Finley: Godfather is setting rules for radicals

Saul Alinsky isn't the one setting the rules for the radicals controlling the streets of some of America's largest cities. It's Don Vito Corleone. 

Alinski, the late revolutionary whose "Rules for Radicals" inspired a generation of activists, some of who've reached the pinnacle of power, advocated a step-by-step erosion of America's values and institutions.

Corleone, Hollywood's most famous mob boss, was less patient, sticking the bloody consequences of defying him right in the face of his targets.

The Godfather's methods are preferred by today's social justice mobs.

Witness the demands leveled by Black Lives Matter in Louisville, where ongoing and often violent demonstrations have effectively rendered unusable the city's hip East Market District, or NuLu as it's popularly known.

In a letter to the NuLu business community, the activists offered peace in exchange for a long list of demands to give African Americans a greater cut of the action in Louisville's surging downtown.

The list calls for representation of African Americans equal to their piece of the city's population — 23% — in district jobs, management positions, business ownership, nonprofit boards, etc. 

On paper, it's a worthy goal. I was among those who early on called out the scarcity of Black participation in Detroit's downtown comeback.

But as hard quotas, with harsh repercussions for not meeting them, they are nothing more than a shakedown. If the 23% target is missed, businesses will be required to make a donation equal to 1.5% of net sales to local Black organizations.

The other demands are straight out of Soviet and Chinese reindoctrination camps.

Business owners must swear the equivalent of a loyalty oath by posting in a prominent place their support of reparations for slavery. They and their staffs must submit to biannual diversity, equity and inclusion training conducted by pre-approved Black female trainers. They then must participate in quarterly community "roundtables" where their progress toward compliance will be judged.

The shakedown payment is just the start of the Mob-style coercion. 

Businesses that fail to agree to the terms face the outright threat of ruin. BLM promises a campaign of  intense intimidation.

The actions threatened include blasts of the non-compliance on "all social media platforms" and via mail. Public boycotts organized online of "your NuLu establishment AND any other business ventures owned by you."

Also, "Visible, media-covered demonstration/sit-in outside your establishment." 

And something called "Invasive Reclamation," which means staffing booths and tables outside a business where competing Black businesses can offer their wares.

The threats seem to meet the legal definition of extortion: "The gaining of property or money by almost any kind of force or threat of violence, property damage, harm to reputation, or unfavorable government action."

That charge has landed a lot of mob figures in the slammer. But the BLM mobsters fear no such reprisals.

They know they're free to adopt the tactics of the Godfather because so many American cities are being run by prototypes of his bumbling boy Fredo. 

Twitter: @NolanFinleyDN

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