Calling Thugs Freedom Fighters Is an Insult

To describe those who brutally beat Reginald Denny during the Los Angeles riots as freedom fighters is an insult to the many heroic and honorable African-American men and women who devoted their lives to the cause of equal rights and the end of oppression: Cinque, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Coretta Scott King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Betty Shabazz, Muhammad Ali. The list goes on and on. These and other legitimate freedom fighters attacked oppression, not the oppressed, against overwhelming odds.

Gang members gun down pregnant women. They shoot to death innocent children by blasting large bullet holes into their tiny bodies. Anyone who has ever wept at the sight of a dead child lying in a pool of blood in the streets could think of many names to call these people, but never freedom fighters.

These criminal predators ruthlessly prey on their own community. Without one thread of human emotion or consideration for others, they destroy the lives, hopes and property of hundreds of hard-working minority people who struggle to survive and attain a piece of the American dream. This senseless genocide by vicious gang members has gone on for years and must not be cloaked, glorified or excused.

The contention that the criminal behavior of Denny’s attackers was motivated by racial taunts and an adverse jury decision in the Rodney King beating case is no justification whatsoever for beating a man, racist or not, to within an inch of his life. The struggle for liberation is not about trading oppressed black people for oppressed white people. The goal is to end the oppression of all people.

If we are to survive as a civilized society, violent criminal behavior from any quarter must be dealt with swiftly and severely.

The violent criminal behavior of thugs, masquerading as police officers in any city cannot be tolerated. Similarly, the violent criminal behavior of gang members is unacceptable. As a minority, I find the pathetic references to criminals as freedom fighters to be indefensible. Benign neglect on the part of the government, continued dual standards in the judicial system and the justification of selective violent criminal behavior will ensure the destruction of society faster than a speeding bullet.