Two faces of Black Lives Matter

If you don't live under a rock you've heard about the black lives matter movement.  There are many impassioned people protesting various types of oppression and violence against the poor and especially the poor that are black.  One example is in the exploding prison population, which is heavily targetted towards minorities.

Taken from google taken from wikipedia: "According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS),2,220,300 adults were incarcerated in US federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013 – about 0.91% of adults (1 in 110) in the U.S. resident population. Additionally, 4,751,400 adults in 2013 (1 in 51) were on probation or on parole. "

When you add together those in jail, prison, and on parole a full 2% of the country has been found guity and dealt with the by justice system.  Blacks males represent 37% of that prison population however all blacks make up ~12% of the US population.

In addition to intense incarceration of black men there is also large concerns over violence against black men particularly by police.  Last year alone over 100 unarmed black men were murdered by police.

So, on the one hand you have extreme frustration and outrage boiling to the surface by genuine protesters and family of slain and incarcerated men.  On the other hand you have neo-liberal take over of the movement.  Don't take it from me.  Take it from a recently murdered/assassinated outspoken leader of the Black Lives Matter movement Darren Seals.

At first I was shocked.  BLM made millions?  No way, but then it turns out to be true.  BLM has pledges of more than $100M.

See, it looks like BLM is also being supported by none other than Billionaire George Soros.  A recent hack into his email system shows a $650,000 donation.

Soros is well known for destabilizing governments by co-opting legitimate movements to further his political and economic agendas.

So, what am I saying.  BLM is simultaneously both an incredibly valid and much needed protest against a completely rigged and violent system and also a co-opted movement that is using these activists to drive a particular agenda and destabilize the US in the process.

I'll continue to support the genuine protest against the killing of unarmed people and the long mandatory sentencing for non-violent offenders, but I'm going to have a hard time trusting that anything that comes out of the BLM movement is actually working towards a healthy outcome.