities, both Trump and Biden are trying to present
the election as the "most important in modern
history." People are supposed to divide for or
against Trump and devote energy and resources on
the candidates. Instead, people are organizing to
step up their resistance and already making plans
for continued actions after the elections. They
reject the old and obsolete "justice" of the
existing system. The growing consciousness is that
by sticking to their demands for equality and
accountability and defending the rights of all,
change that favours the people can be achieved.
In Kenosha, Trump took part in a "Community
Safety Roundtable" where he began by praising the
role of the police and military against
demonstrations, which he termed as "anti-police
and anti-American riots." He referred to
demonstrators as "violent mobs," engaged in acts
of "domestic terror." He said the federal
government is providing more funding for "hiring
more police, surging tough-on-crime federal
prosecutors, increasing penalties for assaulting
law enforcement."
By defaming the movement as "terrorist," charges
of domestic terror, or even those of "resisting
arrest" if it involves federal officers, are going
to be increasingly used against demonstrators to
impose harsher sentences. This was further shown
in Trump's remarks attempting to dismiss
protesters and their just demands as followers of
a violent ideology, specifically targeting those
opposing fascism.
His exchanges in the roundtable focused on the
destruction of property and the need to protect
it, not people. He said he would provide emergency
funding of $1 million for Kenosha police and
another $42 million for statewide police forces
and prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney General Barr was also present. Like
Trump, he emphasized continuing efforts by the
federal government to control policing at the
state and local level. For Kenosha, in particular,
Barr said, "This is an example that when you have
the local political leadership backing the police,
you have the state willing to put in the resources
in terms of National Guard, and the federal
government able to come up with support such as
the FBI, the Marshals, and ATF who have some
special skills and forensic ability to help, there
will be peace on the streets."
 
On September 1, 2020, President Trump visited
Kenosha. In addition to protests (bottom) against
his visit, Jacob Blake's family hosted a community
gathering.
August 30, 2020
August 29, 2020
During his visit to Kenosha on September 3, Joe
Biden, amongst other activities, took part in a
community meeting and spoke by phone with Jacob
Blake, still hospitalized and paralyzed, and met
with his family members. Trying to appear to
support the cause of the demonstrators, he said
the police officer involved in the Blake shooting
should be charged. But, his campaign clarified,
only after "a full investigation to ensure all the
facts are known first."
People in Rochester are well acquainted with such
investigations by local and state officials, which
hide yet another brutal "I Can't Breathe" killing
of a black man. In the case of the individual who
was only suspected of the August 29 fatal shooting
in Portland of militia member Aaron J. Danielson,
there was no investigation, he was summarily
gunned down and killed by federal forces.
"Full investigation," is reserved for agents of
the state and whether conducted by local, state or
federal officials, it is common to result in no
charges. Though more than 1,000 police killings
occur yearly, of the 42 non-federal police
officers convicted between 2005 and
2020, only five were convicted of murder, 22
of various degrees of manslaughter, five of the
lesser charges of negligent or reckless homicide.
The rest were convicted for assault or lesser
charges. (Statista Research Department, June 10,
2020).
Further, the broad resistance is demanding far
more than just charges against individual police.
The resistance is striving for new arrangements
that provide justice by guaranteeing equal rights,
provide the people with control, recognize that
peace and security require dealing with poverty
and state-organized violence, not denigrating
protesters as the source of the problems.
The Trump and Biden visits and ongoing campaigns
are part of the pressure from the ruling circles
to divide the people and have them line up behind
one or the other candidate. Instead, continuing
actions in Kenosha, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago
and many other cities show the people are speaking
out in their own name and organizing to achieve
their demands.
Sports Teams Join in Protests Following Shooting
of Jacob Blake
Since the police shooting of Jacob Blake, actions
are being taken by professional athletes across
North America in support of the Black Lives Matter
movement against racism and police violence. On
August 26, the Milwaukee Bucks led a historic
boycott of the National Basketball Association
(NBA) playoffs to protest the escalation of racial
violence in the country. Minutes before the game
began, only the referees and athletes from the
Orlando Magic were on the court. Orlando decided
to walk off to join the boycott.
Strikes are banned under the NBA's collective
bargaining agreement, which means the Bucks
players broke their own contract in order to
protest racial injustice and police violence. The
decision by the teams caused a chain reaction that
included the Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets,
Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers and
Portland Trail Blazers, prompting action by the
sport's top executives.
Teams from the Women's NBA, Major League Soccer
and Major League Baseball, including the Milwaukee
Brewers, have also joined the boycott, with
athletes in the National Hockey League and
professional tennis also holding similar actions.
Many university and college sports teams also held
protests and marches in solidarity across the U.S.
The stands taken by professional athletes against
racism and police violence this year were preceded
in recent times by then San Francisco 49ers
quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016, who in that
year's pre-season, began the practice of sitting
or kneeling during the playing of the U.S.
National Anthem. He later explained, "I am not
going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a
country that oppresses black people and people of
colour. To me, this is bigger than football and it
would be selfish on my part to look the other way.
There are bodies in the street and people getting
paid leave and getting away with murder." His
remarks came in the context of the growing Black
Lives Matter movement following several outrageous
police killings of African Americans.
Kaepernick's kneeling protest has since been
picked up by many other players in the National
Football League (NFL), while Kaepernick himself is
said to have been blackballed and has not been
signed to a team since 2016, despite being
acknowledged as having the skills to be a starting
quarterback. Monopoly media as well as President
Trump have used this issue to try to sow
divisions. Nonetheless, many ordinary youth taking
part in amateur sport across the U.S., whether
African American or not, have also taken up this
form of protest to express their demand for an end
to racism and police violence and to show their
unity and refusal to be divided on a racist basis.
Actions
Continue Across the Country
Portland, Oregon
 
 
Protesters in Portland "celebrate" Mayor Ted
Wheeler's birthday outside his apartment building,
August 31, 2020.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Denver, Colorado
Omaha, Nebraska
 
Minneapolis-St. Paul's, Minnesota
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Skate for Black lives held August 30, 2020 in
honour of the young skateboarder Anthony Huber and
another youth Jojo Rosenbaum killed
while protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake
in Kenosha.
Champagne, Illinois
Columbus, Ohio
Raleigh, North Carolina
Thousands in Raleigh, North Carolina join protests
in support of resistance in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Demands included getting police out of
Raleigh schools and accountability for in-custody
killings in the county jails.
Rochester, New York
Memorial and march, September 3, 2020, for Daniel
Prude who died in police custody in March, 2020.
Seven officers involved were only suspended
September 4 following release of police bodycam
video showing officers holding him down and
suffocating him.
New York City
Washington, DC
August 29, 2020
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 33 - September 5, 2020
Article Link:
Use of State-Backed Racist
Militias in the United States: Resistance Persists Against State-Organized Attempts to Undermine Movement for Change
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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