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OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES Dear New York Times: I may have been responsible for the attack on your website in September, 1998. Or, it may be just a coincidence. I'll lay out the facts and you decide: Labor Day weekend I was driving from California to New York and my car gave up the ghost in Salt Lake City, lucky me, and needed major repairs. Labor Day was on a Monday. The following weekend, on Sunday, there was to be a "million youth march" up in Harlem organized by the gentleman who was an off-shoot of the Nation of Islam. Tuesday I headed for the downtown library to catch up on my reading, especially the Times. The building was filled with computer kiosks all bearing signs informing the user that any on-line communication was forbidden. No email or other messaging was permitted and the computers were rigged to prevent that from occurring. I headed for the periodical room but couldn't find a copy of the Times. I asked the librarian who told me the paper is printed in San Francisco but the two copies they get missed the flight and would be in the next day. Seeing my chagrin she asked if I would like to read the Times online and then was nice enough to give me the librarian's code to operate the site. I planted myself at the station in front of the desk and began exploring the site. I quickly found the discussion forum and zeroed in on two threads dealing with police brutality. I entered the conversation and pointed out that law enforcement was living in a fool's paradise. The police believe they have both the law and public opinion on their side and that this support is so rock solid they can continue to do pretty much as they like in terms of violence against and violation of the Rights of Blacks and other Peoples who have been historically oppressed and abused by those in power. I put forward my idea about correcting the un-American injustice, which I called "freeway intifada." A freeway intifada is leverage to the Nth degree. A literal handful of Black activists in a city where police brutality is particularly pernicious, or similar small groups in many cities acting in solidarity and self defense can, almost immediately, bring Justice where Justice is long overdue. Its very simple. All that needs to be done is to close down commuter freeways from the suburbs to jobs in the city, freeways that in almost every major city pass through or very close to Black neighborhoods. Young Black patriots can use old cars or stolen cars to play "demolition derby" amongst the early morning commuters to wreak havoc and close down for hours the daily movement and then to do it again with the afternoon egress. Others can put debris, old appliances, burning tires, etc on the rail lines and slow down those routes. If white, middle class commuters are faced with the choice of cracking down on police brutality or facing three hour delays on their rides both to and from work, every day, week after week, chances are they'll choose Justice. Furthermore, if this is done in 50 cities day after day until compliance, less than a thousand kids,(and there would be a lot more than that volunteering for service) could bring about a very real possibility of financial (stock market) repercussions that would be quite negative and could cost shareholders hundreds of billions in value. And that would be the real stick. A trillion dollar bath would not be a cost effective way for the racists to continue their old ways. The downside, of course, is the possibility of real violence. In today's society, where instant gratification reigns, many angry victims of police brutality might well hurl rocks at the cars and drop stuff from the overpasses and that would likely result inmajor injuries. Not to mention snipers. Blacks have been dealt a pat hand but don't realize it. Yet. When I wrote about this on your site in 1998 chances were that, following the million youth march, many participants would check out what the "establishment" had to say about it and when they looked at your site they would gravitate to the sections on police brutality and see this idea. Hence, the need to remove it from sight. I returned to the same computer to answer my correspondents on Wednesday and Thursday and then about fifteen minutes into my Friday session a security guard showed up. I had never seen one there previously and he walked past me, pausing slightly, and then talked with a librarian and left. The librarian came over to me and without looking at what was on my screen asked if I was sending messages. She told me to stop and I completed what I was writing and left. The following night your site was attacked. There is no doubt someone was monitoring my activity and didn't like it but I have no idea if they were there in the building or elsewhere. But just where that else would be is a mystery. If someone attacked your site for this reason I can only speculate about the culprit's identity. Among the suspects I'd list the Guiliani Administration, the NYPD, the FBI, some corporate state security entity, or even, (hold on to your hats) an insider! Sincerely, |
