Black Lives Matter (BLM) Louisville and the Louisville Community Fund posted the $100,000 bond to free the suspect behind the attempted shooting a Jewish mayoral candidate, Fox News reported.
The suspect, 21-year-old Quintez Brown, is alleged to have entered Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg’s campaign headquarters on February 14 and opened fire. No one was hurt, but a bullet did scrape Greenberg’s sweater. WHAS11 reported that the Louisville Community Fund, which is reportedly organized by BLM Louisville, officially posted the bond for Brown. Brown was reportedly involved with BLM Louisville and regularly participated in the George Floyd protests. Brown will be put under home incarceration in the interim.
Just spoke with @BLMLouisville. They are heading to the bank to get a cashiers check to post Quintez Brown’s bail. Brown is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at mayoral candidate @RunWithCraig.
— Rachel DrozeTV (@RachelDrozeTV) February 16, 2022
The $100,000 cashiers check has been officially given to the clerks office to pay for @BLMLouisville activist Quintez Brown’s release. @LouCommBailFund is paying. Brown is accused of shooting at Louisville mayoral candidate @RunWithCraig. pic.twitter.com/5BMdW2hpfm
— Rachel DrozeTV (@RachelDrozeTV) February 16, 2022
BLM Louisville organizer Chanelle Helm told WHAS11 that the bail was posted for Brown because “they are calling for this individual, this young man who needs support and help, to be punished to the full extent. It is a resounding message that people are down for the torture that has taken place in our jails and prisons.” She also told The Courier Journal that they are seeking mental health counseling for Brown. “Jails and prisons do not rehabilitate people,” Helm said. “The community’s been doing that.” Brown’s attorney, Rob Eggert, had similarly told The Courier Journal that Brown suffered “a mental health breakdown” and needs “treatment, not prison.”
Greenberg told a local radio host that he is “concerned about my team and my family’s safety, and my safety, and we’ll be taking precautions for the duration of this campaign to ensure that everyone associated with us is safe,” according to the Courier Journal. The Courier Journal also highlighted a tweet from Republican Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini saying: “Attempted murder on Monday, go home on Wednesday. This case is highlighting everything wrong with our criminal Justice system in Louisville.”
Attempted murder on Monday, go home on Wednesday. This case is highlighting everything wrong with our criminal Justice system in Louisville. https://t.co/4Eqjdj6dpH
— Councilman Anthony Piagentini (@CMPiagentini) February 16, 2022
Jewish groups also criticized the bond being posted for Brown.
“BLM seems a bit confused––it’s not Quintez Brown who needs to ‘be safe’––he is the person who just missed murdering a candidate for mayor of the community,” Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement to the Journal. “How does the [$100,000] protect the community? Who should Americans be defunding? The police?” Cooper also pointed to a tweet from Kentucky Chabad of Bluegrass Co-Director and Kentucky Jewish Council Chair Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, who tweeted that in the past couple weeks, Brown’s “social media has pictures accusing Jews of being plantation owners, accusing Jewish money of running politics, and trafficking Black Hebrew Israelite garbage.” “And BLM used [$100,000] to bail this man out? Beyond hypocritical,” Cooper added.
In the two weeks before Quintez Brown the antisemitic radical terrorist, tried to murder a Jewish mayoral candidate, his social media has pictures accusing Jews of being plantation owners, accusing Jewish money of running politics, and trafficking Black Hebrew Israelite garbage. pic.twitter.com/aQu14LHbY6
— Rabbi S Litvin (@BluegrassRabbi) February 17, 2022
Zionist Organization of America National President Morton A. Klein also said in a statement to the Journal, “[BLM] posting bond for this man who attempted to murder a Jewish politician and who tweeted that Blacks who murdered police must be freed and falsely claimed those promoting Palestinian rights are censored, makes several issues more clear. It indicates that BLM’s recent nationwide riots were really about intentionally using violence to fulfill BLM’s goals to empty prisons of Black criminals, use a dangerously lenient and different standard for judging Black crime and raise money from frightened and intimidated White patrons and corporations. And it may further validate that BLM’s group’s previous written statements condemning Israel and some of their leaders’ public statements falsely blaming Israel for training US police to murder Blacks and lauding Jew- hater [Louis] Farrakhan, really may prove that [BLM] is an anti-White, antisemitic Israelophobic movement that must be carefully monitored.”
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez said in a statement to the Journal, “More and more troubling information is coming to light about BLM, and so we’re not surprised that they would help someone who attempted the targeted assassination of a Jewish man get out of prison.”
Brown faces charges of attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Previous reports found past comments from Brown saying that “defunding the police is our first step toward dismantling everything that was rooted in slavery” and that “our sick, manipulated brethren” say “that communism and collectivism has never and will never work and refuse to even explore these ‘childish’ (or inferior) ideas.” He has also previously called for “common sense gun reform.” The Courier Journal quoted Khalilah Collins, who met Brown at one of the George Floyd protests, as saying: “I think the idea that his attachment or his connection to (Black Lives Matter) is what motivated this is irresponsible. I feel like we’re trying to create this narrative of what happened, and we have no idea about nothing.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.