Tag Archives: Fred Hampton

Should NYC’s Wall Street Be Renamed ‘Eric Garner St.? Reply

by • Police State/Civil Liberties • Tags: , , , , , ,

By Don Fitz

Scenes of sorrow spread across the US.  Football teams apologize.  Cops march with demonstrators.  Democratic Party politicians call for “structural change” in police departments.

Some of these are sincere.  Others are crocodile tears shed in hopes that people will be pacified with assurances that turn out to be vague rhetoric devoid of meaning or else empty promises that will never be fulfilled.  Yet, there are changes that would cost little, could happen quickly, and be reminders to future generations of what happened in 2020.

St. Louis offers a unique opportunity which is being addressed by a coalition of the Universal African Peoples Organization, Green Party of St. Louis, Tauheed Youth Organization and Beloved Streets of America. Delmar Blvd., which spans both the City and County of St. Louis, intersects with Sgt. Mike King Dr.

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Black Panther Fred Hampton Was Assassinated 49 Years Ago Today We Visit His Memory Reply

by • Police State/Civil Liberties • Tags: ,

South Carolina Herald

Exactly 49 years ago, Black Panthers Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, were shot to death by Chicago police.

At around 5 a.m. on December 4, 1969, 14 police officers raided Hampton’s apartment, which was a known Illinois Black Panther Party stronghold in Chicago’s West Side, according to theChicago Tribune. The gunfire lasted seven minutes, and Hampton and Clark were shot dead while sleeping.

“Never forget that 49 years ago today the FBI & Chicago Police Dept conspired to murder Fred Hampton in his apartment because they were afraid he was creating a multiracial political coalition to challenge those in power,” Clint Smith wrote on Twitter today. “He was just 21 years old.”

At the time, authorities claimed that the Black Panthers opened fire on the police while they were serving a search warrant for weapons and have maintained that they were justified in the return fire, the Tribune reported. But evidence from the night, activists argue, showed that the FBI, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago Police Department worked together to assassinate Hampton.

In the months that followed, a federal investigation showed that only one shot was fired by the Panthers. Police, on the other hand, fired 82 to 99 shots. Cook County State Attorney Edward Hanrahan was indicted for the raid but was cleared along with 13 other law enforcement agents, according to the Tribune.

The incident worsened an already contentious relationship between the Panthers and police, resulting in eight gun battles nationally within the following two years, which left three cops and five more Panthers dead.

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