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<font size=3>Greetings!<br><br>
The June 24, 1969 shooting of 14 year-old Vivian Strong touched off a
riot, the Black Panthers protected a riot sanctuary while J. Edgar Hoover
ordered Omaha FBI to take a "new approach" against the Panthers
under COINTELPRO, see link for details:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1</a>
<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Omaha police officer kills 14 year-old Vivian Strong
triggering race riot </b></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>March 17th, 2011 1:57 pm ET
</ul><b>Omaha Two story: June 24, 1969<br><br>
</b>Racial turmoil across the United States led to conflicts throughout
the nation between police and black activists. The growing tension
and disturbances fueled a rapid growth of the Black Panther Party in many
cities and alarmed police officials nationwide, including
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-directs-cointelpro-plot-against-omaha-chapter-of-black-panthers">
J. Edgar Hoover</a>, the director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.<br><br>
Hoover commanded a vast, clandestine counter-intelligence operation
code-named
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/jericho-movement-launches-petition-to-reopen-cointelpro-cases">
COINTELPRO</a> directed at the Black Panthers and numerous other groups
and individuals. Some of the COINTELPRO tactics Hoover ordered were
designed to trigger internecine violence within black groups.<br><br>
In Omaha, Nebraska, a March 1968 riot following the beating of protestors
at a George Wallace rally still had the city on edge. A January
1969 campus protest at Omaha University led to a takeover of college
president Kirk Naylor’s office by 54 members of a black student
group. Led by a recently discharged Army captain, Robert “Jericho”
Honore, the protest angered many white citizens in Omaha.<br><br>
Police patrolled Omaha’s Near North Side for any signs of trouble and
made frequent traffic stops on North 24th Street which served as the main
street for Omaha’s black community. Tensions grew as the police
patrol activity sought to maintain order in the city.<br><br>
On June 24, 1968, 14 year-old Vivian Strong was shot to death. The
headline in the Omaha World-Herald the next day was, “Negro Girl Killed
By a Police Bullet At Housing Project.”<br><br>
Vivian was shot on a Tuesday evening at the Logan Fontenelle housing
project where she lived. The young teenager was shot in the head .
a few doors down from her home by Omaha patrolman James Loder. The
police had received a call about a break-in at a nearby building and were
arresting a suspect when Vivian and her friends, who had been playing
records in an alley, went to see what was going on.<br><br>
Nineteen year-old Linda Bradley, a next-door neighbor, was keeping an eye
on Vivian for her mother, Linda told the Omaha World-Herald what
happened next: “Then we started to run . We were just running
to see what the cops would do. Then that [Explicative] shot her,
right in the head. He didn’t hollar or shot in the air or
anything. There was only one shot.”<br><br>
A crowd immediately gathered and by midnight a bottles were being thrown
at police cars on North 24th Street Vandalism and a firebombing of
a business occurred in the early morning hours;<br><br>
The next night an entire ten-block area on North 24th Street had
rioting. Police escorts for firefighters combating the flames were
used. Twenty-one people were treated at Omaha hospitals after being
assaulted. Twelve persons were arrested in the rioting which
continued through Thursday night.<br><br>
Omaha’s Black Panther chapter stationed armed guards outside the office
of Greater Omaha Community Action which stayed open as a sanctuary for
residents from the violence as groups of youth swarmed through the area
throwing bottles at police and expressing their outrage at Vivian’s
death.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">
Ed Poindexter</a> was one of the Black Panthers protecting the GOCA
office. Ed had recently moved back to Omaha after being discharged
in December 1968 from six years in the U.S. Army. Ed worked
for the Post Office and his picture in the newspaper outside the building
would soon lead to the end of his job at the Post Office.<br><br>
One of the GOCA community workers was
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">
Mondo we Langa</a>, then David Rice, who had joined the anti-poverty
agency in March. Mondo had been maced by an Omaha police officer at
the George Wallace rally in March 1968 that had triggered another riot
after demonstrators were beaten with metal chairs by Wallace
supporters.<br><br>
On Friday more rioting injured twelve more people. Looting and
vandalmism continued sporadically throughout the early morning
hours. Nebraska Governor Norbert Tiemann sought a riot control bill
from the legislature.<br><br>
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. at the headquarters of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, director J. Edgar Hoover was unhappy. Hoover
personally monitored racial disturbances by reviewing daily reports from
field offices. Hoover also directed and closely watched over a
clandestine counter-intelligence operation, code-named COINTELPRO,
against the Black Panthers and other groups.<br><br>
Hoover had previously ordered Paul Young, the Omaha Special
Agent-in-Charge, to get the Black Panthers off the streets. On June
27, 1969, Hoover sent a corrective COINTELPRO memo to Omaha.<br><br>
Hoover wrote, “It is apparent that the counterintelligence program of the
Omaha Office has not been effective and needs a new approach.”<br><br>
Paul Young would finally be able to satisfy Hoover’s demands the
following year when Omaha patrolman
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/larry-minard-was-the-policeman-betrayed-by-j-edgar-hoover-to-frame-the-omaha-tw?cid=parsely#parsely">
Larry Minard, Sr</a>. was killed with an ambush bomb. Young would
propose, and Hoover agree, with a plan to withhold evidence of Minard’s
killer to enable prosecutors to charge Black Panther leaders with the
bombing.<br><br>
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, now known as the Omaha Two, are serving
life sentences in the Nebraska State Penitentiary for Minard’s
murder. Both men deny any role in the crime.<br><br>
<b>To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">HERE</a><br>
<br>
</b><i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i>Continue reading on Examiner.com:
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1#ixzz1GtRF4QRI">
Omaha police officer kills 14 year-old Vivian Strong triggering race riot
- National Cointelpro | Examiner.com</a>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1#ixzz1GtRF4QRI" eudora="autourl">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1#ixzz1GtRF4QRI<br>
<br>
</a>Michael Richardson<br>
COINTELPRO Examiner<br>
Examiner.com<br><br>
<br>
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