Black Lives founder Matter Utah rejected leftist activist John Sullivan, who was arrested in connection with the January 6 Capitol rebellion in Washington, describing him as a reckless agitator who was “rejected” because of his behavior.
“We don’t want to be associated with John Sullivan,” Lex Scott, the founder, told Fox News on Friday.
Sullivan founded her own organization, Insurgence USA, and never joined the local BLM chapter, attended a meeting or participated in her mission to lobby for racial justice and police reform, she said.
John Earle Sullivan (Toeele County Sheriff’s Office)
(Toeele County Sheriff’s Office)
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“He looks like a kind of loose cannon,” she said. “So, we just got away from him – but he’s like a thorn in my side that won’t go away.”
“He looks like some kind of loose cannon. So we just moved away from him – but he’s like a thorn in my side that won’t go away.”
Scott and Sullivan say his involvement in the protests began in June 2020, when he said he founded Insurgence USA to oppose police brutality after George Floyd’s death on May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis. (Four former police officers accused of Floyd’s death await trial.)
Lex Scott appeared on “Fox News @ Night” in July to discuss police reform legislation with US Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, and host Shannon Bream.
(FOX)
The video of Floyd’s arrest sparked protests across the country and police firings – as well as criminal charges.
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“John is a new activist,” said Scott. “He arrived here in June, because a lot of fashion people came here.”
But Sullivan never joined or participated in Black Lives Matter Utah, which has been peacefully pushing for reforms for seven years, without ever having a member arrested, she said.
“In our chapter, we work with Republicans and Democrats for police reforms,” she said, noting that she appeared on Fox News in July to discuss the matter with US Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Black Lives Matter organizations across the country have different structures and are not directly related, Scott explained by phone on Friday. She said her group requires members to sign a contract promising not to participate in inciting violence or destruction of property.
However, almost immediately after declaring himself an activist, Sullivan organized a protest where he was arrested on charges of riot and a driver was shot after trying to navigate a blocked intersection. These charges are still pending in a Utah court.
“I personally don’t know what your intentions are,” said Scott. “I don’t know what your motivations are.”
Sullivan, on his personal website and on the Insurgence USA website, describes himself as an activist for “racial justice and police reform”. On his websites and social media accounts, he shared articles in which he is described as a Black Lives Matter activist. In an interview with Fox News last week, he did not reject the label.
And recently speaking to other media, he also invoked the phrase.
“I was concerned about people recognizing me and thinking that I was Antifa or, like, BLM or whatever,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview about his experience within the Capitol riot. “They are screaming all the time, ‘F— Antifa! F—, BLM. ‘ I am not saying that I am Antifa at all. But I definitely believe Black Lives Matter. “
But Scott said other social justice groups also cut ties with Sullivan because of his behavior.
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“He needs to stop pretending to be part of this movement here,” she said. “We don’t want to be associated with him if he’s out there attacking the Capitol. I don’t know what this man is doing – I don’t want to be a part of it.”
Attempts to contact Sullivan, who was released from custody under house arrest by a federal judge in Utah on Friday, were not immediately successful.