Four Cops Face Murder Charges for George Floyd Murder

In this issue: Good news for protesters; Guest column by Folksinger David Rovics; Comment on Michael Moore's "Planet of the Humans"

Three More Cops Charged with murder of George Floyd; Derek Chauvin is now facing 2nd Degree Murder Charge

Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison announced at a press conference today that Chauvin’s charges had been upgraded from 3rd Degree to 2nd Degree Murder. Ex-officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng are now charged with aiding and abetting murder. All four had previously been fired from the police department but only Chauvin had been charged. A now-famous video shows Chauvin keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. None of the other three officers attempted to intervene, and two of them actively participated in the torture that led to Floyd’s death.

Because of the massive protests, the case was removed from the county attorney and given to the state attorney-general, Keith Ellison. He is a well-known progressive Democrat who became the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2007. He ran for chairperson of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016, with Bernie Sanders support, but lost to Tom Perez. Ellison then ran for Minnesota attorney-general, where he became the first Muslim to win a statewide office in the U.S. In many cities, county attorneys are reluctant to file charges against cops because of their close relationship with the local police department. He has previously been accused by two women of emotional and physical abuse. In the past week, there have been calls across the country to have cases of police brutality or murder taken over by a state’s attorney-general.

National Guard General supports protesters

National Guard Chief (a federal position) General Joseph Lengyel has issued a letter saying he is sickened by the death of George Floyd. He warns that “Everyone who wears a uniform of our country takes an oath to uphold the Constitution…” (Trump’s threat to federalize the National Guard is clearly unconstitutional under the 1807 Insurrection Act). Lengyel closes by appealing to “the better angels of our nature.” The full letter is here

Former Defense Secretary Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis Denounces Trump’s call to send in the military

Mattis, a retired Marine General said, ““Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society,” Mattis quit as Defense Secretary in 2018 after conflicts with Trump.

Trump responded with a Tweet, calling Mattis “the world’s most overrated General!”

It’s highly significant that respected generals are opposing Trump’s plan to use the military in a domestic distrubance. If the President follows through with his plan, it could spark a major constitutional crisis. More on Mathis’ comments here.

________________________________________________________________________

Guest Column and George Floyd Song by Famed Folk Singer and Political Activist David Rovics

Who's Trashing Downtown Every Night and Why?

By David Rovics

The corporate media and corporate politicians are paralyzed with indecision.  Which fake myth do we adhere to?  "Black people burning down their own neighborhoods" or "outside agitators"?  What if it's both, and more...?

Media coverage of the past few days and nights of the multiracial uprising that is currently taking place in various forms in cities small and large across the United States has been confused and misleading, as usual.  Media coverage of such events is usually confusing because of the influence of the media owners, and because of the implicit biases, insufficient resources, and/or ignorance of the journalists who work for them.  So, it begs for a bit of helpful clarification.

But first of all, they keep saying these are the biggest urban disturbances in the US since 1968.  This sounds huge, and while it's certainly impressive, the basic phenomenon taking place, and the various dynamics within it, are not new, not unprecedented, and in fact are very commonplace.

Most people, from my experience, never go to protests.  Among those who do go, many people only go to one big one in their lives, if any.  At pretty much every big protest I've ever been to, which is a lot, I'm surrounded by people of all ages who tell me and others around them that they are attending their first protest.  Whatever got them out – a racist police murder, a massacre, an imperialist war, a massive bank bailout – they say they just had to come out this time, even though they never went to a protest before.  The hardcore protest-hopping crowd like me is a very select group, for a lot of different reasons.  We are not representative.

As a consequence, at every protest I have been to, there are participants who are under the impression that the tactics the protesters are employing were just invented yesterday, and that the militarization of the police is a new phenomenon.  In Ferguson in 2014 I remember hearing many local people of all ages saying things that made it abundantly clear that they thought large groups of riot police rioting in their town and making use of tear gas, stun grenades, and tank-like vehicles was something that had not been seen since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.  They were under that impression simply because that was the last time anyone remembered tanks on the streets in Ferguson, and for many older people in town, that was also the last time they attended a large protest.

Before I start contextualizing the current situation, let me say that although me and many other radicals did certainly predict most everything that is currently taking place, I have no idea where this is going.  Predictions made by people like me are usually wrong.  If they're right, it's because they were obvious – everyone knows powder kegs eventually explode, but nobody really ever knows exactly when this might happen, or what will be the spark.  But the keg is now burning.  It may have started with one spark, but the lynching of George Floyd, although horrific, is only symbolic of what this is all about. 

Justice in this situation most certainly does not begin or end with the sentencing of all four of those cops with murder.  They're certainly guilty, but there's a lot more of that to go around, at far higher levels of authority than the local cops, fascist as they may be.  (To anyone living in the US today, this is a very obvious statement.)
The main question I want to focus on here is a burning question in the minds of the corporate media and for many regular people from all walks of life across the country: who is smashing, looting and burning buildings, torching police cars, and throwing projectiles at the riot cops all over this country?

The "Peaceful Protesters" Myth

It is probably the case that the vast majority of the people assembling during the day and during the evening to hold protest rallies against the tendency of the police in the US to lynch black people on a regular basis, are not the same people who are engaging in some of the other aforementioned activities.  But it would be very wrong to put them all in this fake "peaceful protester" box.

What the media calls "peaceful protesters" are people who stand around in a public space with signs and make speeches.  They can be angry speeches, that's OK.  This is what they call "peaceful protest."  If they don't have a permit, it might not be "peaceful" anymore, in the media's eyes.  If the police attack peaceful protesters and a single person from within the ranks of the protesters responds in any way that can be construed as violent – such as if someone raises their hand to attempt to block a billy club that's about to come down on their face – this will be labeled a "clash," such as, "there are now clashes taking place between the police and the protesters."

When people occupy an intersection and stop traffic, or block the entrance of a building, this is what people from within social movements generally refer to as civil disobedience, or direct action.  It is considered by anyone involved with a social movement anywhere to be solidly within the "nonviolent" category, and it is often referred to by its full name, "nonviolent civil disobedience."  People like Gandhi and MLK popularized these sorts of tactics, which were pioneered long before, by other social movements that were also led by oppressed people, such as the labor movement, and very much including the multiracial movements of tenant farmers and sharecroppers in the early part of the twentieth century.

The corporate media, however, will often start referring to protests as "violent" as soon as any law is being broken, such as traffic laws, when an intersection, highway, or building entrance is blocked.  This use of the term "violent" is very confusing for many, because it's patently inaccurate, when people learn enough to understand what the reporters actually mean – if they are allowed to get to that point, which is generally not the case.  If people are looking to the media to understand what's happening around them, this is very unhelpful.  One of many very unhelpful aspects of their coverage.

The "Black People Are Burning Down Their Own Neighborhood" Myth

As soon as a police murder or the acquittal of a killer cop lead to anyone setting fire to a building, the media will tend to shift into a different gear, where they start focusing on the popular response to the racist, elitist system, rather than on the problems that led to the response.  This happens, again, partly because this is what the corporate propagandists who own most of what remains of the press want to focus on, not just because it's sensationalist and keeps eyes glued to the screen, but because it is consistent with their perspective, and that of most of their reporters, who were generally raised in totally different circumstances from most of the folks currently burning stuff down.

Thus, for different reasons, but amounting to the same effect, the media will talk about people burning down "their own" neighborhoods.  It's unfashionable these days to refer to them as "animals," which was a common refrain during the national uprising in 1992 that the media refers to as the "LA riots."  Trump prefers the racially loaded term, "thugs," which is just a slightly updated version of "animals."

No rent-burdened renter who has been evicted multiple times, which is the case for millions and millions of people in the US, feels like the neighborhoods they live in are "their own" neighborhoods.  Most working class people in urban America are struggling to stay in "their own" neighborhoods.  They are constantly being evicted and driven out of "their own" neighborhoods.  Yuppies flip houses and sell them at impossible prices, and "their own" neighborhoods become quickly unrecognizable and unaffordable. 

There is a massive rate of displacement and what can accurately be described as ethnic cleansing taking place in cities throughout this country, that has been going on for centuries now.  It has only been interrupted for periods of time through strong rent control legislation, which used to exist in states like New York and Massachusetts.  But multi-generational, real communities are fewer and farther between, because of the fact that housing is an investment for capitalists in this country, not a right, not at all.

So no one is burning down "their own" neighborhood.  To the extent that local people are involved with these activities – which lots of them are, let's be very clear about that, and this is nothing new, not at all – the neighborhoods they are burning down are not their own.  They are owned by people that often feel like invaders.  However, these invaders may be "mom and pop" business owners, or "mom and pop" landlords.  The media will refer to any business as a "small business" if it's not a big corporation. 

But someone running a restaurant that serves food that many people in a given neighborhood can't afford to eat, while easily fitting the media's description as a "mom and pop" small business, is not often seen by local people as part of "their community" or as particularly distinguishable from a chain store like Target.  Either the "mom and pop" establishment in this instance, or the chain store, will have the same impact, of raising the cost of housing in the now more "desirable" neighborhood.

Part 2 by David Rovics in the Next Issue

See and Hear “As I Watch Minneapolis Burn,” below:

______________________________________________________________________

Michael Moore’s film Restored to YouTube

By James R Smith

When the film, Planet of the Humans, came out, I gave it a positive review on Left Coast. I stand by that review today. The main theme of the film, I believe, is about the urgency of drastically cutting down on our consumption in order to save the environment.

It is also about the co-optation of the environmental movement by Corporate America. This has happened, according to the film, with the willing agreement of some of the Sacred Cows, or super stars of the environment, who were cut in for a piece of the action. When Sacred Cows are attacked, they usually strike back viciously, as Bernie and Tulsi can attest. Their modus operandi, or that of their followers is to latch on to minor points that are not relevant to the main issue, or to insist there must be a personality conflict at the heart of the dispute.

Now, a bigger issue has emerged, that of censorship. Our society has developed several large monopolies, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, which have no external controls. I believe they should be reclassified as public utilities (they can still be corporately owned) that are regulated for fairness, free speech, equal access, and other rules that are not in conflict with the Bill of Rights. In this case, the film has been restored to YouTube after being removed, May 27, for a bogus four second “copyright violation.” See the film and decide for yourself if it should be banned.