Police Brutality Redefined

Marc Lamont Hill, the far-left hip-hop professor and paid Fox News Channel analyst, has a record in support of cop-killers. And now we have learned that he went on “The O’Reilly Factor” to defend black militants who held a March vigil in honor of Lovelle Mixon, a suspected rapist with a lengthy criminal record, who murdered four Oakland police officers. Hill said on Fox News that the activists, many of them from a communist organization, were protesting “police terrorism.”

Recall that Hill claims that cop-killer Assata Shakur, who fled to Communist Cuba after escaping from prison, is innocent. Hill has also declared his support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, another convicted cop-killer, who is on death row. Hill called him a “freedom fighter” and “political prisoner” devoted to “black liberation” and announced that the convicted killer would be contributing to Hill’s website as a weekly contributor. “Welcome Brother Mumia!!!!” Hill said.

The defense of the protesters in the Mixon case adds to the growing concern about this Fox News contributor, who is paid handsomely by the channel to appear on various Fox News Channel shows and is supposed to provide the appearance of fairness and balance.

But is cop-killing a matter that requires two sides of the issue?

Some of the protesters after the killing of the four police officers were shown in a video carrying photos of Mixon, including one depicting him as a loving husband. Mixon “symbolized the resistance of African people who are terrorized daily,” said a spokesman for the demonstrators. A sign said, “Lovelle ‘Stood Up’ Against Police Terror.”

This was a variation of the preposterous line that was taken by Hill on “The O’Reilly Factor”: “They are responding to what they see as a repressive and oppressive police state,” Hill claimed. “That’s what they’re challenging. And we need to respect that and listen.” The other guest, black conservative talk-show host James T. Harris, said this was nonsense, and that such a protest illustrated problems in the black community such as a lack of religious values.

In the case under discussion, Mixon opened fire on Oakland police officers after being pulled over for a traffic violation, killing two officers execution-style. He fled into an apartment complex, where he opened fire on other officers, killing two more and injuring another.

Mixon, whose criminal record included arrests on drug charges, had already served five years in prison on weapons charges, and DNA evidence linked him to one unsolved rape.

In Oakland, citizens of all races, led by black clergy, turned out in support of the slain officers. But Marc Lamont Hill, a self-described “revolutionary,” went on “The O’Reilly Factor” to support the demonstrators turning out in support of the criminal murderer. Hill said that it was a case of “white officers” and “black bodies,” explaining that “a big issue in black and brown neighborhoods is the issue of police terrorism” and that the activists were opposing “police terror.”

At times, O’Reilly couldn’t seem to believe what he was hearing from Hill. But that hasn’t stopped the popular cable host from having Hill back numerous times to talk about foreign and domestic issues far beyond his limited expertise on rap music and other activities that characterize hip-hop culture.

Depicting the cop-killer as a sympathetic figure, Hill said that the demonstrators recognized that the “fundamental humanity” of Mixon was just as important as the lives of the police officers he killed. “This is a protest-a challenge-of police terrorism,” he reiterated.

Hill features his video defense of the demonstrators on his web page. The video is also available on YouTube.

The four officers killed were Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35; Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40; Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43; and Officer John Hege, 41. They left behind three widows and ten children.

A beautiful video tribute to the officers is available on YouTube. A video of the funeral procession for one of the officers is also available. Nearly 20,000 people turned out at the memorial service for the officers.

This isn’t Hill’s first defense of communists who specialize in exploiting black Americans. On his own curriculum vitae he lists being a speaker before a group he identifies as the “Poor Righteous Communist Party,” a Maoist organization.  The Poor Righteous Communist Party of the Black Nation runs something called the “Polymathematic University,” a “revolutionary center for the training and development of professional revolutionaries” which holds that black, brown, red and yellow people are the “original peoples” of the earth.

Hill is currently an Associate Professor of English Education at Columbia University Teachers College.

It was first disclosed by David Horowitz that Hill was an admirer of Assata Shakur, a member of the terrorist Black Liberation Army convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerester. Accuracy in Media followed up on this revelation by documenting Hill’s admiration not only for Shakur but other communist figures such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and another convicted cop-killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal.

AIM even discovered that he had praised Khallid Muhammad, who was thrown out of the Nation of Islam for his extremist views, and had written about how the black racist had been a “mentor, teacher, and revolutionary hero.” However, these references have since been deleted from Hill’s web pages.

In this context, the video of Hill’s performance in the Mixon case makes complete sense.

The militants who showed up in support of Mixon and displaying photos of the killer were from the Uhuru Movement, an African socialist organization that describes itself as “Black Power in the 21st Century.” The group declares itself to be the “voice of the African working-class” whose mission “is to bring voice to the most oppressed and exploited sectors of the African world” and “destroy imperialism and liberate Africa and her children dispersed throughout the world.”

In a statement, the group said that Mixon’s killings of the police officers “were the result of years of oppression of a whole community which has come to a boiling point.”

While the evidence of Hill’s radicalism continues to build, Fox News representatives remain silent, except for a one-sentence statement early on that they disagree with Hill’s views on Assata Shakur.

The annual meeting of News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, is being held on October 16, 2009, in New York City. AIM, a holder of stock in News Corporation, plans to attend and raise a series of questions about the hiring of Hill as a paid Fox News contributor and what the company and Bill O’Reilly in particular knew about his background.

A simple Google search and examination of Hill’s own web pages would have disclosed his involvement in anti-police and pro-communist causes.

While Hill had appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” as far back as 2007, it appears that he was hired by Fox News as a regular paid contributor earlier this year in response to left-wing pressure on the channel from the Obama Administration and the “progressive” left. He has appeared mostly on “The O’Reilly Factor” but also on “Hannity” and “Huckabee.”

Before joining Fox News, Hill had been a contributor to CNN and MSNBC.

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. This is an excerpt of one of his columns, which can be read in its entirety here.

Cliff Kincaid