Amid New Black Panther Controversy, Dallas County Halts Appointment of Aaron McCarthy

Just hours after controversy arose surrounding the re-appointment of Aaron McCarthy to the Dallas County Commission’s Homeland Security Advisory Council due to his role as founder of the racist and anti-Semitic New Black Panther Party for Self Defense (NBPP), the Commission postponed its vote. Officials cited doubts about the overall value of the advisory committee, not McCarthy’s former affiliation with a hate group, as the reason for the decision.

Concerns about McCarthy’s involvement in the Homeland Security Advisory Council are not unwarranted. Despite the fact that that McCarthy, also known as Aaron Michaels, has not held a significant leadership role with the NBPP in recent years, his militant leadership of the group throughout much of the 1990s is well documented. During his tenure, the NBPP invited a white supremacist leader to speak at a rally promoting racial separatism and engaged in racially-charged, armed confrontations.