BNP’s constitutional change means nothing

Swiftly following on from the announcement that the BNP is changing its constitution to ‘allow’ non-whites to join the ranks of anti-semites, Islamophobics, nazis and racists in the party, a black face appeared in among the site members, claiming to be one Daniel Muranbuti.

Daniel included a brief note about himself:

‘I am a young and laid-back kinda guy, I like reggae and poetry, and I fully support your aim to keep Britain British, now I know you ain’t racist and against my People. We’re all on the same side, and I just know it won’t be long before we can celebrate together like the Americans do with their black president.’

Fair enough. If Daniel is stupid enough to join a notoriously racist party that’s packed with nazis and has a leadership that almost entirely consists of ex-National Front activists, that’s his problem. Or rather, it isn’t. Because there’s no such person as Daniel Muranbuti.

The picture that the mythical Daniel supplied is actually that of Oscar Grant, a young father who was killed by a police officer on a crowded BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train returning from San Francisco after a New Year’s Eve party.

Oscar died on January 1st 2009. He was shot in front of numerous witnesses, many of whom filmed the event on digital cameras and mobile phone cameras, and who had started recording because they believed BART officers were acting too aggressively.

One wonders at the mentality of someone who chooses a victim of murder as their avatar – until we remember that Oscar Grant was black and the BNP seems to applaud the violent deaths of or attacks on non-whites.

Regular readers may recall Lee Barnes, the BNP’s unqualified and certifiably insane ‘legal officer’ posting a video of Rodney King on his blog, which he described as ‘brilliant’. In the post from June 2009, he added, ‘the beating of Rodney King still makes me laugh’.

King was attacked by police officers back in March 1991 and severely beaten. In fact he was rather more than severely beaten. A video of the event shows that he was tasered twice, received six kicks and the horrific total of fifty-six baton blows. He suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle and numerous bruises and lacerations. King later stated that he had also suffered ‘11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma’.

If this kind of nightmarish attack on an unarmed man can give Lee Barnes a good laugh, should we be surprised that a supporter chooses another victim of a similar and murderous attack to use as an avatar? No, of course not, because – changes to the constitution notwithstanding – the BNP always has been, is now and always will be a racist organisation that enjoys seeing the people it most despises suffer.