As this site has evolved, I realize more people have come aboard many of whom may not have read at the opening that among my influences included the committed, devoted Black Panther Party. You certainly can see smatterings of that influence in various spots.
People are often blinded by powerful messaging depicting that organization as if they advocated violence rather than self defense against a violent flurry of harassment by police department operatives across the country and by the infamous, COINTELPRO.
My knowledge of the Party - and I was a ferocious young reader at the time - was that they were a group of resistant, young heroic Black folk with great vision and a fierce love for community.
In fact, that love as unrivaled and unmatched with organizations that existed alongside them - and that ultimately outlived them to this day (and in some cases outlived their usefulness).
I was innately drawn to that fire and devotion like love is to a hug.
Also consider this as you peruse and find various markings of my remembrances of this organization. There is nothing within me that could ever want to see a police officer killed. That is the case with the overwhelming majority of the folk who are concerned and outraged over these cases.
I know and have worked with people who are in law enforcement who are very special to me - and I would be terribly hurt if anything happened to them.
But, families gather together when an officer who is their loved one is shot or killed very spontaneously - just like other families do in all such cases. Police Departments provide the name of the accused at which point families spout a sigh of relief.
Never in the history of our collective lives have we heard a family member speak out to say, "something is wrong about this case." We never se siblings, parents or cousins come forth to say, "if he killed my brother, daughter or cousin then how could
he have . . . "
This is because families are embolden to support the prosecutorial vision even when they harbor suspicions. We must certainly know that while some have been rightly accused, many others have been improperly prosecuted or the truth was held because of their socio-political affiliations.
Something that doesn't often get stated for the record is that those of us who support the accused tend to take a more pensive approach, are not so compelled to acquiesce, have more reason to analyze the evidence, and believe very strongly that the evidence is weak, fabricated, or manipulated.
That is surely partly based upon a continuation of observing the mishandling of evidence throughout history to today.
All police officers therefore are obviously not crooks. But, enough of them are silent about crooked behaviors and deliberately botched investigations that a lot of folk are in prison through absolutely no fault of their own.
They are there and suffering needlessly because they tend to have one thing in common. That is, that they spoke, wrote, thought or advocated in terms that supported the rights of Black, Brown, indigenous and working class folk and women. They were unique.
An officer told me a couple of years back, "When you first decide you want to be a police officer you want to make a difference and catch people who commit crimes. But, over time," he said, "you begin to look at everybody as a potential criminal. He agreed with me that day that this was particularly true with groups of folk who are "different."
The Black Panther Party, like Mumia Abu Jamal, Assata Shakur and others were different.
And this my friends is why it is so important that people who are different - should think, use our imaginations, slow our pace, analyze the evidence thoroughly - and no matter how much public consensus supports the lie, we must always lean ourselves inward toward the truth.
I remember very distinctly having a difficult time putting together what a "political prisoner" was when I was 15, 16 years old. The term floated off Angela Davis' and other's lips so quickly back then - as if they assumed we knew what they meant.
I hope this seeds more understanding in our knowledge of who can become a "Political Prisoner," and how one can apparently remain on the "political Prisoner" "Wanted" list for the rest of their lives.
Eight men linked with the Black Panthers were arrested on this past January 23, 2007 for the murder of a San Francisco Police Sergeant in 1971, over 30 years ago.
The officer, John Young, was killed during a shotgun attack on a police station in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood.
Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal, Ray Boudreaux, and Hank Jones were arrested in California. Francisco Torres was arrested in Queens. Harold Taylor was arrested in Florida.
Two men Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaquim are both in New York State prisons and are adamantly believed to be political prisoners, and a ninth man - Ronald Stanely Bridgeforth - is still being sought.
Those arrested January 23, 2007 . . .
Find the rest of this story below, and I urge you to keep your eye on this case. No matter what occurs in any one case, there are thousand if not hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in the prison system.
This may be a long, grueling affair, but track movements here - or better still monitor these much more informative sites below. I'll do what I can to keep this page updated.
TIMING OF THE DEATH OF THE LATE JOHN BOWMAN AND ARRESTS OF SAN FRANCISCO 8
(Note the death of the gentleman giving his count therein, John Bowman passed away in late 2006. It is to say the least odd that charges would arise so close beyond his death)
There is lots to love about this "Flashpoint." I'll post in various ways so you can here all the highlights. Once the audio loads, slide the bar over to 38:20 and hear a recap and discussion of what you saw above, the case in general and an interview with Kamel Bell.
"What this means, in essence, is that the men will be prosecuted using evidence declared inadmissible by the courts in 1975 because it was obtained via torture."
(Mention which box you're addressing, and your comment will hyperlink people back here)
Terryhowcott.com
has made every effort to ascertain the origin of all photos, and is eager
to cite all work.
Please contact info@terryhowcott.com to
discuss citing or to propose photos for exhibition by sending them with photographer/artist's
name, image title, and/or web address.
