Black Lives Matter A Terrorist Organization? Critics Point To ‘Ideological Founder’ Assata Shakur As Evidence

Is the Black Lives Matter movement a terrorist organization?

That’s at least what some critics are implying after the death of Darren Goforth, a 10-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office who was allegedly gunned down on Friday night by supposed BLM supporter Shannon J. Miles.

Miles had a previous criminal record including convictions for disorderly conduct with a firearm and resisting arrest, according to Yahoo News.

Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman called the attack on Goforth, who was pumping gas when allegedly shot by Miles, “clearly unprovoked” and invoked the Black Lives Matter movement when speaking out on the crime, CBS News reports.

“We’ve heard Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter,” said Hickman. “Well, cops’ lives matter, too.”

Right-wing sites like InfoWars have taken this as a jumping-off point for accusing the entire BLM movement of violence against cops, and they’re pointing to Assata Shakur, the “ideological inspiration” of the movement, which was started by feminists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.

The website points out that Shakur is on the FBI’s most wanted list for the murder of a New Jersey state trooper over 40 years ago.

Garza links her Black Lives Matter ideal to Assata, writing the following on the Feminist Wire in a piece entitled, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.”

“When I use Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what it’s political purpose and message is, and why it’s important in our context.”

InfoWars’ Paul Joseph Watson appears to take this connection as a blanket condemnation of the movement, stating that the fact “a domestic terrorist who advocated killing police officers as part of a race war is the icon of a movement that itself has called for killing cops is chilling, as is the plethora of positive coverage this movement has received from the establishment media.”

To the claims against Assata Shakur, AssataShakur.org notes that “On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Olugbala Shakur (fsn) Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before escaping out of the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba.”

What do you think, readers? Should the Black Lives Matter movement be held responsible for some of the recent crimes against police officers, or is it unfair for these critics to imply that BLM is a terrorist organization? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com]