According to Sky News, the police have said that the attackers who shot BLM activist and Taking The Initiative party founder Sasha Johnson were four Black men. The Sky report states
Met Police Commander Alison Heydari appealed to the public for information on the shooting, saying “four black males in dark clothing” fired a gun during a party in Peckham.
“From our enquiries so far, we have established that Sasha had been at a party at a house on Consort Road in Peckham early on Sunday morning,” Cdr Heydari said.
“Around 3am a group of four black males dressed in dark coloured clothing entered the garden of the property and discharged a firearm.
“We are aware of Sasha’s involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK and I understand the concern this will cause to some communities – however, I wish to stress that at this time there is nothing to suggest Sasha was the victim of a targeted attack.”
The rozzers also deny that they are aware of any credible death threats against her. This has been rejected by her party, which has reasonably asked how they can say that without talking to her and that the fact that she was shot in the head makes those threats very credible.
See: Black equal rights activist shot by group of four men at party, police say (msn.com)
I realise that some of the great commenters on this blog will be somewhat sceptical that Johnson’s attackers were not White racists, given the way long shadow of the Stephen Laurence murder. However, I think that it’s all too possible that her assassins were Black. There is, unfortunately, a violent gang culture in many deprived Black communities, and these people will try to kill someone for the most trivial reason. A few years ago some idiot tried to shoot a White DJ, who played rap music for Radio 1. He’d clearly annoyed someone, and not everyone was a fan. I’ve heard people, who listened to him describe him as an idiot and other, more colourful terms. But stupidity and inanity don’t justify attempted murder.
Johnson was a volatile person, who apparently suffered from bipolar disorder. She also seems to have made a few personal enemies. One of the videos I posted about her yesterday came from a former friend, Michelle Francis, who had some very radical racial views herself. Francis says in another video, also about some spat or other with Johnson, that she (Francis) believes in racial segregation. She makes all manner of personal accusations against Johnson, including the claim that she never paid the workers in her restaurant.
I am also aware that there are criminals, who try to infiltrate political parties right across the spectrum in order to gain a false legitimacy and increase the scope of their activities. The attempt to set up a false BLM party by anonymous individuals seems to me to be an attempt by some seriously shady people to cash in on the name and prestige of the real BLM movement. For all I know – and this is just speculation – Johnson could have been targeted for assassination because she blocked such attempts at criminal infiltration.
Whatever the motive, I do not support this attempt on her or indeed anyone’s life, and wish her a speedy recovery.
Tags: Alison Heydari, Black Lives Maatter, Blacks, Metropolitan Police, Michelle Francis, Murder, Police, racism, Radio 1, Sasha Johnson, Segregation, Shootings, Sky News, Taking the Initiative Party, Whites
May 26, 2021 at 6:52 am |
Malcolm X’s assassins were black, and the killing supposedly arose from Malcolm’s disrespecting the leadership of the Nation of Islam. It’s worth noting, however, that Malcolm was the first of three major US figures to be assassinated after speaking out against the Vietnam war. He had persuaded Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali, to defy the draft in a highly publicised case, and, had he lived, he might well have fomented mass resistence by black draftees.
May 26, 2021 at 8:04 am |
Hi Brian – I was told that X was assassinated because he accused the leader of the Nation of Islam of, er, sexual impropriety. I think he was having numerous affairs. I didn’t know it was X who persuaded Mohammed Ali to resist the draft. I think it’s quite credible that he was assassinated because of the danger that he’d persuade Black Americans to resist the draft. The writing was on the wall for Martin Luther King after he denounced the Vietnam War as America’s war on the world’s coloured people. The day after that, LBJ withdrew his FBI protection.