Arthur J. Jones, Jr., a Donald Trump supporter, holds a banner reading “President Trump Build The Wall” at a rally of the National Socialist Movement on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, November 5, 2016. (Photo: Paul Weaver / Flickr)
Last Sunday afternoon, Joshua Beal was fatally shot by an off-duty sergeant with the Chicago Police Department in the South Side neighborhood of Mt. Greenwood. He was visiting from Indianapolis for the funeral of a cousin, and was actually killed while driving in the funeral procession.
After the initial shooting, tensions quickly rose in the largely white, working class neighborhood — one which is home to many CPD families, and carries a long history of violent racism. While community members gathered to support the Beal family — who were barred from the crime scene by police for over seven hours — residents of the neighborhood surrounded them in an impromptu #BlueLivesMatter protest. They carried signs including the slogans “You Are Animals,” and “You Ruined Your Own Neighborhoods/Don’t Ruin Ours.” Mourning family members were called “niggers,” jeered at and harassed. Other community members who visited the precinct where Michael Beal was being held reported #BlueLivesMatter signs hung on its doors.
An ugly overlapping between invigorated white nationalist organizing and an increasingly militarized police force is emerging across the US. This was chillingly illustrated by the recent flocking of law enforcement from across the central US to the Standing Rock reservation. Police from precincts as far as Illinois traveled to North Dakota to intimidate Native protectors on land where they had no jurisdiction — even by colonial standards. There is mounting zeal within the police force to lend weaponry and aggression, well outside of any legal bounds, to defend white nationhood, targeting communities of color with extrajudicial violence to do so.
The current spike in bigotry we are experiencing — within and outside of…