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fontman
01-15-07, 06:49 PM
April 4, 1968: A Day of Infamy
By Bob Weir
The American Thinker
Jan. 15, 2007

For those who don't remember or choose to forget, April 4, 1968 was another day that will live in infamy. I was working the 4 to midnight shift with my partner, Leroy Spivey, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. We were on radio motor patrol during an unusually warm spring evening in the predominantly African-American neighborhood. It would get a lot warmer before the night was over.

We had been working together for about a year as the first black and white (referred to as "salt-and-pepper") team in our precinct, and one of the first in the city. The tour of duty in the high crime area had been pretty much a routine affair during the first half of our shift: burglaries, robberies, vehicle accidents, family disputes, etc. Then, about 8pm, a tragedy occurred that would change the course of history.

It began for us when someone yelled over the police radio, "Martin Luther King was just shot in Memphis." Leroy, an African-American who had often spoken proudly of the man who for many years had led the civil rights movement toward equality in America, sat in stunned silence. As I steered the car along the darkness on Sumner Avenue, I looked toward my partner and said, "Aw, don't believe that. It's some jerk with a depraved sense of humor." But a few minutes later, a voice said, "King is DOA. A sniper got him."

Leroy covered his face with his hands and shook his head slowly as if trying to block out the truth of the message.

Then, over the radio, came a few comments from the less-than-human segment of the department. "Whoopee!" one voice said. "It's about time!" said another.

The pain on Leroy's face intensified with each racist remark from the faceless cowards, secure in their anonymity but bereft of humanity. It was only moments later that the dreaded news swept the country and the riots began. Calls for police response flooded the airwaves, as a segment of the population took to the streets, burning and looting in a mad frenzy of outrage and frustration.

We spent the next 12 hours racing from one riot to another, chasing down looters, handcuffing them and taking them to a central booking location so other officers could process them, allowing us to return to the street. I don't remember how many arrests we made during that long, tumultuous night, but we worked continuously until 8 the next morning.

Although the violence, bitterness, and hatred I witnessed during that 16 hour tour would be long remembered, the most unforgettable sight was the intermittent tears that filled my partner's eyes as he struggled with his emotions but did his job with a profound courage and dignity. He berated those we caught looting and condemned them for besmirching the memory of Dr. King.

Several times during the night, when we collared someone who had just crashed through a store window and was running away with stolen property, my partner would grab them by the throat and push them up against a wall.

"This is how you honor the memory of Dr. King?" he shouted menacingly in the person's face. "You think this is what Dr. King would have wanted?" he hissed, struggling to keep from pummeling those who used the death of an icon as an excuse for criminal activity.

I don't pretend to understand the emotional roller coaster he and millions of other blacks had to deal with as they faced an uncertain future without their beloved leader. Dr. King represented more than the civil rights movement in America. He was the conscience of a nation that needed to be continuously reminded of its sins against those who were being judged, "by the color of their skin, rather than by the content of their character."

Dr. King, a believer in non-violence, lost his life in a violent act, but left behind a legacy that could not be tarnished by a racist's bullet. Thanks to him, millions of people were able to break the invisible chains that kept them in bondage more than a hundred years after they were proclaimed to be "emancipated." Because of his courage, his foresight and his eloquent oratory, those who had been blinded by the malignant disease of bigotry were able to see a clear picture of the obscenity that masqueraded as justice for blacks in America. Dr. King was a giant, the likes of which we'll probably never see again.

seabag
01-15-07, 10:03 PM
"Dr. King, a believer in non-violence, lost his life in a violent act, but left behind a legacy that could not be tarnished by a racist's bullet. Dr. King was a giant, the likes of which we'll probably never see again."
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A believer in non-violence-yet violence and riots followed him everywhere he went, received a PhD by plagarizing the work of others, ties with communists,
anti-Vietnam activist, consorted with prostitutes, the list goes on...even his name, Martin Luther King Jr.... is phony, legal name, Michael King Jr.

When the FBI releases his files in 2027, I'm sure it will tarnish his legacy more than any bullet ever could.

And yet, we have a holiday in his name, something accorded no other individual American [Washington and Lincoln were combined as "Presidents Day"].

Nothing stinks worse than PC BS!

drumcorpssnare
01-16-07, 06:28 AM
seabag- Relax man. Compared to many in the history of our nation, King was a good man. He devoted his life to a noble cause. The bigots who hated him knew he was making good progress, so they took him out with a sniper.
So he wasn't perfect....so what. How many politicians and / or human rights activists in this country have been spotless?

Yeah, that's what I thought. None.

Let the man rest in peace.
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

iamcloudlander
01-17-07, 03:34 AM
I was in Danang RVN April 4,1968 and saw what occurred to the Black troops that day. They were wandering around in packs and taking their anger out on any one that happened to cross their paths. Friends of mine that were black were no longer my friends. Non blacks could not sit with blacks in the mess hall and could only talk to talk to them in an official category. They moved out of hooches and created all black hooches. I had (honestly) never heard much about Martin Luther King and did not know why it affected the blacks as it did. Since they wouldn't talk to us it took a long time for me to understand what was happening. It was hard to comprehend why close friends were no longer friends. As Marines fighting an unpopular war we also had to learn to contend with civil rights. 1968 for the most part was a crappy year we had to deal with the hippies, tet,King,riots,followed closely by Robert Kennedy's assasination. I was sorry to come home to the world as it was more at war than being in Vietnam.

crate78
01-17-07, 12:15 PM
I wrote a term paper on MLK once. I figured I'd write an easy paper, simply repeating what everyone already knew anyway.

While doing my research, I found his life and death were far more complex than what was commonly publicized. And I developed a whole new theory on his assassination that my professor couldn't argue with.

He WAS a known plagiarizer. The "I Have a Dream" speech that is attributed to him was actually largely word for word from a speech made by Archibald Carey on the floor of the 1952 Republican National Convention. The theme of the speech itself was Carey's. He even plagiarized heavily in his doctoral dissertation.

What stood out in my research was this: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave MLK almost everything he had been fighting for, yet he was not assassinated until 1968 when Civil Rights had become no longer much of an issue and was accepted by mainstream America.

So, what happened between 1964 and 1968? You have to remember MLK had become accustomed to being in the forefront during his civil rights activities and he had reveled in the spotlight and all of the media attention. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the media basically abandoned him because civil rights, per se, was no longer much of an issue. So--he became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and made many anti-war speeches.

After one particularly venomous diatribe, even the liberal arm of the media commented that he had gone too far. Even as liberal a publication as Newsweek Magazine commented editorally that the speech sounded like a script from Radio Hanoi. I began to realize that MLK very easily could have been assassinated for his ant-war activities instead of his civil rights struggle and ended my term paper on the question of which activities led to his assassination. I stopped short of questioning whether his assassination could have been a conspiracy by the government to shut him up.

As I said at the onset, even my professor couldn't argue against King's assassination being triggered by his anti-war activities. I came to see that there were far more questions than there are answers, and popular interpretation vastly over-simplifies both MLK's life and death. Will we ever have answers? Who knows. Most of the key players of the era, including his assassin are dead.

I'm by no means trying to take anything away from the man. He accomplished a lot. This is simply what I learned from my research for my paper and the questions that came to mind in the process.

crate