the huey p. newton gun club

vice |  One of the bleak ironies of what happened in Dallas is that, while the city's police department has a dismal reputation among much of the population, Dallas's police chief, David Brown, is one of the most reform-minded in the country. Brown has overseen a recent drop in excessive force complaints and shootings by the police—and his own son was killed in a shootout with the police in 2010.

Darren X claims that he and other members of the gun club had left the early in the evening, feeling that the march was "too watered-down... they were singing church spirituals and 'We Shall Overcome'... We understand that not everyone is a militant, but it was just not something we were interested in." 

While they were driving home, they passed police cars racing downtown, and assumed that BLM protesters had blocked an intersection. "We had no idea police officers were being assassinated." 

Everyone, particularly armed black gun clubs in Texas, should be worried about what will happen next—it's possible that there will be more attacks on police across the country, and potentially a dragnet or fearful, retributive clampdown against armed black radicals. 

Darren X told me the group would continue to organize and advocate for black Second Amendment rights, but added, "We are aware of the possibilities of what could happen... there are thousands of white militias here in America with .50-caliber machine guns and automatic weapons. While there is a lot of attention being directed at the few black gun clubs, we're outnumbered 1,000 to one." 

When I asked Balogun if he was worried about what might happen next or if Huey P. might get the brunt of blowback in the aftermath, he said he was not and would continue to organize to get justice for the victims of people shot by the Dallas police. He emphasized that he would be defiant if authorities tried to peg what happened on him or members of Huey P.

"I will not cooperate with any investigation process. I will not speak to any police, FBI... I'm not cooperating with any police agency in the United States of America."