“Outside Agitators” in Ferguson, MO

When Baltimore recently experienced a night of violence over racial tension resulting from an African American man dying in police custody, the Governor of Maryland blamed the violence on “outside agitators”.

On the news tonight there was a plea by a community leader for no protest tomorrow when the District Attorney in Madison, Wisconsin announces if he will press charges or not for a police officer’s shooting of unarmed African American male. Concern was expressed that “outside agitators” might come to Madison to stir up trouble.

Watching a NBS basketball playoff game on TV the other night the home team crowd started chanting “USA, USA”. I presumed they were cheering for their home team although the other team was also from the “USA”.

When I was at a Special Olympics soccer tournament last Saturday the person asked to warm up the crowd encouraged everyone to chant “USA, USA”.

I detect a pattern here; the bad guys are the “outside agitators” and the good guys are the “USA”.

In December over 70 of us were arrested in protest for justice for Dontre Hamilton, an unarmed black man shot 14 times in a county park by a white police officer, as we were Trapped on the Ramp. A group of us were placed in a small holding cell and one young white person kept being called out of the cell for integration. He was a young man from Northern Wisconsin who had just lost his job at a Wal-Mart and in a last minute decision decided to catch a ride with some friends to Milwaukee for the protest. He was not from Milwaukee and thus he was suspected of being an “outside agitator.”

Chanting “USA, USA” at an Olympic event is understandable but what does it mean at a Special Olympic soccer game in a small town or at an NBA basketball playoff game? When racial tensions break out in a community why does it have to be “outside agitators” causing it? Do you know of any “outside agitators” in the “USA”?

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.