In the federal indictment, Johnson's charges focused on two federal law enforcement charges. The NFAC also appears to have tapped into a kind of modish authoritarian magical thinking. In 2008, according to the Anti-Defamation League, there were more than 500 militia groups, and the uptick in heavily armed protesters sincehas resulted in clashes aroundthe COVID-19 pandemic, keeping Trump in office, and police brutality. Background: Case against militia leader 'Grandmaster Jay' heads to Jefferson County grand jury. The cops took his rifles too. Plenty of Trump supporters believed that their man had a mystical ability to outwit his opponents and bend previously unbendable laws of politics. NFAC Jay is satisfied with how the government has handled the January 6 investigation and glad the Oath Keepers leader has been charged. He lost to Donald Trump and concluded, like most independent candidates, that America had rigged politics against him. Do you know anything about these things?. He grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and New York City. (By contrast, aerial photos suggest that the white militiamen present that day could have fit in a small school bus.) Were not going to dig into who I am, he said. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Surely, though, there must be limits to what Jays followers can accept. Most soldiers have just one MOS over the course of their career; once the Army trains a soldier, why go through the expense of training him again? No one seems to have noticed the coalition then, amid some 600 other counterprotesters. Like a Rubiks Cube.. There is no problem. Yes, you can screw up things in that timeline. May 29, 2022 Updated May 29, 2022. Laws, he told me, are just paper, and it is only reasonable that Black people arm and train themselves to act as an immediate bulwark against the continued human-rights abuses perpetrated against them. NFAC So it proved to be fertile ground for the creation of the NFAC, the same way it was fertile ground in the 60s to create the Black Panthers. The organization is roughly three years old, according to Grandmaster Jay, but only recently has the NFAC reached the nationwide discussion about race and police brutality, with a number of demonstrations in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky. LOUISVILLE, Ky. John Johnson, the leader of the NFAC also known as Grandmaster Jay, appeared in federal court for sentencing Wednesday morning. Two federal officers and three LMPD officers then went to the top of the nearby Jefferson County Grand Jury Building to watch the group, but were blinded by a flashlight when they leaned over the roof, the affidavit claims. In our conversation, though, he made no direct reference to the mass murder of Jews and others, or to the lessons of totalitarian fascism. Time for the action, he said. A Jefferson County grand jury will now decide whether to indict the leader of an armed militia for allegedly pointing his gun at officers during protests in Louisville.John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. A Jefferson County grand jury will now decide whether to indict the leader of an armed militia for allegedly pointing his gun at officers during protests in Louisville. The Commonwealth's Attorney said the indictment in Jefferson County also includes three additional local law enforcement officers. Wed spent an hour talking some sense, and a lot of nonsense; now the restaurant staff presented me with the bill and a doggie bag, and exiled us to the parking lot. If he is indicted, he could stand trial. We dont come to chant. Instead they stand, like a praetorian guard for some unseen emperor. COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Jay previously argued that Black people, exercising their constitutional rights to speak and pack heat, would be treated differently from white people doing the same. Military experience is preferred, Jay said, and would-be coalition members must have their own AR-style rifle. Compare the NFACs military-style discipline, Jay said, with white militias. The alternate versions of Jay do not seem to cohere into a single person. How can you get even 1 million armed followers if just a few years ago you were a failed DJ and now you believe that San Pellegrino will give you preternatural mental powers? According to Grandmaster Jay, the reasoning for the groups formation is simple. That includes defending it. Ive visited the death camps. This is the worry of those who monitor domestic extremist threats: If you recruit an army, equip it to fight, and range it as infantry across from other armed groups, one shot could ignite a skirmish and perhaps turn downtown Louisville into Baghdad for an afternoon. john johnson, who goes by the name grandmaster j. we to guilty this morning to five counts of wanton endangerment. After the murder of Walter Scott by a North Charleston police officer, he appeared at the side of Scotts family. Most people do not think it sensible to channel their justified rage by buying an AR-15 and joining a cultlike paramilitary organization. Members of the NFAC also stood their ground in Louisville after the death of Breonna Taylor. Grandmaster Jay told The Atlanta Black Star that the group stood guard to prevent a repeat of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre, in which five people in North Carolina were shot and killed by Nazis and Klansmen as citizens gathered for the start of an anti-racism protest. Grandmaster Jay, the leader of a Black militia called NFAC (Not F-cking Around Coalition) a name he says denotes the group's attitude spoke to Atlanta Grandmaster Jay, the leader of an armed militia that took part in protests last year in Louisville, has been indicted on several counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly aiming a firearm at police officers. When Jay orders his people into motion, they go. He does not want NFAC members to participate in anything like January 6. Meanwhile, Jay acquired a record of violence. But the transformation does not appear coincidental. I was caught up in all thatI, too, was waving signs and chanting, he said. But Jay did not raise a militia by cultivating a tranquil persona, and the NFAC members who heeded his call at his craziest moments will not wait forever for him to revoke his stand-down order and recover his insanity. On January 6, the NFAC had no presence in Washington: The District of Columbia does not allow open carry of weapons. He has already planned an appeal to a verdict by a Louisville jury. Grandmaster Jay In 2016, he emerged again, wearing a dark business suit with a black tie, pocket square, and large wristwatch. Download the WHAS11 News app now. During Friday's hearing,Judge Jennifer Wilcox ordered Johnson to have no firearms or deadly weapons while the case is pending. That movement accomplished nothing, Jay told me, just a lot of singing, a lot of hand-holding, a lot of sentiments and praise.. NFACs leader Grand Master Jay describing how he will build his black ethnostate inside the United States. Tommie Shelby, a professor of African American studies and philosophy at Harvard, noted that these ideas have precursors in Black political thought. Other groups, as far as their movements, we dont really have a position on, but we are specifically adding that we will not be identified with the Black Lives Matter movement., The verdict has yet to come in. The Grand Master Jay Legal Defense Fund On Wednesday, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned an indictment on Johnson for five counts of wanton endangerment.According to prosecutors with the Commonwealth's Attorney, the charges stem from Johnson and the militia taking part in a protest on Sept. 4, is 2020, in Louisville. They look like World War II partisans meeting their clandestine commander for the first time. Unfortunately, Jays answercreate a parallel, quasi-fascist race army with its own flag and homelandstrikes me as a particularly bad case of becoming that which you hate. The group, for the most part, is well run (some use an accidental firearm discharge as an example of its lack of organization), with all of its public actions being coordinated with law enforcement and local governments, which has resulted in no known violence. How did we get here? John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. When Jay orders his people into motion, they go. Right-wing militias stormed Michigans capitol and were not arrested. He considers Germanys a genuine effort by society to restore and repair those people who were the victims of this Holocaust., Like so much else about Jay, this passion for European Jewry presents a contradiction: Elsewhere, he has quoted Hitler approvingly and suggested that the Jews of Europethose people running around calling themselves the Jewsare imposters. GMJ MIXES & SONGS. PublishedFebruary 2, 2022 at 4:24 AM EST. Dalton Godbey joined WDRB News as a general assignment reporter in 2019 after spending two years reporting in Bowling Green. His group, armed with guns, moved into Louisville twice in the wake of Breonna Taylor's death for what they described as peaceful formations: Once in July and again the day before the 2020 Kentucky Derby in September.In December, Johnson was federally charged for pointing a rifle at Louisville Metro Police Department officers, FBI and Secret Service agents, who were on top of the Jefferson County Grand Jury Building. He later claimed to have worked as the director of a global cloud-integration practice and solutions architect. He tried a career as a hip-hop DJ, which took an embarrassing turn when stars including Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff accused him of plagiarism and rsum exaggeration. According to the documents, the FBI reviewed the surveillance video from the incident, which consisted of real-time crime center camera footage. A lot of times when people talk about time travel, they always run into the paradigm If you change something in the past, then youll screw up your present. Jay shook his head. Too much talking. We didnt create that. Im a student of history, he said. His group, armed with guns, moved into Louisville twice in the wake of Breonna Taylor's death for what they described as peaceful formations: Once in July and again during the 2020 Kentucky Derby in September. You wont get that from me. He said he wasnt from the Midwest. When Grandmaster Jay walked into Millions Crab, a seafood joint in suburban Cincinnati, the waitstaff looked alarmed. He swooned during the eclipse, felt a wave of energy, and began preaching the ideas of the NFAC soon after. After Jays arrest in December, he ordered his followers into a stand-down position. The militias that the NFAC opposes, such as the Oath Keepers, were active during December and Januaryand because of their presence at the storming of the Capitol, they now feel the heat of law enforcement. Very interesting, Jay said, speaking slowly and deliberately for the first time since his performance that night had begun. He won't be able to post instructional videos for some time, because of the social-media ban that was a condition of his bail. There are multiple futures depending on the timeline that you set in motion. He said one cannot really change the pastjust mint a new timeline. The far-right patriot movement has long been a fringe factor in American politics, as racial upheaval, police brutality, and a not-so-hidden agenda from President Donald Trump have paved the way for wide-scale growth of the ideological militia movement. In the July gathering, three people were wounded when a firearm accidentally discharged ahead of the march. Eleanor Harvey is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of JOHN JOHNSON. In the July gathering, three people were wounded when a firearm was accidentally discharged ahead of the march. When the KKK decided to come to Dayton in May 2019, Grandmaster Jay said that wasn't right. The group is called the Not F---ing Around Coaliton (NFAC). Jay said he does not admire or imitate any Black activists from previous generationshe protested when I suggested a comparison to the Black Panthers, whose aesthetic the NFAC has obviously ripped offbut was quick to defend the Jamaican political thinker and activist Marcus Garvey, who called for Black self-sufficiency and attempted to found a homeland for Black people. As the founder and commander of Americas largest all Black militia, his organization has stood up to the powers to be in the face of such atrocities as the Indeed, of the two of us, I was the one who felt sheepish, not because I was wasting his time but because it occurred to me that while I waited, I could have warned the servers that my dining companion was often armed and that he might look as if he had just stepped out of The Matrix. John Fitzgerald Johnson, known as Grandmaster Jay, is the leader of the NFAC, self-described as a Black nationalist paramilitary organization. Grand Master Jay, or John Fitzgerald Johnson, is accused of pointing an AR-style rifle at federal agents and police officers in downtown Louisville. He managed to get his name on 47 state ballots, running under the progressive platform of racism, womens rights, and economic equality as its three pillars. Thats not what we do., With the NFAC united under his guidance, he describes the groups ethos asan element that has always existed within America, as heshared with The Atlanta Black Star last month. Part of the process of creating a new country (under a treaty known as the Montevideo Convention) is demonstrating that enough people are eager to live there permanently and can administer the new state. The tradition of armed resistance persisted even as the civil-rights movement succeeded by rejecting this fearful symmetry: Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and John Lewis showed that Black people without guns were much more formidable. In his second interview with WVXU in less than a year, the head of a national Black militia group is looking forward to unity in 2022 but cautions it will be hard without equality. He could say anything, do anything, and somehow survive. Followers of his teachings, he said, would be the first to tell you nothing that I have predicted has not come true. In October, on YouTube, he told his soldiers, At this point, I dont think Ill be joining you all too much longer. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A presentation in front of a grand jury trial with the leader of a self-proclaimed militia organization has been delayed. NFAC Grandmaster Jay It has been described by news outlets as a "Black militia ". Federally, he's charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees and one count of brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence in relation to the same incident. I saw that I had been socialized to believe that I was second-class, that there was something criminal inherent about me, he said. But when you return to your timeline, nothing has changed! He continued. Kelly Clarkson's Home Collection Is Up to 74% Off During Way Day Deals, The Best Wayfair Way Day Deals 2023 Starting at $30. Who is Grand Master Jay Youve always had a demographic of veterans and grown adults who are law-abiding citizens who are responsible gun owners who understand the Constitution., According to Grandmaster Jay, the mission of the NFAC is two-fold. Great Jones Cookware Review: Is It Worth Buying? All rights reserved. 00:00 / 04:31. From that point on, he was spitting knowledge on social media, much of it about alien spacecraft (visitors) and odd phenomena he noticed in the sky. In December, Johnson was federally charged for pointing a rifle at Louisville Metro Police Department officers, FBI and Secret Service agents, who were on top of the Jefferson County Grand Jury Building. Among the small armory of assault rifles, they also found a prodigious amount of marijuana. But Jay told me that when he floated Wyoming to his followers, their response was: Hell nonobody wants to go to Wyoming. (Shelby notes that the desire to establish a Black homeland on American territory likewise has a long history, showing up in Harry Haywoods book Negro Liberation in the 1940s and the Republic of New Afrika movement in the 60s and 70s.). During the period after the First World War, when white mobs were shooting Black people and burning their businesses, many Black people considered peaceful protests (such as those organized by the NAACP) inadequate. John Fitzgerald Johnson, who also is known as Grandmaster Jay, is the enigmatic founder of the Not Fucking Around Coalition. In Germany, Jay was treated with the utmost respect, and he said he enjoyed a reprieve from the American racial hierarchy. Grandmaster Jay (center) says he urges the members of the NFAC to stay within the law, when demonstrating, unlike what happened on January 6. (At some point, he repudiated the Black Lives Matter slogan. By arresting Jay, the government took him out of circulation as a militia leader. At that time, LMPD officers at the scene received a radio transmission stating that a group of "six to eight heavily armed individuals" were parked on Armory Place, near a parking garage, according to court documents. To demonstrate its power, Jay said, the NFAC aims to assemble, in one place, a million legal [Black] gun owners, to show that the United Black Kemetic Nation can defend itself. He has taken several opportunities to explain that he and the Not FuckingAround Coalition are not fans of the decentralize movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience. Black Lives Matter is a failure, he explains. He showed up during uprisings following various outrages, such as the murder of nine parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist. Johnson served in the Virginia National Guard and the Army from 1989 to 2006, leaving at the rank of private. Prosecutors say the flashlight was attached to the barrel of a rifle Johnson was pointing at the officers. All lives!). But even those who originally joined with peaceful intent can become jaded, given enough time, injustice, and absentee leadership. Dont forget that you can do your part by visitingComplexs Pull Up & Votesitewhere you can double-check your registration, register to vote if you havent, and request a mail-in ballot. If youre biracial, your father must be Black. The other criteria relate to recruits ability to arm themselves without attracting the attention of law enforcement. Everythings upside down; the world a year ago is completely 180 degrees from where you are now and people are just blundering through it without realizing that youre living in an alternate timeline. Jay told me that he already had to vet his recruits carefully. National Black Militia Leader With Tri Two photos were included in the court filing that allegedly shows Johnson aiming his firearm at the officers. The first public appearance of the NFAC was at a KKK rally in Dayton, Ohio, in 2019. So he and others showed up to the demonstration. It has yet to fire a shot at its enemies, but its prepared for war. This may galvanize inquiring minds, but the road to becoming an actual member is fairly straightforward. BOZICH | Who would have beaten Secretariat? The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. His story, and the purpose of Not Fucking Around, became a little more clear, and a little less. He sat across from me, in front of a platter of scallops and shrimp that had been hot when Id ordered it for him an hour before, when the kitchen was closing. When I spoke with him after January 6, he still slipped into periodic fits of rage at the impertinence of my questions, but he stressed that the NFAC is peaceful and wants to open up a dialogue and stabilize the situation.. His attorney argued that Johnson was using the light on his gun to see who was on the roof, but the judge says evidence shows he was aware it was police. In one of Jays videos, he tells his followers that he intends to meet each and every last one of you face-to-face, to conduct an interrogation to screen out fakes, wannabes, snakes, and spiders. Jay says he will swear people in after they have put your life on the line by standing armed in an NFAC formation, in a situation where other armed groups might start trouble. The filtered water must have lowered his inhibitions, because over the next two hours Jay became more garrulous. Ultimately, Jay calls for descendants of the Portuguese and Atlantic slave trade to separate themselves from others and create a Black ethnostate. Grandmaster Jay might have an easier time describing the group by saying what it is not: neither left or right, not anti-semitic, not a gun club and not a social club. Ive studied the documents. You may have seen its members demonstrating where African Americans have died at the hands of police in places like Louisville and Georgia. Birth of the NFAC; Americas Black Militia That's where Grandmaster Jay was indicted on federal charges for brandishing a firearm, assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Not Fucking Around Coalition LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- "Grandmaster Jay," who was accused of pointing a rifle at a The Not Fucking Around Coalitionbetter known as the NFACis the latest organization to join the likes of the Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, and the 3 Percenters, the nationwide entitiesthat have taken root amidthe craziness going on right now. WebGrand Master Jay explains in 2016 interview why he was at the trump rally #NFAC. Kelly Clarkson's Home Collection Is Up to 74% Off During Way Day Deals, The Best Wayfair Way Day Deals 2023 Starting at $30. Four decades later, the activist Robert F. Williams wrote the classic text of Black armed resistance, Negroes With Guns, which argues that violence against Black people calls for violence by Black people. In 2020 and its aftermath, however, there is a greater-than-usual demand for someone who seems to have at least a little skill at propitiating the angry gods. FBI agents arrested John Fitzgerald Johnson, the founder of the Not F**king Around Coalition who is also known as Grand Master Jay, Thursday at his home. Theres no cover there, one laments to a police officer. We sat in Jays SUV, which soon filled with pleasant Cajun aromas from the scallops. Grandmaster Jay is clear when saying his group doesn't protest. The NFAC leaders real name is John Fitzgerald Johnson. Thursday, December 3, 2020 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Kentucky LOUISVILLE, Ky. John F. Johnson, aka, Grandmaster Jay has been charged via criminal complaint with assaulting federal task force officers, announced United States Attorney Russell Coleman. He told me that he spent four years in the Army in Germany, where he revised his racial self-understanding. Ive seen for myself, he said. RELATED: NFAC leader 'Grandmaster Jay' facing state charges after allegedly pointing gun at officers Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. (Source: Probable Cause Affidavit / FBI). I counted 28 rows of seven before I stopped counting. (Many still believe this.) The men and women are ragtag and amateur, and their uniforms are not, well, uniform. Questions surround Black militia leader John 'Grandmaster Jay Grandmaster Jay is firm when he says, "If you continue to offend us we will be prepared to defend ourselves.". You all are living in an alternate timeline. The official version of the biography of the Grandmaster Jay. The group advocates for black liberation and separatism. In a probable cause hearing on Wednesday, a judge decided that the state case surrounding that incident should head to a grand jury. At some point he got married, though he refused to say more about his domestic life. Grand Master Jay He is lithe enough to pass for being in his mid-40s. Because of Jays patrilineal theory of race, he would presumably recognize a smaller number still.). NFAC Grandmaster Jay Net Worth