OCT-NOV 97 - HOME
PANTHER EYES ARE WATCHING
In October 1966 the Black Panther Party launched armed patrols of the police
in the bru-tality plagued Black community in Oakland. Thirty-one years later,
the men and women of the Black Panther Collective, armed with audio and
video recording devices and a knowledge of their legal rights, have taken
to the streets of Manhattan to document the excessive use of force and utter
disregard for human rights by the police in Black and Latino communities.
These Patrols are part of the on-going Brutality Prevention Project, sponsored
by the Black Panther Collective with the assistance of the William Kunstler
fund for racial justice.The goal of the project is to mobilize poor and
oppressed communities to be active participants in developing community
controlled police observation teams in an attempt to expose police misconduct.
Ironically, it was only days after the Panther Patrol received coverage
from local news media, one day after top NYPD officials smugly quoted statistics
about the "decline" in police brutality, that the vicious torture
and sodomy of Abner Louima by NYPD officers burst into the headlines. This
past week the outrage and anger expressed by many in the Black community
has been coupled with condescending drivel by mainstream politicians and
police spokespeople tripping all over themselves to declare this case an
isolated incident. However, those of us who are the everyday victims of
police brutality, those of us who have filed hundreds of unanswered complaints
to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, know that brutality is the rule,
not the exception. We know the names of too many dead victims of police
brutality like Michael Argenio, Shu'aid Abdul-Latif, Annette Perez, Willie
Lucas, Anthony Baez, Michael Wayne Clark, Maria Rivas, Anthony King, Charles
Campbell, Nathaniel Gaines, and Kevin Cedeno to swallow the line that the
officers that assaulted Brother Louima are just "a few bad apples."
Reports of police brutality, shootings and deaths in police custody in New
York City have risen in recent years, and Latinos, Blacks and other people
of color make up more than two-thirds of the victims. The police force acts
to reinforce the status quo that pushes Blacks and Latinos to the bottom
of the socio-economic order. The reality is that to monitor the authority
of the police, to force them to obey the letter of their own laws is to
expose the face of state repression and to literally put oneself in the
line of fire.
When the BPC police patrols were launched, immediately the police began
to try to intimidate team members and threaten us with arrest and confiscation
of our cameras. The police tried to intimidate team members into leaving
the scene or turning off our video cameras. However, being aware of our
legal rights, we informed the cops that video-recording them is the people's
right.
The response by the police has been subdued thus far. Still we foresee that
once the public spotlight is removed from the NYPD and the publicity about
police brutality dies down, then the cops will engage in more overtly confrontational
tactics. The fact that we are acting fully within the realm of the law will
not protect us from this crackdown. Team members operate at great risk.
The purpose of the Brutality Prevention Project is not to create martyrs
but to provide a model for poor and oppressed communities to begin to empower
themselves by policing the police. We hope to inspire people all over the
country to monitor police activities in their community.
Only a few weeks old, the Brutality Prevention Project has already begun
to plant seeds of change. During the patrol, the team distributes literature
to community folks and empowers the people by our example. Community members
see that the police cannot stop the team from asserting their rights. One
evening they witnessed the spectacle of one officer who was so frustrated
with his inability to terrorize team members that he vented his anger by
kicking a mailbox. In Washington Heights, where the patrols have been launched,
they have had a tangible effect on the community. Residents have become
educated as to their rights, and have supported the team by their presence
when the team monitors the police. In addition, political graffiti depicting
Panther eyes with the phrase "Panthers are watching you" scrawled
underneath has sprung up around the community. Panther eyes will continue
to watch the police, long after Abner Louima's name has faded from the headlines.
We call on the people to join us.
.
CALL FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS
The Black Panther Collective has been struggling to foster change and mobilize
poor and oppressed communities in the US since its inception in New York
in 1993. We have many ongoing projects that need community support and participation
in order to be fully effective. We need you to donate stamps, envelopes,
office supplies, and cash to support our work. We need help to xerox our
literature and people to distribute it. We need artists, poets, and writers
to contribute to our publications, and pictures, written accounts, and videotapes
of NY police misconduct for our Brutality Archives.
If you would like to learn Black, Latino and working class history, and
understand the current state of the economy in the U.S., or if you are a
teacher or would like to assist with curriculum development for our Community
Political Education Classes, let us know.
The Black Panther Collective works to raise public awareness about the plight
of political prisoners in the U.S. We urge people to write letters to them
and call us for more information on how they can become an active part in
the political prisoner movement.
To volunteer your time, call or write us: The Black Panther Collective P.O.
Box 20735 Park West Station New York, NY 10025-1516, ( 718) 390-3555.
-Black Panther Collective Community News, Vol.1. No. 3, Sept. 1997
OCT-NOV 97 -- N.C.Xpress
-- Archives -- Electrons
to the Editor