Tuesday, July 6, Arraignment Day Malden District Court, Medford, MA
The State of Massachusetts vs. Rise of the Moors
“I am under no circumstances waiving my rights whatsoever because I am a foreign national,” Defiant, and engaged in a combative exchange with Judge Emily Karstetter, detainee Quinn Cumberlander rejected the authority of the Malden District Court, and declined the services of a lawyer. Karstetter, waived his rights anyway.
Another detainee "John Doe," who refused to give his name or be fingerprinted, demanded that his handcuffs be removed and he be allowed to see his family. His requests were rejected. Angry family members remained outside the courtroom, prohibited entry due to "COVID restrictions." How convenient. Outside, on the courthouse grounds, throngs of beefy policemen in full military kit ringed the perimeter of the building.
A third defendant, told the Judge “We don’t break the law, we oppose the law. We’re not extremists, we are a world-regulated militia. ”
Inside the courtroom, as the next defendant came to plea, someone shouted "High treason." Another spectator yelled "Let him represent himself." The proceedings, that were also being simultaneously conducted on Zoom were just as contentious. "Shouts of Fuck the police," and "Free all the Moors," were heard in the courtroom, prompting Judge Karstetter to kick people off the Zoom call.
And so it went: the nine-hour standoff between the police and eleven Rise of the Moors [ROM] organization members that began on a chilly July 3, Saturday morning on the I-95 expressway just north of Boston, continued in the courtroom on Tuesday.
In a live video broadcast that Saturday morning of the confrontation, Jamhal Talib Abdullah Bey explained that the Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based group, were traveling to Maine to their private land for training. About 1:53 a.m. they pulled onto the shoulder of I-95 to refuel their two vehicles, so as not to cause any public alarm by going to a gas station. The police that noticed them refueling the vehicles stopped to question Rise of the Moors members on the expressway shoulder.
Bey told the police his members would not point their guns at them--which is exactly what Not Fucking Around Coalition commander Grand Master Jay is currently faced with and facing 20 years in prison. Bey informed the police they had broken no federal laws, and wished to continue their safe journey to Maine. If they were to be cited, Bey said they would be happy to appear in court.
You didn't have to be on the scene to guess what happened next. Dozens of police cars arrived, followed by armored personnel cars. Interstate 95 was shut down, neighboring communities were told to "shelter in place," and a hostage negotiation team was called in. Well damn. Who were the hostages?
From accounts we have read, at some point, the Rise of the Moors group moved into the woods where the standoff and negotiations continued until late Saturday morning until the eleven men were arrested. A Honda Ridgeline and Ford Transit van were impounded and taken to Danvers, MA. , where an inventory was conducted, mostly of ammunition.
A total of three shotguns/rifles and a handful of revolvers were logged in the inventory--a small number for eleven people going to a training exercise. On the charge sheet at the arraignment, all the detainees were charged with eight counts of illegal possession of "a firearm. " What the hell is that? All the other charges are for illegal possession of ammunition (as if you can train on weapons with no ordinance), improper storage (that sounds pretty deadly), use of body armor in the commission of a crime (another ominous offense committed in the absence of any physical violence or shots being fired).
After this laundry list of deadly offenses, all the detainees are charged with "conspiracy to commit a crime." In other words, the Rise of the Moors got together, knowingly and willfully conspired to drive up I-95 and violate Massachusetts state firearms and ammunitions laws on their way to Maine.
But not to worry. On cue, the national media stepped up to play its role: prosecuting the case for the police and the State of Massachusetts. It didn't matter that Bey informed the whole world on video that they were not "not sovereign citizens. " Virtually every press story that ran in major media outlets, followed the state-run media script parroted in the New York Post, to wit;
" The Rise of the Moors is an anti-government, sovereign citizen movement that does not recognize US laws, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."
This is the same Southern Poverty Law Center that was forced to announce in January 2021, that it’s "shutting down its black nationalist hate groups category Like the Nation of Islam." Why ?“ Apparently they discovered that "in doing the internal work of anti-racism”, the SPLC will no longer list black hate groups because “the hate is not equal.”
This is the same SPLC that claimed that anyone who is a Black Nationalist, is a Black separatist and national security threat to the country. This is the same SPLC, that law enforcement agencies turned to as its main source for determining what qualifies an organization as a hate group.
It was the SPLC that propped up the FBI bogus terrorist designation of Black organizations as Black Identity Extremists (BIE's), until the Congressional Black Caucus and others forced the FBI Director Wray to admit it was a phantom designation. It wasn't a coincidence that Bey specifically stated that Rise of the Moors was not a Black Identity Extremist group.
Nevertheless, the security state-complicit media leaned on the SPLC to sign off on Rise of the Moors being a sovereign citizens group. SPLC spokespersons, gladly obliged the press and the Massachusetts' security state, even though Rise of the Moors cannot be found on their website.
So, the stage set. The tracks have been lubricated. The Rise of the Moors have been converted in the Black equivalent of QAnon--a group that was driving to a training session in rural Maine are now a Black terrorist organization that must be liquidated.
Black Nationalists, Black radicals, and Black progressive should be raising their voices in outrage at the attacks on Rise of the Moors. Black gun clubs, Black 2-A organizations, and Black militias need to lead this fight. This is not a story that will be told by Don Lemon or Joy Reid or Jonathon Capehart. You would be more likely to see the story on FOX News, making fodder for the White Nationalists
The attacks on Rise of the Moors, Grand Master Jay and the NFAC, and Nick Bezzel of the Geronimo Pratt Gun Club are all attacks designed to disarm Black communities. They occur precisely just as White Nationalists and Trump's Republican Party are ramping up their rhetoric and active measures to prepare for civil war.
New Black Nationalists condemn American Empire's security state attacks on Rise of the Moors. We call on all self-identified Black Nationalists to support Rise of the Moors, and to organize opposition to these attacks, and donate to their legal defense. On Friday, July 9, the battle continues over the release of the Rise of the Moors 11, who are currently being detained on a $100,000 bond. They must be freed.
In a Ford Transit van:
A CZ P-10C pistol with loaded magazine recovered from the passenger side rear seat
A Glock 44 .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol and loaded magazine
A Ruger 556 5.56 caliber semi-automatic rifle with a loaded 28-round magazine
A Palmetto State Armory PA-15 rifle
About 630 live 223 caliber round of ammunition in a green bag
About 13 magazines loaded with an unknown quantity of ammunition
A sandwich bag filled with .22 caliber ammunition
A box of about 150 rounds of 9mm Luger caliber ammunition
Twenty-six 12-gauge shotgun shells
A box of approximately 140 5.56 caliber rounds
A loaded 9mm Luger magazine
A box of about 100 12-gauge shotgun shells
Seven magazines loaded with an unknown amount of ammo recovered from a white trash bag under the van’s second-row bench seat
About 50 .308 caliber rounds
Approximately 20 7.62x51 caliber rounds
In a Honda Ridgeline:
A Remington model 700 .308 Winchester caliber rifle with a Niko scope recovered in the back seat
A loaded Mossberg model 930 12-gauge loaded semi-automatic shotgun recovered between the front passenger seat and center console
A Glock semi-automatic pistol recovered from the back seat
Three loaded 5.56 caliber magazines
Onne loaded .22 caliber magazine
One loaded .308 caliber magazine
A clear bag containing ammo
A loaded .40 caliber drum magazine
A box of 20 .308 caliber rounds
A box of 40 9mm Luger rounds
Ninety-six rounds of 5.56 caliber ammo
Court records show police also discovered gas cans, a pair of binoculars, an empty holster, rubber gloves, sleeping bags and other items.
