Blacks are being urged to buy guns and vote

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(Special from Blackmans-Street.Today) – Black men and women are being encouraged to arm themselves–a 180-degree turnaround from the turn the other cheek teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.— following the recent random murders by white men of Nia Wilson in California and Markeis McGlockton in Florida.

In the case of McGlockton, the father of three, law enforcement officials are so far washing their hands of his murder because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law,” which some claim is really a license for whites to go unpunished for killing Blacks. McGlockton was shot to death July 10.

Dr. Jason Johnson, Politics editor of The Root and a MSNBC contributor, said Aug. 12 on PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton that it is ‘in the best interests’ of Blacks that they invest in guns and make sure they vote in every election to get rid of police chiefs and district attorneys who do not take these cases seriously.

Johnson was referring to 18-year-old Wilson, who was stabbed to death in the neck Sunday, Aug. 12, night on the Bay Area Rapid Transit train in Oakland, California, in an unprovoked attack by John Lee Cowell, 27, a homeless man with a criminal background. However, the district attorney charged Cowell with murder and attempted murder.

Cowell also stabbed Wilson’s sister Lahitifa. She survived. Police arrested Cowell on another BART train. Cowell had been convicted of second-degree robbery in 2016 and he was on parole. Nia was a student at Oakland High School.

McGlockton, 28, was shot to death by Michael Drejka, 47, after McGlockton ran to the aid of his girlfriend Brittany Jacobs, who was sitting in the car with two of the couple’s children, when Drejka began pounding on the car’s passenger-side window demanding to know why the car was parked in a handicapped space.

McGlockton, who was shopping for snacks with his five-year-old son in the Circle A convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, ran outside, pushing Drejka to the ground.

In a video, McGlockton backs up and Drejka pulls a gun and fires. A wounded McGlockton stumbles into the store with his son behind him. McGlockton collapses in the store and later dies in a hospital.

After viewing the tape, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualitieri said he would not arrest or charge Drejka with McGlockton’s murder.

Benjamin Crump, attorney for Jacobs, said the law needs to be changed. “It is lubricious to claim you fear for your life, but you start a confrontation with an individual,” he said.

Democratic members of Congress mailed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking whether charges should be filed against Drejka. Sens Bill Nelson (Florida), Kamala Harris (California) and Cory Booker ( New Jersey) signed the letter.

In 1968, the Black Panther Party urged Blacks to arm themselves for self defense and the organization’s ideas were largely dismissed.

This article originally published in the August 20, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.