[Cdhrsupport] Rally supports arrested Panthers

[News about recent Panther busts]

http://www.workers.org/2007/us/sf-panthers-0208/
[]


SAN FRANCISCO


Rally supports arrested Panthers

By Judy Greenspan
San Francisco
Published Feb 1, 2007 9:54 PM
Five of the indicted Panthers are on cover of<br />new DVD, 


Five of the indicted Panthers are on cover of
new DVD, “Legacy of Torture: The War
Against the Black Liberation Movement.”
 From left, Hank Jones, John Bowman
(deceased), Ray Boudreaux, Harold Taylor
and Richard Brown.
Photo: Scott Braley 2006

On the same day that U.S. Attorney General 
Alberto Gonzales announced that people do not 
have a constitutional right to challenge their 
imprisonment, eight former Black Panther Party 
leaders and community activists were indicted for 
something that happened over 35 years ago­the 
killing of a San Francisco policeman.

But if a Jan. 28 support rally is any indication, 
the Bay Area progressive community will not 
tolerate this outrageous attack on the Black liberation movement.

On Jan. 23, after a two-year witch hunt by local, 
state and federal police, six former Bay Area 
Black Panther Party organizers were arrested: 
Richard Brown, Richard O’Neal, Francisco Torres, 
Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor.

Two well-known political prisoners, Herman Bell 
and Jalil Muntaqin (Anthony Bottom), part of the 
New York Three who were falsely accused and 
convicted of killing two New York City policemen, 
have also been accused and indicted. John Bowman, 
the ninth target of the two-year-long grand jury witch hunt, died in December.

Why did the government indict this group of Black 
freedom fighters now? Why has the government 
relentlessly pursued these activists more than 35 
years after the alleged “crime” was committed?

On Jan. 28 a local activist media collective, 
Freedom Archives, premiered their latest exposé 
of racism and injustice in this country, “Legacy 
of Torture: The War Against the Black Liberation 
Movement.” The new DVD documents the torture of 
several of the arrested activists­Bowman, Jones, 
and Taylor­at the hands of the New Orleans Police Department in 1973.

Several of the men were incarcerated for refusing 
to testify before a grand jury. The video also 
captures the level of police brutality, 
assassinations and abuse suffered by the Black 
community during the 1960s and 1970s.

According to the Committee for the Defense of 
Human Rights (CDHR), a group devoted to exposing 
human rights abuses against progressive 
organizations and individuals, 13 Black activists 
were arrested in New Orleans in 1973 and tortured 
for several days in a manner similar to today’s 
torture at Guantánamo Bay and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib.

In “Legacy of Torture,” Bowman, Jones and Taylor 
graphically describe being stripped naked and 
beaten by slapjacks and blunt objects; probed by 
cattle prods in their genital areas; and nearly 
suffocated by plastic bags being placed over 
their heads and wet wool blankets wrapped tightly around their bodies.

The government failed in the early 1970s to bring 
any of these men to trial for the killing of San 
Francisco policeman John Young. In fact, 
California courts deemed all the coerced false 
confessions from New Orleans inadmissible due to 
the physical abuse and torture suffered by the men.

Brown, who has spent the last 30 years working 
with young people in this city’s African-American 
community, denounced the government’s violence 
against the Black liberation movement in an 
interview with the SF Bay View newspaper. “I was 
named as a participant in 1971 in the murder 
case. All Panthers were targeted. If we were 
doing something constructive, we were singled 
out. They killed Bunchy Carter, arrested and 
imprisoned Geronimo [Pratt]. It was just our 
turn. We were next on the list,” Brown stated.

Soffiyah Elijah, a New York-based attorney who 
has defended many Black freedom fighters, spoke 
briefly at today’s program, which drew so many 
people to the Roxie Theater that the film had to 
be shown twice. “In the wake of 9/11 and the 
Patriot Act, the government is now resurrecting 
its Cointelpro actions. Homeland Security is 
merely an extension of that effort,” Elijah said.

Cointelpro was the domestic government program 
used to undermine, disrupt and assassinate the 
leadership of domestic liberation movements, 
revolutionary organizations and progressive 
groups in this country that were protesting 
government policies in the 1960s and 1970s.

John Bowman says in “Legacy of Torture,” now 
dedicated to his memory: “I am sick of these 
people trying to destroy our community.” The 
support at today’s program echoed this sentiment 
as hundreds of people signed up to become involved in the defense effort.

A large crowd attended John Bowman’s memorial at 
the African American Art and Culture Complex 
following the film showing. A bail hearing for 
the imprisoned Black activists is scheduled.

For more information about how to support these 
activists or purchase a copy of the new video, 
write to cdhrsupport at freedomarchives.org or visit 
www.freedomarchives.org. “Legacy of Torture” is available at www.leftbooks.com.

----------
Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. 
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire 
article is permitted in any medium without 
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: <MAILTO:ww at workers.org>ww at workers.org
Subscribe 
<MAILTO:wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net>wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net
Support independent news 
<http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php>http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php 


Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2007/us/sf-panthers-0208/

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/cdhrsupport_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20070202/e978e11f/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 7093c45a.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6289 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/cdhrsupport_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20070202/e978e11f/attachment-0002.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 7093c4b7.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 38275 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/cdhrsupport_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20070202/e978e11f/attachment-0003.jpg