A former federal prosecutor has sued President Obama, the founders of Black Lives Matter, Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and former US Attorney General Eric Holder for inciting a race war that led to the fatal Dallas police shootings.
The federal class action lawsuit, filed Saturday in Dallas, accuses the defendants of aiding and abetting murder, terrorist promotion of gang activity and civil rights violations of law enforcement officers. It seeks damages of more than $2 billion.
“These (defendants) have incited violence and in fact have a direct link to what happened in Dallas,” said Larry Klayman, who worked in the Department of Justice during the Reagan administration and later founded the conservative advocacy groups Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch. “I hope that law enforcement in Dallas and around the nation will join our class action, it’s a peaceful legal means to fight this. We’ve had it. People are finally starting to speak out.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Sam A. Lindsay, a Clinton appointee who is also African American.
None of the defendants responded for comment except for DOJ spokesperson Nicole Navas, who said, “The Justice Department declines to comment on the pending litigation. Thank you.”
“The defendants…have publicly incited people to violence with the fiction that police officers and other law enforcement are intentionally and systematically targeting and hunting blacks and other minorities to kill them for no reason other than racism or sport,” the complaint said.
Defendants have called for a civil war targeting police officers of all races “for immediate violence and severe bodily injury or death in response to that non-existent and fictitious threat…Defendants are encouraging disaffected blacks and black Muslims to ignore, disrespect and assault law enforcement officials, and commit violence and lethal force,” the complaint said.
On July 7, former US Army reservist Micah Johnson shot a dozen Dallas police officers, killing five, during a rally to protest the police killings of two black men the previous week.
“The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Dallas police Chief David Brown later told reporters. “He said he was upset about the recent shootings…he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
But while the defendants – spearheaded by Obama – blame police and non-minorities for fanning tensions that lead to violence, statistics show that murder rate has steadily been increasing across America during Obama’s tenure, the complaint said. Much of this crime involves black-on-black violence in communities that are primarily black.
The 52-page complaint chronicles detailed accusations against each defendant including:
- Obama and Holder met many times with Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, and leaders of Black Lives Matter over plans to change government policies regarding police officers. Obama made the statement, “There’s a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos of being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately” and the pair “incited and inflamed violent crowds into committing arson, looting, destruction of property and assaults on police officers based on the idea that the nation’s police officers are intentionally and systematically targeting, hunting and killing blacks” without admitting that most police are responding to incidents from 911 calls, regardless of race.
- Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. He called for active duty black military members to come home and lead a national insurrection against society. In 2014, he spoke to a crowd of 2,000 calling for revenge in Ferguson, Missouri for the police shooting of Michael Brown. A year later he told a Florida church to “stalk them and kill them” pertaining to Jews and Caucasians as a “400-year-old enemy.”
- Black Lives Matter leaders Rashad Turner, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and DeRay McKesson inflamed racial tensions after Ferguson to the point that Texas sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth was murdered at a gas station by a black man in 2015. Several days later, BLM led a march in St. Paul, chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.” The defendants have appeared on radio asking for followers to “turn the tide and kill white people and cops to send a message.”
In the past few years, numerous police officers have been injured or killed by minorities who spurred on by the defendants’ rhetoric, the complaint argued. Since the Dallas killings, other officers have suffered injuries such as broken teeth and a broken vertebrae while working protests that have sprung up nationwide.
DeRay McKesson told USA Today that criticism of BLM is dishonest and a way for non-minorities to avoid a discussion over police brutality and racism.
“We should not have to protest,” he said. “We’re in the street because police have killed people. We would love to go home, but we can’t go home. We are unwilling to go home.”
McKesson was arrested with 100 others during a march in Baton Rouge for blocking public thoroughfares.
While on a European trip, Obama urged the public to avoid judging the BLM movement by the actions of a few.
“There are always folks who will say things that are stupid,” he said. “I don’t think you can hold well-meaning activists…responsible for everything uttered at a protest site.”
