FACT CHECK: Is the Black Lives Matter movement organizing an attack on 11 September 2015?
Claim: The Black Lives Matter movement has organized an attack on white police officers on 11 September 2015.
Example: [Collected via email, September 2015]
I've just started seeing articles about #fyf911. Supposedly it's part of the F*ck Yo Flag movement created by black lives matter activists. I have seen reports saying that blacks are going to attack/kill/rape randomly chosen white people and white cops. Supposedly this event is supposed to start in Stone Mountain, GA on Sept.11th of this year. I don't know if this story is true or false.
Origins: In September 2015, several conservative media outlets warned about a pending attack on white police officers planned for 11 September 2015 by the Black Lives Matter movement.
These reports all centered on a series of videos by "King Noble" with titles such as "Its Open Season On Killing Whites and Police" and "King Noble Reveals the Secret Location of #FYF911":
While it's true that King Noble threatened police officers in these videos and claimed that an attack would occur in Stone Mountain, Georgia on 11 September 2015, these videos are not associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
In fact, in a video uploaded on 4 September 2015, King Noble explicitly said that the Black Lives Matter movement was not responsible for the planned attack. There is also no mention of the alleged plan on the BLM web site or social media profiles.
An article published by Cosmopolitan on 8 September 2015 attempted to explain the Black Lives Matter movement's relationship with police officers:
Police officers are people. Their lives have inherent value. This movement is not an anti-people movement; therefore it is not an anti-police-officer movement. Most police officers are just everyday people who want to do their jobs, make a living for their families, and come home safely at the end of their shift. This does not mean, however, that police are not implicated in a system that criminalizes black people, that demands that they view black people as unsafe and dangerous, that trains them to be more aggressive and less accommodating with black citizens, and that does not stress that we are taxpayers who deserve to be protected and served just like everyone else. Thus the Black Lives Matter movement is not trying to make the world more unsafe for police officers; it hopes to make police officers less of a threat to communities of color.
The #FYF911 movement (F*** Yo Flag 911) appears to be a fringe group with a very small following. While it's true that King Noble claimed to be planning an attack on white officers on 11 September 2015, the Stone Mountain Police Department seemed more concerned with political agendas and racially motivated anger when they addressed the alleged threat on Facebook:
The Stone Mountain Police Department clarified, however, that it was not dismissing the threat:
We haven't forgotten the threats, nor are they being taken lightly.
In summation, a fringe group called #fyf911 did make a threat against police officers in Stone Mountain, Georgia. However, that group is not related in any way to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Last updated: 11 September 2015
Originally published: 11 September 2015