John Johnson, a.k.a. Instead, he mentioned that he was impressed by postwar Germanys decision to outlaw Holocaust denial and the glorification of Nazism. He later claimed to have worked as the director of a global cloud-integration practice and solutions architect. He tried a career as a hip-hop DJ, which took an embarrassing turn when stars including Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff accused him of plagiarism and rsum exaggeration. Documents and several eyewitness state Johnson had pointed an AR-style rifle at the officers. Stories worth watching 16 videos. According to prosecutors with the Commonwealth's Attorney, the charges stem from Johnson and the militia taking part in a protest on Sept. 4, is 2020, in Louisville. But Im not. In 2020 and its aftermath, however, there is a greater-than-usual demand for someone who seems to have at least a little skill at propitiating the angry gods. Self-financed and focused, the NFAC,Grandmaster Jay says, is neither protesters nor demonstrators, explaining to Roland Martin in a July interview, We are a Black militia. By arresting Jay, the government took him out of circulation as a militia leader. The NFAC has room for only one messiah. Wed spent an hour talking some sense, and a lot of nonsense; now the restaurant staff presented me with the bill and a doggie bag, and exiled us to the parking lot. How did we get here? Download the WHAS11 News app now. They expected to be led by a commander who preaches radical separatism, and who will swagger with an AR-15 in public and boast that his snipers can bisect a white militiamans head from 1,000 yards away. WebJohn Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grand Master Jay and John Jay Fitzgerald Johnson, claims leadership of the group and has stated that it is composed of "ex military shooters." He won't be able to post instructional videos for some time, because of the social-media ban that was a condition of his bail. This may galvanize inquiring minds, but the road to becoming an actual member is fairly straightforward. John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. In a probable cause hearing on Wednesday, a judge decided that the state case surrounding that incident should head to a grand jury. I was caught up in all thatI, too, was waving signs and chanting, he said. I dont have to justify my experiences in my position to anyone.). In 2016, he emerged again, wearing a dark business suit with a black tie, pocket square, and large wristwatch. Two photos were included in the court filing that allegedly shows Johnson aiming his firearm at the officers. Ultimately, Jay calls for descendants of the Portuguese and Atlantic slave trade to separate themselves from others and create a Black ethnostate. That movement accomplished nothing, Jay told me, just a lot of singing, a lot of hand-holding, a lot of sentiments and praise.. According to the documents, the FBI reviewed the surveillance video from the incident, which consisted of real-time crime center camera footage. When the KKK decided to come to Dayton in May 2019, Grandmaster Jay said that wasn't right. He swooned during the eclipse, felt a wave of energy, and began preaching the ideas of the NFAC soon after. If he is indicted, he could stand trial. WebJohn Jay Fitzgerald Johnson aka: Grand master jay, John Johnson, John Fitzgerald. Lastly, prospective membersare required to attend anNFAC protest. In Germany, Jay was treated with the utmost respect, and he said he enjoyed a reprieve from the American racial hierarchy. (Source: Oldham County Detention Center), Surveillance images that federal authorities say show John Johnson (Grandmaster Jay) pointing a rifle at officers. On January 6, the NFAC had no presence in Washington: The District of Columbia does not allow open carry of weapons. At the end of the day, my message is simply that as American citizens, we have to realize that we too have a responsibility to keep our hand on the pulse and the temperature of the country, he says. During Friday's hearing,Judge Jennifer Wilcox ordered Johnson to have no firearms or deadly weapons while the case is pending. WebGrand Master Jay explains in 2016 interview why he was at the trump rally #NFAC. We didnt create that. He led a crowd of tens of thousands across the Arthur Ravenel Bridge to protest the mass shooting. His goal, he said, is for the Black race to come into its ownwhich it has notand to mature as a race, first by building racial esteem. He said Black people have been like the guy who sleeps on your couch that doesnt go home until you have to throw the couch out with him. If they get armed, and get serious, they will no longer have to blame the non-melanated for their failure. I'm a title. Washington man isn't going on a vacation. A lot of times when people talk about time travel, they always run into the paradigm If you change something in the past, then youll screw up your present. Jay shook his head. Months later, in December, Johnson was federally charged, accused of pointing a rifle during the September demonstration at LMPD, FBI and Secret Service agents, who were on top of the Jefferson County Grand Jury Building. Its an extremely top-down, chain-of-command organization, perfect for people who like to take orders, or give them. At that point, for the first time, the conversation flowed more naturally. 22, 2021 at 11:37 AM PDT. One hint that he is no longer a young man is a light smattering of age spots across his nose. Through these efforts, the NFAC encourages Black citizens with the means and ways to take advantage of the Second Amendment and their right to responsible gun ownership. Adding to his frustrations was the racism Grandmaster Jay says appeared during the Trump Administration. He claimed to have enlisted the Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has been blowing up pipelines and other infrastructure in Nigeria, as part of his coalition, which will eventually be the military backbone of the UBKN. Additionally, hes a former director of a global cloud integration practice and solutions architect, according to his campaign site. Jefferson County grand jury indicts militia leader 'Grandmaster Jay', SAYS IT FULLY SUPPORTS NEW YORK CITYS VACCINE MANDATE FOR CITY WORKERS. The group, for the most part, is well run (some use an accidental firearm discharge as an example of its lack of organization), with all of its public actions being coordinated with law enforcement and local governments, which has resulted in no known violence. (That might explain his given name: He would have been born just nine days after the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.) In December, Johnson was federally charged for pointing a rifle at Louisville Metro Police Department officers, FBI and Secret Service agents, who were on top of the Jefferson County Grand Jury Building. (Don't worry, its temporary), Challenges to books at Ky. libraries tripled in 2022 amid national jump in attempted bans, How the Telugu immigrant community is instilling their culture in the next generation, Richmond, Ind., residents sue owner of property where massive industrial fire occurred, This Mt. The far-right patriot movement has long been a fringe factor in American politics, as racial upheaval, police brutality, and a not-so-hidden agenda from President Donald Trump have paved the way for wide-scale growth of the ideological militia movement. Unlike the NFAC, they were flagrantly breaking the law and, for a time at least, getting away with it. Ive lived five different lives, he told me, enigmatically. Were watching. This strategic stand-down was not entirely voluntary, of course. (Jay denied all charges of anti-Semitism but refused to answer when I asked directly whether he thought Jews died in large numbers in the Holocaust. Compare the NFACs military-style discipline, Jay said, with white militias. Grandmaster Jay, the leader of an armed militia that took part in protests last year in Louisville, has been indicted on several counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly aiming a firearm at police officers. The group advocates for black liberation and separatism. After Jays arrest in December, he ordered his followers into a stand-down position. The militias that the NFAC opposes, such as the Oath Keepers, were active during December and Januaryand because of their presence at the storming of the Capitol, they now feel the heat of law enforcement. Were not anti-anything. Johnsons attorney, David Lambertus, did not deny Johnson had pointed the rifle, but said Johnson did so to identify who was on the rooftop of downtowns Commonwealth building. NFAC shows up and decide they want to wipe us all outwere gone in seconds., These are volatile situations, Amy Iandiorio, an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, told me when I asked her about the NFAC. While the inner workings of the militia areonly known to its leadership and key members, the total number of active participants in the organization is unknown, as well as where they are headquartered, or how they fund themselves. In one video, as alleged in a criminal complaint against him, he tells his followers to burn government officials homes and murder their children. BOZICH | Who would have beaten Secretariat? His platform consisted of mostly liberal platitudes, with an emphasis on diversity, police reform, support for veterans, and action on climate changealmost indistinguishable, he said, from Bernie Sanderss. ". Jay said he does not admire or imitate any Black activists from previous generationshe protested when I suggested a comparison to the Black Panthers, whose aesthetic the NFAC has obviously ripped offbut was quick to defend the Jamaican political thinker and activist Marcus Garvey, who called for Black self-sufficiency and attempted to found a homeland for Black people. He is a former soldier, a failed political candidate, a hip-hop DJ, a rambling egotist, and a prolific self-promoter. Iron was a vital commodity, and Leonard was already thinking volume. John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grandmaster Jay, was arrested on Dec. 3 and charged with five counts of wanton endangerment. Jay previously argued that Black people, exercising their constitutional rights to speak and pack heat, would be treated differently from white people doing the same. You may have seen him and members of his group in cities where African Americans have died at the hands of police and others. In 2008, according to the Anti-Defamation League, there were more than 500 militia groups, and the uptick in heavily armed protesters sincehas resulted in clashes aroundthe COVID-19 pandemic, keeping Trump in office, and police brutality. "That was probably one of the first times in recent times that the appearance of African Americans dressed in combat-style gear, carrying semi-automatic weapons in a defensive posture was something that hadn't been seen in recent societies," he says. Jay described its recruiting strategy: You must be Black, he said. In Jay, NFAC followers have a leader who conjured an army ex nihilo, announced a Black uprising in multiple American cities, and somehow got away with it for months. This GoFundMe was organized by his friend Eleanor Harvey, a native of Oakland, CA that now resides in the Inland Empire of Southern CA. Grandmaster Jay. Jay had run out of boilerplate. The United Black Kemetic Nation, he said, would have the full recognition of international law. Outside of thenegligent gun discharge from July, the NFAC has argued that theLGBTQ+ agendais responsible for the Black Lives Matter movements failings. With Black members of the LGBTQ+ community being ostracized and subjectedtowhite terrorism, one hopes that the NFAC is not fucking around when it comes to advocating for all Black people. The NFAC is this privates chance to be a general. Some sources say he is as young as 50, others as old as 59. Grand Master Jay, or John Fitzgerald Johnson, is accused of pointing an AR-style rifle at federal agents and police officers in downtown Louisville. There is no problem. (I wonder how many of them regard Jays fraudulent past the way Trump supporters regard the former presidentsi.e., if such a clown could get this far, he must have divine favor.) I offered him a plastic bib, which he declined. Thursday, December 3, 2020 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Kentucky LOUISVILLE, Ky. John F. Johnson, aka, Grandmaster Jay has been charged via criminal complaint with assaulting federal task force officers, announced United States Attorney Russell Coleman. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. (A sample lyric from one of his hip-hop songs: They call you racist if you proud of your folks / But they be muting you now if you forget about the Holocaust!), Jays videos repeat several themes popular among anti-Semitic segments of the Black Hebrew Israelites, a religious movement known for noisy proselytizing and elaborate conspiracy theories. At one point in our conversation, I thought I might have detected such a limit. But the transformation does not appear coincidental. I was there to escort Walter Scotts mother into the funeral. He said he was an ordained minister at the time. John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. Photos from the funeral show Jay wearing an Anglican-style clerical collar and holding Judy Scotts left arm. Im not at liberty to discuss those. I asked if he felt obliged to oaths of secrecy sworn to the U.S. military that had twice expelled him from its ranks. Weve never destroyed a piece of property, or had our people arrested for anything. So far, the NFACs only known casualties have been its own members, after a woman in formation sent herself and two others to the hospital when she fired her weapon seemingly by accident. You wont get that from me. He said he wasnt from the Midwest. Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 News. Members of the NFAC also stood their ground in Louisville after the death of Breonna Taylor. Followers of his teachings, he said, would be the first to tell you nothing that I have predicted has not come true. In October, on YouTube, he told his soldiers, At this point, I dont think Ill be joining you all too much longer. Someone has said before, Well, if it had been you guys there would have been bodies on the front lawn. I said, Well, its not so much whether or not it would be us, its how does the United States handle this and appear fair and equitable in the eyes of all citizens?' A Jefferson County grand jury will now decide whether to indict the leader of an armed militia for allegedly pointing his gun at officers during protests in Louisville.John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. When he met Americans overseas, they tended to interact with one another more as compatriots in exile than as the race enemies they might have been at home. You all are living in an alternate timeline. The NFAC is also interested in forming its own country - a place members can call their own. In the federal indictment, Johnson's charges focused on two federal law enforcement charges. Jay said the accusations were a misunderstanding, but he also suggested to me, in a peculiar and indirect way, that he had made certain mistakes. Grandmaster Jay Net Worth miclocksigca1973. He will be formally arraigned Monday.The NFAC formations in Louisville were large, but mostly peaceful and without issue.In the July gathering, three people were wounded when a firearm was accidentally discharged ahead of the march. Its modus operandi is to deploy a more fearsome Black militia wherever white militias dare to appear. But my goodness, the weaponryAR-15s galore, sniper rifles with scopes and bipods, high-capacity magazines, and enough tactical clothing to resupply an Army-surplus store. There are multiple futures depending on the timeline that you set in motion. He said one cannot really change the pastjust mint a new timeline. Nor do most Americanslet alone most Black Americanswant to establish a racially pure state, even somewhere other than Wyoming. Jays military career, like most things about him, is strange. And we appear to be the target of an undeclared domestic war against African Americans.". (By contrast, aerial photos suggest that the white militiamen present that day could have fit in a small school bus.) Surely, though, there must be limits to what Jays followers can accept. My time is scarce, he said, making aggressive eye contact. A West Chester man, intent on defending African Americans in the midst of police brutality and racism, has formed a Black militia group that is gaining attention nationwide and around the world. Grandmaster Jay might have an easier time describing the group by saying what it is not: neither left or right, not anti-semitic, not a gun club and not a social club. WebThe official version of the biography of the Grandmaster Jay. He is due back in court in February. On Wednesday, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned an indictment on Johnson for five counts of wanton endangerment. Amazon Has Uncanny Dupes of CB2's Popular Dining Chair for Hundreds Less. CONTACT GMJ. His social-media accounts are frozen, and he faces a possible 20-year sentencewhich may or may not be a deterrent, if he thinks his end is near anyway. They look like World War II partisans meeting their clandestine commander for the first time. He lost to Donald Trump and concluded, like most independent candidates, that America had rigged politics against him. After the murder of Walter Scott by a North Charleston police officer, he appeared at the side of Scotts family. Grandmaster Jay is clear when saying his group doesn't protest. The tradition of armed resistance persisted even as the civil-rights movement succeeded by rejecting this fearful symmetry: Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and John Lewis showed that Black people without guns were much more formidable. Grandmaster Jay says he didnt knowingly point weapons at anyone. HOME. Led by Grandmaster Jay (John Fitzgerald Johnson), the NFAC has been posited as an eye for an eye organization, in opposition to those aforementioned organizations, and hasloudly called for Black citizens to arm themselves in the face ofwhite supremacy. When I talked with him in February, Jay gloated about his enemies legal jeopardy, with some justification. The filtered water must have lowered his inhibitions, because over the next two hours Jay became more garrulous. The U.S. government is going around cleaning up all of those other organizations, he said. Armed self-defense has been around at least since Cyril Briggs, who founded the African Blood Brotherhood in 1919. NFAC leader John "Grandmaster Jay" Johnson faces state and federal charges over allegedly aiming a rifle at officers before the 2020 Kentucky Derby. Im a student of history, he said. Its leader, Grandmaster Jay, whose real name is John Fitzgerald Johnson, retained the cocky, steel-eyed confidence that has made him a messiah to tens of thousands of Black Americans. According to Jay, Were not here to attack anyone. 2023, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WLKY-TV. He could say anything, do anything, and somehow survive. Unknown Track - Unknown Artist. The men and women are ragtag and amateur, and their uniforms are not, well, uniform. These do not sound like promising beginnings for a modern Simn Bolvar or Toussaint LOuverture. Yet it is rarely good news when you learn that a sectarian racist is raising an army, stockpiling weapons, demanding total loyalty, and suggesting that he is a messiah. Jay speaks prophetically, and sometimes apocalyptically. Among the small armory of assault rifles, they also found a prodigious amount of marijuana. According to Grandmaster Jay, the reasoning for the groups formation is simple. Updated: 5:01 PM EST November 9, 2022. I had five MOSs, Jay said. Federally, he's charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees and one count of brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence in relation to the same incident. Black Lives Matter was the forefront of the pro-Black movement until it was hijacked by other entities, so it does not represent the will or the sentiment of the Black nation. In August 2003, according to the affidavit, Jay entered Fort Bragg and threatened to kill his wife (who was also a soldier) and her platoon sergeant at a recognition ceremony. Despite these travailsor because of themJay modeled the NFAC on the military in which he had served. We sat in Jays SUV, which soon filled with pleasant Cajun aromas from the scallops. Amid explosive racial tensions, the vast majority of the NFACs visibility is a product of social mediaparticularly Instagram. The alternate versions of Jay do not seem to cohere into a single person. At some point he got married, though he refused to say more about his domestic life. Grandmaster Jays group, the NFAC, is a Black militia whose goals, other than to abjure Fucking Around, are obscure. He wouldnt eat any food, but he requested a San Pellegrino or, in its absence, filtered tap water. To demonstrate its power, Jay said, the NFAC aims to assemble, in one place, a million legal [Black] gun owners, to show that the United Black Kemetic Nation can defend itself. You may have seen its members demonstrating where African Americans have died at the hands of police in places like Louisville and Georgia. He named four but refused to identify the fifth. (Kemet, Jay explained, is the original name of Egypt, which means land of the Blacks.) A patch on Grandmaster Jays body armor bore the new nations initials, UBKN. It has been described by news outlets as a "Black militia ". Case against militia leader 'Grandmaster Jay' heads to Jefferson County grand jury. The state charges were heard in court May 25, where Kentucky District Judge Eric Haner said the case would be moved forward to a grand jury after multiple pieces of evidence showed probable cause. Ive visited the death camps. His story, and the purpose of Not Fucking Around, became a little more clear, and a little less. Watching a mob storm the Capitol with a Confederate battle flag should freak out any American who hates racism, and inspire such a person to seek a radical cure for a deep political sickness. Jay is now out on bail. His group, armed with guns, moved into Louisville twice in the wake of Breonna Taylor's death for what they described as peaceful formations: Once in July and again during the 2020 Kentucky Derby in September.Months later, in December, Johnson was federally charged, accused of pointing a rifle during the September demonstration at LMPD, FBI and Secret Service agents, who were on top of the Jefferson County Grand Jury Building.According to the documents, the FBI reviewed the surveillance video from the incident, which consisted of real-time crime center camera footage. They are a lightning rod that attracts opposing groups, and thats a recipe for conflict., We have a zero-incident record, Jay boasted, mostly accurately. More. If the NFAC had done what these folks did, Jay said, theyd still be bringing the body bags out of the Capitol. On Wednesday, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned an indictment on Johnson for five counts of wanton endangerment.According to prosecutors with the Commonwealth's Attorney, the charges stem from Johnson and the militia taking part in a protest on Sept. 4, is 2020, in Louisville. Grand Master Jay grand jury presentation delayed, LMPD officer Nickolas Wilts recovery takes huge step forward, JCPS middle school student taken to hospital after eating suspected medicated gummies, LMPD: Man killed in wrong-way head on crash on Preston Highway, Spencer County High School student dies in crash, Scooters Coffee offers free coffee to healthcare workers in honor of Appreciation Day, Great Steamboat Race is full steam ahead on Wednesday, Operation Return Home alert issued for missing girls, ages 14 and 13. Anytime someone starts to galvanize people, its the same process: character assassination, then financial assassination through mounting legal bills, then imprisonment, exile, or outright murder. Jay claims that the NFAC first appeared publicly when nine white supremacists came to Dayton, Ohio, in May 2019. They include defending the Black community, being responsible firearms owners and educating and fostering unity. John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grand Master Jay, is facing state and federal charges for allegedly pointing a gun at Louisville Metro Police officers and federal agents while in Louisville last September. In his second interview with WVXU in less than a year, the head of a national Black militia group is looking forward to unity in 2022 but cautions it will be hard without equality. HE POINTED A RIFLE AT LOUISVILLE POLI OCEFFICERS. Just because you love your people doesnt mean you hate everybody else.. The Disturbing History of the So-Called Boogaloo Bois, Blackout Day 2020: What You Need to Know About the Economic Boycott, Patriot Act: What to Know About Your Privacy & Web History, anti-racism rally outside the U.S.Embassy in London, explaining to Roland Martin in a July interview. In one of Jays videos, he tells his followers that he intends to meet each and every last one of you face-to-face, to conduct an interrogation to screen out fakes, wannabes, snakes, and spiders. Jay says he will swear people in after they have put your life on the line by standing armed in an NFAC formation, in a situation where other armed groups might start trouble. In just two days, May 28, it will be the one year anniversary since protests first filled the streets of Louisville in response to the deaths of Taylor, George Floyd and more. NFAC Founder,1984-85 Kiss96 Mastermix Champion, Hip Hop Umbrella, 2016 US 3m Followers, 75 Following, 2,627 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Ice Cube (@icecube) . He faces federal charges in Louisville for pointing a gun at people on a roof. The organization is young, but has already had a few run-ins that callits motives into question. Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! When Grandmaster Jay walked into Millions Crab, a seafood joint in suburban Cincinnati, the waitstaff looked alarmed. He left the Army in 1997 but despised civilian life. So it proved to be fertile ground for the creation of the NFAC, the same way it was fertile ground in the 60s to create the Black Panthers. The organization is roughly three years old, according to Grandmaster Jay, but only recently has the NFAC reached the nationwide discussion about race and police brutality, with a number of demonstrations in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky. John Fitzgerald Johnson, also known as Grand Master Jay, is facing state and federal charges for allegedly pointing a gun at Louisville Metro Police I was supposed to be dead two years ago, he told his followers. Jay is satisfied with how the government has handled the January 6 investigation and glad the Oath Keepers leader has been charged. During the period after the First World War, when white mobs were shooting Black people and burning their businesses, many Black people considered peaceful protests (such as those organized by the NAACP) inadequate. Part of the process of creating a new country (under a treaty known as the Montevideo Convention) is demonstrating that enough people are eager to live there permanently and can administer the new state.
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