Today, like any other day, i found myself listening to a show on WBAI (99.5fm in the New York area). This show consisted of someone (don't remember his name) interviewing someone who had just written a book about the turbulent mid 60s to mid 70s period in New York. The central theme of the book, however, was the Black Panther Party and the offshot Black Liberation Army. The writer (whose name i can't recall right now) talked about how elements of the United States government declared war on the Black Panther Party almost from day one. He gave examples of elaborate schemes concocted by these elements (i.e. the Federal Bureau of Investigation, et al.). For example, FBI CoIntelPro (Counter Intelligence Program) would write bogus letters, proporting that members of the East Coast Panthers were going to assassinate Huey P. Newton when he visited the East Coast. This letter was apparently written by a concerned East Coast panther who wanted to alert the West Coast panthers to what Panthers on the East were planning.
Yet, when he went on to to discuss the Black Liberation Army, he did so in striking contrast to the Black Panther Party. The BLA was a criminal outfit, composed of excons and cop killers only bent on killing police officers and overthrowing the U.S. government. According to him, their mission was to kill officers that were racially paired up, preferrably a white officer with a black partner. While i'm listening to this fantastical story, i wondered why the author hadn't mentioned that maybe this, too, was concocted by the same cointelpro machine that concoted the bogus letters or the fabricated news articles that were fed to the press.
Moreover, this writer never pointed out what the purpose of the BLA was or that the BLA was not created in a vaccum. Obviously, some person or person felt the necessity to create a BPP as well as a BLA. This liberal, left leaning writer never mentioned the circumstances that existed in the Black community that would cause its residents to conclude that they must organize themselves in order to quell a threat. The Black Panther Party wasn't created just to frighten people or to target police officers. The Black Liberation Army wasn't created just to kill police officers.
The mainstream media (then and now) only seems to focus on the confrontational stance that the Black Panther Party took against the police, while ignoring or dismissing the many other community programs that the BPP organized and operated. These programs included (but were not limited to) free breakfast for children, clothing drives, sickle cell treatment, and many others. Interestingly, when the BPP set up their free breakfast programs (which the FBI said was operated off of scare and intimidation tactics, yet the truth was that it the food came from donations), even the U.S. Government didn't have a program like it in urban communities.
We must not allow our story to be shaped a nd fashioned by others, only to be sold back to us as the objective truth. We in the black and latino (and poor) community know that there was a need then (and now) for an organization that will monitor police activity. When we don't have this, we have Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and Sean Bell. Police brutality has always been an issue in black and latino communities, and when an officer commits a crime like what was done to Sean Bell, he or she is either not charged (or charged but not convicted), or is given what can be likened to a slap on the wrist. This only serves to enrage the community. What's so challenging about that to understand???
While the victors (including white liberals) might look at the Black Liberation Army as a criminal outfit, hell bent on detroying America, those who know better look at them as freedom fighters, concerned with making sure that all Americans are afforded the same rights.
Now Get Up.
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