[Freethe SF8] Argument ensues at talk with former Black Panthers

[SF-8 case]

Argument ensues at talk with former Black Panthers

http://media.sundial.csun.edu/media/storage/paper862/news/2008/04/16/News/Argument.Ensues.At.Talk.With.Former.Black.Panthers-3327586-page2.shtml



By: Mercedes Aguilar




Posted: 4/16/08

Photobucket

Former Black Panthers Henry "Hank" Jones and Rey 
Boudreaux address a question posed by an audience 
member at a student discussion event sponsored by 
Students of Arts and Politics. Jones and 
Boudreaux came to discuss the controversy 
surrounding a 36-year-old case against them that 
was reopened, naming them as suspects in a police murder.

A student discussion event featuring two former 
Black Panther members turned into a diverted 
argument between two students in the audience at 
the University Student Union Theater during a 
question and answer portion on Monday.

Ray Boudreaux and Henry (Hank) Jones, former 
members of Black Panthers, were speaking about 
human rights issues when a Caucasian student and 
black female student switched the context of the 
conversation into a heated debate concerning 
immigration, race and human rights.

"It's not just black and Hispanic alright, 
because (immigration) started in America and we 
wouldn't be here (if) they weren't being 
religiously oppressed," said Lindsey Arner, the 
Caucasian student. "That is why we are all here."

A black student made a dissenting comment, which 
escalated the argument, until Jones interceded.

"Recognize what you're doing, recognize what 
you're doing, recognize what you're doing right 
now," said Jones, his voice overlapping the 
students' argument and comments from the audience.

But the students continued their heated 
conversation until Jones again tried to calm them 
down. Arner began crying and tried to walk out, 
but Jones convinced her not to leave.

"The thing is, we talk too much at each other and 
not enough with each other," Jones said to the two students.

The emotion in this discussion was not a surprise 
to Jessica Birkett, lead revolutionary of 
Students of Arts and Politics (S.O.A.P.), which sponsored the event.

"We had this same event a couple of weeks
We had 
about 70 people here and the discussion was very 
heated. It got very much like this one and we 
ended up going an hour over our limit because 
people just wouldn't stop," Birkett said.

Garfield Bright, from Hip-Hop Think Tank, the 
co-sponsor of the event, said the discussion 
brought positive results because it showed how 
people act during real-life conflicts.

But the outburst was an unexpected lesson, in 
addition to the actual lesson Boudreaux and Jones 
were presenting to the students at the event.

The two of them, in addition to six former Black 
Panther members, were arrested and charged with 
killing a police officer in 1971, as was shown in 
their documentary-drama film "Legacy of Torture."

The case was closed in the late '70s but reopened 
in 2003 by the San Francisco Police Department and the FBI.

The eight former Black Panther members became 
known as the San Francisco 8, and they have 
founded the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, said Boudreaux.

The film gives a voice to five of the former 
Black Panther members, exhibiting the different 
types of tortures they endured in 1973 when they were first arrested.

Harold Taylor explains in the film how electric 
cattle prods were used on his genitals, anus and 
under his neck by police detectives Frank McCoy 
and Ed Erdelatz. The same detectives became in charge of the case in 2003.

Boudreaux and Jones were not tortured like the 
other three men in New Orleans in the 1970s, but 
they have become leaders of the SF8 to close the case.

Every nation signed a document against torture at 
the United Nations, except for the United States, said Jones.

After the torture events, the detectives forced 
the three men to confidentiality, as shown in the film.

"No law enforcement agent was ever tried or 
committed for these things, and there is a statute of limitation," Jones said.

The statute of limitation depends on the incident 
of charge, said Boudreaux. For example, a minor 
crime can have a one-year limitation.

Conspiracy of murder of a police officer was 
another charge for which the eight men were 
arrested and charged, but five of them were 
released from that charge in February 2008 
because the statute of limitation was three years, said Boudreaux.

Richard O'Neal, one of the eight former Black 
Panther members, was released from all charges.

The other three men could not rid themselves of 
the charges because they do not live in 
California, as the statute of limitation does not 
transfer to other states, said Boudreaux.

Birkett plans to attend the SF8 preliminary 
hearing on April 21, while Bright and the Hip-Hop 
Think Tank plan to invite Jones and Boudreaux to 
Cleveland High School in early May.

© Copyright 2008 Daily Sundial
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