Northeast
Maj Toure: Educate 'Americans in the most vulnerable areas' to 'exercise their Second Amendment rights'
Maj Toure is an activist, politician, hip-hop artist, and the head of Black Guns Matter. He’s heavily involved in work on Second Amendment issues and responsible gun ownership. He has spoken at the Conservative Political Action Conference, preached a pro-gun message in radio and magazine interviews, and ran for Philadelphia City Council on the Libertarian ticket. He’s also released several rap albums.
At this year’s FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Toure participated in a roundtable with presidential candidate Cornel West, and 2022 New York gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe, on the future of freedom. Toure wore a T-shirt with the slogan, “All gun control is racist.”
Prior to the event, Toure sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss his libertarian philosophy, the importance of Second Amendment rights in contemporary society and urban communities, and the importance of 19th century reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass today.
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Toure said he believes that Americans in urban areas, who are most vulnerable to problems like crime, have not been properly educated about the Second Amendment.
“The Department of Education informs people very little about their human rights to defend life as codified in the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights as the Second Amendment. There is an ongoing attempt to make sure that Americans in the most vulnerable areas do not exercise their Second Amendment rights in a safe and responsible way. So there should be no need for Black Guns Matter,” Toure said. “We should be obsolete. If America was actually doing the thing that it’s founded on, the people having the right to keep and bear arms without restriction from government, there would not be a Black Guns Matter. But the reality is they are. And there’s…over 20,000 unconstitutional statutes that are in direct violation of the people’s right to keep and bear arms. So we just go to the areas where the people are misinformed the most about it and…are empowering [people] through that information.”
Toure said he has seen firsthand the way that the two major political parties, and big city machines conspire to keep third party candidates off the ballot.
“The massive level…of red tape and bureaucratic foolishness associated with someone running is wild. The fact that I needed more signatures to get on the ballot as a third party, as a Libertarian, than a Democrat or a Republican is insane to me,” he said.
He’s also critical of the job that Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker is doing.
“I think the mayor of Philadelphia right now, is not really doing constitutional justice. So maybe…in a couple of years, maybe I’ll run for mayor or something like that,” Toure said.
Toure said that it’s fundamentally a misconception that the Black community in the U.S. leans left, but faults the Republican Party and conservative movements for a lack of outreach.
BLACK GUNS MATTER FOUNDER SAYS ONLY ‘ACCEPTABLE’ GUN CONTROL IS MORE ‘SAFE, RESPONSIBLE’ OWNERS SAVING LIVES
“Culturally, Black people tend to be more liberty-minded and/or conservative in their actions, right?…And historically, Black people definitely have had more of a conservative lean. But as it relates to the level of 90% voting Democrat in a lot of urban areas or Black cities, we can’t deny that that’s partly the fault of the other parties,” he said.
The Republican Party has a rich tradition as it relates to the Black community in America. I mean, Frederick Douglass, duh, right? They’re not telling that story. The libertarians are just now starting to have these conversations and do outreach in urban demographics. But the conversation about liberty and limited government and I have the right to defend what’s mine, and we don’t want criminals in our neighborhood: that’s not foreign to black communities.”
Toure added that while the Democratic Party undoubtedly has a larger footprint on the ground in urban communities, it is misleading the Black community.
“The Democrats just do a better job of doing outreach and lying to the people in those communities. And the Republicans and Libertarians just weren’t there. [The Republicans] had a good start and then it fizzled out. The Dixiecrats and the lily White conservative movement did a good job of securing the Black vote for the Democratic Party, and now they aren’t doing anything to actually fix that.”
While Toure is supportive of the anti-police brutality movement that emerged in the wake of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, he has been critical of the Black Lives Matter leadership, and notes that others in the Black community, such as Missouri activist Darren Seals, were also suspicious for a variety of reasons.
“This movement [BLM] started and came out of the Ferguson movement, after Michael Brown was killed…people were active about ending qualified immunity because it almost felt like you couldn’t get through a week without a Black man being murdered by law enforcement…That Ferguson movement morphed into the Black Lives Matter movement and leadership…The late, great Darren Seals said, ‘I don’t know about those Black Lives Matter people. That’s not the Ferguson movement,’” Toure said. “Google gave [BLM] a check for $500,000, so forth and so on. So when you’re talking about the corporate structure, that’s a little bit different than the movement.”
Toure said he supports grassroots activism within the Black community in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, but believes that the national movement has lost its way.
“When that narrative or the organization or the movement is hijacked…my critique is of the leadership of that hijacked movement, not the overall theme that this thing was created for. So when I say, ‘hey, you guys are painting the word Black Lives Matter on things as a symbol that is not substance.’…I am saying that you are just doing empty symbolism with no legislation…How about we start [talking about] the Gun Control Act of 1968? How about we start with the massive levels of redlining that have impacted property values? [How about we] remove gun control, gun free zones? That doesn’t help people getting murdered in gun-free zones, right?” he said. “What’s wrong with it is when leadership co-opts a movement and presents it as if it’s one thing intended to solve a problem, and it’s empty gestures and virtue signals that do nothing to repeal legislation or economic policies that have been detrimental to those same communities. That’s what’s wrong.”
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Boston, MA
Boston’s White Stadium renovation to be focus of trial next March, city attorney says
As a lawsuit makes its way through court against the proposed White Stadium renovation at Boston’s Franklin Park, the ambitious plan continues to receive the green light from key city boards.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency became the latest to sign off on the project, minutes after a city attorney told the board that the proposed endeavor would head to trial next spring.
For months, city officials and Boston Unity Soccer Partners – an all-female ownership group behind a push to bring the city its next professional women’s soccer team – have endured a battle from neighborhood advocates fighting the plan. The Globe’s Linda Henry is one of those owners.
A group of 21 residents, dubbed the “Franklin Park Defenders,” and the nonprofit advocacy group, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, filed a lawsuit against the plan in February, alleging the endeavor would “illegally transfer the public trust lands” to “a private party.”
City Councilor Ed Flynn wrote a letter to Boston’s Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison and the BPDA ahead of the Thursday approval, urging the board to delay the vote to “allow for more public process and a thorough evaluation.”
“Neighbors have reached out in the past several months,” Flynn wrote in his letter, “and more in recent days, to express their deep concerns on how quickly this has proposal is going through this review process and now come to the BPDA Board.
“In addition, this $50 million cost, which may eventually have overruns and a higher price tag,” he added, “comes at a time of falling commercial property values in our city and an analysis showing that the City of Boston could potentially have a $500 million annual loss in revenue.”
Renovations at the dilapidated park and stadium — where half of the grandstands were burned out from a fire decades ago— would triple the number of hours the stadium could be used, 90% of which would be dedicated to Boston Public School student-athletes and the community, project proponents have said.
Boston Unity, which won an expansion bid last September to join the National Women’s Soccer League, is slated to contribute $50 million, with the city matching that investment. The city is responsible for rebuilding the east grandstand and the soccer group, the other.
A Suffolk Superior Court justice sees the planned massive renovation at Franklin Park’s White Stadium as a win for all Boston residents.
Justice Sarah Ellis in March tossed out motions for a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and lis pendens — or notice of a lawsuit on the property, which complicates transfers or sales — measures the plaintiffs desired to prevent additional steps from being taken in the massive $100-million undertaking.
City attorney Sammy Nabulsi said the lawsuit has entered its discovery phase which he called a “fancy term for fact-finding.”
“The discovery phase was supposed to go on until February 2026,” he said, “but that was unacceptable to the city and it was unacceptable to the team.”
A judge has accepted an expedited schedule with discovery ending in December and the case going to trial in March 2025,” Nabulsi said. Boston Unity is expected to take the pitch at White Stadium for the 2026 season.
“We are hoping that this case will be over and done with no later than the spring,” he said, “so I disagree with the comment that all public processes should stop pending the litigation, especially given the fact that a judge has already ruled on the merits.”
With the BPDA approval in hand, along with that of the city’s Landmarks and Civics Design commissions, the project is slated to be in front of the Parks Commission on July 29.
Boston Unity expects its endeavor will have a wide range of economic benefits for the greater community.
Construction, which could start by the end of the year, would generate more than 500 jobs, and the workers would be employed onsite for two years. About 300 permanent jobs would then be created once the stadium is renovated, according to the proposal.
“This is a major milestone for a project that is decades overdue,” Mayor Michelle Wu said of the BPDA approval in a statement, “finally giving BPS student-athletes and community a beautiful new home at White Stadium.”
Originally Published:
Pittsburg, PA
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Connecticut
Connecticut GOP Chairman under fire after comments on Kamala Harris
HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) – There was a lot of energy at the Republican National Convention Thursday night as Former President Donald Trump accepted his nomination by his party for president.
Connecticut GOP Chairman Ben Proto was a delegate and is now under fire by Democratic leaders for his comments on current Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Connecticut public radio’s “The Wheelhouse,” Proto said she got her job because of gender and racial politics, not because she’s qualified to be vice president.
Democrats say Proto is attacking Harris solely because she is a black woman. Proto, however, says it was Biden himself who made it clear who he was looking for.
“Find his comments egregious, I do find them racial I do find them misogynistic but people have to judge that’s why we made this statement,” said Majority Leader Bob Duff.
“It’s not me or the republicans who have brough this into play, it was kamala harris and then vice president joe biden who did that. And the qualifications. He put on his vice president would be that they be a black woman and the qualifications should be whether are they competent to do the job,” said Proto.
There is increasing pressure for Biden to step aside, with Harris a candidate to become the Democratic nominee.
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