The Right Fight (Part 5)

Part 5

Chapter 2

Everything that happened to Alonzo on that day, thankfully, was posted on social media. Nearly every person with access to the internet has seen the videos of the attacks; from the security cameras at the intersection to the chaotic cellphone videos posted by kids who were on the scene.

But as we know, the Alonzo Morgan Video, as it is called, was filmed from up on top of the hill by a group of students who were making the weekly Kennedy High School news show. Their powerful, high definition camera was positioned on the main stairs of the campus with a direct downward view of Simmons and Glacier.

When you watch the Alonzo Morgan Video as it is called, the first thing the viewer sees is the student anchor as she’s startled by the shocking sounds from below. She’s a dark haired girl of 16 and her bright face sours as she turns her back to the camera. High school aged children are screaming with terror, the sort of sounds most Americans only recognize from Hollywood productions. The cameraman uses this moment to tighten the shot over her shoulder, manipulating the powerful machine to zoom in and record the savagery.

When the reporter moves and the cameraman zooms in past her, the homicidal maniacs are moving like extras in a war movie about the 1500s. It is clear they are not experts in knife tactics, but what the psychopaths lack in technique they make up for with murderousness. Today we know their names; Greg Briggs and Paul Greene. They were, of course, members of the “Western Front,” a far right conspiracy theory, white power organization dedicated to eliminating “wokeness.”

Like most right wing lunatics in the United States, they had no formal military training which was very lucky for the children that day.

In the video both men wield long Bowie knives. Erratically Briggs and Greene lunge and strike, the students try to move out of their reach but because of the crowd several of them are trapped and slashed. You watch while four students take defensive wounds, sliced through the hands and arms. The violence makes you sick to your stomach.

Panicking students trying to escape accidentally block a medium sized boy off of his own escape path and into the attackers. The boy doesn’t have time to defend himself and Greg Briggs sticks the blade quickly and deeply into his side. The boy falls to the ground.

Greg Briggs stalks toward the hurt boy to finish the job. The boy is holding his wounded ribs, paralyzed with pain. His eyes are closed. Death is coming to him. Briggs is moving quickly, but Alonzo Morgan is quicker.

Alonzo is almost a blur in his entrance, appearing to move faster than a human being is capable. Comments on the YouTube video call him “Super-Man” and it’s hard to disagree as you see him streak into the frame.

He takes a direct line into Briggs. The smash of the first tackle happens very fast. The right wing lunatic with the knife goes down and the distance of the frame makes it hard to understand entirely. The brutality of the landing is too brief from the angle of the student news camera.

But when you google “The Alonzo Morgan Video Tackle,” the internet has dug deeply and you find hundreds of slow motion graphic breakdowns with commentary. Refining the footage the impact is made clear, the right winger lands with tremendous velocity, his head smashing into the pavement. Watching the tackle with this level of detail most people feel a sense of queasiness.

In the Alonzo Morgan Video, Alonzo stands there for a moment before being stabbed in the back and then the arm by the second attacker, Paul Greene. Alonzo spins and lands the solid right hand knocking Greene to the ground.

The follow up kick to the face does not need a slow motion replay. The angle is perfect. You can feel somewhere in your most primal places the twin damage of Alonzo’s shin to the right winger’s face and the impact of the head on the cement. Bang, bang. The slight taste of paint in your mouth of a severe head injury.

This would be enough for the Alonzo Morgan story to perhaps claim the title of most viral video of all time. It is dramatic, brutal and the peak of heroism.

But then the police arrive.

As the cameraman pulls back to include the cops in the frame you can see the children are scattering, the police are training their weapons and the time between their arrival and when Officer Brooks shoots Alonzo 15 times is so brief that you find yourself watching and rewatching this section of video trying understand why the cop shot him.

How can a cop be so brutal? Why, when there is no one near Alonzo does the cop empty his clip into the man? And why so quickly? You can rewind and watch dozens of times and the savagery never quite clarifies itself.

Behind Alonzo two students are shot by the cop, and they go down screaming. A girl with black hair is holding her arm and a blonde girl is less lucky, she takes a bullet in the shoulder.

This is part of a longer piece. Part 6 coming soon.

(To start at the beginning, Part 1 is here.)