Black Reverend "Football
Tackled" by Capitol Hill Police: Breaking Bones to Quell Dissent
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
"Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a minister and head of the Hip Hop
Caucus, was mobbed by a gaggle of Capitol Hill policemen."
It was reminiscent of black-and-white footage from the
civil rights era: an African American man of the cloth, seeking to enter a
public forum, threatening no one, is tackled football-style by six policemen,
breaking his leg. The victim is then charged with assault on police and
disorderly conduct - criminalized for exercising his constitutional rights.
It's there for all to see on U-Tube, where the assault
on Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a minister and head of the Hip Hop Caucus, was mobbed
by a gaggle of Capitol Hill policemen. Rev. Yearwood was waiting his turn to
enter a House hearing room where General David Petraeus, the darling of both
Iraq War Parties - Democrat and Republican - was set to testify, or rather,
testiLIE, about the situation in Iraq.
The video shows clearly that Rev. Yearwood posed no danger
to anyone, and was acting in an orderly and civil manner. But he was a marked
man. That's what police do - they mark the usual suspects, and Rev. Yearwood
was, for the Capitol Police, a marked man. Yearwood had been part of a
demonstration at House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers' office, a few
weeks back, in which the demonstrators demanded that Conyers follow through on
his own well-documented evidence calling for impeachment of President Bush and
others in his criminal administration. Yearwood was among those arrested. This
time, the Capitol Police had apparently been given the go-ahead to preemptively
use full force to prevent Rev. Yearwood from getting anywhere near the Angel of
Endless War, General Petraeus, as the uniformed liar made the case that
American troops should remain in Iraq indefinitely. Rev. Yearwood had to be
taken down, despite the fact that the video evidence shows no sign of Yearwood
posing a threat.
"The
Capitol Police had apparently been given the go-ahead to preemptively use full
force to prevent Rev. Yearwood from getting anywhere near the Angel of Endless
War, General Petraeus."
White anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and eight others
were gently taken into custody during the same incident - but the Black man,
Rev. Yearwood, had to be physically incapacitated by the Capitol Hill Police.
If anyone believes that the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, does
not have influence over the conduct of the Capitol Hill Police, they are fools.
I speak as a former Capitol Hill correspondent. Pelosi and her wing of the War
Party conspire with Republicans to suppress dissent against the Iraq war.
Pelosi also gave the green light for the Capitol Hill Police to move against
Cynthia McKinney, who was accosted by an officer in the midst of her
congressional re-election campaign, last year. McKinney, who was detested by
Pelosi, was charged with assaulting the policeman - and lost her seat in
Congress.
It is through struggle that we define the camps of friends
and foes. Pelosi and her camp are on the other side - the War Party side. And
they will beat you down, if you let them.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be reached at
[email protected].
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