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<font size=3><b><u>For Immediate Release<br><br>
</u></b>Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald<br><br>
Contact: Emani Bey or Jenn Laskin<br><br>
831-238-9250<br><br>
<a href="mailto:freechipfitzgerald@yahoo.com/www.freechip.org">
freechipfitzgerald@yahoo.com/www.freechip.org</a><br><br>
</font><div align="center"><h1><font size=5><b>Former Black Panther Faces
Parole Hearing After 38 Years!<br><br>
</b></font></h1></div>
<font size=3>(</font><font size=4>Imperial, California, June 12,
2008)
<br><br>
On July 2, 2008,</font><tt> </b><font size=4>the possibility of</font>
</tt><font size=4>freedom awaits Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald, who
has been in prison over 38 years. This is the date of his<b>
</font><tt>upcoming</b> </tt><font size=4>parole hearing. Chip's
case epitomizes the culmination of the dirty tricks and tactics the U.S.
government employed in its effort to destroy the Black Panther Party, of
which he was a member when he was arrested. <br><br>
It is
well-documented that, in the late 1960s, the FBI and other policing
agencies of the government developed and carried out a concerted plan to
neutralize or wipe out the Black Panther Party, after FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover issued his infamous declaration that the Party was the
"greatest threat" to the nation's security. As a result
of the FBI's brutal campaign, many Party leaders were assassinated,
falsely imprisoned, imprisoned under extraordinary sentences, slandered
and demonized, as Party offices were assaulted and Party programs were
undermined. On January 17, 1969, the Party's Southern California
Chapter, of which Chip was a member, suffered the loss of its main
leaders, Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, at the
hands of FBI-sponsored assassins. Prior to that, in August of 1968,
Los Angeles police gunned down Panthers Tommy Lewis, Steve Bartholomew
and Robert Lawrence in a single incident.<br><br>
In
September 1969, Chip himself was involved in a shootout with Los Angeles
police, and sustained a gunshot wound to the head. He survived this
attack, only to be arrested later and charged with assault on police and
the murder of a security guard. He was convicted and sentenced to
death, which was commuted to life. That year, 1969, ended with the
Chicago police assassinations of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and
Mark Clark and a nearly six-hour raid by the LAPD's newly-formed SWAT
Team on the Party's Los Angeles offices. <br><br>
Today,
Chip is the longest held Black Panther Party political prisoner in the
United States, now housed at Centinela State Prison, near the
California-Mexico border. His upcoming parole hearing is one of the
most anticipated dates for many community leaders, students, and
supporters around the world, all waiting to see if the California Board
of Parole Hearings will employ justice in this hearing, particularly in
consideration of the era and climate of Chip's arrest, conviction and
sentencing in late 1969. <br><br>
The
Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald has been formed to advocate to the
Board for Chip's parole, encouraging people to sign its online petition
at <a href="http://www.freechip.org/">www.freechip.org</a> to urge the
Board to release Chip back into his community as he has served more time
than his sentence prescribed, and the State has no further interest in
his continued incarceration. A public tribute to Chip is slated for
June 28, 2008, in Los Angeles, at noon at filmmaker Ben Caldwell's Kaos
Network, 4343 Leimert Boulevard, where support messages from elected
officials like Rep. Maxine Waters will be read, and labor leaders like
Tryone Freeman, SEIU Local 6434 president, will speak, along with former
Black Panthers, including Elaine Brown and David Hilliard, in a program
hosted by Dominique DiPrima of Stevie Wonder's radio station
KJLH.</font><font size=3> <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
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