Official Black Lives Matter Account Appears To Justify Violence In Wake Of Charlotte Stabbing

The official Instagram account of Black Lives Matter posted a brief video clip appearing to justify violence on Wednesday in the wake of the Aug. 22 murder of a Ukrainian refugee.

Iryna Zarutska, who worked at an area pizza restaurant, was stabbed to death while returning home from work on a Charlotte light rail train by DeCarlos Brown, a man with a lengthy criminal history. The BLM account posted a reel from the “moviesofcolour” Instagram account that consisted of a 15-second clip from “Born in Flames,” a 1983 movie on its Instagram Stories, videos that stay up for 24 hours before being deleted.

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“We have a right to violence,” a character named Zella says in the clip. “All oppressed people have a right to violence. And I want to tell you something, it’s like the right to pee. You got to have the right place. You got to have the right time. You got to have the appropriate situation. And I’m absolutely convinced that this is it!”

The Daily Caller News Foundation took multiple screenshots of the clip on the Black Lives Matter account.

The moviesofcolour Instagram account says its purpose is “Celebrating every facet of filmmaking by creators of colour and their representation on screen.”

“The video we reposted was in no way, shape, or form related to the death of Iryna Zarutska. We were expressing agreement about uplifting oppressed people’s struggles. We don’t condone political violence, and we apologize for any suggestions to the contrary,” Black Lives Matter said in a statement emailed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I got that white girl, I got that white girl,” Brown said in surveillance video released by the Charlotte transit authority Friday as other passengers eventually went to the aid of Zarutska, as drops of blood from the knife dripped onto the floor of the train car.

The incident went viral on social media after authorities released the video. Tesla CEO Elon Musk made multipleposts and also reposted other users on X who discussed the killing.

Conservatives on social media also commented about the absence of coverage from corporate media, contrasting that to how many corporate media outlets covered the death of Jordan Neely, a man with a lengthy arrest record who died after being restrained by 24-year-old Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran, May 1, 2023.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg secured an indictment of Penny for involuntary manslaughter, but a jury acquitted Penny in December 2024.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a response from Black Lives Matter about the posts.

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