The president of Black Lawyers for Justice, Malik Zulu Shabazz, has called for genocide against the Jews of Israel: “Kill every goddamn Zionist in Israel! Goddamn little babies, goddamn old ladies? Blow up Zionist supermarkets.”Nor has he limited his hateful vitriol to Zionists. He had blamed Jews for blowing up the World Trade Center: “They got their people out.” He has accused the Jews of “[k]illing Christ,” and said that “God condemns you.” He has said that “Jews” set up the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He blames “[t]he Jewish rabbis” and “the Talmud” for “the African holocaust.” He has said that “the European Jews have America under control, lock stock and barrel, the media, foreign policy.” He introduced a fellow anti-Semite named Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a man “who make the Jews pee in their pants.” He has railed against “the white, Jewish, Zionist onslaught” and has demanded that “[a]ll Jewish people and all white people... stop pushing your Holocaust down my throat.” He has led a Hitler-like question and answer chant at Howard University in which he asked the assembled crowd, who committed crimes against the Black people? Who controls the Federal Reserve? Hollywood and other institutions? After each question, he elicited the response: “Jews! Jews!” He has demanded that Jews and Zionists be “shut down” and have “no right to open [their] mouth anywhere on the planet.”This bigoted inciter of genocide is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia, despite having been disciplined by that bar for numerous acts of unprofessional conduct, including “failing to provide competent representation” to clients, “failing to safe-keep his client’s property” and “knowingly assisting another to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct.”In a recent article titled, “Amid Push to Curb Police Abuse, Some Act on Fringe,” The New York Times quoted Shabazz’s call to kill all Zionists in Israel, including their “old ladies” and “little babies,” but the reporters failed to properly identify Shabazz.They said he was “A former New Black Panther leader” (emphasis added). It is odd to identify someone by reference to his “former” role, when his current role is more important and more relevant to the story. He is the current president of Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization that assists plaintiffs with police abuse cases and frequently organizes rallies with notorious hate groups, such as the Nation of Islam.A 30-second Google search revealed Shabazz’s current role in an organization with “Justice” hypocritically in its title.Why did the Times choose to identify him by reference to his former, rather than current role? I know enough about the Times’ fact-checking process to be certain that the reporters were aware of his present role. If they made an explicit editorial decision to omit it, the readers are entitled to know why. Was it in order to artificially widen the distance between violent radical “fringe” groups and more mainstream groups that are seeking to curb police abuse? Why not include the current role of this hateful inciter of genocide and let the reader judge his proximity to the mainstream. The Times didn’t even identify him as a member of the bar – a practicing lawyer – who, together with his fellow members of Black Lawyers for Justice, gives legal advice to some of those mainstream groups the Times was focusing on in the article.Applicants for admission to the bar have been excluded for expressing racist ideas less virulent than the genocidal incitements attributed to Shabazz. While these incitements may be protected by the First Amendment, they may also demonstrate unfitness to practice law, especially when considered against the background of the other unprofessional conduct of which Shabazz has been found guilty. One thing is clear: No decent person should have anything to do with this anti-Semitic hate monger, and every legitimate organization concerned about police abuse should disassociate themselves from him and from his organization.Yet Cornel West, in recently introducing this despicable bigot at a “March of the Oppressed” rally in Cleveland, praised him as “my dear brother” who he has known for 20 years and who “is still on the battlefield.” He compared this rancid anti-Semite to the great Martin Luther King Jr. He asked the crowd to applaud for Shabazz, which they did. He then hugged him. You can view West’s speech at #MASSIVE rally and March in #CLE #BlackLives- Matter on YouTube.West’s endorsement of Shabazz is comparable to a white professor introducing the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan with such effusive praise. Despite West’s close association with and support for this advocate of genocide against Jewish babies, West was appointed to the Democratic Party Platform Committee by Bernie Sanders. He also remains a founding member of Tikkun magazine’s Network of Spiritual Progressives under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Lerner. For shame!
