Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

“Mo” and “Gloves” Run Amok in Chicago
23 May 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Fascist-minded state policies are often executed by likeable, sociable operatives. Chicago police officers “Mo” and “Gloves” appear to have made friends in anti-war circles all over Chicago – with disastrous consequences to some activists. “The two undercovers were clearly among the most gregarious couples in town for the NATO summit meeting.”

 

“Mo” and “Gloves” Run Amok in Chicago

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The dynamic duo are expected to testify the defendants confided that they wanted to burn and bomb things.”

White middle class Americans grow up imbibing Hollywood stereotypes of police states in which the villains have exotic names and accents and are very definitely not the kind of people you’d want to drink beer or smoke a joint with. But five young people who went to Chicago to oppose U.S. wars had the misfortune to meet some secret police who seemed to fit in quite well with their peer group. Known only as “Mo” and “Gloves,” the undercover police officers were among the eleven people originally seized at an apartment in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side. Then, suddenly, they were gone, but three of their erstwhile anti-war friends would face charges of manufacturing Molotov cocktails and conspiring to mount an attack on President Obama’s campaign headquarters. Apparently, Mo and Gloves will testify to that effect. However, attorneys at the National Lawyers Guild say there were no Molotov cocktails found at the scene, just some equipment to home brew beer.

Mo and Gloves were also apparently behind the arrest of two other activists, both from Chicago, charged with making terrorist threats and attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices. The dynamic duo Mo and Gloves are expected to testify that the defendants confided that they wanted to burn and bomb things. One of the guys supposedly bragged that he could blow up a bridge in downtown Chicago. The other man allegedly wanted to build a pipe bomb. They are guilty, you see, of felonious and wishful thinking.

The two undercovers were clearly among the most gregarious couples in town for the NATO summit meeting. A defense attorney said lots activists told her they had met Mo and Gloves – and were, understandably, worried.

“The informant Azir accomplished this feat of mass manipulation through the dispensing of vast quantities of beer.”

In Cleveland, a 39-year-old police informant named Shaquille Azir appears to have lured five young guys who were associated with the Occupy movement and called themselves anarchists into a possible lifetime in prison. According to an excellent Counterpunch article by Jake Olzen, Azir talked himself into the men’s lives, encouraged them to separate from Occupy to form a People’s Liberation Army, and finally, got them to try to blow up a bridge with an inert bomb built with materials provided by the FBI. The informant Azir accomplished this feat of mass manipulation through the dispensing of vast quantities of beer. Every morning, he gave his victims a case of beer, and each evening he showed up with marijuana and another case of beer. It is, therefore logical to conclude that American capitalism is threatened, not so much by implacable opponents or internal contradictions, but by beer.

When I was a very young child, there was a television show called “I Led Three Lives.” The hero was an undercover informant who infiltrated American communist cells to expose their violent plans. The communists were all played by character actors from gangster films. The result was pure fiction, but it did hang together as a typical TV melodrama of the time. However, I think there will never be a movie about the undercover cops Mo and Gloves, who flitted around Chicago making up conversations in order to put people they had never met in prison for life. There oughta be a movie like that, but there won’t. Even the cops would be shamed.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120523_gf_MoAndGlovesRunAmuk.mp3

More Stories


  • Howard University’s Removal of Classics is a Spiritual Catastrophe
    Cornel West and Jeremy Tate
    Howard University’s Removal of Classics is a Spiritual Catastrophe
    28 Apr 2021
    Upon learning to read while enslaved, Frederick Douglass began his great journey of emancipation, as such journeys always begin, in the mind.
  • Alice Speri
    Police killings of Black Americans amount to crimes against humanity, international inquiry finds
    28 Apr 2021
    The systematic killing and maiming of unarmed African Americans by police amount to crimes against humanity that should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, an inquiry into US po
  • The Defund the Police Movement Takes Aim at Fusion Centers and Mass Surveillance
    Alice Speri
    The Defund the Police Movement Takes Aim at Fusion Centers and Mass Surveillance
    28 Apr 2021
    LEGISLATORS IN MAINE could vote as early as next week on the first bill in the country seeking to shut down a fusion center: the intelligence-sharing partnerships between loca
  • The MOVE Bombing and the Callous Handling of Black Remains
    By Jessica Parr
    The MOVE Bombing and the Callous Handling of Black Remains
    28 Apr 2021
    The 1985 MOVE bombing by the Philadelphia Police shocked and devastated a city, leaving destruction
  • Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Gun Violence Starts at the Top
    21 Apr 2021
    If the state reserves the right to commit mass murder no one should be surprised that the people follow suit.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us