Race Warfare Inciters Nearly Get Their Wish As Cops Disrupt Plot To Behead Commissioner, Blow Up NYPD HQ

Following the death of Sean Bell, who was shot by police outside a Queens strip club last November, a series of protests ensued, during which demonstrators called for violent retaliation against the NYPD and explicitly advocated killing police officers.  Signs and chants insisted "Death to the pigs", "Shoot back", and "Black power against the police".

When similar protests followed the shooting death of Amadou Diallo in 1999, the citywide arrest rate declined and the murder rate increased as cops grew more hesitant about law enforcement.

The principal agitator this time around was NYC Councilman and Black Panther Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn), who led multiple protests which in no uncertain terms advocated a violent uprising in response to the alleged racism of the NYPD.  Barron sought proactively to disavow any responsibility for the violence he encouraged, arguing we can't blame the "social forecaster for forecasting an explosion, just like you don't blame the weatherman for forecasting the storm."

The primary target of Barron's vengeful, race-baiting rants was NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.  The following is an excerpt from Barron's remarks during a December 6th protest:

Brothers and sisters, Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.  Kelly must go.

What we need here is a regime change.  What we need here is a radical, up, down, turn upside down – this police department is out of control.
...
They have no fear for us.  And once you put the fear into some people’s hearts, whether it’s politically, economically, or physically, they will leave you alone.

So brothers and sisters, I want to say to you today, just as we said over and over again, if we don’t get justice in this case, don’t ask us to demonstrate again. If we don’t get justice in this case don’t tell us to be cool, to be calm. We need to get hot!

Be careful what you wish for, Councilman Barron.

Authorities said Monday they had uncovered a plot to behead commissioner Raymond Kelly and bomb police headquarters in an attempt to avenge the fatal shooting of Sean Bell, the young man gunned down by the NYPD on his wedding day.

David Brown, 47, was arrested Monday on a charge of criminal solicitation after he offered an undercover officer $65,000 to kill Kelly and blow up One Police Plaza, said Paul J. Browne, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for public information.

"I want his head chopped off," Brown told the undercover officer in a taped conversation.

In the taped conversations, Brown blamed Kelly for not taking the "initiative to prosecute the officers. That kind of got me frustrated to the point where I want him murdered."

It's always been somewhat curious that the bulk of the ire in this case has been directed toward Commissioner Kelly, as it's up to the Queens district attorney to decide whether to prosecute the officers involved.  But since Barron has consistently identified Kelly as the appropriate target, it only stands to reason that someone acting on the Councilman's thinly veiled marching orders would focus on the Commissioner.

I'm not given to knee-jerk calls for resignations of elected officials every time a real estate transaction is improperly disclosed or a politically incorrect faux pas is made, but Charles Barron should immediately step down and embark on a public campaign discouraging attacks on the police.  If not for the cunning work of - surprise, surprise - the NYPD in disrupting Brown's plot, this city might've had endured a significantly destabilizing attack that would have visited tragedy on an untold number of cops and civilians.

I shot video of the December 6th protest (including Barron's anti-Kelly tirade and his calls for radical regime change), which is available here.

Previously:
The Counterproductivity of Race-Baiting Protestors
Inciting Race Warfare in NYC
New Black Panthers Want To Kill Cops