Black Lives Matter Activist Who Stormed Netroots Nation Stage Is Convicted Felon

black lives matter
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

Tia Oso—the Black Lives Matter radical activist who made headlines when she hoisted herself onstage this past weekend to disrupt the Netroots Nation event featuring erstwhile Democrat presidential candidate Martin O’Malley—is a convicted felon who stole over $11,000 from a small non-profit she worked for years ago.

As the Phoenix New Times reported in detail:

While working as the business manager for the Arizona Citizens for the Arts/Arizona Action for the Arts in 2007 and 2008, a job she includes in her online résumé, Oso issued checks to herself, made unauthorized withdrawals and made personal charges on the organization’s credit card. The theft occurred over the course of a year and totaled about $11,000, court records show.

Oso had walked off the job in May 2008 without explanation “after being counseled about absences and performance-related issues,” records state. She was fired after she failed to show up for work for three days, and the embezzlement was apparently discovered soon afterward.

Twenty-seven at the time, Oso confessed to court officials that she used the money to pay rent, make car payments, and “stabilize her financial situation.”

She pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft.

According the Phoenix New Times article, Ms. Oso was given a few days in jail, two years probation, and required to pay restitution, which she finished paying last year. The article also mentions what they call Ms. Oso’s “scofflaw driving record” which includes “failure to appear” notices in five traffic court proceedings since 2006, including one recent allegation from March.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a radical leftist organization in the tradition of the 1960s group the Black Liberation Army, known for their open contempt for the police. The group was active in promoting unrest in both Baltimore and Ferguson.

Community organizer Ms. Oso recently penned an essay entitled “I Am the Black Woman Who Interrupted the Netroots Presidential Town Hall, and This Is Why,” explaining why she took the stage and giving some of her background:

I felt I was the right person to open the action and shift the focus of the program, especially in the context of the conference theme of “Immigration.” I am a native to Arizona, the child of a Nigerian immigrant father and African-American mother, whose parents were migrant farm workers, aka “Okies.” I also served for three years as the Arizona organizer (and continue to work as the National Organizer) with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the premier racial justice and migrant rights organization in the U.S.

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration is a small pro-illegal immigration group that’s headed by #BlackLivesMatter founder Opal Tometi, who was also raised in Phoenix.

Tometi is also a board member of an Arizona group called the Puente Human Rights Movement that was behind recent protests against Donald Trump that were covered by Breitbart News. The group Puente has also sued Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio. and during the Netroots Nation event it led a large protest against Arpaio that mainly consisted of Netroots attendees.

The disrupted Netroots Nation panel’s moderator was illegal alien Jose Antonio Vargas, who is a pro-illegal immigration activist with the group Defining American. It’s not clear whether Vargas knew fellow immigration activist Oso prior to the event.

According to her LinkedIn resume, Ms. Oso is an active networker with a number of positive recommendations for her social justice and arts work. She also has certification as a Zumba Fitness Instructor.

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