Black youth who led the Ferguson Rebellion and inspired the world are dying – is Cointelpro back?

by Kerry ‘Shakaboona’ Marshall

Edward-‘Skeeda’-Crawford-throws-back-tear-gas-canister-Ferguson-just-after-midnight-081314-by-Robert-Cohen-St.-Louis-Post-Dispatch-web-300x157, Black youth who led the Ferguson Rebellion and inspired the world are dying – is Cointelpro back?, News & Views
In this iconic photo, a hero of the Ferguson rebellion, Edward “Skeeda” Crawford, throws a tear gas canister back at police and away from the women and children they had targeted, shortly after midnight on Aug. 13, 2014, four days after the assassination of Michael Brown. – Photo: Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Who would have ever thought that America’s domestic Cointelpro assassination program of Black Leaders from the 1960s and ‘70s, most notably the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Minister Malcolm X, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton Sr. has been revived in the 21st century.

Actually, considering the failed FBI assassination plots and attempts from 1990-2017 on the lives of national Black leaders Minister Khalid Muhammad, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, we can certainly say that America’s domestic assassination program against Black activist leaders has never actually ended. It has always been there, like a deadly undercurrent in an apparent calm river surface, deceptively waiting to drown anyone who would dare take a swim.

Who would have ever thought that America’s domestic Cointelpro assassination program of Black Leaders from the 1960s and ‘70s has been revived in the 21st century.

So, is it highly probable that Homeland Security is running a domestic assassination program in America that is currently targeting Black youth leaders of the Ferguson, Mo., rebellion with assassination? Emphatically, yes!

Recently, the iconic Ferguson activist Edward Crawford died under a cloud of suspicion, in what has been described by police as an apparent suicide. Crawford’s attorney Jerryl Christmas said of Crawford, “He was not suicidal and was living a normal life like anybody else and was planning a better future. There was nothing that I saw that would drive him to suicide.”

Is it highly probable that Homeland Security is running a domestic assassination program in America that is currently targeting Black youth leaders of the Ferguson, Mo., rebellion with assassination? Emphatically, yes!

Likewise, Crawford’s family and friends equally found Crawford’s death a shock and hard to believe that he killed himself. Edward Crawford was found with gunshots to the head while sitting in his vehicle. The official cause of death is pending results of an autopsy.

Crawford was an activist leader during the Ferguson Rebellion in 2014, ignited after the killing of Michael Brown Jr. by former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Edward Crawford was found with gunshots to the head while sitting in his vehicle. The official cause of death is pending results of an autopsy.

Crawford became an iconic figure when the world witnessed the powerful image of a dreadlocked Black man, Edward Crawford, wearing an American flag T-shirt, holding a bag of chips in one hand, and throwing a flaming tear gas canister away from where women and children were standing.

Several other Ferguson activist leaders had died under mysterious circumstances before Crawford’s death. In September 2016, Darren Seals was found with his Jeep Wrangler engulfed in flames in Riverview, Mo., gunshots to the head, burned inside his car about 75 yards away from where Michael Brown was killed.

Several other Ferguson activist leaders had died under mysterious circumstances before Crawford’s death.

That is too many similarities, too many common denominators and too many coincidences for anyone not to consider a domestic government assassination program in full operation.

Therefore, the Ferguson deaths must be questioned, investigated and requited. But the larger question remains: Is America assassinating Black activist leaders of the Ferguson Rebellion?

This commentary was recorded by Prison Radio. Send our brother some love and light: Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall, BE-7826, SCI Graterford, P.O. Box 244, Graterford, PA 19426-0246.

Ferguson, Mo., activists are dying and it’s time to ask questions

by Jason Johnson

Edward-Crawford-screenshot-by-CNN-300x243, Black youth who led the Ferguson Rebellion and inspired the world are dying – is Cointelpro back?, News & Views
Edward Crawford is interviewed on CNN during the rebellion.

The most iconic photo of the Ferguson, Mo., protests, if not the entire Black Lives Matter movement, is of Edward Crawford defiantly throwing a tear gas canister back at riot police. And now he’s dead.

Crawford was found shot to death Thursday night in his car, just like activist Darren Seals in 2016 and protester DeAndre Joshua the night of the Ferguson verdict in 2014. The latter two had gunshot wounds to the head and their cars were lit on fire. Crawford, it is believed by police, shot himself in the back seat of his car either in an attempted suicide or by accident.

Given the justifiable lack of trust between local activists, Black residents and the police, however, questions remain about this story. In order to bring justice to Crawford, his family and the entire Black Lives Movement, it’s about time we started asking tough questions about their deaths.

Crawford was found shot to death Thursday night in his car, just like activist Darren Seals in 2016 and protester DeAndre Joshua the night of the Ferguson verdict in 2014.

Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, @MariaChappelleN, broke the news on Twitter this morning that Crawford had been killed. With the photo, she tweeted: “Edward Crawford is dead. Found in his car shot to death. He is #Ferguson’s hero. For those of us tear-gassed, he was our local champion. RIP.”

A few minutes later, she tweeted again: “Thank you. It is now not coincidental. There is a murderer targeting activists from #Ferguson.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch initially noted only that Crawford died of gunshot wounds. It now says that the death was reported to the medical examiner’s office as a suicide, but the medical examiner hasn’t issued an official cause of death yet, pending an autopsy. The Dispatch’s report conveniently leaves out that Crawford’s death is strikingly similar to that of Seals and Joshua, whose deaths were so similar that even the St. Louis Police Department thought they were linked by the same killer.

The most iconic photo of the Ferguson, Mo., protests, if not the entire Black Lives Matter movement, is of Edward Crawford defiantly throwing a tear gas canister back at riot police. And now he’s dead.

Chappelle-Nadal, who represents Ferguson and is a firebrand for the Black Lives Matter movement, has been following the tragic story as it happened and has expressed doubts about the cause of Crawford’s death. What is striking is not just the anguish in her tweets but also the details she provides.

“I found out this morning another young man from my district died in the same fashion as two or three other people who were active in Ferguson,” she said in a speech on the Missouri Senate floor May 5 around 9:15 a.m. “The people who were murdered at this point, they were all people who have been seen prominently in the media.”

Chappelle-Nadal, who represents Ferguson and is a firebrand for the Black Lives Matter movement, has been following the tragic story as it happened and has expressed doubts about the cause of Crawford’s death.

Chappelle-Nadal noted to The Root that there are a number of militia groups in Missouri, and anyone seeking to strike a symbolic blow against the Black Lives Matter movement could easily be behind these actions.

“He gave us the reason to say, ‘Fight back, fight back, fight back,’” she said that morning. “No matter if it was a suicide, a mistake or a murder, he’s gone. This is somebody who represents the movement. This is another prominent person from the Ferguson movement.”

Edward-Crawford-26-interviewed-when-charged-w-assault-082314-by-Robert-Cohen-St.-Louis-Post-Dispatch-web-208x300, Black youth who led the Ferguson Rebellion and inspired the world are dying – is Cointelpro back?, News & Views
Ferguson hero Edward Crawford is interviewed on Aug. 23, 2014, when he was charged with assault for throwing back the tear gas canister. Confirming his death May 5, 2017, Crawford’s father, Edward Crawford Sr., 52, told the Post-Dispatch: “I don’t believe it was a suicide. They’re being hush-hush. He was wonderful, great, always in a good mood. He just got a new apartment and was training for a new job.” Young Edward was the father of four children. – Photo: Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

As more details trickle out, it doesn’t make it any easier to determine the cause of Crawford’s death, which opens the door to fear, speculation and, potentially, belief that it’s a conspiracy. Why would Crawford, a father of four who, according to his family, appeared to be in high spirits after getting a new job, just kill himself in his car?

Moreover, the latest reports are that Crawford was in the back seat and two women were in the front. Suicides are usually committed alone, away from anyone who could possibly prevent the suicidal person from going through with the process. Who were the two women, and what are their full statements about the death?

It is possible to believe that Crawford’s death was just an accident. It is possible to believe that he decided to take his own life in full view of other people in the car. It is also possible, in a town where police claimed that 19-year-old Michael Brown punched out a cop and then charged into a hail of bullets from 30 feet away in broad daylight, that police could be completely lying to cover up some more nefarious cause of death.

There is a long history in America of the police jumping to the conclusion that everything, from shootings to hangings of Black people, is a suicide so as not to tug too hard on the strings of violent white supremacy that hold communities together.

We are in an era where the White House considers Black Lives Matter to be a terrorist organization. Deliberate attacks against Black people who are fighting for justice – whether the Rev. Clementa Pinckney of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., or half a dozen other activists killed by white nationalists in the last decade – are not far-fetched. Regardless of the eventual conclusions about Edward Crawford, St. Louis police have still suggested that the deaths of Joshua and Seals were likely homicides.

School, the post office and the mall will still be open on Crawford’s birthday, and he won’t get a special on PBS narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, but like many forgotten martyrs of the movement, he was a human being, too. Crawford was a dedicated activist for people on the ground who needed someone to stand up for them.

Let’s hope that in investigating his death, the local community in Ferguson will fight for him in death as hard as he fought for them in life.

Let’s hope that in investigating his death, the local community in Ferguson will fight for him in death as hard as he fought for them in life.

Dr. Jason Johnson is a professor, political analyst, author and public speaker, a tenured professor in the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, a frequent contributor to MSNBC and politics editor at TheRoot.com, where this story first appeared. Contact him on his website, Facebook or Twitter, at @DrJasonJohnson.