Black Armed Group Attends Protests, Seeking Justice

During a summer of demonstrations toward discriminatory policing and the shootings of countless Black civilians at police's hands, their founder John Fitzgerald Johnson stated, the all-Black, Atlanta-based community increased in numbers out of outrage.

Their existence has sparked controversy in the locations they've toured. After people unintentionally fired a weapon during two of their protests, such as Lafayette, the group has attracted several skepticisms.

On the streets of Lafayette, Louisiana, when two loud bangs came off, no one noticed where the bullets came from when demonstrators assembled to seek justice for yet another Black man shot dead by police.

A black armed group of men and women who name themselves the "Not F**king Around Coalition" or NFAC has been among the crowd. The crowd did not come towards the gunshots or even break their formation. Instead, in the middle of the chaos, they knelt on the ground and then backed away after their leader yelled, "fall back! fall back!"

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Several white groups have turned up and claimed their Second Amendment privilege to bear arms, along with demonstrators protesting in several US communities. Unlike many of those organizations, Johnson claims his group began as a reaction to persistent social injustice and police violence.

Big black armed groups are not frequently seen in the United States. The Black Panther Party, created in 1966, was the most famous after the killing of Matthew Johnson, a Black teenager murdered by the police. That group has pretty much disappeared ever since.

Thomas Mockaitis, a history professor at DePaul University, stated in a news source that the NFAC now also works apart from all other groups and organizations from across the nation.

Mockaitis had stated that "in one sense it (NFAC) echoes the Black Panthers, but they are more heavily armed and more disciplined... So far, they've coordinated with police and avoided engaging with violence."

Johnson stated that the black armed group comprises "US citizens exercising our constitutional rights and the color of our skin shouldn't make any difference," he added.

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In at least three metropolitan areas, NFAC participants dressed in black lifted their fists and yelled "Black power" without serious incidents, and yet their protests have been followed by days of tension.

Among local leaders, the presence of the NFAC rapidly had become an issue. During that time, over a month of rallies about the death of Breonna Taylor had taken place in the city, but some started to turn violent.

According to federal law, no one except the effective federal army of the Kentucky National Guard or Kentucky "shall associate together as an armed company or drill or parade with arms" without approval from the governor.

Mayor Greg Fischer, a spokesperson for Louisville, stated that local authorities have worked long to interact with all organizations, along with NFAC, and seen nonviolent demonstrations.

A variable had been the likelihood of a black armed group feuding with an armed white group. The NFAC had stormed on a Confederate commemoration in Stone Mountain, Georgia, several weeks back, but one of its participants called for a matchup with groups of white vigilantes.

Even after the detainment of an individual whom police say mistakenly fired a weapon at the event, the rally ended peacefully. The NFAC said that the individual had not been part of their organization.