J. Edgar Hoover – Mosi-Blog

AMERIKAN POLICING AND STATE SANCTIONED MURDERS OF BLACK LEADERS

[Book Excerpt #9\”The Roots of Racism in American Policing”]
The murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on December 9, 1969, in Chicago, is an example of outright blatant political police murder.
Photo: Facebook

Charismatic Chicago Panther leader Fred Hampton murdered in his sleep by Chicago Police on December 4, 1969.

The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book “The Roots of Racism in American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Stop-and-Frisk.”

Over the last few weeks, the Black Star News has been publishing selected portions from the book. The following excerpt is from Chapter 3.

The rise of Black Power groups, in the Sixties, like the Black Panther Party, and later, groups like the Black Liberation Army, were a direct indicator of this rising resistance to police oppression and political white supremacy. The original name of the Black Panther Party was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The emphasis on self-defense must not be forgotten since this is a direct reference to resisting the violence and murder of Black Americans by the hands of police. Founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in the incendiary aftermath of the 1965 Watts Rebellion, and the assassination of the militant Muslim minister Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party declared, in point seven of their “Ten-Point Program,” that “We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.”

This demand made it clear the Panthers would be on a collision course with America’s white-controlled police forces. Because of their stance, the FBI and American police departments in collusive cooperation embarked on a campaign to destroy and “neutralize” the Panthers, a tactic that would also be used against other Black Liberation groups. This led to some of the most obvious instances of outright police murder of Black radicals and activists and some that are not so clear cut. For example, the latter circumstance seems apparent in the February 21, 1965, assassination of Malcolm X where the NYPD and FBI probably colluded to, at least, create the climate that led to Malcolm’s murder. We now know the NYPD had foreknowledge an attempt on Malcolm’s life would be made that night. Were they also involved? Reportedly, although there wasn’t the usual uniform presence of police at the Audubon Ballroom that day, an undercover police presence was on the scene when the assassination took place. We know that undercover officer Gene Roberts (who had infiltrated Malcolm’s circle gaining access to his security detail) allegedly tried to revive Malcolm. Was he really trying to revive Malcolm or was he making sure Malcolm died? Moreover, why wasn’t Roberts able to stop the assassins–since he should have known about the plot? Was it because he was one?

NYPD elements tipped-off columnist Jimmy Breslin that he should go to the Audubon Ballroom because something significant would occur. This was exposed in the book “The Ganja Godfather: The Untold Story of NYC’s Weed Kingpin,” by Toby Rogers. According to Rogers, after the assassination, Breslin, who worked then for The New York Herald Tribune, wrote a story for the newspaper titled: “Police Rescue Two Suspects.” However, Rogers states that after this initial story ran no further mention was ever made of this other unidentified suspect who is apparently not one of the three people—Talmadge Hayer, Thomas Johnson and Norman Butler—who would eventually be prosecuted for Malcolm’s murder. In 2005, on the 40th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination Rogers, who was interviewing Breslin, says he decided to question the legendary journalist on these curious circumstances of intrigue that Breslin witnessed. Rogers claims Breslin started by telling him: “Well I was supposed to receive a journalism award in Syracuse that evening, but I got tip [from the NYPD] that I should go up to Harlem to see Malcolm X speak. I sat way in the back smoking a Pall Mall cigarette.” But Rogers says when he tried to raise the subject of the second suspect and the suspicious omission from The New York Herald Tribune’s coverage, in follow-up and secondary stories about Malcolm’s killing, Breslin’s mood quickly changed. “When I asked Jimmy about the reports of a second suspect and his strange disappearance, both in his Tribune story and the Times piece. All of the sudden Breslin got quite cagey,” Rogers said. “He knew exactly what I was referring to and refused to talk any further.” According to Rogers, Breslin’s response just before the interview ended was: “Fuck it, I don’t want to know no more, that’s it! I don’t fucking know what is what. I don’t know if there was two editions or one. I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to read it. Fuck it. Who cares! It’s 2005, I … fucking dead and disinterested.” Breslin died on March 19, 2017, apparently taking the secrets he knew about Malcolm’s assassination to the grave. All of this evidence strongly suggests that the NYPD operatives who were present at the Audubon Ballroom were likely intricately involved in the plot to murder Malcolm X.

However, the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on December 4, 1969, in Chicago, is an example of outright blatant political police murder. It was flagrantly done with the blessings of the then Cook County State Attorney’s Office, the Chicago Police Department, and the J. Edgar Hoover FBI. All the relevant facts tell us this.

Hampton, a young charismatic Chicago Panther leader, was executed in a hail of police gunfire—while he slept. Hampton was included on the FBI’s “Agitator Index,” as a “key militant leader.” The essential facts of this case make it clear Hampton’s killing was nothing more than state-sanctioned political murder. The police played their dutiful role by physically silencing this influential Black voice, killing Hampton under the cover of darkness pumping numerous shots into his body as he slept. A Black undercover informer, William O’Neal, was recruited to infiltrate the Chicago Panther chapter, where he became Hampton’s bodyguard. O’Neal drew a layout of the house where Hampton stayed. This act made it easy for the Chicago Police to attack the house and carry out this act of cold-blooded double murder. O’Neal reportedly slipped the drug secobarbital into Hampton’s drink the night before so he would not awaken during the pre-dawn police raid. During this time, and into the Seventies, America’s police departments, across the country, no doubt with the direction of the FBI, carried out numerous assaults—and murdered many Black Panther Party leaders and members.

Today, it would seem obvious to say the current climate between the police and Black America is not quite as volatile. At least, not yet. However, this will probably change if the political powers in Washington continue to turn a blind eye to the brutal institutional racism in police policy that leads to the continued killings and murders of Black people. The Black Lives Matter Movement has made an important contribution towards shining the spotlight on police brutality. For their efforts, they have been vilified and labeled as violent thugs by immoral politicians and police. But while these hypocrites make these sorts of slanderous statements they see it fit to do nothing about the rampant, racist, unchecked, murder that is being perpetrated by police.

In many of the police killings that we’ve witnessed since the chokehold death of Eric Garner and the shooting death of Michael Brown we see police using the “I feared for my life” defense. Even despicable former South Carolina Officer Michael Slager tried to use this excuse for his cold-blooded murder of Walter Scott, on April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina. Unfortunately for him, the actions of brave bystander Feidin Santana, who videotaped Slager shooting Scott in the back multiple times, and planting evidence, destroyed his lie. How many police get away with similar acts because no video is available?

In the so-called “land of the free,” freedom was not meant for those who came here as African slaves. And the Slave Patrol police were the main instruments used to enforce this oppression. The police of today are tasked with a similar role as their militia Slave Patrols predecessors: they are the enforcers of a corrupt system that has exploited Black Africans to make America the rich superpower it is today. And their job, especially as it pertains to policing Black America, is very similar to their role during Slavery.

source: https://www.blackstarnews.com/education/education/american-policing-and-state-sanctioned-murders-of-black-leaders

Swamp Diversity: 4 Negro FBI Agents Who Busted Our Savior Marcus Garvey

Brothers will turn against their own brothers and give them to be killed.” -Mark 13:12

This scripture is prophetic when it comes to iconic civil rights and Black empowerment leader Marcus Garvey. Though four Black FBI agents and informants didn’t literally kill the Jamaican-born activist, they assisted with his character assassination, reported the Washington Post.

It all happened under the auspices of Black progress within the FBI who were ‘diversifying’ the organization by hiring Black agents and informants. Garvey had an immense love for his people and the FBI used that against him. Stress manifests itself in different ways. Garvey died at the young age of 52 from two strokes,

Depending on who you ask, history paints a complex picture of Garvey. However, as mentioned earlier, no one can dispute his passion for his people nor that he dedicated his life to fighting for the betterment of descendants of the African Diaspora across the globe.

Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and The Negro World. He was also an entrepreneur who started the Black Star Line and prominent leader of the “Back To Africa” movement. It is often said before Malcolm and before Martin, there was Marcus.

After emigrating to the U.S. from Jamaica and gaining a large following for his message and work to empower Black people, Garvey became a subject of interest of the Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI. They used Garvey’s love for his people as a strategy to plant Black agents and informants to take surveillance of him, the UNIA and their activities.

EMMETT J. SCOTT

Emmett J. Scott was one of them. An agent at the Bureau, Scott posed as a reporter who attended Garvey’s UNIA meetings and conventions who interviewed Garvey.

WALTER H. LOVING

Maj. Walter H. Loving was a retired Army officer and a member of the Military Intelligence Division who sent Black informants to UNIA meetings. He was assisting with intensive surveillance of the Black press overall.

HERBERT SIMEON BOULIN

Herbert Simeon Boulin was Jamaican businessman in Harlem who befriended Garvey but was really a Bureau informant. He began giving them gave harmful information such as accusations that Garvey’s movement was anti-white.

JAMES WORMLEY JONES

James Wormley Jones – a World War I veteran, Black police officer and first Black FBI special agent – also went undercover to take Garvey down. His information was the nail in the coffin J. Edgar Hoover needed to arrest Garvey.

Jones reported that Garvey’s Black Star Line was in “financial straits,” but the UNIA was continuing to promote stock in the company. He also said they would continue to sell stock and Hoover and his team deemed the sales fraudulent.

GARVEY’S ARREST AND DEPORTATION

Based on Jones’ information, after years of repeated efforts by Hoover, they indicted Garvey on mail fraud and arrested him in 1922. Despite insufficient evidence, Garvey was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

Though his sentence was commuted by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927, he was deported back to Jamaica. Garvey, nor his movement ever fully recovered. He died in 1940 after moving to London.

In 2016, Garvey’s family made a huge push to have his name cleared and requested a pardon from then-President Barack Obama. However, the pardon was not granted. His family continues to fight to restore dignity to Garvey’s name.

Case in point: There is such thing as good diversity, but swamp diversity occurs when Black people are hired with ill intentions. While Scott, Loving and Jones made great strides for Black culture as individuals, they also helped take down a leader who wanted to advance the culture as a whole.

Maybe they didn’t see it that way at the time, but it’s hard to get ahead when one doesn’t know if the person standing next to them is for or against them.

“…A Violent Battle Between the FBI and Black Power Movement in 1969…”

Tonight: Tuesday May 14, 2019
ABC – Channel 7
9-10 pm CST. 10-11 pm EST

Often imitated never duplicated, The Black Panther Party according to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was labeled “The Greatest Threat to The Internal Security of This Country.”
Under the U.S. government’s COINTELPRO program, 90% of activities were aimed at the Black Panther Party.

On December 4, 1969, Chairman Fred Hampton, and Defense Captain Mark Clark were assassinated.

Join us as we walk the streets of Chicago with Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., Black Panther Party Cubs. Listen as Akua Njeri, Chairman Fred’s widow, gives an in-depth account of the 4:00 a.m. Massacre on Monroe. Former Black Panther Party members, police, and Black Lives Matter weigh in on this historic event. This 50 – year anniversary is highlighted with#SAVETHEHAMPTONHOUSE campaign.

Deborah Johnson, Chairman Fred Hampton Sr.’s widow.

AFENI SHAKUR BLACK PANTHER PARTY LEADER, MOTHER OF TUPAC, FOUGHT TO LIBERATE AFRIKAN-AMERIKANS

by COLIN BENJAMIN

[Memorial]
Freedom fighter\activist Afeni Shakur mother of rapper Tupac Shakur
Photo: Wiki Commons

Black Panther Party Leader and freedom fighter Afeni Shakur

This month marks four years since the passing of Afeni Shakur, who was an important leader of the Black Panther Party chapter in New York—and the activist minded mother of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Afeni Shakur’s story is filled with the pain, struggle and triumph of someone who dedicated her life to the struggle for Black liberation. As a passionate advocate for the rights of African-Americans, her legacy entails far more than being just the mother of Tupac Shakur.

Afeni Shakur was born Alice Faye Williams on January 10, 1947, the daughter of Rosa Belle and Walter Williams Jr., in Lumberton, North Carolina. Shakur, and her sister, Gloria Jean, had a difficult childhood, where domestic abuse was present. In a 1997 People Magazine interview, Shakur said, “My momma left my dad because he was kickin’ her ass.”

In 1958, Shakur and her sister moved to New York City. She would enroll in Bronx High School of Science. Shakur’s drug use, that would become documented later, started around the time she was 15.

By 1968, Shakur had joined the Black Panther Party. She took the first name “Afeni” a Yoruba word meaning “lover of people,” and joined it with the word “Shakur,” an Arabic word meaning “thankful.” She lived in Harlem, where she became a chapter leader of the Panthers.

In April 1969, Shakur was arrested, with 21 other members of the Black Panthers, on conspiracy charges allegedly to conduct bombings in New York City. The 21 were accused of plotting three separate attacks. The defendants were charged with attempting to kill police officers.

One attack was allegedly to occur at the Bronx 44th Precinct. Another at Manhattan’s 24th Precinct and a third at the Queens Board of Education office. The three attacks were all supposed to occur at 9:00 p.m. on January 17, 1969.

At this time, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and police departments across America, were actively trying to destroy the Black Panther Party. One primary reason was because the Black Panthers were fearless fighters against racist police violence and their murders of African-Americans. The FBI utilized its COINTELPRO program to “neutralize,” a euphemistic term which really meant assassinating, murdering and imprisoning members of the Black Panthers. In 1969, Hoover had called the Black Panthers “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”

Some of the other New York Black Panthers jailed along with Afeni Shakur were: Lumumba Shakur, Ali Bey Hassan, Michael Tabor, Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, Jamal Joseph, Abayama Katara, Baba Odinga, Joan Bird, Robert Collier, Sundiata Acoli, Lonnie Epps, Curtis Powell, Kuwasi Balagoon, Richard Harris, Lee Berry, Lee Roper, and Kwando Kinshasa. The Panther 21 faced a total of 156 charges. Before the trial started the Panther 21 had dwindled to 16 defendants.

Judge Charles Marks set bail for all the defendants at $100,000. Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan gave Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Phillips the task of prosecuting the defendants with help from Jeffrey Weinsten. The trial was held before State Supreme Court Justice John M. Murtagh, in the New York County Courthouse, at 100 Centre Street.

Shakur, then 22, opted to defend herself in the case which became infamously known as the Panther 21 case. There were objections to her decision to defend herself—including by some of her co-defendants. Besides not being a trained lawyer, Shakur was pregnant—with Lesane Parish Crooks, otherwise known as Tupac Shakur—at the time.

She faced a 300-year sentence.

In court, Shakur skillfully interviewed witnesses and successfully argued her case for close to six months. In May 1971, she delivered a stunning humiliating blow to the Manhattan prosecution team—and to the New York political establishment—when the jury ruled in the Panthers’ favor and freed all the defendants. A few weeks later, on June 16, 1971, her son Tupac Amaru Shakur—an Inca phrase meaning “shining serpent”—was born.

An account of this epic New York trial was written in the book “The Briar Patch,” by Murray Kempton.

Perhaps because of her historical legal victory in the Panther 21 case, Shakur would eventually end up working as a paralegal for Bronx lawyer Richard Fischbein. At this time, she married Mutulu Shakur who became Tupac’s stepfather. He also fathered their daughter Sekyiwa. By 1984, Afeni moved the family to Baltimore, Maryland where Tupac would attend the Baltimore School for the Performing Arts, studying music and dance.

During the 1980’s Shakur’s drug use started to take a toll. By 1991, she was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings and was able to overcome her addiction. In the 90’s, Afeni’s son Tupac became star. He was the hottest rapper on the planet and started to transition into films as well. In one of his classic songs, “Dear Mama,” Tupac delved into the difficulties of Afeni’s drug addiction while expressing his love for her. Before his death, Tupac bought a home for Afeni, and set aside money to be delivered to her monthly from his estate.

After Tupac was murdered in September 1996, Afeni took over Tupac’s estate, with the help of her former employer Richard Fischbein. In 1997, she founded Amaru Entertainment to control the unreleased recordings of her son. She also started the Tupac Amaru Foundation for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The foundation mission was to offer entertainment arts classes to young African-Americans. In July 2007, she filed an injunction in federal court to stop Death Row Records from profiting off of unreleased songs from Tupac.

Besides her involvement in philanthropic ventures, Afeni was a sought-after lecturer. On February 6, 2009, she gave the keynote address during Vanderbilt University’s Black History month celebration.

Afeni Shakur was an important activist and leader in Black America during a violent turbulent time where institutional racism was far worse than today. She served the interests of African-Americans through her leadership efforts in the Black Panther Party. This brave Black woman inflicted a crushing legal defeat to the racist justice system in New York. Her successful inspiring defense in the Panther 21 case should be studied and remembered.

Sister Afeni Shakur should be memorized for who she was: a freedom fighter and ardent activist, who was also the mother of Tupac Shakur.

source: http://www.blackstarnews.com/us-politics/justice/afeni-shakur-black-panther-party-leader-mother-of-tupac-fought-to