Should the United States government be allowed to assassinate its own citizens? That question was in the air briefly not long ago. April 4 is an excellent day to revive it:   On April 4, 1968, the government was part of a successful conspiracy to assassinate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

That’s not just some wing-nut conspiracy theory. It’s not a theory at all. It is a fact, according to our legal system.

In 1999, in Shelby County, Tennessee, Lloyd Jowers was tried before a jury of his peers (made up equally of white and black citizens, if it matters) on the charge of conspiring to kill Dr. King. The jury heard testimony for four full weeks.

On the last day of the trial, the attorney for the King family (which brought suit against Jowers) concluded his summation by saying: “We're dealing in conspiracy with agents of the City of Memphis and the governments of the State of Tennessee and the United States of America. We ask you to find that conspiracy existed.” 

 It took the jury only two-and-half hours to reach its verdict: Jowers and “others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy.”

I don’t know whether the jury’s verdict reflects the factual truth of what happened on April 4, 1968. Juries have been known to make mistakes and (probably rather more often) juries have made mistakes that remain unknown.

But within our system of government, when a crime is committed it’s a jury, and only a jury, that is entitled to decide on the facts. If a jury makes a mistake, the only way to rectify it is to go back into court and establish a more convincing version of the facts. That’s the job of the judicial branch, not the executive.

So far, no one has gone into court to challenge the verdict on the King assassination.

Yet the version of history most Americans know is very different because it has been shaped much more by the executive than the judicial branch. Right after the jury handed down its verdict, the federal government’s Department of Justice went into high gear, sparing no effort to try to disprove the version of the facts that the jury endorsed -- not in a court of law but in the “court” of public opinion.

The government’s effort was immensely successful. Very few Americans are aware the trial ever happened, much less that the jury was convinced of a conspiracy involving the federal government.

To understand why, let’s reflect on how history, as understood by the general public, is made: We take the facts we have, which are rarely complete, and then we fill in the gaps with our imaginations -- for the most part, with our hopes and/or fears. The result is a myth: not a lie, but a mixture of proven facts and the fictions spawned by our imaginings.

In this case, we have two basic myths in conflict.

One is a story Americans have been telling since the earliest days of our nation: Back in not-so-merry old England, people could be imprisoned or even executed on the whim of some government official. They had no right to prove their innocence in a fair, impartial court. We fought a bloody war to throw off the British yoke precisely to guarantee ourselves basic rights like the right to a fair trial by a jury of our peers. We would fight again, if need be, to preserve that fundamental right. This story explains why we are supposed to let a jury, and only a jury, determine the facts.

(By odd coincidence, as I was writing this the mail arrived with my summons to serve on a local jury. The website it directed me to urged me to feel “a sense of pride and respect for our system of justice,” because “about 95 percent of all jury trials in the world take place in the United States.”)  

Then there’s another myth, a story that says the federal government has only assassinated American citizens who were truly bad people and aimed to do the rest of us harm; the government would never assassinate an innocent citizen. Most Americans devoutly hope this story is true. And most Americans don’t put MLK in the “bad guy” category. So they resist believing what the legal system tells us is true about his death. 

Perhaps a lot of Americans would not be too disturbed to learn that the local government in Memphis or even the Tennessee state government were involved. There’s still plenty of prejudice against white Southerners. But the federal government? It’s a thought too shocking for most Americans even to consider. So they fill in the facts with what they want to believe -- and the myth of James Earl Ray, “the lone assassin,” lives on, hale and hearty.

Since that’s the popular myth, it’s the one the corporate mass media have always purveyed. After all, their job is to sell newspapers and boost ratings in order to boost profits. Just a few days after the trial ended the New York Times, our “newspaper of record,” went to great lengths to cast doubt on the verdict and assure readers, in its headline, that the trial would have “little effect” -- an accurate, though self-fufilling, prophecy.

Imagine if the accused had been not a white southerner but a black man, with known ties not to the government but to the Black Panther Party. You can bet that the trial verdict would have been bannered on every front page; the conspiracy would be known to every American and enshrined in every history book as the true version of events.

None of this necessarily means that the federal government and the mass media are covering up actual facts. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Again, I don’t claim to know what really happened on April 4, 1968.

But there surely were people in the federal government who thought they had good reason to join a conspiracy to get rid of Dr. King. He was deep into planning for the Poor People’s Campaign, which would bring poor folks of every race and ethnicity to Washington, DC. The plan was to have them camp out on the Mall until the government enacted major economic reforms to lift everyone out of poverty. That meant redistributing wealth -- an idea that made perfect sense to Dr. King, who was a harsh critic of the evils of capitalism (as well as communism).

It also meant uniting whites and non-whites in the lower income brackets, to persuade them that the suffering they shared in common was stronger than the racial prejudice that divided them. Dr. King did not have to be a prophet to foresee that the longer whites blamed non-whites, rather than the rich, for their troubles, the easier it would be to block measures for redistributing wealth. The unifying effect of the Poor People’s Campaign spelled trouble for those whose wealth might be redistributed.

At the same time, Dr. King was the most famous and respected critic of the war in Vietnam. By 1968 he was constantly preaching that the war was not just a tragic mistake. It was the logical outgrowth of the American way of life, based on what he called the inextricably linked “triplets” of militarism, racism, and materialism. Had he lived, the Poor People’s Campaign would have become a powerful vehicle for attacking all three and showing just how inseparable they are.  

Yes, plenty of people in the federal government thought they had good reason to put an end to the work of Dr. King. But that hardly proves federal government complicity in a conspiracy to kill him.

So let’s assume for a moment, just for the sake of argument, that the jury was wrong, that James Earl Ray did the shooting and acted alone. The federal government would still have good reasons to suppress the conspiracy story. Essentially, all those reasons boil down to a matter of trust. There is already immense mistrust of the federal government. Imagine if everyone knew, and every history book said, that our legal system has established as fact the government’s complicity in the assassination.

If the federal government has a convincing argument that the jury was wrong, we all deserve to hear it. There’s little advantage to having such uncertainty hanging in the air after 45 years. But the government should make its argument in open court, in front of a jury of our peers.

In America, we have only one way to decide the facts of guilt or innocence: not through the media or gossip or imagination, but through the slowly grinding machinery of the judicial system. At least that’s the story I want to believe.

Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder - http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/ - http://mythicamerica.wordpress.com/about-the-author/

Elwin Wilson, Who Apologized for Racist Acts, Dies at 76

Elwin Wilson, a former supporter of the Ku Klux Klan who made repeated apologies late in life for racist acts he committed decades earlier — including the bloody beating of a civil rights worker who later became a member of Congress — died on Thursday at a hospital in South Carolina. He was 76.

In the spring of 1961, the group known as the Freedom Riders arrived at the Greyhound bus station in Rock Hill, S.C., as part of their effort to end segregation in the South. When two Freedom Riders, John Lewis, who was black, and Albert Bigelow, who was white, entered a waiting area at the station that was designated for whites only, they were quickly assaulted by a group of young white men. One of them was Mr. Wilson.

Seeking forgiveness, Mr. Wilson called The Rock Hill Herald in 2009 to say that he was one of the men who had led the bus station beating and that he had committed other violent acts — against, among others, civil rights workers holding lunch counter sit-ins. Only then did Mr. Wilson learn that one of his victims had become a member of Congress.

Racist Suspect Doug Gottlieb Says "He Wants To Bring The White Man’s Perspective to CBS", Quickly Apologizes

White Party (Republican) Representative So Sorry for Calling Latinos Wetbacks

From [HERE] Rep. Don Young referred to migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview aired in his home state of Alaska on Thursday, but issued an apology late in the day after criticism.

"My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50-60 wetbacks ... to pick tomatoes ... it takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It is all done by machine," Young said in the interview.

The lawmaker was speaking about the economy and technology. In an initial apology, he said he did not realize the term was considered offensive.

 In a later statement on Friday, Young called the term "insensitive" and "a poor choice of words." "That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I'm sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform," he said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Sorry White Officer Snatched 82-year-old Black woman off Train [more]

"People who classify themselves as White, who wish to be taken seriously, and who are righteous and responsible, will only talk about ending White Supremacy (Racism) and replacing it with Justice." [more] According to Anon, there are different types of white people: 

"The Right to a Fair Trial" from a Racist Suspect From [HERE] A Montana federal judge who sent a racist e-mail about President Obama from his courthouse, and later said he did it because he was "not a fan of our president," will retire from the bench next month, according to the appeals court that investigated his conduct.

U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull's February 2012 posting caused a furor and prompted civil rights groups to call for his resignation. Cebull then apologized to Obama for what he called his "serious mistake and lack of judgment," and later transferred to senior judicial status, effective last month, with a reduced caseload but a full salary. In a statement Tuesday on the website of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said Cebull "has submitted his retirement letter" effective May 3.

Cebull did not write the offensive material, but admitted forwarding the message on February 20, 2012 to a few friends after it was sent to him by his brother. The Great Falls Tribune was given a copy and reported that the message said:

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

"A little boy said to his mother, 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

From [HERE] The white man charged with killing a 13-year-old black boy has been ordered to cooperate with a psychologist appointed to evaluate the defendant's mental condition. It would be the third evaluation for John H. Spooner.

First, he lied to police which lead to white Milwaukee police to search mom's house after son was murdered in front of her, then it was forum shopping to avoid non-White jurors and now he is playing crazy. 

This is white supremacy deception masquerading as the "administration of justice." According to Anon, "in a white supremacy system White life is more valuable than non-white life; Racist suspects must be able to more easily get away with murdering non-white people."  Expect only more White Supremacy/racism in the Simmons case. If there is justice then be pleasantly surprised.

Spooner is accused of murdering Darius Simmons, an unarmed black 13 year old in front of his mother in an unprovoked shooting in the front of her home on May 31, 2012 in Milwaukee and then deceiving the police. [MORE] 

White supremacy/racism is on full display whenever "white defendants" or "white complaining victims" enter a criminal courtroom, especially if non-whites are involved. Go to your local court and check it out for yourself. Being "white" has everything to do with; whether police will stop or arrest, whether prosecutors will charge, what prosecutors will charge, the quality of the plea offered, the penalties prosecutors will seek, pre-trial detention or release and what sentence will be imposed. 

At a hearing last week, Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner ordered Spooner to talk with the psychologist prosecutors have hired to get another opinion, after reports that Spooner was refusing to talk with the mental health professional. 

At one point, Spooner had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and his attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, had later raised the question of his client's ability to understand the proceedings. A defense expert examined Spooner and reached a conclusion that would support his not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect plea But a court-appointed psychiatrist who examined Spooner found him competent to stand trial in May, according to results of his report presented in court in February.

Memphis police say an officer who fatally shot a 15-year-old boy while off duty has resigned from the department in lieu of termination after an administrative hearing was held.

Authorities have said Terrance Shaw shot Justin Thompson in September during a robbery attempt. Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong has said Shaw discharged his weapon during the robbery and shot "the responsible suspect."

Police said Monday in announcing Shaw's resignation that the hearing was held Friday.

Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said in February that there was not enough evidence to pursue charges against Shaw by a grand jury.

From [HERE] and [HERE] Elected officials near Dallas were given extra security Sunday after a local district attorney and his wife were shot to death inside their suburban home.

The bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Michael McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found Saturday, just two months after another prosecutor in the county was murdered on his way to work. No suspects or motives have been identified in the murders.

And though no connections have yet been made, the executions have many wondering if a threat that emerged in December from one of the country’s most violent extremist groups, the Aryan Brotherhood, against Texas state law enforcement is in play.

In December 2012, Texas officials issued a statewide bulletin warning that the Aryan Brotherhood was "actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials" who worked to prosecute the gang’s leadership Two months earlier, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot and killed outside a Dallas-area courthouse. [MORE]  Hasse, 57, had reportedly been involved in the prosecution of the Aryan Brotherhood, a notorious gang of white supremacists. [MORE]

In October, a multi-agency task force secured the indictments by a federal grand jury in Houston of 34 members of this 49-year-old white supremacist organization, which has its roots in the prison system. The men include four top lieutenants in the group involved mainly in racketeering and drugs. “Today’s takedown represents a devastating blow to the leadership of ABT,” Assistant Attorney General Breuer said in announcing the indictments in November.

A so-called fusion center is an information sharing center, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. They allegedly are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. military, and state- and local-level government. As of July 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recognized at least 72 fusion centers. Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster.

From [HERE] Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who appear to be a threat to the government.

In trying to clear up the ‘misconceptions’ about the conduct of fusion centers, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis simply confirmed Americans’ fears: the center does in fact spy on Americans – but only on those who are suspected to be ‘anti-government’. “The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying operations on US citizens, which is of course not a fact. That is absolutely not what we do,” he told the NWA Homepage, which supports KNWA-TV and Fox 24.

After claiming that his office ‘absolutely’ does not spy on Americans, he proceeded to explain that this does not apply to those who could be interpreted as a ‘threat’ to national security. Davis said his office places its focus on international plots, “domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government. We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that information.”

The Murder of Fred Hampton from Revolucionarni Filmovi on Vimeo.

Posted by EpiCenterOfChange