{"id":177406,"date":"2021-01-18T12:03:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T12:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=177406"},"modified":"2021-01-18T04:50:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T04:50:26","slug":"martin-luther-king-the-saint-honored-by-the-government-that-shot-him-in-the-face-a-forgotten-extrajudicial-political-assassination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/martin-luther-king-the-saint-honored-by-the-government-that-shot-him-in-the-face-a-forgotten-extrajudicial-political-assassination\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King: The Saint Honored by the Government That Shot Him in the Face \u2026 A \u201cForgotten\u201d Extrajudicial Political Assassination [?]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 18<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Stephen F. Somerstein\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was signed into law as a federal holiday in 1983. I do not wish to trivialize this accomplishment: it took great persistence by civil society groups and it had to conquer serious opposition. Yet what it has established is an indigestible paradox in the nation\u2019s list of saints and heroes.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Recall that the jury in the 1999 civil trial examining the assassination reached a startling conclusion on December 8, 1999: US government agencies had conspired successfully to kill Dr. King.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mainstream media carried little about this trial and verdict in 1999 and they persist in ignoring it to this day.<\/p>\n

***********************<\/div>\n

Court Decision: U.S. \u201cGovernment Agencies\u201d Found Guilty in Martin Luther King\u2019s Assassination<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Carl Herman<\/a>, January 18, 2016<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When challenged they tend to say that the claims were muddy and confused and vulnerable to easy refutation. Actually, the plaintiffs\u2019 case was strong, and the jury, after sitting and listening to presentation of evidence and argument from November 15 to December 8, was quickly able to reach consensus on the verdict. The great variety of evidence presented by attorney William Pepper pointed to the impossibility of the lone assassin hypothesis (James Earl Ray) and to the conspiring of several bodies, including the local police (Memphis Police Department), the mafia (local representative Frank Liberto), and federal police, intelligence and military units. In other words, the combination of forces that carried out the murder was not very different from that which had killed President Kennedy. Such was the planning, the commitment, and the determination of the assassins that there was little chance Dr. King could have survived the day. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.<\/p>\n

Reading the transcript of this trial takes some time (it\u2019s about 2700 pages long), but having done so I am impressed by attorney Pepper\u2019s persistence and skill in getting to the heart of this matter. Yet if the findings are to have political force, and if the mainstream media persist in pretending the trial never took place, it falls to active citizens to do their part to make the trial and the findings known. They should tell people about this trial, encourage people to read it, quote from it, and emphasize its importance. They should not let it be trivialized (as the current Wikipedia article on Martin King tries to do) by pretending the claims of government conspiracy were weak and have been refuted\u2014they have not.<\/p>\n

King was killed not just because he was a civil rights activist, but because he was planning the Poor People\u2019s Campaign, which would have involved nonviolent disruption of business as usual in Washington on behalf of all of the nation\u2019s poor, whatever their colour. This made the 1% uncomfortable. King was also killed because he had passionately criticized his country\u2019s pursuance of the Vietnam War\u2014his major denunciation of that war at Riverside Church in New York City had taken place one year to the day before he was killed. The eloquent and uncompromising talk had made everyone from President Johnson to the U.S. military and intelligence communities uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Far from being confused and muddy, I think the central arguments presented in 1999 have been quite well established. Moreover, there was little sophistication in the attempts to buy off and threaten James Earl Ray, to discourage and even kill eyewitnesses, and to pretend against all evidence that government investigations had been thorough and had found nothing to seriously question the case against Ray.<\/p>\n

The truth is that the lone gunman theory bit the dust in 1999, and anyone who attempts to resurrect it had better be able to challenge chapter and verse of this civil trial.<\/p>\n

For those who have not read the trial transcript, I shall end with an exemplifying segment\u2014worth quoting to friends who might be unfamiliar with it.<\/p>\n

This material is taken directly, with only minor omissions, from the court transcript of testimony given in mid-afternoon, November 30th, 1999.<\/p>\n

A former Memphis Yellow Cab driver, Louis Ward, is on the stand answering questions put to him by attorney William Pepper. Ward describes what a fellow cab driver, Paul Butler, saw and reported as an eyewitness to the assassination and its aftermath. Why Butler himself was not on the stand will eventually become clear.<\/p>\n

Some of these details were reported by Butler via car radio right after the assassination, while Ward heard other details face-to-face from Butler a bit later in the day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c\u2026as I raised up and looked, that rifle \u2028popped \u2014 it didn\u2019t sound like a rifle, it sounded like two boards clapped together. And he said, I seen his jaw and part of his neck blowed away. It was like he had a stick of dynamite in his mouth. He said, as I wheeled and looked, I seen a cluster of smoke coming up out of the bushes, and then I seen the guy come running up. He didn\u2019t have no rifle. But he said, I know that he is the one that had to shoot him. And then he\u2028headed towards the \u2014 headed north towards \u2028the squad car.\u2028And, of course, we thought the\u2028police had picked him up. Because it was a\u2028 black and white squad car\u2026\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. So he\u2019s telling you that after the\u2028 shot he saw a man come out of the bushes \u2013\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes, sir.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. \u2014 run up north on Mulberry Street \u2013\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes, sir.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. \u2014 and get into a squad car \u2014 a\u2028traffic \u2013\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Traffic squad car, black and white,\u2028mm-hum.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. Which was parked where?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. He said about a half a block north of\u2028the motel.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. And then what happened to that car?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Well, he said they headed north. We thought he picked \u2014 well, he come back on the radio and said the police has picked him up and they headed north with him. You could hear the tires were squealing. So we thought the police had already picked up the guy that done the shooting.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. I see. So both you and Mr. Butler\u2028had thought that the police had apprehended the shooter.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. What happened next? Did any police\u2028come out to the airport?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes. While I\u2019m standing there\u2028talking, a squad car drove up with a\u2028lieutenant and a patrolman\u2026And the lieutenant wrote the report down that he [Butler] had and told him that they would be back in contact with him. So they got in the squad car and left after they got the report.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. So they took a report from Mr. Butler\u2028and they \u2014 they left. Where were you standing when that report was being taken?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Oh, probably \u2014 when they came up, I\u2028was standing up next to him. When they came up, I backed away, probably 3 or 4 feet out of their way, where they would have plenty of clearance. But I was close enough that he gave them the same report that he gave me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. You overheard this report being given?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes, sir.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. All right. Then what happened next?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Well, they called \u2014 the dispatcher\u2028called him to come in to the headquarters. We have a headquarters. Said he was wanted down there. Well, later on that night, not\u2028too much later, I was in town and drove by\u2028the cab company and there was several squad\u2028cars down there. And I figured that they\u2028were, you know, taking some more reports.\u2028And then I found out later that he was\u2028supposed to be at court at 9 o\u2019clock the next\u2028morning.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. He was supposed to give a\u2028statement \u2013\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes, sir.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. \u2014 the next morning? And how many\u2028squad cars were around Yellow\u2019s offices that\u2028night?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. There were several. I would say\u2028seven or eight. Might have been more, might\u2028have been five or six. But I just noticed\u2028there were several squad cars sitting there.\u2028I didn\u2019t count them.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. Seven or eight Memphis Police Department cars around Yellow\u2019s headquarters that night?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Yes, sir.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

[Two weeks then pass before Ward goes back to Yellow\u2019s headquarters, when the following takes place.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. When was the next time you actually\u2028went into the offices and \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

A. Oh, it was \u2014 well, I went into the\u2028office when I first came back to work. I\u2028went in then. That\u2019s when I \u2014 I asked him\u2028about Mr. Butler.\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. Who did you ask about Mr. Butler?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. There was four or five cab drivers\u2028standing around talking. And I just asked\u2028them. And that\u2019s when they told me \u2014 I\u2028don\u2019t even remember which one told me. But he said he had been throwed out of a high- speed automobile between Memphis and West Memphis. And they found him about 10 o\u2019clock the next day.\u2028[April 5, 1968]<\/em><\/p>\n

Q. They said he was thrown out of a\u2028high-speed automobile. When was he thrown out of that automobile?\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n

A. The next \u2014 the next morning. They\u2028said they found his body about 10 o\u2019clock or 10:30 the next morning. He was supposed to\u2028have been in court at 9 o\u2019clock that morning\u2028\u2028and he wasn\u2019t there. They found his car\u2028there at the cab company. And \u2014 but he\u2028wasn\u2019t \u2014 he wasn\u2019t \u2014 never made it to\u2028court. But then about 10:30 they said they\u2028found his body between Memphis and West\u2028Memphis.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And so it is that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, finding its way into the nation\u2019s calendar of saints and heroes, has the potential to shake this calendar of myths and fibs into pieces.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Prof. Graeme MacQueen is co-editor of the <\/em>Journal of 9\/11 Studies and co-author, with Johan Galtung, of <\/em>Globalizing God-Religion, Spirituality and Peace, TRANSCEND University Press<\/a>, 2008. MacQueen was founding director of the Centre for Peace Studies at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, where he taught for 30 years. He holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University and is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>.<\/em> MacQueen was an organizer of the Toronto Hearings on 9\/11, is a member of the Consensus 9\/11 Panel, and is a former co-editor of the <\/em>Journal of 9\/11 Studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 18, was signed into law as a federal holiday in 1983. I do not wish to trivialize this accomplishment: it took great persistence by civil society groups and it had to conquer serious opposition. Yet what it has established is an indigestible paradox in the nation\u2019s list of saints and heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":148276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[867,657,260,1780,70],"class_list":["post-177406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-anglo-america","tag-civil-rights","tag-history","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}