"From the beginning the Black Panther Party's focus on militancy came with a reputation for violence. They employed a California law which permitted carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun as long as it was publicly displayed and pointed at no one.[38] Carrying weapons openly and making threats against police officers, for example, chants like "The Revolution has co-ome, it's time to pick up the gu-un. Off the pigs!",[39] helped create the Panthers' reputation as a violent organization.
On October 17, 1967, Oakland police officer John Frey was shot to death in an altercation with Huey P. Newton during a traffic stop. In the stop, Newton and backup officer Herbert Heanes also suffered gunshot wounds. Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter at trial. This incident gained the party even wider recognition by the radical American left, and a "Free Huey" campaign ensued.[40] Newton was released after three years, when his conviction was reversed on appeal.
On May 2, 1967, the California State Assembly Committee on Criminal Procedure was scheduled to convene to discuss what was known as the "Mulford Act", which would ban public displays of loaded firearms. Cleaver and Newton put together a plan to send a group of about 30 Panthers led by Seale from Oakland to Sacramento to protest the bill. The group entered the assembly carrying their weapons, an incident which was widely publicized, and which prompted police to arrest Seale and five others. The group pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of disrupting a legislative session.[41]
On April 7, 1968, Panther Bobby Hutton was killed, and Cleaver was wounded in a shootout with the Oakland police. Each side called the event an ambush by the other. Two policemen were shot in the incident.[42]
>From the fall of 1967 through the end of 1970, nine police officers
were killed and 56 were wounded, and ten Panther deaths and an unknown
number of injuries resulted from confrontations. In 1969 alone, 348
Panthers were arrested for a variety of crimes.[43] On February 18,
1970 Albert Wayne Williams was shot by the Portland Police Bureau
outside the Black Panther party headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
Though his wounds put him in a critical condition, he made a full
recovery.[44]"
end-quote
On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 3:02 PM, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 11:56 AM 10/28/2010, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> I do not want to split hair, but they did not stand a chance -
>> cointelpro or not. No armed insurrection in the US stands a chance.
>
>
> To call the Panthers an armed insurrection is to miss what they were about.
> As is comparing them to the Red Brigades.
>
>
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>