how likely is it that the US government killed MLK?

[consuming negativity]

if you search google for "who killed mlk?" you will be given a response stating that james earl ray - who was convicted with a confession - was the person who died in prison for assassinating martin luther king jr. but his family seems to disagree and they ended up winning a civil suit in memphis:


MEMPHIS, Dec. 8— A jury in a civil suit brought by the family of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided today that a retired Memphis cafe owner was part of a conspiracy in the 1968 killing of Dr. King.



The jury's decision means it did not believe that James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the crime, fired the shot that killed Dr. King.



After four weeks of testimony and one hour of deliberation, the jury in the wrongful-death case found that Loyd Jowers as well as ''others, including governmental agencies'' had been part of a conspiracy. The jury awarded the King family the damages they had sought: $100, which the family says it will donate to charity.



The family has long questioned Mr. Ray's conviction and hoped the suit would change the legal and historical record of the assassination.



''This is a vindication for us,'' said Dexter King, the youngest son of Dr. King.
He said he hoped history books would be rewritten to reflect this version of the assassination.


http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html


Excerpt from verdict:

THE COURT: I have authorized
this gentleman here to take one picture of
you which I’m going to have developed and
make copies and send to you as I promised.
Okay. All right, ladies and
gentlemen. Let me ask you, do all of you
agree with this verdict?
THE JURY: Yes (In unison).
THE COURT: In answer to the
question did Loyd Jowers participate in a
conspiracy to do harm to Dr. Martin Luther
King, your answer is yes. Do you also find
that others, including governmental agencies,
were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by
the defendant? Your answer to that one is
also yes. And the total amount of damages
you find for the plaintiffs entitled to is
one hundred dollars. Is that your verdict?
THE JURY: Yes (In unison).

http://www.globalresearch.ca/court-decision-u-s-government-agencies-found-guilty-in-martin-luther-kings-assassination

i've gone on the king center and searched elsewhere for more information on what was said, but other than going through the over-2000-page file detailing the entirety of everything that happened in the trial, i'm not sure that a circuit court civil suit in-and-of-itself seals the deal. on the other hand, his alleged assassin tried to get a revoke his plea of "not guilty" and get a retrial but was denied, and it is known that the government was spying on MLK and that it assassinated other civil rights leaders.

does anybody have any further information to add?

[RedKobra]

I remember watching an interview with James Earl Ray (who was decidedly not an angel) he said that they (the police) told him that his brother (who was doing time) would come to a very sticky end if he didn't shut up and take the rap.

[Sasha]

His brother was involved with some serious nazi activity;


In the summer of 1970, after his junior year at Athens High School, Black traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to work on the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Stoner, a segregationist and leader of the National States' Rights Party (NSRP). It was in this election that Jimmy Carter won the Georgia governorship. Don Black was asked to obtain a copy of the NSRP membership list by Robert Lloyd, a leader of the National Socialist White People's Party, formerly known as the American Nazi Party.[14] At the time, Black was a member of the Party's youth branch, the National Socialist Youth Movement.

Also working on the Stoner campaign was Jerry Ray, brother of Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray. On July 25, 1970, Jerry Ray shot Black (who was 16 at the time) in the chest with a .38-caliber hollow-point bullet to stop him from taking files from Stoner's campaign office.[15] Ray was acquitted of all charges, saying he shot in self-defense after Black reached for what appeared to be a weapon.

I know this was after the fact but i for sure take little trust in Ray claiming to be innocent, he might have been the fall guy for a wider conspiracy of at least the klan, probably local police and politicians and maybe the feds but he was def involved...

[STALINwasntSTALLIN]

if you search google for "who killed mlk?" you will be given a response stating that james earl ray - who was convicted with a confession - was the person who died in prison for assassinating martin luther king jr. but his family seems to disagree and they ended up winning a civil suit in memphis:




http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html



http://www.globalresearch.ca/court-decision-u-s-government-agencies-found-guilty-in-martin-luther-kings-assassination

i've gone on the king center and searched elsewhere for more information on what was said, but other than going through the over-2000-page file detailing the entirety of everything that happened in the trial, i'm not sure that a circuit court civil suit in-and-of-itself seals the deal. on the other hand, his alleged assassin tried to get a revoke his plea of "not guilty" and get a retrial but was denied, and it is known that the government was spying on MLK and that it assassinated other civil rights leaders.

does anybody have any further information to add?

If you keep peddling conspiracy theories then I am going to start referring to you as cyu.

To be honest I am not completely sold on the official MLK assassination, but I do not know who else it would be. The people from the grassy knoll?

As an aside I would not consider Globalresearch a credible source. They have the following conspiracy articles:

9/11 Truth:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-walls-are-crumbling-down-around-the-official-911-story-why/5394984

http://www.globalresearch.ca/911-the-mother-of-all-big-lies/5400986

Jews Control Canada (With An Unhelpful Reference To The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion):

http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-government-forming-pro-israel-lobby/4733

HAARP:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ultimate-weapon-of-mass-destruction-owning-the-weather-for-military-use-2/5306386

http://www.globalresearch.ca/video-haarp-weather-control/16955

http://www.globalresearch.ca/haarp-the-military-s-pandora-s-box/17902

http://www.globalresearch.ca/haarp-secret-weapon-used-for-weather-modification-electromagnetic-warfare/20407

And Last But Not Least Chemtrails...Lots And Lots Of Chemtrails:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-spraying-in-our-sky-petition-to-canadian-parliament-governments-response/5364947

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-climate-engineering-and-weather-warfare/5390207

http://www.globalresearch.ca/military-weather-modification-chemtrails-atmospheric-geoengineering-and-environmental-warfare/5356630

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-the-realities-of-geoengineering-and-weather-modification/5311079

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-the-secret-war/5421137

http://www.globalresearch.ca/atmospheric-geoengineering-weather-manipulation-contrails-and-chemtrails/20369

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-the-consequences-of-toxic-metals-and-chemical-aerosols-on-human-health/19047

http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-a-planetary-catastrophe-created-by-geo-engineering/5355299

Apparently the elite bourgeoisie have this super secret master plan to kill the worthless proletariat:

Step 1:
Bourgeoisie spray chemtrails in the sky

Step 2:
Bourgeoisie poison proletariat with chemtrails

Step 3:
Bourgeoisie poison themselves in the process

Step 4:
???

Step 5:
Profit

[BIXX]

Lol every conspiracy thread is filled with people who say "Now, normally I wouldn't consider that there might be a conspiracy, but this time... HOW COULD IT NOT BE ALIENS?"

[consuming negativity]

If you keep peddling conspiracy theories then I am going to start referring to you as cyu.

To be honest I am not completely sold on the official MLK assassination, but I do not know who else it would be. The people from the grassy knoll?

As an aside I would not consider Globalresearch a credible source. They have the following conspiracy articles:

what other "conspiracy theories" have i "peddled" on this site?

i did a thorough check of everything that gr.ca claimed and it was all readily available on other websites. their article in and of itself is a like a collaborative cut-and-paste from the king center, the court documents, and the nyt, but nobody else actually went and posted sections from the court documents and i found that snippet of a snippet particularly interesting.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I think the government probably killed him

[Subversive]

If you keep peddling conspiracy theories then I am going to start referring to you as cyu.
To be fair, the topic creator's point is actually very legitimately asked and not posing a new or irrational conspiracy.

It is fact that the King family actually does absolve the one who was declared guilty from the crime of shooting MLK. They do so only after investigating further evidence and finding that others were involved in a larger conspiracy. The courts have indeed found and confirmed that this larger conspiracy is true and does exist. The trials held were only seeking $100 in damages, a relatively very low amount, to demonstrate that the family was not seeking monetary compensation but only the truth of the matter.
The King family, as well as the courts, have found and believe that this larger conspiracy involved government officials. As well, it is not entirely out of the range of possibility that government officials really were involved due to their great dislike of MLK and the changes he was attempting to bring. And, of course, this is nothing new for the US government either way; Corruption and covert class-antagonism runs amok in the US government.

So if anyone is "peddling a conspiracy" it would be the King family, whom have actually done a fairly decent job, especially in terms of convincing juries of a larger government conspiracy.

This is unlike other, much stranger, conspiracy theories that are entirely without evidence. This conspiracy is, at least partially, demonstrated to be true.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

No doubt in my mind King and Malcolm X were assassinated just like Fred Hampton.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It's unlikely that it was a direct assassination. I haven't studied MLKs assassination that closely, but I think there are parallels to the case of JFK, whose assassination might be more attractive if viewed as a conspiracy but, actually, analysing the specific evidence of the event of JFKs assassination does lead to corroboration of the official narrative.

Of course, the existence of COINTELPRO does lead one to think that it is possible that there may have been some indirect 'state' involvement with MLKs death but, until there is tangible evidence to suggest this, I think it's unwise to peddle unsubstantiated theories based on whimsy.

[Subversive]

It's unlikely that it was a direct assassination. I haven't studied MLKs assassination that closely, but I think there are parallels to the case of JFK, whose assassination might be more attractive if viewed as a conspiracy but, actually, analysing the specific evidence of the event of JFKs assassination does lead to corroboration of the official narrative.

Of course, the existence of COINTELPRO does lead one to think that it is possible that there may have been some indirect 'state' involvement with MLKs death but, until there is tangible evidence to suggest this, I think it's unwise to peddle unsubstantiated theories based on whimsy.
As I pointed out to another user earlier, it is false to claim that this is "unsubstantiated theories based on whimsy".
The King family has made efforts to investigate the event and have made a legal court case where a jury has acknowledged that individuals in the government may have been involved.

Although the US court system is indeed broken, you still don't win any court cases with "whimsy". That would be a fraudulent and rather irrational assertion.

Furthermore, making any sort of connection between JFK and MLK's assassinations is simply nonsense. There is no connection other than that they were both assassinations.

[Bala Perdida]

On a similar note, can anyone else elaborate on the theory that the US government introduced crack to black communities to destroy their organizing. This has some background especially considering that the CIA helped the contras traffic cocaine around the same time.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ruppert

The video where Michael Ruppert confronts a CIA drone is genuinely enjoyable to watch http://youtu.be/IMBu0YTwfXc

[Culicarius]

Given that MLK began to express anti-capitalist views and expressed that they will be oppressed so long as they live in a capitalist society (in addition to the civil rights movement which he's usually known for), the idea that the government had some hand in his assassination is quite plausible to me.