Antong Lucky, co-founder of Urban Specialists, says the glaring dearth of leadership of activists with credibility both law enforcement and the movement and communities, has created an “us versus them deal” that’s going to take us into a dark, dark place as a nation.”
Lucky, whose work has received the support of House Speaker Paul Ryan (the two met during a Dallas stop of Ryan’s anti-poverty tour) believes that the mischaracterization of Black Lives Matter as a hate-group and the subscription by some in the movement that police killings of black people are part of a calculated, shadow campaign by law enforcement has created the atmosphere between the two sides that has showed its effects this summer.
“I do believe that the issues that Black Lives Matter is addressing is relevant, I just think that without he necessary instruction and guidance it’s easy for other people in the media to blackball them, or label them a terrorist or hate group,” Lucky said. “Some people use that hashtag to spew some pretty loose rhetoric and it’s unedited and unfiltered and it’s doesn’t really stand for policy reform and police accountability. We know that’s not what it stands for and it’s unfair for us as Americans to just watch that happen and not doing anything about it.
“In my heart I don’t think believe the true activists have a hatred for police,” Lucky continued, “but when the media and other people keep grabbing that narrative, it makes for good ratings but not progress.”
The day before the Dallas memorial, the group Urban Specialists met with the Dallas Police Department’s community relations office with the message that they believed Micah Xavier Johnson, the shooter of the five officer, had subscribed to the belief that the shootings were part of a concerted effort on police departments to kill black people. A spokesperson from the department said it was a useful meeting, a dialogue it will continue.
The Urban Specialists believes that it’s an insidious narrative — one that, cultivated in the mind of the wrong person, as we’ve seen, could have devastating results. Instead, Urban Specialists are making friends inside the Dallas Police Department: Urban Specialists wants to take officers that walk the beat in urban areas and pair them with an organizer with credibility in the streets and the department.
“We can’t let the wrong people take this narrative and keep bumping heads because the outcome is real,” Abdul Chappell, an activist with Urban Specialists. “I’m out here in full support because I know what they’re doing is real.”
The group is recruiting people who are credible in the streets in communities. “A lot of people have passion but they don’t have the strategy,” Chappell said. “So our job is to take the validity of their passion and match it with the right course of action.”
Whether that model, or more collaboration between officers and activists is the key to achieving concrete changes, activists and law enforcement agree that something has to change in a summer that no one knew was coming.
“It really opens your eyes to what the real target is,” Glover said. “And it’s not each other.”
Article Appeared @https://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/whats-next-for-black-lives-matter-reduce-the-police-or-work?utm_term=.lqENeLvoz#.orEVZ6Nlq