complete Keith Ellison // (Scott Johnson).

It will be a sad day if Keith Ellison wins his race to reelection Minnesota Attorney General. He will return if he loses. His insatiable desire for office is unbridled. History must be told, win or lose.

Ellison is the most unfit American officeholder. Ellison’s ineligibility is the most prominent factor in the intense competition. This was the point of my 2018 Weekly Standard Column “Can Keith Ellison become a lawman?” which updated my 2006 Weekly Standard Column “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman” as well as my companion Power Liner post “Keith Ellison” . With my series of posts asking “Who’s Keith Ellson?” I tried to put Ellison’s political career in context over the past 16 year.

What is the context? Ellison has never been asked about it. This is the summary that I gave in the 2018 Weekly Standard column. This is my closing statement about Ellison for 2018.

Ellison was a strong supporter and leader of the Nation of Islam in Minneapolis prior to his election as Congressman. However, he has blatantly dissected this history since 2006. Ellison simply omitted the information in his 2014 memoir My Country, ‘Tis of thee and presented himself as a critic of Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam.

Jake Tapper, CNN’s Jake Ellison, stated that he worked on the Million Man March in 2018 and was proud to have done so. But that wasn’t the end. Ellison was elected to office in 1998 as Keith Ellison Muhammad, a self-avowed member of Nation of Islam. Ellison has used three Nation of Islam names over the years, including Ellison-Muhammad. He was fortunate that Ellison’s 5th district constituents didn’t care much about his history, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune has almost entirely allowed it to rest exactly where Ellison wants.

Ellison’s career has been characterized by a troubling thread: his support for cop killers. In September 1992, a Minneapolis police officer Jerry Haaf was executed-style. He was shot in the back while taking a break at a south Minneapolis restaurant. Later, police determined that Haaf’s death was a gang hit. He was shot in the back while taking a coffee break at a south Minneapolis restaurant. Sharif Willis was a convicted killer who was released from prison. Willis also ran a gang front called United for Peace.

The murder of Haaf was planned by the four Vice Lords members. Willis was not charged despite the fact that Willis was implicated in the plot by two witnesses. This was because the law enforcement authorities did not have sufficient evidence to convict him.

Ellison was a Minneapolis lawyer in private practice at the time. Ellison was seen with Willis within a month of Haaf being shot to death. Ellison was part of a protest against Minneapolis police organized by United for Peace in October 1992. Ellison stated that the main purpose of the rally was to support United for Peace in its fight against the campaign of slander that the police federation has been engaging in.

Willis was the last speaker of the demonstration. According to a contemporaneous report from the St. Paul Pioneer Press Willis said that Minneapolis police felt the same fear from young black men as blacks felt from police for many decades. Willis stated, “If the police feel fear, I can understand that fear.” “We seem to have an excessive number of bad police. . . . Willis stated that they would get rid of them. “They have to go.” The Pioneer Press account concludes Ellison’s contribution to demonstration: Ellison told the crowd that the police union was systematically terrorizing whites in order for more police officers to be hired. Ellison stated that this way the union can increase their power base.

Ellison publicly supported the Haaf murder suspects. He spoke at a demonstration in February 1993 for one of the Haaf murder defendants. Ellison led the crowd at the courthouse in a chant that was very ominous considering Haaf’s cold-blooded killing: “We don’t get any justice, you don’t get any peace.” In February 1995, Ellison and Sharif Willis were both convicted in federal court of several drug- and gun-related offenses and sent back to prison for twenty years.

The Haaf case was not an isolated incident. He spoke at a fundraiser sponsored in February 2000 by the Minnesota chapter the old National Lawyers Guild. The chapter was raising funds to support Kathleen Soliah (former member of the Symbionese Liberation army), who had been a fugitive for 25 years on charges related the attempted pipe bombing attack on Los Angeles police officers. The National Lawyers Guild, an old Communist front organization that somehow survived the fall the Soviet Union, is now a nonprofit. Regimes change, but dupes last forever.

Ellison, in his National Lawyers Guild speech, spoke highly of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Joanne Chesimard) and Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), both cop killers who were wanted for the 1973 murder of Werner Foerster, a New Jersey state trooper. Chesimard was convicted for that murder, but escaped prison in 1979. He has been on the run in Cuba since 1984. Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough is a fascinating account of Chesimard’s terrorist career. Chesimard was named by the FBI to its Most Wanted Terrorists List in 2013. For her capture, the FBI offered a reward up to $1,000,000

Ellison, however, prayed for Chesimard during his National Lawyers Guild speech. He said: “I am praying Castro does not get too far to the point where they have to barter with these guys over there because they’re about to get Assata Shahkur, they’re about to get a lot of other people,” he told them. “I hope that the Cuban people will stick to it, because freedom of some decent people depends on it.

It is also noteworthy that Ellison supported Soliah/Olson during the speech. He condemned law enforcement authorities for trying to murder police officers. Ellison spoke out about Soliah/Olson’s time in the SLA under Donald DeFreeze (“Field Marshal Cinque”) and described Soliah/Olson a “black band member” and called her a victim of government persecution. He called for her release and described her as one who had been fighting for freedom in the “60s and ’70s”. Ellison’s assertions to the contrary were not true. Soliah/Olson pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to the crimes and a Sacramento murder charge.

Ellison claims that Soliah/Olson is a social justice fighter fighting for the good fight. The attempted murder of police officers was not the case; it was just a pretext. The Los Angeles district attorney pursued the case in bad faith. This is not about accountability. It is not about public safety. This is about SYMBOLISM. This is about MAKING a POINT. This is about telling you and me that we will get you if we ever stand against what we believe. WE’RE GOING TO GET YOU. We’re going after you. No matter how long it takes, and we won’t stop until you are safe. You might get book deals or private revenge. But no prosecution like this would be allowed to float unless it had an important symbolic meaning that linked it all for those involved. It is the belief that those who fought for social justice in the 60’s, 70’s, and to elevate humanity were wrong. We’re going to prove them wrong. This is what it’s all about.

Greg Lang found the speech text as edited by Ellison and posted it on a site Lang created for the Soliah case. Fearing that the site might vanish, as it did, I uploaded the entire speech here on Power Line. It is well worth reading the whole thing. It reveals Ellison’s hostility to impartial law enforcement and indifferent to the lives police officers. It is a shocking speech and reveals his ineligibility for any public office, let’s not forget attorney general. Katherine Kersten, a Star Tribune metro columnist, dedicated a column to Ellison’s National Lawyers Guild speech when Lang found it. Ellison declined to comment on her current view of Soliah/Olson, Chesimard/Shakur, and she has not asked him about it since.

Ellison was a hustler who sold the toxic Nation of Islam line from his third year at University of Minnesota Law School (1989-1990), to the 2000 National Lawyers Guild speech. He had thrown out the Nation of Islam baggage by 2002, when he ran for office again as a state legislator. The vicious radicalism was not gone.

Partially documented is this period in Ellison’s career in videos kept in archives in the Twin Cities. My Ellison file consists of news clippings, interview notes, and is approximately six inches in thickness. Nothing is more shocking than the detailed record of Ellison’s ardent support for cop killings, as summarized above. I have arranged the video remnants chronologically with notes where appropriate. This is only for completeists, as I said.

Police and the African American community (10/30/92), 1 of 3

Ellison began speaking at 1:44.20 — Ellison claims that some people call them “riots”. He refers to them around 1:46.20 as “disturbances”.

Police and the African American community 2 out of 3

Ellison: “There is no police accountability” 458 Ellison: Police are the “military wings of the government”

5:30-6:30 Defends Sharif Willis, a convicted felon, and claims he had nothing do with the murder of Minnesota Police Officer Jerry Haaf. (Willis was indicted in the murder but not charged).

6:00: Ellison refers “so-called Gangs”

Police and the African American community 3 out of 3

Crime Hysteria & Race Bias Forum (1/26/1994). 1/5

4:30-7:00 Ellison laments the “hysteria” surrounding crime and rails against the criminal justice system. “Seems like all of the debate centers around whether or not to punish these quote unquote criminals very severely or very severely.”

2/5

3/5

7:45 Ellison questions about AC Ford case — Ford is one of the defendants convicted of the murder of Officer Haaf. Ellison seems to agree with Ford’s attorney that the wrong man was convicted

4/5

18:00 Ellison blasts race-fueled crime “hysteria”,

5/5

Death Penalty Forum 11/6/1996

5:08 Ellison seems inclined to support the conspiracy theory, that crack cocaine was placed in black communities by the CIA

6:08 Ellison states that America is not a good place for black Americans

8:45 Mumia Abu Jamal, a convicted cop killer, is likely innocent

37:00 Americans may abandon death penalty, except for fear of blacks

42:20 Street crime isn’t the worst type of crime — environmental crimes can be worse

49:50 Young whites need to take responsibility and end racial oppression. Ellison supports reparations

50:20 Blacks should be able to seize America