[News] John Bowman - How the US destroyed the Black Panther Party

[Anti-Imperialist News]

How the US destroyed the Black Panther Party and continues to persecute its 
veterans
http://www.sfbayview.com/102605/topersecute102605.shtml

by John Bowman

Black Panther veteran John Bowman, called to appear before a grand jury in 
San Francisco, is currently in jail with four other BPP veterans (see 
"Black Panther veterans jailed in San Francisco: Panthers still treated as 
nation's 'greatest threat to internal security'" in the Oct. 26 Bay View, 
at http://www.sfbayview.com/102605/veteransjailed102605.shtml). This 
statement was recorded by Claude Marks, founder and director of Freedom 
Archives, 522 Valencia St., San Francisco CA 94110, who can be reached at 
(415) 863-9977, claude at freedomarchives.org or www.freedomarchives.org.

It was clear to me that the federal government tried to destroy and did 
destroy the Black Panther Party and tried to destroy me as a member of the 
Black Panther Party. They used deceit, they used false information, they 
also participated in overt assaults on people's lives.

I was assaulted, and two other people were assaulted and shot and 
imprisoned in Los Angeles. I was imprisoned for six years for assault with 
intent to commit murder on police officers, when in fact it was the police 
who initiated the assault - and eventually charges was dropped. It was 
clear to me then that this was an attack to destroy us, and I survived. And 
in 2003, it became clear to me that they wanted to continue their campaign 
to destroy me by visiting me, accusing me and wanting to talk to me about 
things that happened in 1971.

 From 1968 to 1973, I experienced false arrests, I experienced 
assassination attempts, I experienced being railroaded through the courts, 
I experienced police brutality, experienced torture - because of my 
association with this organization called the Black Panther Party for Self 
Defense. So how does it make me feel in 2005? I feel like it's something 
that's never gonna end, that my commitment is being challenged again by the 
United States government.

Because of the commitment that I made in 1967, I'm still being persecuted 
and punished for that commitment and believing in the 10-point program of 
the Black Panther Party and implementing some of the programs of the Black 
Panther Party in some of the social programs that myself and my colleagues 
are doing. So, I'm very concerned. I'm angry. I don't feel like it's right, 
and I don't feel like it's something that should go unnoticed, and I don't 
feel like the government should be able to get away with this continuous 
harassment.

The same people who tried to kill me in 1973 are the same people who are 
here today, in 2005, trying to destroy me. I mean it literally. I mean 
there were people from the forces of the San Francisco Police Department 
who participated in harassment, torture and my interrogation in 1973. And 
these same people I have to come in contact with, I have to go before 
courts in front of, who are asking me the same questions that they 
interrogated and tortured me for.

I have to be confronted with these people, and none of these people have 
ever been brought to trial. None of these people have ever been charged 
with anything. None of these people have ever been questioned about that. 
So I think if they have to put me in court, I think they should be brought 
to court and questioned about their behavior as it related to John Bowman, 
Harold Taylor and Ruben Scott and dozens of other people in New Orleans in 
1973.

So if I have to be brought before a grand jury and questioned in secret, 
where no one is there but the grand jurors, John Bowman, the U.S. Attorney 
and the state's Attorney (General) - no lawyer for me. Why can't there be 
some forum where some questions are put to the police department from San 
Francisco about their behavior in 1973, which is the basis of this grand 
jury investigation today. That's what I'm asking for is some justice.

What makes John Bowman tick? Well, one of the things that makes me tick is 
that I have two children. I have 28 nephews and nieces who I care quite a 
bit about. I'm a man [who thinks] that each one could teach one and that 
each person has an obligation to give something to the community in which 
he dwells. I learned that concept and principle through my parents. I 
learned that by growing up in what is now called the Western Addition, but 
[which was then called] the Fillmore district of San Francisco, where I 
went to school and where I was raised.

It took awhile for me to understand who I was. In fact, I had dropped out 
of high school. There was a program in the community called the 
Neighborhood Youth Corps program, and I had a job counselor who gave me 
books, Malcolm X's autobiography, and James Baldwin's book, "Go Tell It on 
the Mountain." So I read the books, and that excited me quite a bit. And 
then I heard about Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party. So I was 
beginning to be socially conscious [when I was] 17 years old.

So who am I right now? I'm 57 years old and still feel like I need to 
contribute to my community and contribute to my family. That's what I try 
to do on a daily basis. One of the things that I was able to do is to 
appreciate the programs that would give things to the people, and one of 
the things that attracted me to the Black Panther Party was their 10-point 
platform and program, which spoke to the issues of housing, education and 
employment, spoke to issues of social justice and justice in the criminal 
justice system.

And in my community, in the Fillmore district, there was lots of social 
injustice, there were lots of businesses that didn't contribute anything, 
there was dilapidated housing and absent landlords and all of that was just 
pressing me. I felt like it was time for me to do something besides just 
talk about it. And that's when I decided to pay attention to the 10-point 
program of the Black Panther Party. So I joined their organization, and I 
began to work with their programs - the breakfast programs, collecting 
medical supplies, having a clinic and programs inside the housing projects, 
working with tenants and families, organizing rent strikes. Those are the 
kind of things that shaped and molded me to be a contributor to the community.

The Black Panther Party was educating people to some of the realities, some 
of the criminal realities of the system that was governing them. In the 
local communities and nationally, the Black Panther Party was, through its 
newspaper, educating people to what is wrong about the structure and the 
policies of housing, what is wrong about the prison systems and about the 
criminal justice systems. And people began to listen to the Black Panther 
Party, and they began to support the Black Panther Party.

The environment was very oppressive. The Tac Squad that was created by 
Joseph Alioto [former San Francisco mayor], their task was to disrupt our 
function. And we would get pulled over if we were driving, if we were 
walking. We would get held up on the streets, we'd be laid down in the 
streets. We would have AR-15s or machine guns pointed at us. That's when I 
first learned got introduced to AR-15 automatic weapons through watching 
the Tac Squad put them in my face and other members of the party.

Wherever we would go, they would come and disrupt. They would kick in our 
doors. Or they would sit outside our houses waiting for us to come home. 
And when we got home, before we got into our house, they would search us. 
So it became very clear to me that not only was this a social service 
program that they were attacking, they were attacking me as a person 
because of my beliefs.

This is when I began to feel that my life was in danger, always. Because 
everywhere I went, I had to be confronted with police. Organized harassment 
is what we came to realize was taking place against us. And as a means to 
protect ourselves, we had to go out in groups of threes and fours, even if 
just to sell newspapers or to go to community meetings and set up community 
meetings.

It was clear that things had changed and that on a national level, the 
Black Panther Party was the focus of an organized attack against the 
leadership. In Chicago and in New York, in San Diego and in Los Angeles, 
there was people dying, people being assassinated in their cars. Fred 
Hampton himself, who was a member and a leader in Chicago, he was 
assassinated [as was Mark Clark]. And there was people assassinated in New 
York City and people arrested by the dozens in New York City.

So it was clear to us here in San Francisco that something like that was 
gonna happen to us. And eventually it did happen, where our office got 
raided on Fillmore Street. And they shot tear gas in our office. And they 
didn't shoot anybody, but they destroyed thousands of dollars of materials 
and food and medical supplies. And then simultaneously they raided 
different homes that people were living in.

So it was clear to us that this is what it was gonna be about. It was gonna 
be about us being violently attacked and unjustly shot and put in jail. We 
knew it was the local police, but we didn't know [at that time] it was 
coordinated by the FBI and the CIA and the United States government. So 
what we were going to do about it, we had no idea.

The Black Panther Party built coalitions with people who were against the 
Vietnam War, who were against the murders of citizens in El Salvador, 
Honduras and Guatemala, with people who were against apartheid in South 
Africa, people who were on college campuses who wanted to protest the war 
and protest exploitation of people of color all across the world. The Black 
Panther Party even went as far as to communicate with other governments - 
the Vietnamese government, the North Korean government, the ANC government, 
the organization that Nelson Mandela was a part of which is called the 
African National Congress.

We all had one thing in common: We all were being oppressed. And there was 
a need to stop war and a need to stop oppressing and exploiting people. And 
the Black Panther Party was a very vocal part of this movement on a 
worldwide basis. This is why the Black Panther Party took the brunt of all 
the murder of its membership and the jailing of all its membership, because 
we were an organization that was very vocal.

People embraced the Black Panther Party, and that's why the federal 
government created a program called the Cointelpro program. And that's why 
they had a Senate committee hearing, and people admitted that J. Edgar 
Hoover orchestrated and created mass hysteria and mass murder, because of 
our relationships with people all over the world. Eldridge Cleaver and Don 
Cox and Kathleen Cleaver and other members of the organization who went 
into exile traveled all over the globe internationally and were telling 
people what this government was doing and giving them documented evidence, 
just like Malcolm X did when he went to Africa - he talked to people all 
over the African continent about this government and its treatment of 
people. Well, the Black Panther Party did the same thing.

They [opponents of the party] never talk about the relationships between 
people all over the world and the Black Panther Party. They only create 
criminal images of Black Panthers. So it's important that people take a 
broader look as to what it is when they speak today of the Patriot Act and 
Homeland Security and what does it do to affect us today, us ordinary 
citizens. I think I'm a victim of the Patriot Act. We all became victims of 
the Cointelpro program.

In fact, it was the Black Panther Party that enabled me to grow as a man 
and as a person, because it taught principles, it taught integrity. And 
I've been doing this for - I can't even count the years - 35, 40 years. And 
I continue to give this example to my son, who is 19 years old, and to my 
daughter who is 26.

I am a community activist. I'm a social program developer. I don't consider 
myself a member of the Black Panther Party today. But I do consider myself 
someone who have learnt from the principles, the basic principles and 
ideology of the Black Panther Party, which was to reform and revolutionize 
the social system so Black people and all people could benefit more from it.


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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