![]() The Federal Bureau of Investigation had named "Black Nationalist-Hate Groups" as a dangerous and violent threat to the nation's internal security two months earlier, in August 1967. Locally and nationally, the law enforcement escalation of violence after this event was dramatic. In October 1967, Huey Newton ended up incarcerated after two white policemen pulled him over on yet another trumped-up traffic violation, and in the murky events that followed one of the officers ended up dead. But the BPP's militarized style, open display of guns, and community patrols to monitor the police captured by far the most public attention. And the BPP's willingness to fight back and even fire back, if wrongly harassed and fired upon by the police, presented a black power challenge that local and federal law enforcement could not accept. The Black Panther Party focused on community-oriented programs, such as free breakfasts for low-income youth, and espoused a radical economic vision to address unemployment, poverty, and racism. ![]() ![]() The BPP advocated community empowerment and self-defense against illegal police bruality based on the constitutional right to bear arms and the legal right to self defense. The Black Panther Party of Oakland did not advocate violence, despite what the FBI and police departments around the nation said. The police brutality plank stated that "all black people should arm themselves for self-defense."Ģ9 BPP members alleged murdered by police In October, the BPP in Oakland released its manifesto, a 10-point program that demanded black political self-determination, full employment, government reparations, decent housing and education, exemption from military service for black men, an end to police brutality, freedom of all black prisoners, and trial for black people by black juries (right). The two young African American men originally sought to protect the black community from constant police harassment and brutality. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California, in 1966. The Michigan Committee Against Repression and other civil rights groups rallied to the cause of the "Detroit 15," arguing that what happened was part of an unconstitutional campaign by local and federal law enforcement to eradicate the Black Panther Party, and the jury acquitted them of murder charges. The DPD's harassment campaign culminated in an armed siege at a BPP community center in October 1970 that resulted in the death of one police officer and the mass arrest and prosecution of 15 Black Panthers in their late teens and early twenties for murder. Black and white civil rights activists created the Michigan Committee Against Repression to defend the Black Panther Party, while the police department and city government denied any impropriety. To the Detroit Police Department, this did not matter.ĭuring 1969-1970, the DPD launched a full-scale repression campaign against the BPP's Detroit chapter, criminalizing its constitutionally protected activities, beating and arresting its members on the street, and deliberately escalating violence. The Detroit chapter of the Black Panther Party was always small and not very influential, in a city that already was home to a large number of thriving black power and black nationalist organizations. The Black Panther Party (BPP) formed in Oakland, California, in 1966 and soon spread to a number of cities across the United States. ![]() Patterns of Police Brutality/Misconductīlack Panther Party of Detroit, Free Huey Rally, May 1, 1969.
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