By Matt Rooney
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I’ve been asked by more than a few readers/friends where I stand on “Black Lives Matter” ahead of today’s New Jersey Assembly vote to make it a state holiday every July 13th.
My response is always the same: the sentiment? Or the movement?
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As a sentiment, I’m 100% on board. Black Americans are Americans, entitled to the same inalienable rights as all Americans. Decades of failed big government, hard-Left policies have devastated the black community and handicapped the full realization of those rights. An honest debate is overdue. Many of us have TRIED to initiate a conversation about it for years, but we’re usually condemned for trying.
The movement is a different story.
What you’re seeing in the streets today – a statue-adorned park near you – is a radical, Marxist organization that doesn’t WANT to talk. It has an objectively weird financial set-up. What they do with the money is less complicated. They advocate for tearing down and rebuilding the United States in their own image, and if you look at who their heroes are, you’ll rightly be concerned. That’s not my spin; in 2015, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors described herself and one of the othe rthree co-founders – Alicia Garza – as “trained Marxists.”
Let’s talk about Garza for a moment (h/t Washington Examiner):
“Alicia Garza, one of three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter national organization, has repeatedly talked about how convicted cop killer and wanted domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, is one of her main inspirations. Susan Rosenberg, a member of the board of directors for the left-wing Thousand Currents group, which handles the intake of donations made to Black Lives Matter, is a convicted terrorist who, among other things, was suspected of helping Shakur escape from prison.”
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Garza wrote an article for the Feminist Wire in 2014 explaining that “when I use Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what it’s political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context.” Garza has repeatedly tweeted approvingly about Shakur.”
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On May 2, 1973, domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster before fleeing to Cuba. She’s still hiding down there; the FBI put a $2 million bounty on her.
Before declaring a national BLM Day in New Jersey? One which I’m sure Murphy will endorse?
Legislators would be well-advised to reconsider their resolution and its goals. What are we trying to accomplish here? A call to an elevated discussion? Or an endorsement of a political movement whose co-founder admires a notorious New Jersey cop killer?
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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing New Jersey attorney.
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