Gerald Flurry Plagiarizes Joel Hilliker's Article

Pan-African flag.

In the recently released May 2016 issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet, Gerald Flurry has an article that once again demonizes the Black Lives Matter protest movement. Flurry's article contains a section that discusses an inflammatory but marginal article written by a student in California. That section has been plagiarized from a March 2, 2016 article by Joel Hilliker. Hilliker's article was previously discussed here and here.

If Flurry's article had simply been attributed to Gerald Flurry and Joel Hilliker then there would be no problem. But only Gerald Flurry is credited with that article even though a whole section of it has been plagiarized from Hilliker's earlier article.

Even if Hilliker approved of this it is still plagiarism. By crediting this article to Gerald Flurry alone it misleads readers into thinking that this article is Gerald Flurry's work. But in fact the section discussing the student's article was largely written by Joel Hilliker. This misleads readers who do not know better. Gerald Flurry has no right to plagiarize Hilliker's words as though they were his own. This is deceiving those unaware of Hilliker's contribution to the article.

Below Hilliker's original March 2, 2016 article is compared with Gerald Flurry's later article.

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Blake Simons, a University of California–Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter activist, wrote a chilling article on November 4 peddling the same lies.
“Our Black Lives Matter protests have stormed the country, yet cops continue to kill us daily, and the judicial system continues to justify our deaths with acquittals, non-indictments and light sentences—all in the name of upholding the Constitution,” he wrote for the Afrikan Black Coalition group.
How is the Constitution implicated in this discussion about racism within law enforcement? (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

Blake Simons, a University of California–Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter activist, wrote a chilling article on November 4 peddling the same lies.
“Our Black Lives Matter protests have stormed the country, yet cops continue to kill us daily, and the judicial system continues to justify our deaths with acquittals, non-indictments and light sentences—all in the name of upholding the Constitution,” he wrote for the Afrikan Black Coalition group.
How is the Constitution even relevant in the discussion about racism within law enforcement? (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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Perhaps the Founders’ determination to keep law enforcement on the local level is the issue. They wanted to prevent the federal government from having centralized policing authority in order to curb potential abuses of power. Today, activist critics claim that local law enforcement is endemically racist and that the solution is federal intervention. There is no evidence to support this criticism or the notion that federal policing would solve anything. It really amounts to a federal power grab.
So what is this activist’s problem with the Constitution? He explains: “I have come to realize that the Constitution is the root of virtually all our problems in America” (emphasis added throughout). (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

Maybe, in the minds of these activists, the founders’ determination to keep law enforcement on the local level is the issue. The Founding Fathers wanted to prevent the federal government from having centralized policing authority in order to curb potential abuses of power. Today, activist critics claim that local law enforcement is fundamentally racist, and that the solution is federal intervention. There is no evidence to support this criticism—and no evidence that federal policing would solve anything. It really amounts to a federal power grab!
So what is this activist’s problem with the Constitution? He explained: “I have come to realize that the Constitution is the root of virtually all our problems in America” (emphasis mine throughout). (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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Simons continued: 

In order to understand the injustices against black folks in United States, we must look back to its foundation. The U.S. is a country that was founded on slavery, genocide, rape and white male patriarchy. The colonizers that we condemn for enslaving Afrikans [sic] and murdering indigenous peoples are the same people that produced and upheld the document we use to govern our nation to this day. Our bloodshed is rooted in this nation’s founding document, the Constitution. A body cannot be separated from its head and remain living. The Constitution and all the evil that it allows to be perpetuated are the head of White America, or more so corrupt America. Racist America. If you separate the head, the racism will die. 

Where is this kind of thinking leading? That question is especially concerning when you consider the attacks on the Constitution in recent years, coupled with divisive and racist rhetoric, coming from some of the highest leaders in the land. (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

“In order to understand the injustices against black folks in United States, we must look back to its foundation,” Simons continued. “The U.S. is a country that was founded on slavery, genocide, rape and white male patriarchy. The colonizers that we condemn for enslaving Afrikans [sic] and murdering indigenous peoples are the same people that produced and upheld the document we use to govern our nation to this day. Our bloodshed is rooted in this nation’s founding document, the Constitution. A body cannot be separated from its head and remain living. The Constitution and all the evil that it allows to be perpetuated are the head of White America, or more so corrupt America. Racist America. If you separate the head, the racism will die.”
Where is this kind of thinking leading? This question is especially concerning when you consider the attacks on the Constitution in recent years—along with divisive and racist rhetoric—coming from some of the highest leaders in the land! (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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The authors of the Constitution, wrote Simons, “owned black people as slaves and participated in calculated genocidal tactics against the black race. … A constitution written by only white men will never serve the interests of black people. The Constitution was written for the ruling class of white men which constructed whiteness to be more valuable than any other race. When we discuss institutional racism, it is essential that we realize the Constitution created it.” (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

The authors of the Constitution, wrote Simons, “owned black people as slaves and participated in calculated genocidal tactics against the black race. … A constitution written by only white men will never serve the interests of black people. The Constitution was written for the ruling class of white men which constructed whiteness to be more valuable than any other race. When we discuss institutional racism, it is essential that we realize the Constitution created it.” (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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The reality is almost precisely the opposite. The purpose of the Constitution is to protect freedom and prevent tyranny. As it is destroyed, tyranny and lawlessness are certain to increase. It was initially a failure to apply the central tenets of America’s founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, that enabled slavery to exist. It was the Constitution that helped to undo the injustices of slavery. It was the Constitution that President Abraham Lincoln used to emancipate slaves and make them full citizens of the United States. (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.) 

The reality is almost precisely the opposite! It was initially a hypocritical failure to apply the central principles of America’s founding documents that enabled slavery to exist. It was the language of the Declaration of Independence and the legal structures of the Constitution that helped undo the injustices of slavery. Abraham Lincoln begrudgingly tolerated slavery while it was legal in the Southern states, until he was able to invoke Article v of the Constitution to emancipate slaves and make them full citizens of the United States! (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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Blake Simons then quoted the Declaration of Independence—a document written by some of the same men who authored the Constitution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
“Do we not have the right to abolish the laws that oppress us?” Simons asked. “It is time to claim the Declaration of Independence and apply it to our struggle as colonized black people in America. The United States has declared war against us; it is time we demand a new constitution or tell America that she will get the bullet.” (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

Toward the end of his article, Simons revealed his true agenda in attacking the U.S. Constitution.
He quoted the Declaration of Independence, a document written by some of the same men who authored the Constitution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
“Do we not have the right to abolish the laws that oppress us?” Simons asked. “It is time to claim the Declaration of Independence and apply it to our struggle as colonized black people in America. The United States has declared war against us; it is time we demand a new constitution or tell America that she will get the bullet.” (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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What sort of constitution is he talking about? He continues: “The idea for a new constitution is not a new idea, rather an old one that was developed by the Black Panther Party.” He wrote about the “Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention” convened by the Black Panthers in 1970. The project never materialized, he said, but, “We must pick up where the Black Panthers left off and declare a new constitution or it will be the bullet. … If America truly wants to be a nation that values the lives of all people, it has one option, and the option is a national constitution convention. This is the last hope America has to become whole. If America fails to allow all people of this nation to write a new constitution, then it will be the bullet.”
Do you want to live in an America with a Constitution written by the Black Panther Party? (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

He wants to abolish the Constitution and replace it with a new one, an idea developed by the Black Panther Party in 1970: “We must pick up where the Black Panthers left off and declare a new constitution, or it will be the bullet. … If America truly wants to be a nation that values the lives of all people, it has one option, and the option is a national constitution convention. This is the last hope America has to become whole. If America fails to allow all people of this nation to write a new constitution, then it will be the bullet.”
The Black Panthers convened their Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in 1970. At the convention, Huey P. Newton spoke of the need for a socialist revolution.
Now—whatever your race, whether black, white, yellow or any other color—would you really want to live under a Black Panther constitution? (Gerald Flurry, The Real Agenda Behind Black Lives Matter, May 2016.)

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And so we see that Gerald Flurry has plagiarized Joel Hilliker's article misleading many of his readers into thinking he wrote the section concerning the article by a student from California. It is irrelevant if Hilliker approved. It is plagiarism. It is wrong. Many readers of this article will not notice that this section of Flurry's article was plagiarized from Hilliker's earlier article.